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1550 -- Your Most Wanted ... Now and Then

Steve Green NEPA

Steve Green NEPA

Despite a weak semi-local from Pittston PA -- I have them logged as WARD -- 1550 has treated me very graciously at SSS and at night. One evening WRBN from the Hartford CT area came in. The best SSS catch was WSER from Elkton MD. They must've been on their day pattern still, because at night they drop to a flamethrowing ONE WATT.

I guess I'd like to hear a 'K' call on 1550. Back in the Queens days when our hearing was better, a few of us caught KKHI from California. But the dial was a lot clearer then. 1550 had on just a handful of stations overnight.

What is your so-desired 1550 station, pls? Then and now ?
 
In the northern suburbs of Chicago I would've loved to have heard KKHI, but I never did. Also, I tried for the 1550 in Coral Gables in the 70s & 80s but could never hear that one either. I stand to be corrected, but I think the calls were WSRF then. Don't know what's out there now that I would want to hear.
 
Close enough for AoR, RadioMan, hi.

WSRF was on 1580, Fort Lauderdale. And at one time they had been a form of AoR, back when they were WSHE. Due to the fortuitous water-path, we'd get them on Long Island pretty often. It most likely involved a bit of Aurora, too, especially for here in NE PA. I got a nice tape of them once from here.

The 1550 Coral Gables station was WRIZ for a long while, then WRHC.
 
I
Steve Green NEPA said:
Close enough for AoR, RadioMan, hi.

WSRF was on 1580, Fort Lauderdale. And at one time they had been a form of AoR, back when they were WSHE. Due to the fortuitous water-path, we'd get them on Long Island pretty often. It most likely involved a bit of Aurora, too, especially for here in NE PA. I got a nice tape of them once from here.

The 1550 Coral Gables station was WRIZ for a long while, then WRHC.
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Steve, the memory gets a little fuzzy sometimes at our age. Which one of those two Southern Florida stations carried Dick Bartley’s SGSN in the early 80s? I think it was the one in Coral Gables, but I’ve been known to be wrong...:)
 
KKHI would've been a VERY impressive catch in the Chicago area. On my biz trips to the SF Bay area I used to drive by their transmitter site off the Bayshore Freeway rather frequently on my business trips. I stand to be corrected, but I seem to remember that their pattern was oriented north-south. They did have a listenable signal all the way to Napa Valley.

Closer to home.... My most sought after on 1550 was the now-defunct WOKJ from Jackson, MS. Lots of tries, and I did think I snagged it once or twice, but I never was able to get a positive ID.
 
cyberdad said:
KKHI would've been a VERY impressive catch in the Chicago area. On my biz trips to the SF Bay area I used to drive by their transmitter site off the Bayshore Freeway rather frequently on my business trips. I stand to be corrected, but I seem to remember that their pattern was oriented north-south. They did have a listenable signal all the way to Napa Valley.
Click to expand...

The pattern is peanut shaped, roughly north-south and it does get some signal to the east. Back when it was KOBY and briefly, the big top 40 station in the Bay Area, I heard in numerous times in NE Ohio.
 
radioman148 said:
I

Steve, the memory gets a little fuzzy sometimes at our age. Which one of those two Southern Florida stations carried Dick Bartley’s SGSN in the early 80s? I think it was the one in Coral Gables, but I’ve been known to be wrong...:)
Click to expand...

WRIZ became WRHC before that... when I moved to Miami to run WHTT 1260 it was already "Cadena Azul" and run by Salvador Lew and Enrique Landin as a very extreme "anti-hangman of the Americas" talk station.
 
Steve Green NEPA said:
Close enough for AoR, RadioMan, hi.

WSRF was on 1580, Fort Lauderdale. And at one time they had been a form of AoR, back when they were WSHE. Due to the fortuitous water-path, we'd get them on Long Island pretty often. It most likely involved a bit of Aurora, too, especially for here in NE PA. I got a nice tape of them once from here.

The 1550 Coral Gables station was WRIZ for a long while, then WRHC.
Click to expand...

WSRF sure got out where the fishes lived. It was occasionally local strength in San Juan!
 
East Tennessee---Might have to think on that. Dominant of 1550 seems to be WIGN, Bristol TN/VA which gets out with quite a signal and often does not flip to night power. I can remember WBSC, Bennettsville SC making it to Ohio often. Down here in TN, WDLR has been known to dominate at night by running their daytime power (some have tried to argue this point to me, but as widely heard as they are and consistent, that's no flea power). I've also caught WMDH, NewCastle IN.

For my most wanted, I'm going to go with CBEF, now on 1550. Never heard it even in Ohio.
 
At one time, wasn't / weren't 'CBEF' the call sign for one of those real low-power relays spread across the more barren places in Canada back in the 60's ?

