890 WLS "clear channel" ??

[davideduardo]

WLS also ran ads for Pug Vickers Honda (motorcycles) in Huntingdon, TN, which would have been close to 500 miles away, but they had a huge audience in West TN at night after WHBQ in Memphis turned down their power. He claimed to be the world's largest Honda dealer, but it was because of his weight.

That is quite a distance!

I know that we have had instances in the past of car dealers in low sales tax states advertising in adjacent states. I wonder if buyers of a motorcycle would travel hundreds of miles to save on the taxes? (This is starting to sound like an ad with the Geico lizard).

 

[Phil Harmonic]

Wish we'd hear from one of those WLS salespeople of the 60s, bet their stories would be cool...

 

[anotherguyTN]

That is quite a distance!

I know that we have had instances in the past of car dealers in low sales tax states advertising in adjacent states. I wonder if buyers of a motorcycle would travel hundreds of miles to save on the taxes? (This is starting to sound like an ad with the Geico lizard).

They may have even had some local business from the WLS ads at that time!

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

The FCC site is often overloaded.
Here's the map.

View attachment 2512

All those cochannel stations are OUTSIDE the new 0.5 mV/m 50% skywave contour, computed using the new skywave model from 1992. The map at the top of the page isn't labelled with the contour it represents. It goes out 900-1000 miles, and may be the 0.1 mV/m 50% skywave, or the 0.5 mV/m 10% skywave.

They put 25 uV/m 10% skywave to the 0.5 mV/m 50% skywave of WLS.

WCHP 760 Champlain is just outside WJR's protected skywave contour. It is 11 watts DA to protect WJR.

KCCV 760 Overland Park, KS is 200 watts DA, protecting the WJR 0.5 mV/m 50% skywave contour about 200 miles away.

WHFB Benton Harbor, MI is barely outside the protected skywave contour of KYW 1060 Philadelphia. It has 1.3 watts Night, nondirectional.

 

[davideduardo]

All those cochannel stations are OUTSIDE the new 0.5 mV/m 50% skywave contour, computed using the new skywave model from 1992. The map at the top of the page isn't labelled with the contour it represents. It goes out 900-1000 miles, and may be the 0.1 mV/m 50% skywave, or the 0.5 mV/m 10% skywave.

I used to have one of those Cleveland Institute pattern books that was updated monthly with little stickers that replaced changed power and directional conditions. To avoid those huge circles while allowing some size for the 250 watt to 1000 watt stations, they had a different scale for three different power levels. Anything over 10 kw was scaled way back, the 5-10 kw were slightly scaled down and the 1 kw and less were on a scale that allowed small contours to be recognizable.

I got a free copy of the book when I met Carl Smith at CIE. I was taking the basic electronics course when I was either 12 or 13 and they had Saturday meetings with counselors. I saw Mr. Smith and said "I wish I could afford your pattern book. I am a DXer" and he had them give me one, but I had to go each month for the updates. I think he wanted to make sure I kept in contact with the counselors.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

All the Science and Electronics magazines had those business reply cards from CIE, Allied Radio, and others always falling out on the floor. I wonder if their mothers were surprised when they found them, and they weren't from girlie magazines.

In case I haven't mentioned this before, Carl E. Smith was born near Eldon, IA, and inherited the American Gothic House from relatives by paying the property taxes due. He owned it for a while and then donated it. It is among Iowa's top tourist attractions. We bought a pitchfork once at Home Depot and posed with in front of our own house and sent it to friends as a joke. I didn't know at the time that Carl E. Smith had once owned that farmhouse in Iowa.

 

[gar hi]

I just like to think of the mid 80's when WLS would come in loud and clear on my Sony AM Stereo Walkman in Florida at night.

There were two settings for the AM Stereo signals. A for Motorola and B for Kahn Hazeltine.

Most AM Stereo stations like WNBC sounded best in the 'B' mode and WLS sounded best in the 'A' Mode.

I could also hear WLS in AM Stereo on one of my visits to California back then.

KFRC San Francisco and KFI Los Angeles also sounded good in AM Stereo.

If only I had held on to that Walkman, as it's now a collector's item, but I had used it so much that it just stopped working after a while and I threw it out.

The first time I heard of AM Stereo was when I was still living in New Jersey and listening to Howard Stern on WNBC.

They said at the time the way to hear the station in stereo was to take two portable radios, place them apart, and tune one radio to the lower side of the frequency and tune the other to the higher side of the frequency.

It worked too and then I connected both radios though the auxiliary jack of my stereo system with the turntable and speakers and could listen to it through my headphones.

 

[boombox4]

I always thought MW Skywave worked best at the bottom of the cycle while FM E-Skip worked best at the top of the cycle.

I used to believe that also, as it was a common myth propagated in MW DX articles in the radio mags back in the day. But I probably took more reception notes between 2011-present than I ever did during earlier times I was an avid MW DXer (probably 10-12 spiral notebooks' worth), and I noticed a definite dip in DX conditions when the Sunspot Cycle dipped. It wasn't just SW that was affected. I used to be able to hear Rebelde on 1180 on just an unaided radio from 2013-2014 or so. Now, even with an external loop, it's MIA.

I'm not sure how E-skip would be affected, as I've never been an FM DXer.

 

[gr8oldies]

All those cochannel stations are OUTSIDE the new 0.5 mV/m 50% skywave contour, computed using the new skywave model from 1992. The map at the top of the page isn't labelled with the contour it represents. It goes out 900-1000 miles, and may be the 0.1 mV/m 50% skywave, or the 0.5 mV/m 10% skywave.

