AM Frequency of the Week: 800

[cyberdad]

For those "who may have joined us late", and wondering what happened to 790....

We're currently cycling through what were formally commonly known as "clear" channels. 790 was formerly known as a "regional" channel. Our cycle through those concluded earlier this year. To be sure, 790, is the lone outlier between 640 and 910. But, for anyone who might be interested, at my location. 790 is almost always strong splatter from WBBM (780). If anything manages to sneak through on 790, it's usually WSGW from Saginaw, MI,

Okay, now on to our topic at hand,,,,

Days: 800 here is usually all but empty. With a good radio in a noise-free location, KXIC, 1kw from Iowa City sometimes turns up. Less frequently, CKLW can be present. Probably via daytime skywave. DXers closer to Lake Michigan than me usually have an easier time with it than me.

Nights: Most commonly CKLW, Not exactly regular, and often fighting with WVAL (Minnesota) and/or WSVS (West Virginia). Both are country music, so it can be a little tough to determine which one you're hearing, Either one is capable of rising to the top.

Other Location: WSHO from New Orleans gets out quite well for 1kw. Especially with help from a saltwater path. Signal at the beach near Pensacola is fair, but solid, Even more impressive is Honeymoon Island, just of the Gulf coast near Clearwater, FL. @gar hi turned me on to the place on one of my visits there a few years back as a great DX spot. Sure enough, around 11am one morningm there was a weak WSHO. Despite strong splatter from the local pest on 2nd adjacent 820, WWBA

At night at our beach location near Pensacola, PJB from the Carribean island of Bonaire usually owns 800 with a fair signal, but WSHO is still often present.

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

(Lol, Cyberdad. I hope you liked my 'like' as a response to that sealed document.)

Daze here has been logged a faint WCHA Chambersburg PA, Oldies, 1000 omni watts, some 90 miles to the SW.
The dial is so blasted NOISY here in the day to try for some more 800's. Camden NJ should come in.
CKLW is top at night. Wow ; although they might not 'subscribe', the formerly huge Big Eight doesn't even show in the Detroit ratings anymore.
Earlier this year -- some others logged it too -- WSVS from Crewe VA was there for a nice taped ID overnights, with VA Network News and a mention of their 97.1 extension speaker. For some reason it didn't sound like their 270 watts on top of CKLW. Radio-Locator says they're 10,000 watt omni days, though.
* * * * *
Loggings on 800 from the old DX days back in Queens NYC show a few of what seemed to be 20 Canadian stations up and around the St. Lawrence Valley. There appear to be several of those still left today.
WSVS was a sign-off catch there, too, back when they were 5000 day. And the beforementioned Camden was an easy day catch. Originally I had 'em logged as 'WKDN', which is now the 950 calls.
Panama's 'La Exitosa' was a nighttime grab. I don't have their calls, though

 

[anwar]

Wilmington Delaware

Days - Good signal from WTMR in Camden NJ with Christian programming. WTMR stands for 'Where the Master Reigns'.

Nights - WTMR cuts their power from 5000W to 500W but still comes in on top of other stations. CKLW can be heard in the back round at times.

Retro - CKLW was one of the great Top 40 stations I listened to at night along with WLS. WTMR was a daytime only station back then.

 

[fybush]

This was my very first "DX" channel - when I was about 6 or 7 I discovered I could hear an exotic Canadian station all the way from Rochester NY.

That was CJBQ, directly across the lake in Belleville, and not only is it still my regular daytime signal here, I've gotten to be friends with some of the crew there and hang out occasionally on the air with their very talented afternoon jock, Freddy Vette.

At night it's a mix of CKLW, CJBQ and sometimes Bonaire depending what antenna they're using.

 

[gr8oldies]

East Tennessee: Days-WDEH, Sweetwater, TN. Sunrise-sunset. A mix of WDEH, WVHU Huntington WV and sometimes CKLW. Nights---pretty much a hodge-podge and I'm not sure I've heard the current incarnation of PJB, Trans World Radio.

Retro/other: Of course I'm going to talk about CKLW, especially during The Big 8 years. A lot of us have fond memories of The Big 8 at night. It was just the opposite for me. My town, in the Celina, St. Marys, Ohio area had a great daytime signal from the Harrow, Ontario plant, to the point that in the late 60s, it was playing at the pool and on everyone
s radios. CKLW covered a lot of farmland that didn't do a lot for RKO's business purposes, but we dug it. Night was a different story as CKLW's night pattern pit us square in the middle of the null to the Mexican clear, XEROK. Sometimes around sunrise and sunset, another top 40, WKEE, Huntington WV (now WVHU )would make its presence known. CKLW was stronger than WJR during the day, they equalized around Lima.
NOTE: CKLW IS NOT, AND HAS NEVER BEEN REQUIRED TO PROTECT PJB, TRANS WORLD RADIO.
Nighhtime with the pattern change weakened the signal for us, and then PJB mostly covered The Big 8. PJB signed off around 2am which left CKLW mostly alone but weak, with XEROK surfacing now and then. My chances to hear CKLW's night jocks came during our vacations to Fremont, Michigan, where we had only the last breath of the daytime signal, but a strong signal at night. At scout camp in Defiance, Ohio, the signal was good day and night.

