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AM Frequency of the Week: 640

M

MarioMania

Carmichael, CA

Daytime: Splatter from 650 KSTE Sacramento, CA
Nighttime: KFI Los Angeles, CA

Vallejo, CA

Daytime: Nothing
Nighttime: KFI Los Angeles, CA
 
The usual Denver, CO location — spillover from local 630 KHOW, day and night.

Last week in Des Moines, IA - local 640 WOI (Iowa Public Radio News) daytime; weaker at night but still useable.

Right now in Leiden, South Holland, Netherlands - daytime, nothing nearby; hearing a little bit of overlap with the UK’s Radio Caroline on 648 which comes in here fairly well. Nighttime - several fairly weak signals; I believe these are Radio Nacional de España stations.
 
DFW, Texas

Daytime: Fair KWPN Moore OK "ESPN 640".

Nights: KWPN is there with Radio Progresso mixing in from Cuba. At sunset, WCRV Collierville TN can be heard with Christian talk. Late night/early morning aiming E/W I can often hear a weak KFI Los Angeles with news/talk. Less frequent visitors are KTIB Thibodaux LA, WBIN Atlanta's Black Information Network, and XETAM Ciudad Victoria, TA "Romantica" (if they are still active?).
 
East Tennessee: Days-WXSM, Blountville TN "The Sports Monster"(Tri-Cities). Some shows simulcast with local WNML-990.
Critical hours: WBIN, Atlanta or WCRV, Collier, TN.
Nights: Radio Progreso, Cuba, sometimes WBIN.
Retro/other: WHLO Akron comes in in large parts of Ohio. I remember many years ago when WHLO was a "limited time" station, signing off at KFI sunset. In the 80s, I had a couple week stretch of getting KFI in Ohio around 1am. I'm thinking Cuba may have been off, and other night-authorized 640s hadn't come on the air yet.
 
Daytime here in the southwest portion of Northeast PA (really) is the lone NON-NYC station I took from Copiague out on Long Island's South Shore all the way to the new home here on the car radio.
On the final packing-up day from Copiague (the village next to the immortal Amityville) I spun the Lafayette 600a one more time, and tried for that thing in Springfield Mass. 640 stations are rare. One more to put on the old log, compiled over 30 years of optical sleep dirt. And I did get to put my final big dot next to a station.
But it wasn't Massachsetts. It was a pretty clear WWJZ Mt. Holly NJ, playing the Standards. I unplugged the HA600a, got in the Nova and drove west to here. And WWJZ was with me portal-to-portal, solid, with only some gashing from WFAN 660 near JFK Airport.
WWJZ isnow Religion, after spending a few years in Disneyworld.

Nights: WHLO Akron, C-HOG, WFNC NC and WGST Atlanta.

(No KFI here. At least not for a good, long 'yet'. But they were only a once-heard back in Queens. Got a QSL from them, too! One of those blue-and-orange postage stamp replicas.)
 
West side of Houston TX

Daytime, nothing but slop from local 650 KIKK
Sunset, KWPN and Radio Progreso are the first to appear. I've also heard XETAM, WBIN, KTIB (not as common as you'd think), and WCRV.
Night, KWPN and Progreso are dominant depending on which way I'm turning the radio.
Sunrise, there's a sweet spot after Cuba fades when I've heard KFI. In addition to the others listed, I have heard XEJUA Ciudad Juarez when they sign on (they're now XELOVE, but haven't heard them with the new calls).

In Tulsa in the 70's, I remember KWPN was daytimer WNAD, owned by the U of Oklahoma. I seem to recall they would stay on until LA sunset. When they signed off, KFI and the Cuban were alone on the frequency.
 
Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: WMFN with good signal
Nighttime: nothing but WMFN

DX/RETRO: until WMFN signed on from Peotone on October 2017 the frequency was open for DX. WMFN moving from Zeeland, MI to Peotone, IL ended any chance of hearing KFI or any other DX in Chicago area for good. KFI used to be the best bet to hear California in the Chicago area. Prior to WMFN Peotone, daytime reception also included WBOW (Terre Haute, IN) and WMFN (Zeeland, MI). Other DX logs include WHLO (Akron, OH), WOI (Ames, IA), WWLS (Moore, OK), WCRV (Collierville, TN), WGST (Atlanta, GA). This frequency also used to provide a good reception of Radio Progreso from Cuba. Prior to 1982/1983 the Cuban on this frequency used to be Radio Liberacion CMQ, but then they switched to Radio Progreso. I have two other foreign stations logged on this frequency, but both of them are no longer on the air: FR3, Guadeloupe and TGW Radio Nacional, Guatemala.
 
wildthangjim said:
In Tulsa in the 70's, I remember KWPN was daytimer WNAD, owned by the U of Oklahoma. I seem to recall they would stay on until LA sunset. When they signed off, KFI and the Cuban were alone on the frequency.
Click to expand...
I do recall that.

