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AM Frequency of the Week: 1530

M

MarioMania

I'm going to fill in for Cyberdad for this week

Carmichael, CA

Day & Night KFBK Sacramento

Vallejo, CA

Daytime: KFBK Sacramento with a Weak Signal
Nighttime: KFBK Sacramento, Weak Signal
 
Wilmington Delaware

Days - Weak signal on my car radio from WCTR Chestertown MD. Signal strengthens as you head SW toward the C&D canal.

Nights - Fair to good signal from WCKY Cincinnati OH with ESPN programming. Tonight it is fairly weak but other nights it comes it quite well.
 
Clifton, New Jersey

Days: I get WJDM "Radio Cantico Nuevo" Mineola, NY, which airs Spanish-language Christian programming. It was on 1520 until it moved to 1530 in June 2023. During critical hours, I have received WCTR Chestertown, MD and WVBF Middleborough Center, MA in the past.

Nights: I get WCKY "ESPN 1530" Cincinnati, OH, which airs Sports programming. Reception varies between decent and good. I also received WCTR and WVBF, most likely at their daytime power, in the past.

Retro: For many years, 1530 was the home of the original WJDM Elizabeth, NJ. It signed off on January 30, 2019, and its license was cancelled on April 10, 2020.
 
Melbourne FL

1530 WYMM - Jacksonville FL ---- Kreyol language programming (sunset) 2024

1530 WCKY - Cincinnati OH - ESPN 1530 - Sports/talk - nights 2024

retro....

1530 XEUR Mexico DF "UR – La Mexicana" - 0415 ET Mexican MoR - 2001
 
Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: WCKG with fair signal since I am just 6 miles. WCKY heard during daytime when WCKG was off air in the past.
Nightime: WCKY with good signal

Retro/DX: WCKG just got FCC approval to use their long wire setup with 360 Watts. They have been searching for a new site for a while after their site with two tower array next to I-294 was closed down to give way for road construction. They ended up with an STA using a long wire on an existing cell tower. FCC now gave them the green light to use this setup permanently. KGBT (Harlingen, TX) used to be heard frequently with Spanish language programming and most likely using their daytime facilities. Managed to hear KFBK (Sacramento, CA) way back in 1987, but not since. Others heard on this frequency include KQNK (Norton, KS), KTCR (Wagoner, OK - DX test), KXRQ (Trumann, AR), KVDW (England, AR), WMBE (Chilton, WI), WYEZ (North East, PA), WLSP (Lapeer, MI) and WLIQ (Quincy, IL). Latest new logs on this frequency are KMAM (Butler, MO) and KZNX (Creedmore, TX), both in 2022. Still shooting for Voice of America, Sao Tome during their sign on time of 03:00 UTC.
 
East Tennessee: Days---mostly blank unless WCKY appears. WCKY is my main indicator of winter daytime skip. Nights is all WCKY. WCKY comes in better here at night than it was in Dayton, Ohio.

Retro/other: I tuned in the Weiser, ID SDR and was surprised to hear WCKY with a University of Kentucky basketball game. When Sacramento sunset came and WCKY switched pattern, it was all KFBK. Indeed, KFBK is a regular on all the Western SDRs I've checked.
 
The now-defunct WMBT Shenandoah was not just the 1530 squatter here when we moved in, but the closest transmitter site period. 2500 omni watts. Their standalone studios and lone stick* were just outside a somewhat barren cemetery high atop Shenandoah proper in a separate community called Shenandoah Heights. That's about 1600 feet HASL, some 300 median feet higher than Shenandoah itself.
Here in PA, 4 miles south of the ghosts of a really decent Oldies station, 1530 has been:
Daytime, not much. If'n when daylight cx ever improve -- maybe a nice, civilized :45 minute blackout will be ideal for batteries -- I'll try for the thing on Long Island. Their 1520 has nudged in here. So with 'KB, one channel away, allowing that affront, the all-new 1530 WTHE Mineola L.I. should get afforded some similar courtesy from an inattentive WCKY.
One sunset sent a WRTP from North Carolina.
During an odd early afternoon while I was working in a basement, the barefoot GE SR2 was playing what sounded like an infomercial, alone on the frequency. After an unacceptable :45 minute yawn throughout a charming congregation solely in eager worship of Vitamin E, I'd jotted down enough clues to call that WVBF (mentioned above by New Jersey's Michael D). It was them, I was told.
Since it's 290 miles during the broad daylight between here and that Vitamin E chalet, that reception had to've been via some daytime-skip express. Could also have been aided by some mail-order nutrients.
Oh, yeah. Nighttimes it's WCKY. I remember when they had been WSAI at one time. In fact, I remember when, even before that, they used to be called WCKY.

* That now-gone but once lofty WMBT stick, an extra hundred feet higher than the ear-popping 1600 feet of the Heights, probably was what made them a punctual SSS regular back in Queens on their 1000 watts.
 
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Due to the auroral absorption, I haven't been able to determine what's on 1530 in Denver at night. Daytime, it's a very faint KQSC "Mountain Country 107.3" Colorado Springs. It's so weak that only my GE Superadios can pick it up.

Last week, I was in Des Moines, IA - Listening before Sacramento local sunset, WCKY dominates. Daytime, there wasn't anything; 500-watt KDSN Denison is just too far away.