I'll be going to the dedication ceremony for the statue of legendary CKLW Music Director CKLW, followed by a reception of living CKLW personalities from that era and fans in Windsor next month.

 

[schmave]

Here in central Ohio, a very, very weak CKLW if we're lucky either day or night. They send almost no signal toward me. @gr8oldies, per our discussion in the 760 thread, the former WKEE was licensed in 1947, three years before CKLW's current power and pattern, hence the null they have to send toward Huntington. That's why they are nonexistent in my area, much weaker than WJR.
WVHU is non-directional, but I've never heard them here. Even with 5,000 watts, the conductivity down that way just isn't enough to push their signal this far north.
CKLW has a very good signal in the Toledo area day and night, as well as along much of the Lake Erie shoreline in Ohio, especially the farther east you go. They're every bit as strong northeast of Cleveland as WJR.

 

[Mark Roberts]

Oakland - Too close to KGO for any results.

Denver - IBOC hash from KLVZ, also on 810.

Is there some rule that I end up living in places with stations on 810? Kansas City...Oakland...Denver. And we came close to moving to Santa Fe, NM...same deal. Anyway.....

Historically: 800 is kind of a mess in the Midwest at night. CKLW, XEROK, and even PJB all fought it out. Probably strongest was XEROK from Juárez. Recently I rediscovered a tape that I had made of XEROK at 5 am one day in 1979 when I lived in central Missouri. At that time of day, the signal was strong and steady, yielding a good-quality aircheck. XEROK was airing regional music program sponsored by Laboratorios Mayo from Los Angeles, with a Mexican address in Puebla, a business that sold numerous potions.

 

[schmave]

I did neglect to note that I've caught PJB only once here in central Ohio. It was about 8 p.m. one January night in 2022. Extremely faint, but some Spanish language programming made me think that might be what it was. I was able to pull up the stream within two minutes or so and confirm it. Haven't heard it since. Best I can figure, that's a little over 2,100 miles, making it easily my farthest catch ever.

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

@anwar
Somehow surviving to here from the Queens DX days (near JFK Int'l) were 5-inch spools of tape. One is simply 'The WTMR reel' (it's now on an mP3 as well). I idly began it by taping some breaks from them one day to send for a QSL and just named the reel that. From some of the songs on the rest of it, I'm thinking the WTMR stuff was from late 1968. Those were the days when local stations -- daytimers as well -- got along real well. I'm thinking that a lot of the stations down your way ....... WTMR, WNAR 1110 Norristown, even WCAM Camden, I suppose the long-dark WVOB 1520 Bel-Air, WNRK 1260 and WJIC Salem NJ ..... did quite okay locally with their full-service MoR / Pop music and prestige. And last I heard, the popular WAMS 1380 had become a travellers info station.
Of course, everything on AM dials in places like Boston, Norfolk and Philly seems inside out now. In Phila specifically, the wee 860 WTEL is now on 610 and 860 is vacant. WIP's 610 calls are now on 94.1 as the big sports station, The first calls I remember on 800 Camden were WKDN, which now reside on 950, which used to be WPEN (now the calls of the #2 Philly sports station), and etcetra and so forth.
In the pre-religion days of WTMR, though, perhaps those calls were the owner's name initials. I can't locate their origin.

 

[Battenkill50]

PJB is always good here at night.

The only other one I have logged was WPLK in Palatka FL - this was after Hurricane Frances in Sept. 2004. (ZNS3 810 was off).

kw - Melbourne FL

 

[gr8oldies]

Here in central Ohio, a very, very weak CKLW if we're lucky either day or night. They send almost no signal toward me. @gr8oldies, per our discussion in the 760 thread, the former WKEE was licensed in 1947, three years before CKLW's current power and pattern, hence the null they have to send toward Huntington. That's why they are nonexistent in my area, much weaker than WJR.
WVHU is non-directional, but I've never heard them here. Even with 5,000 watts, the conductivity down that way just isn't enough to push their signal this far north.
CKLW has a very good signal in the Toledo area day and night, as well as along much of the Lake Erie shoreline in Ohio, especially the farther east you go. They're every bit as strong northeast of Cleveland as WJR.

Interesting! CKLW does (or at least did) fine in the Kenton and Marion areas, but drops off rapidly toward Columbus as I recall. .

 

[tvnut]

From the southwest suburbs of Chicago ...

I'm not on 800 a lot, but in order of appearance, have these catches: CKLW Windsor in its top 40 days, then a couple of times overnight with Jay Roberts after he was bounced from WJR in the late 1980s, and occasionally recently; PJB Bonaire easily and nightly in the 500 kW era, and on 11/10/2021 with the 400 kW directional aimed toward Cuba, I presume; WKZI Casey, Ill. (250 w) near sunset one day in the 1980s; XEROK Ciudad Juarez at least once overnight in the 1980s; WSVS Crewe, Va. running 10 kW day power at 4 a.m. on 1/17/2023; and KXIC Iowa City (1 kW) near sunset on 2/9/2023 using the Sony ICF-2010 and a Tecsun AN-200 loop.