There was, for example CBN out of Newfoundland, who we'd hear ID as something like 'CBN, CBNA, CBNB, CBNC' and so worth. So CBEF might just have been one of those 40-watt stations carrying the CBE 1550 programming.

No doubt such wee stations were eagerly greeted and frequented by folks in those Northern Exposure hamlets. But only one of the four DXers in our group from Queens -- the best of the four: (Vinny) -- ever claimed to have heard one of those LPAM's.
 
CBEF was originally on 540 in Windsor, but signed off and moved to the former CBE (English) on 1550. I couldn't tell you if the calls were used for any of the 40 watt relay stations. I'm not even clear why the 540 was signed off.



Steve Green NEPA said:
At one time, wasn't / weren't 'CBEF' the call sign for one of those real low-power relays spread across the more barren places in Canada back in the 60's ?

There was, for example CBN out of Newfoundland, who we'd hear ID as something like 'CBN, CBNA, CBNB, CBNC' and so worth. So CBEF might just have been one of those 40-watt stations carrying the CBE 1550 programming.

No doubt such wee stations were eagerly greeted and frequented by folks in those Northern Exposure hamlets. But only one of the four DXers in our group from Queens -- the best of the four: (Vinny) -- ever claimed to have heard one of those LPAM's.
Click to expand...
 
Steve Green NEPA said:
At one time, wasn't / weren't 'CBEF' the call sign for one of those real low-power relays spread across the more barren places in Canada back in the 60's
Click to expand...

The "F" at the end on the CBC stations designates that the station broadcasts in French. CBEF is the French language "version" of CBE. The rebroadcasters typically add an "A". For example, there is (or was) a CBLA, which rebroadcast(s) CBL from Toronto. And then, going a step further, there is/was CBLAT, which rebroadcast Toronto CBC TV station, CBLT. The "T" of course standing for "television" in each example

Given that CBC owned stations rarely, if ever, use their call letters, I'm not sure to what extent, if any, the system is still in use.
 
I'd like to see WAZX Smyrna/Atlanta return to the air with a sustainable format. At this point, I'd say they are permanently dark. In recent years they were running non-stop oldies to keep the license hot but I haven't heard anything on 1550 in quite a while. They are one of three stations at the top end to go dark in this market recently. The others were 1480 and 1690.
 
gr8oldies said:
CBEF was originally on 540 in Windsor, but signed off and moved to the former CBE (English) on 1550. I couldn't tell you if the calls were used for any of the 40 watt relay stations. I'm not even clear why the 540 was signed off.



Click to expand...

the 540 towers and ground system were in massive disrepair
 
KXEX Fresno with Spanish Religion. Also KXTO Reno with Spanish Religion, both of those haven't popped up yet on day or night pattern. I'll also add 50KW (daytime) KUAZ Tucson AZ.
 
gr8oldies said:
East Tennessee---Might have to think on that. Dominant of 1550 seems to be WIGN, Bristol TN/VA which gets out with quite a signal and often does not flip to night power. I can remember WBSC, Bennettsville SC making it to Ohio often. Down here in TN, WDLR has been known to dominate at night by running their daytime power (some have tried to argue this point to me, but as widely heard as they are and consistent, that's no flea power). I've also caught WMDH, NewCastle IN.

For my most wanted, I'm going to go with CBEF, now on 1550. Never heard it even in Ohio.
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Same here. They run 10,000 watts but it's a directional 10,000, and that's not a great frequency for groundwave anyway. Radio Locator shows their daytime signal barely getting to Toledo. I've never tried for it when I've been up there over the years.
WDLR tucks in their signal to the north to protect CBEF. If anyone's argued their power status the past several years, it hasn't been me. I've thought WDLR has been doing that ever since about 2013 (not to mention that their sister station in Marysville has been on night pattern for going on a decade).
It doesn't surprise me at all that they'd get to you in Tennessee. They're clearly audible day and night across the northern half of the Columbus metro even with just 500 watts. There is no way they're only running 29 watts.
 
cyberdad said:
Closer to home.... My most sought after on 1550 was the now-defunct WOKJ from Jackson, MS. Lots of tries, and I did think I snagged it once or twice, but I never was able to get a positive ID.
Click to expand...

In Tulsa in the early '70's, WOKJ was one of the stronger skywave signals on the dial with their great soul music format. They must have had a pretty tight directional pattern.
 
wildthangjim said:
In Tulsa in the early '70's, WOKJ was one of the stronger skywave signals on the dial with their great soul music format. They must have had a pretty tight directional pattern.
Click to expand...

IIRC, they had an east-west "figure 8" night pattern. I seem to remember WOKJ with a good night signal in Atlanta.
 
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