Retro: In Missouri, many times in the window between local sunset and Sacramento, it was WCKY, with a beautiful-music format that stood out on the AM dial. Never heard KFBK there. Of course, during my 25 years in the San Francisco Bay Area, I heard KFBK all that time, day and night.
 
From west Houston TX:

Daytime, slop from local on 1520, sometimes KZNX "La Raza" from Creedmore TX (near Austin)
Sunset, WCKY starts to come in along with XEUR Mexico DF with tropical music and KGBT Harlingen TX (TUDN sports). KZNX is still barely there. I've also heard KVDW England Arkansas a few times, but not recently.
Night, WCKY and KGBT, with XEUR usually there as well (despite listed 1kw night power).
Sunrise, All the above around sunrise. After WCKY fades, XEUR and KGBT are usually on top until my sunrise.

KGBT is sometimes dominant and sometimes almost nonexistent. Not sure what the deal is there. I've never heard KFBK here. I've noticed they are one of the stronger mainland US stations in Hawaii when I've visited there.
 
From the southwest suburbs of Chicago ...

Nights, and often much of the day in the winter, WCKY Cincinnati bombs in.

Days, if the wind's blowing the right way, daytimer WKDC Elmhurst is audible. It started as WKDC at 250 watts, the last AM station licensed in the Chicago area. It jumped to 760 eventually, became WJJG when car dealer Joe Gentile bought it as a toy, and now is WCKG. CADXER detailed the drop to one tower and then a longwire at 125 watts in April 2021 because of the Tri-State Tollway expansion, a construction project which in the great Illinois tradition is now in its fourth year.

What was a tough signal at my location in the winter and often well into the morning and again from mid-afternoon on became even harder to pull in courtesy of our Cincinnati pals. A casual listener would not try, even if WCKY wasn't swamping it, and it does. I've had the occasion to be a guest on 9 a.m. shows I couldn't hear thanks to WCKY. Perhaps the jump back to 360 red-hot watts will be a boon. It also has an FM translator (W272DQ, 102.3, with 250 watts) that in theory covers much of the Chicago area, but it falls apart a few miles to the south, at least. I get WYCA-FM 102.3 Crete instead.
 
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Mark Roberts said:
Due to the auroral absorption, I haven't been able to determine what's on 1530 in Denver at night. Daytime, it's a very faint KQSC "Mountain Country 107.3" Colorado Springs. It's so weak that only my GE Superadios can pick it up.
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Under more normal conditions, I tried 1530 again in Denver tonight. Nothing, really, just a few faint carriers.
 
KFBK KFBK AND KFBK... sounds way stronger than the anchorage and fairbanks 50kw AM's just 250 miles away.. and its 2500 miles away!!

Except when KFBK was off, i had Mexico city
 
tvnut said:
It also has an FM translator (W272DQ, 102.3, with 250 watts) that in theory covers much of the Chicago area, but it falls apart a few miles to the south, at least. I get WYCA-FM 102.3 Crete instead.
Click to expand...

The 250 Watts are from the roof of The Westin Hotel in Lombard, IL. They come in pretty well at my location. They also have a CP from September 2023 for 100 Watts from the Trump Tower in downtown Chicago. Let's see if it ever happens.
 
From NW San Antonio:

Day: Nothing but local 1540 KEDA's slop.

Sunset: It's usually XEUR "Buenísima" in Mexico City, XESD "Arroba FM" in Silao, and KGBT in Harlingen, TX in/out or mixing with each other in the slop.

Night: There's less slop when KEDA goes to night power/pattern. XEUR is most dominant. XESD will sometimes mix in and take over briefly, as will KGBT to a lesser extent.

Sunrise: The KEDA splatter is back. XEUR hangs in there with KGBT underneath until it goes to day power and has a much better signal and is last to fade.

DX/Retro: I've heard KQSC in Colorado City, CO, a few times at sunrise. Also, I heard daytimers KVDW in England, AR, and KXTD in Wagoner, OK, one night several years ago when they were still signed on; plus, I've heard KVDW once at sunset. In addition, I've logged KGBT a couple of times via winter daytime skywave.

During the day I used to get a faint signal from KZNX in Creedmoor, TX (near Austin), about 70 miles to my NE, but I haven't heard it in several years.

Also, I'm not hearing WCKY at all these days. It used to mix in regularly at sunrise/sunset and night.
 
gr8oldies said:
East Tennessee: Days---mostly blank unless WCKY appears. WCKY is my main indicator of winter daytime skip. Nights is all WCKY. WCKY comes in better here at night than it was in Dayton, Ohio.

Retro/other: I tuned in the Weiser, ID SDR and was surprised to hear WCKY with a University of Kentucky basketball game. When Sacramento sunset came and WCKY switched pattern, it was all KFBK. Indeed, KFBK is a regular on all the Western SDRs I've checked.
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WCKY has carried University of Kentucky sports for as long as I can remember. Certainly makes DXing 1530 easy in the fall and winter months.

1530=University of Kentucky football or basketball=WCKY! Go Cats!

I'll stand corrected if I'm wrong but I believe U of K is the only university to have their games broadcast on two 50KW stations..the other of course is WHAS

As a side note, until a few years ago, WCKY also carried University of Louisville sports until U of L terminated their contract with I Heart.

U of L did not like "taking a back seat" to U of K games. If there was a conflict, University of Kentucky games took priority. Same situation at WHAS..
 
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