I don't usually get much on 640 here in Austin, Texas.
But, recently got KTIB Thibodaux, LA, underneath KWPN Moore. The Oklahoma City 640 was stronger.
 
In Pickerington, Ohio, a solid WHLO by day and a bunch of nothing at night other than maybe some slop from WSM's monster skywave.
I've never heard KFI here or when I lived in Houston. It was a blaster at night on my only trip to Vegas in 2006. I remember listening to Phil Hendrie driving down the Strip.
 
Dondd said:
I do recall that.

I don't usually get much on 640 here in Austin, Texas.
But, recently got KTIB Thibodaux, LA, underneath KWPN Moore. The Oklahoma City 640 was stronger.
Click to expand...
On occasion, I've captured BIN from Atlanta here, but, like the others, momentarily and then fades.
 
From NW San Antonio:

Day: Heavy-duty splatter from local 630 KSLR.

Sunset: Amidst the slop, KWPN "The Sports Animal" in Moore, OK, and XETAM "Romántica" in Cd. Victoria come up via the NE/SW. R. Progreso in Cuba comes up when aiming NW/SE (the direction in which the splatter is the worst).

Night: Off-tuning and filtering is still needed, but KWPN dominates with XETAM mixing in and sometimes taking over briefly. To the NW/SE, R. Progreso is in/out, and KFI in Los Angeles can be heard weakly on those occasions when propagation is especially good.

Sunrise: KWPN and XETAM are more variable in regard to which one is dominant. When WCRV in Collierville, TN, goes to day power/pattern, it takes over for a good while. To the NW, XELOVE (formerly XEJUA) sometimes comes up pretty well for a while at day power. At those times when propagation brings in KFI, it can have a fairly listenable signal at sunrise. Eventually, KPWN is all alone in the heavier KSLR slop.

DX/Retro: XEYQ in Fresnillo was somewhat of a regular at nighttime before it was retired. I used to hear XENQ in Tulancingo at night, but it hasn't shown up here in a while. Also, I logged WBIN (formerly WGST) in Atlanta one time back in 2015.
 
KFI has made it to Canyon Lake, TX, but it has been awhile. They are a nighttime regular in San Angelo (200 miles away). I was driving back from a business trip to El Paso and was able to hear KFI until Junction, Texas in my truck (114 miles west of San Antonio). It dropped off pretty quickly east of Junction.
 
Odd tonight I heard music on 640 alternating with the Oklahoma City station. Moving the radio got the music, which was Birthday by The Beatles and some Lennon-led Beatles tunes.
Then it faded and only Oklahoma was received.

Tried to match with other stations in LA (running talk online), Iowa, Ill., New Orleans, Memphis, Florida, but no luck.
May have been KYUK in Alaska, as online it shows a program called Rick's Rock is airing. But when I heard the song it was playing, could not hear the AM enough to detect the song.
Couldn't find any other station with a rock music format that would match it.

UPDATE: Listening about an hour later, the music is coming through, but it sounds Spanish.
 
Last edited:
dlf1 said:
KFI has made it to Canyon Lake, TX, but it has been awhile. They are a nighttime regular in San Angelo (200 miles away). I was driving back from a business trip to El Paso and was able to hear KFI until Junction, Texas in my truck (114 miles west of San Antonio). It dropped off pretty quickly east of Junction.
Click to expand...
I would love to hear it here on the east side of Austin, but have never heard it.
I may have heard it when I was a teen in central KS. The nighttime map shows KS and almost to I-35 in TX receiving it.
 
Kenosha, WI Days- WMFN Peotone, IL has an okay signal up here, pretty much aimed right at me. About 87 miles from me. When WMFN was still in Michigan (@ about 150 miles) it was a daytime regular, although with a not especially good signal.

Nights- WMFN still there, clogging up the frequency. For some reason it doesn't null well, but I can generally squeeze WOI Ames, IA out of the mess. In the 80s and early 90s it was not unusual to pull KFI out of the muck, although WWLS (now KWPN) in OK made it difficult.
 
Last edited:
Dondd said:
Odd tonight I heard music on 640 alternating with the Oklahoma City station. Moving the radio got the music, which was Birthday by The Beatles and some Lennon-led Beatles tunes.
Then it faded and only Oklahoma was received.

Tried to match with other stations in LA (running talk online), Iowa, Ill., New Orleans, Memphis, Florida, but no luck.
May have been KYUK in Alaska, as online it shows a program called Rick's Rock is airing. But when I heard the song it was playing, could not hear the AM enough to detect the song.
Couldn't find any other station with a rock music format that would match it.

UPDATE: Listening about an hour later, the music is coming through, but it sounds Spanish.
Click to expand...
One possibility is Radio Progreso in Cuba. They sometimes play English-language music and are often strong over here in Houston.
 
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