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AM Frequency of the Week: 690

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40 Miles northwest of downtown Chicago....

Days: Usually blank. Sometimes a whiff of WVCY from Oshkosh, WI (between Milwaukee and Green Bay). Only 250 watts, but aimed in my direction. Even so, my location is normally just out of range.

Nights: Up until about six months ago, 690 was usually a weak WQNO from New Orleans. For about the last several months, however, they've been missing. The channel subsequently has been pretty quietat night. Although CKGM sometimes sneaks in. (The CKGM call letters have been at various frequencies around the Montreal radio dial down through the years. My last memory of them was on 990 with oldies,)

Retro/Other location: 690 has been home to some legendary top 40 stations. WAPE, WVOK, and most notably (for me), WTIX, WVOK (Birmingham) sometimes made it in here to the Chicago area before signoff at sunset. WTIX was rare here, but occasionally doable. I never heard WAPE here at home.
CBF from Montreal dominated the channel at night, (CBF was 50kw non-directional. The current incarnation of CKGM is 50kw, but with a major mull to the east and south).

Meanwhile, here at home, KGGF from Coffeyville, KS used to be common around sunset on day power/pattern. But it's been quite a few years since I;ve heard them.

At our beach location near Pensacola, WQNO does quite well with a good day signal at 9,100watts ND. Comparable signal to what WTIX was, Night is a different story. WQNO's night signal is 1kw directed mostly east-west. WTIX had a similar night pattern, but at 5kw. WQNO is 2,1 at night and the difference is very noticeable. R. Progreso from Cuba trashes WQNO.
E, WVOK, and most notably for me
 
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Mountain View, Hawaii ...

Daytime - nothing except for a very weak KHNR Honolulu on a good receiver in the winter

Nighttime - KHNR usually quite strong


In New Jersey long ago, 690 was interesting around sunset when I could get WAPE Jacksonville for a short time until they switched to their nighttime mode.
 
Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: usually empty, but have heard KSTL (St. Louis, MO) and WVCY (Oshkosh, WI) in the past
Nighttime: WQNO (New Orleans, LA), CKGM (Montreal, PQ) with TSN sports, and XEN (Mexico City) are common catches

DX/RETRO: as others noted CBF Montreal used to rule the frequency at night. Another frequent visitor used to be the Mighty 690 XETRA (Tijuana, Mexico). Others heard on this frequency include KGGF (Coffeyville, KS), KRMX (Pueblo, Colorado), WVOK (Birmingham, AL), WZAP (Bristol, VA), WOKV (Jacksonville, FL) as well as HJCZ (Bogota, Colombia) and couple Cubans (Radio Progreso and Radio Liberacion). Most recent new catches on 690 are KFXN (Minneapolis, MN) and WELD (Fisher, WV). Both heard in 2021.
 
Manchester, UK: BBC Radio 5 Live (693), from Droitwich in the English Midlands. Nothing especially exciting, it's a hybrid of a news-talk, sports-talk and live sports station. The station is national, but based locally at the impressive MediaCityUK broadcasting complex on the former docks in Salford, Manchester which houses a lot of the operations of the BBC as well as many major TV productions. The 693 signal isn't the strongest, there's a local signal on 909 for northern England, although nowadays the bulk of the station's audience is on DAB and smart speakers and the AM signal is destined for the chop.
 
Rocklin, CA

Daytime: Nothing
Nighttime: XEWW Rosarito, Baja California, Mexico with a weak signal

Vallejo, CA

Daytime: Splatter from KNBR 680 San Francisco
Nighttime: XEWW Rosarito, Baja California, Mexico
 
WOKV - Jacksonville FL - ESPN 690 - weak in daytime (200 miles north of Melbourne).

Nights - usually Radio Progreso - Cuba....

kw - Melbourne FL
 
From the southwest suburbs of Chicago ...

Unless I'm DXing at dawn and WNZK Dearborn Heights is coming in, having switched from 680 nights, 690 is almost always only a nighttime frequency for me.

CBF used to rule the roost with its 50 kW blowtorch from Montreal. Only learned from this thread that CKGM is directional, though reasonably steady and listenable at night, but without the oomph CBF used to have. Does it broadcast from the same transmitter site?

Others on 690 along the way: WAJO Oshkosh (a rarity at 250 watts day), WTIX/WQNO New Orleans, WAPE Jacksonville, CMBC Havana (or so the calls were listed in a long-ago log), the aforementioned WNZK (in 2019), KSTL St. Louis (in 2021 with a supposed 17.9 watts overnight, and if that's the case, I've got an Arch I'd like to sell you), and most recently, XEN Mexico City overnight this New Year's Day.
 
