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50000 Watt Fulltime Class Bs That Were Class IIIs

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I remember the Rockford 1150 as WJRL, although I think it may have used the WYFE call letters for a brief time before it left the air. It made it about as far east as Belvedere before it gave way to WJJD splatter. I don't recall ever hearing it in southeast Wisconsin, so my assumption is that there was a deep null (or nulls) to protect WJJD and WISN.

I remember it as a top 40 station, and not a bad one at that.

As for WRRR "Triple R Radio", I only remember those calls on 1330....which I'm pretty sure is where they were when Howard Miller bought the station.
 
cyberdad said:
Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I remember the Rockford 1150 as WJRL, although I think it may have used the WYFE call letters for a brief time before it left the air. It made it about as far east as Belvedere before it gave way to WJJD splatter. I don't recall ever hearing it in southeast Wisconsin, so my assumption is that there was a deep null (or nulls) to protect WJJD and WISN.

I remember it as a top 40 station, and not a bad one at that.

As for WRRR "Triple R Radio", I only remember those calls on 1330....which I'm pretty sure is where they were when Howard Miller bought the station.
Click to expand...

I also remember WRRR only on 1330.
 
According to archived records WRRR was assigned to 1150 in 1995, remaining in place until mid-1996 when the call letters were deleted and the license was canceled (whether the station was actually on the air during all of that time is unclear, though). Prior to 1995 it was WKKN (through much of the 80's as well), and the WYFE call letters date back to 70's.
 
jd said:
According to archived records WRRR was assigned to 1150 in 1995, remaining in place until mid-1996 when the call letters were deleted and the license was canceled (whether the station was actually on the air during all of that time is unclear, though). Prior to 1995 it was WKKN (through much of the 80's as well), and the WYFE call letters date back to 70's.
Click to expand...

There was a WRRR on 1330 in the 60s in Rockford. I remember listening to it. I'm sure Cyberdad remembers it too.
 
radioman148 said:
jd said:
According to archived records WRRR was assigned to 1150 in 1995, remaining in place until mid-1996 when the call letters were deleted and the license was canceled (whether the station was actually on the air during all of that time is unclear, though). Prior to 1995 it was WKKN (through much of the 80's as well), and the WYFE call letters date back to 70's.
Click to expand...

There was a WRRR on 1330 in the 60s in Rockford. I remember listening to it. I'm sure Cyberdad remembers it too.
Click to expand...

I do.

Where I was as s teenager in Wauconda in the '60s, WRRR and WEAW fought it out daily on 1330....the two were at roughly equal signal strength.

My guess is that the link provided by Schroedinger's Cat may be in error (although I can't say that with total certainty). What I AM sure of is that Howard Miller did own WRRR. But I don't recall those calls being anywhere but 1330. As for the Rockford 1150 lasting until the mid 90s, I think they were off before then.

I'll review some of the old Broadcasting yearbooks on David's site if I get a chance over the next few days to see if they shed any light on this. Meanwhile my apologies for prolonging the veer from the original topic.
 
I was amazed at how deep the null from WEAW...WKTA 1330 was to protect WJOL and WKAN. It was interesting how WNMP...WCGO 1590 was much stronger than WEAW at that location near WJJD...WYLL.
 
Schroedingers Cat said:
I was amazed at how deep the null from WEAW...WKTA 1330 was to protect WJOL and WKAN. It was interesting how WNMP...WCGO 1590 was much stronger than WEAW at that location near WJJD...WYLL.
Click to expand...

Then at the same time WKTA (now WNTA) at 1330 and WCGO 1590 has influenced the northern/northeast nulls of two western Illinois stations on those frequencies: WRAM 1330 Monmouth, IL and WAIK 1590 Galesburg, IL (which also has to protect WPVL Platteville, WI to the north. With the end result being stronger signals to the south for both of these stations--including weak signals for both here in Springfield, IL:

http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WRAM&service=AM&status=L&hours=D

http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WAIK&service=AM&status=L&hours=D

I have heard some strong classic country vs. comedy battles between Monmouth and Rockford on 1330 at sunset down here in Springfield, however, due to WNTA's strong southern signal while WRAM is at free reign to its southeast--but I've never heard WNTA in the middle of the day here, however (just a faint WRAM and some WSOY Decatur splatter from 1340).
 
Summary Of Topic Posts

Most Powerful Stations At Night On Regional Channels

Former Class IIIs

50 kW Night

KMJ 580 50 kW Day and Night
KJR 950 50 kW Day and Night
WWJ 950 50 kW Day and Night
WXYT 1270 50 kW Day and Night

25-49 kW Night

KKOL 1300 50 kW Day 47 kW Night
KTLK 1150 50 kW Day 44 kW Night
WFDF 910 50 kW Day 25 kW Night
WHBY 1150 20 kW Day 25 kW Night

17-24 kW Night

WKDN 950 43 kW Day 21 kW Night
WSUA 1260 50 kW Day 20 kW Night
WOOD 1300 20 kW Day 20 kW Night
WUNR 1600 20 kW Day 20 kW Night
WSAU 550 15 kW Day 20 kW Night
WRCA 1330 25 kW Day 17 kW Night
 
We were listening just a few hours ago to the great Rick Lewis on Top Shelf Oldies. In
fact, I hadn't even read this thread yet.

His Hometown Countdown Show was this week in 1959, off the survey from KOL Seattle.
I usually get out the old logbooks and nighttime pattern books for his show, which usually
has two or three DXers also in chat. The DXers there go over whether any of us have logged
the station. Rick has done WGH Norfolk, WKLO Louisville, WPDQ Jacksonville, and lots
of others.

I was amazed (as Shroedinger verified) that this former 5000-watt regional on 1300 now
was licensed for 50,000 watts day and 47,000 watts night. They are KKOL now, of course,
and sports.

An old National Radio Club pattern book shows them as one of five 5000-watters in the US on
1300, along with two from Canada. I don't/didn't know the nighttime power those last two
used back then.

Even though KKOL's new nighttime pattern (as portrayed on Radio Locator) is somewhat
indistinct, it appears that they do send *some* of it east. Washington is a tough state
for we Yanks in the northeast to hear. A 47,000 watt station should be marginally easier
to hear than a 5000-watt station.
The station closer to me, in Idaho, REALLY pulls it in away from Seatlle at night,
and also, reciprocally, toward the southeast.
On a bright, clear overnight, KKOL just mike make it over the top of the one in Idaho ........
Where can I find those official FCC maps, anyone?
The direct 'favourite' link is on a computer currently in the shop.
 
1150:
WJRL when it first signed on at the end of 1964
WYFE in 1971
WKKN at some point after 1971, this is the first call in the FCC's database
WNTA 9/18/95
WRRR 9/18/95
deleted 7/24/96

1330:
WRRR from initial signon in Christmas Eve 1953
WXTA 9/23/82
WYBR 3/1/87
WRRR 9/1/88
WNTA 9/18/95

My guess is that the appearance of the WNTA calls on 1150 were some kind of FCC typo, that the station never actually was WNTA. However, it certainly appears the WRRR calls were used on both frequencies.
 
CDBS is back up. I suspect that the 47 kW was as a result of some problems maintaining the standard pattern or augmented pattern at 50 kW. Or it could be just impossible to protect a fairly close and well protected 1300, possibly a classic III-A, to its nighttime NIF requirements.

AM Query is a better source for looking at actual patterns that determine skywave intensity, rather than groundwave.
 
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