 

[CADXER]

Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: usually empty, but have heard CKLW few times and WKZI Casey, IL once back in 1982
Nighttime: CKLW, TWR Bonaire or the cheating WSVS

DX/Retro: TWR used to be much stronger when they were running the 500 kW transmitter. I believe they eventually dropped the power to 100 kW to save on energy cost. Now with the new 450 kW transmitter they can be heard fairly well with their transmissions to Cuba. They disappear when they switch the directional pattern towards South America. XEROK used to be common in the past, but it's been a while since I heard them last. Somewhere I read that XEROK has been off the air since 2022 after their antenna was dismantled. Other DX includes KXIC (Iowa City, IA), KQCV Oklahoma City, OK), WMGY (Montgomery, AL), WVAL (Sauk Rapids, MN, CHAB (Moose Jaw, SK), and CJAD (Montreal, PQ). Also back in 1990's the TIS stations for O'Hare and Midway airports were operating on this frequency. I could hear the O'Hare (WPIJ539) one quite easily. The Midway (KPB456) was possible while driving away from O'Hare. These days both TIS stations operate on 1630 kHz with different call letters. My most recent new log on 800 is WVHU (Huntington, WV) in 2021.

 

[Fenway1912]

Cambridge, MA

Daytime - WNNW Lawrence, MA

Nighttime - This can change by the hour - WNNW's nighttime signal is overpowered by CKLW Windsor, ON but CJAD Montreal also pops in

 

[schmave]

Interesting! CKLW does (or at least did) fine in the Kenton and Marion areas, but drops off rapidly toward Columbus as I recall. .

CKLW definitely improves rapidly going north. Its lack of signal here in Columbus is why I never heard of it until I lived in Toledo, but one of my uncles from St. Marys said that was his main station growing up, much as it was yours. He split time between CKLW and WOWO. My mother was a faithful WOWO listener in the 60s.
I too was surprised CKLW has to protect Huntington. It just doesn't seem to balance out in a sense, a (once) legendary 50K in such a large market having to protect a station in such a small market 300 miles away, but that seems to be the case.

 

[gr8oldies]

CKLW definitely improves rapidly going north. Its lack of signal here in Columbus is why I never heard of it until I lived in Toledo, but one of my uncles from St. Marys said that was his main station growing up, much as it was yours. He split time between CKLW and WOWO. My mother was a faithful WOWO listener in the 60s.
I too was surprised CKLW has to protect Huntington. It just doesn't seem to balance out in a sense, a (once) legendary 50K in such a large market having to protect a station in such a small market 300 miles away, but that seems to be the case.

First one there gets priority, no matter what the market size or format. Although Huntington was a daytimer and presumably couldn't build night facilities because of the Mexican clear.

 

[TXPH97]

DFW, Texas

Daytime: Nothing until close to sunset or sunrise, I can hear a very weak KQCV with Bott Network from OKC.
Nights: CKLW and PJB Bonaire are reliable, either can dominate depending on conditions. With winter skywave, I can often hear CKLW well before local sunset.
One-time loggings: XEERG Ojo de Agua NL, WSHO New Orleans, WVAL Sauk Rapids MN each heard in the overnight hours. CHAB Moose Jaw SK was heard one morning after CKLW fadeout.
I used to hear XEROK regularly, however, I believe they are retired now.

 

[schmave]

That's sad. I get it, AM is past its heyday, skywave listeners don't matter, all of that that has been lectured so many times ... but going from that 150K behemoth with legendary status to nothing at all now, that's a sad decline. A piece of radio history that is gone, seemingly forever.

 

[Deleted member 108832]

Tyler, TX:

Daytime is nothing, until the sun begins to set. Then, as mentioned by TXPH97, KQCV from Oklahoma City makes a rather weak appearance. During the evening hours, and when the conditions are extraordinary, I have caught a pretty weak oldies station which I assume to be the daytimer from Crosett, Arkansas. I have not ID'ed it properly given the extremely difficult listening experience. For years, KOSY Texarkana was next door and came up rather well at sunset, causing enough issues on the neighboring 800 to make it very difficult to hear any sort of identification, but I believe that's who it is. Since KOSY waved the white flag, I've not heard anything other than the aforementioned Bott programming there.

I haven't heard X-Rock in years. Got to be hard for the younger generations in Texas to understand what 800 used to be here, considering it isn't anymore. We once had a group near Lufkin, Texas that considered building a new facility back, I believe, in the 1980s on 800. Hearing what X-Rock did to the dial position even before the sun set caused them to reconsider and not build it out.

 

[radioman148]

Near north Chicago suburbs days-on a good day I can get a Whiff of CKLW. At night sometimes it comes in but not very well. I’ve heard PJB but not in awhile.