Hartland, VT
CKGM Montreal at night, nothing days.

Meriden, CT
Day: WADS Ansonia with religious programming in Spanish, at least back when I was living in the state. Apparently it's been silent since last summer.
Night: CKGM.
 
Tyler, TX:

This one is an awfully sore subject for me. In retrospective mode, this was the legendary KZEY here in Tyler, and I won't sit here and speak poorly of the deceased, so I'll just leave it at the license was surrendered and the call sign deleted. Last air date was in 2006. As such, 690 is a blank spot on the dial. I've heard Spanish language on it, from time to time, but never at a decent enough strength to get any positive ID on it.
 
I've sporadically caught what I used to think was WELD in central Ohio, but more recently I found out it was WNZK. Makes much more sense with the ground conductivity between here and Detroit, plus I happened to hear some Michigan-specific programming back in January. It takes a good deal of slop from WLW and the signal is very weak, but it's there, especially in the cold months.
 
690 has been pretty nice to me here in PA, where the 'Totals' odometer got turned back to 000. (I have no delusions about possibly clearing the slate back to 0000 from one spot, hi..... those days are gone.)
Noons here it's a weakish daylighter WPHE in Media PA. Their towers are nowhere near Media.
The fairly widely-heard WELD from WV was one catch nearing sundown.
On another thoroughly rewarding sunset one March, I got a real grand salami here : WOKV Jax, WZAP VA, WJOX AL and WTIX LA.
'CBM' Montreal was easy nighttime listening, almost unfair, on any radio.

Back in Queens NYC just north of JFK Aport it was very much the same, except the prominent day station was WADS Ansonia CT, with 'WXUR" Media second in signal.
 
Wilmington Delaware

Days - a weak signal from daytimer WPHE Phoenixville PA (1000 W) directionally sent SE into Philadelphia with Spanish Christian programming.

Nights - a disappointing signal from CKGM in Montreal. Some nights it isn't there at all. Best in the winter. Nothing like the old CBM which was very reliable.
 
East Tennessee: Days--weak WZAP, Bristol, VA. In critical hours it's overtaken by WOKV, Jacksonville, and between our and Birmingham's sunset, WJOX.

Nights:: I don't know what's going on with WQNO, but I had it pretty often in auroral conditions.

Retro/other: I've never heard Montreal here,of course the former CBF, as a CBC French station, was dominant in Ohio. I never heard WOKV/WPDQ/WAPE in Ohio or Indiana, except for during Hurricane Hugo in 1989, when (as Oldies station WPDQ) they stayed on day facilities to serve Charleston, SC when all media was off the air (a subject we've been talking a lot about on RD lately). I caught WOKV one morning on the Central Indiana SDR. Also KSTL. I've never heard the other 50,000 watt Orlando area station,(540) WFLF (or WGTO) in East Tennessee or any other place I've lived outside of Florida.
 
Nights - a disappointing signal from CKGM in Montreal. Some nights it isn't there at all. Best in the winter. Nothing like the old CBM which was very reliable.
The facr that CKGM sends most of their night signal north is a real head scratcger for me. Especially given that the old CBFhad been clearly audible in most of the U.S. Northeast and Midwest.
 
The facr that CKGM sends most of their night signal north is a real head scratcger for me. Especially given that the old CBFhad been clearly audible in most of the U.S. Northeast and Midwest.
Why was the night pattern changed? Mandate from the government or choice by management?
 
A little snooping reveals CKGM's transmitter side is in Mercier, southwest of Montreal. The CBF / CBM transmitter was in Brossard, a near southeast suburb of Montreal. CBF 690 was diplexed with CBM 940 in 1978. CKGM may have decided to go directional for a better signal in the city.
 
Rocklin, CA

Daytime: Nothing
Nighttime: XEWW Rosarito, Baja California, Mexico with a weak signal

Vallejo, CA

Daytime: Splatter from KNBR 680 San Francisco
Nighttime: XEWW Rosarito, Baja California, Mexico
That pretty much sums up what I've heard here, except I don't recall hearing XEWW (the low end of the dial is kind of noisy here, so quiet signals tend to get buried).

That said, I did catch CBK on 540 a few nights ago, so sometimes the noise does subside.

c
 
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