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AM Frequency of the Week: 820

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From Pickerington, Ohio, it's local WVSG (ex-WOSU) at all hours. Very strong daytime signal with 6,500 watts, but when it drops to a directional 790 watts at Dallas sunset, the signal is audibly weaker. It is not unusual for WBAP to be heard in the background, well under WVSG. I can't null one to hear the other given that both are in essentially the same direction from me, but one doesn't need to be far north/northwest, south or west of their tower farm at night to start picking up WBAP.
I've heard it very well to within 15 miles of the towers coming up 71.
Unlike during the WOSU days, WVSG transmits from the same site 24/7, off Gantz Road just north of Grove City.
I have wondered how far out WVSG interferes with WBAP before the former switches to night pattern.
From my time in Texas, I'll say WBAP has one of the most impressive groundwaves out there. Very easy to hear around Houston, and of course the nighttime signal kills there.
 
From NW San Antonio:

Day: Just heavy splatter from local 810 KYTY. On rare occasions when KYTY has been off air, WBAP is heard with a fairly good signal.

Sunset: WBAP is in/out through the splatter when I aim the radio NE.

Night: KYTY's splatter is reduced a bit when it goes to night pattern. With tight bandwidth filtering, WBAP comes in strong and pretty much steady. Underneath I often hear a weak XEBA in Guadalajara playing English and Spanish pop. Aiming NW, I occasionally hear Radio Ciudad de La Habana under WBAP.

Sunrise: Cuba is gone and usually replaced with a weak XEABCA in Mexicali for a while. Eventually skywave/groundwave cancellation kicks in for WBAP, and when aiming NE, XEBA is sometimes stronger and occasionally takes over.

DX/Retro: I logged WWBA in Tampa one night back in September 2019 when it was on day power. Also, I once heard XEBM "Ke Buena" in San Luis Potosi mixing with XEBA under WBAP back in January 2017.
 
From west Houston, daytime is WBAP with a good signal. Around sunset I can often hear Radio Ciudad de la Habana in WBAP's null. I've heard WWBA once or twice in the evenings. Later at night, WBAP and Cuba. Around sunrise, WWBA sometimes overrides Cuba when they go to day power and WBAP is very strong.
 
Just this morning, Labor Day + 1, I heard a new 820 I'd forgotten about.
Same patio, same GE SR2, same coffee from yesterday morning.
A little after 7AM, there was an ad for some show at Carnegie Hall *plus* a nice, loud WNYC call after it.
820 'thank you's' go out to CTListener for the reminding me of this missing NYC jigsaw puzzle piece. It completes the old AM index of NYC stations that were once tradional radio listings in newspapers and on old Mobil street maps.
A nice touch of home it was, too. Back when WNYC's two towers were in Brooklyn, they were visible out a few of my high school windows. Some of my zits might resurface.
 
Daytime in eastern Iowa I get a weak WCPT Chicago. Sometimes it's listenable, sometimes not. Nighttimes I get a strong WBAP. It's one of the more reliably strong nighttime signals. Occasionally in the past I've heard CHAM from Hamilton. I thought they used to have a 50kW directional signal at night, but I guess I was wrong(?); these days their nighttime signal appears to be 10kW. It's one of those stations that Bell has announced an intention to sell, so maybe the laughter will come to an end.
 
schmave said:
This does remind me that WBAP is the only station I've heard in both Ohio and Vegas. Caught it on a trip out there about 15 years ago. Heard nothing else from this half of the country.
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As a kid in Ohio, I'd wait for WFAA/WBAP to sign off at midnight, CST. I'd then have my tape recorder with a time set to record HJED, La Voz del Río Cauca in Cali, Colombia with its overnight trucker show with cumbia music. Good almost every night of the year except deep summer. I'd play back the tape as I did my homework!

HJED is 50 kw, directional up and down the valley of the Cauca River, and the main northern lobe pointed directly at Cleveland. Occasionally it would overrdide WFAA/WBAP on auroral nights, even when the TX stations were on the air.
 
DavidEduardo said:
As a kid in Ohio, I'd wait for WFAA/WBAP to sign off at midnight, CST. I'd then have my tape recorder with a time set to record HJED, La Voz del Río Cauca in Cali, Colombia with its overnight trucker show with cumbia music. Good almost every night of the year except deep summer. I'd play back the tape as I did my homework!
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This must have been before WBAP's own overnight trucker show, with Bill Mack, premiered. I used to listen to Bill and his classic country music on my way back from high school football games during my sportswriting days in Arkansas.
 
CTListener said:
This must have been before WBAP's own overnight trucker show, with Bill Mack, premiered. I used to listen to Bill and his classic country music on my way back from high school football games during my sportswriting days in Arkansas.
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Yes, that was 1959-1962. By '63 I was in Mexico and the next year, I could listen to the southern lobe of HJED in Quito.
 
Back in the '70s I briefly worked for WIKY in Evansville, IN. Their 820 AM signal was a blowtorch 250 watts. Of course it was daytime only, but we had a pre-sunrise authorization so we could fire up the transmitter to simulcast the 5:55 a.m. news in the summer! WIKY later bought a full-time AM and donated 820 to the University of Southern Indiana, which continues to operate it through its Communications program. In 2016, the station finally got its long-sought FM translator.
 
Special today from Winnemucca, NV - XEABCA Mexicali, noisy, fades in and out on occasion, but definitely there. Caught the full legal ID.
 
As posted previously, WBAP was one of my most treasured catches Febtuary 1965 at Kaena Point, Oahu. Stock 1962 Chevy Impala Delco car radio during my Junior Year of High School (along with WWL and WLS that night). I also heard WBAP on my Realistic DX- 375 poolside at the Ritz Carlton just north of Lahaina, Maui. Nightly regular there. Definitely more rewarding than anything that took place at the company meeting I was attending!
 
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