They put 25 uV/m 10% skywave to the 0.5 mV/m 50% skywave of WLS.

WCHP 760 Champlain is just outside WJR's protected skywave contour. It is 11 watts DA to protect WJR.

KCCV 760 Overland Park, KS is 200 watts DA, protecting the WJR 0.5 mV/m 50% skywave contour about 200 miles away.

WHFB Benton Harbor, MI is barely outside the protected skywave contour of KYW 1060 Philadelphia. It has 1.3 watts Night, nondirectional.

Many a night WHSB can be heard with full daytime power at night

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

Many a night WHSB can be heard with full daytime power at night

If you go on fccdata.org and zoom into the KYW 1060 0.5 mV/m 50% skywave contour near Benton Harbor, you'll see that the WHFB tower is just outside that contour.

 

[TomásEstefan]

I just like to think of the mid 80's when WLS would come in loud and clear on my Sony AM Stereo Walkman in Florida at night.

There were two settings for the AM Stereo signals. A for Motorola and B for Kahn Hazeltine.

Most AM Stereo stations like WNBC sounded best in the 'B' mode and WLS sounded best in the 'A' Mode.

I could also hear WLS in AM Stereo on one of my visits to California back then.

KFRC San Francisco and KFI Los Angeles also sounded good in AM Stereo.

If only I had held on to that Walkman, as it's now a collector's item, but I had used it so much that it just stopped working after a while and I threw it out.

The first time I heard of AM Stereo was when I was still living in New Jersey and listening to Howard Stern on WNBC.

They said at the time the way to hear the station in stereo was to take two portable radios, place them apart, and tune one radio to the lower side of the frequency and tune the other to the higher side of the frequency.

It worked too and then I connected both radios though the auxiliary jack of my stereo system with the turntable and speakers and could listen to it through my headphones.

I still have an 80s vintage Sansui AM stereo/FM stereo tuner connected to my sound system and occasionally listen to KMZT 1260 on it. Although it's mono it might sound a bit better than their FM HD-4 signal, and much better than their decoded digital AM signal, depending on the program material. The digital AM has artifacts/flanging effects, string instruments sound like fingernails on a blackboard.

 

[radioman148]

The first time I heard of AM Stereo was when I was still living in New Jersey and listening to Howard Stern on WNBC.

They said at the time the way to hear the station in stereo was to take two portable radios, place them apart, and tune one radio to the lower side of the frequency and tune the other to the higher side of the frequency.

It worked too and then I connected both radios though the auxiliary jack of my stereo system with the turntable and speakers and could listen to it through my headphones.

When WLS first started broadcasting in AM Stereo I tried that method with two radios. It worked although there was a bit of static involved.

 

[gar hi]

This may sound crazy but I thought AM Stereo as heard through my Walkman actually sounded better than FM stereo.

It had a more solid sound to it.

In Tampa, I would compare the sound of WRBQ 104.7 FM and WRBQ AM Stereo 1380.

I was really hoping AM Stereo would be the wave of the future and keep Top 40 alive on AM but we now that was just a dream.

 

[TomásEstefan]

This may sound crazy but I thought AM Stereo as heard through my Walkman actually sounded better than FM stereo.

It had a more solid sound to it.

In Tampa, I would compare the sound of WRBQ 104.7 FM and WRBQ AM Stereo 1380.

I was really hoping AM Stereo would be the wave of the future and keep Top 40 alive on AM but we now that was just a dream.

I had the same experience back in the day. A wideband AM envelope detector has the potential to sound better than an inexpensive FM discriminator which may have significant IM distortion. A Properly tuned the envelope detector should exhibit no distortion. All of this is largely dependent on the program material and the transmission characteristics of the station, I once asked the CE of 1580 KDAY why his audio sounded better than a lot of other stations in the market, he explained that he was using state of the art equipment with minimal processing. His station broadcast the full 15 kHz audio response permitted at the time coupled with no more that 100% positive peak modulation and maximum negative of only 75%. Obviously no AM station today would even consider this. I should add that today's maximum audio is limited to 10 kHz but still sounds pretty good on a wide band receiver. Today many sports and talk stations limit the audio to primarily voice frequencies which means less than 5 kHz audio with significant compression creating an apparent dynamic range probably 6dB or less, with modulation of up to 120% on positive peaks. Feed this into a typical AM radio with an IF bandpass of barely 5 kHZ...Well you get the idea...give me FM Please!

 

[SquonkHunter]

Back in the late '60s-early '70s WLS was THE station to listen to late at night in the DFW area for good rock & roll. Since most people at that time did not have an FM receiver, WLS was pretty much the only alternative. Reception back then was always great. Even the cheapest small portable radio could get it reasonably well. Then FM became the big thing in DFW by the later '70s and that was the end of all that.

 

[gr8oldies]

All the Science and Electronics magazines had those business reply cards from CIE, Allied Radio, and others always falling out on the floor. I wonder if their mothers were surprised when they found them, and they weren't from girlie magazines.

Take a look at the back of those magazines and you had ads for mail-order brides.

 

[Dondd]

Surprisingly, WLS came in decently here, in central Texas, the other night.
But it wasn't long.
Most times, a Hispanic station comes through.

 

[radioman148]

Surprisingly, WLS came in decently here, in central Texas, the other night.
But it wasn't long.
Most times, a Hispanic station comes through.

Probably Cuba.

 

[davideduardo]

Surprisingly, WLS came in decently here, in central Texas, the other night.
But it wasn't long.
Most times, a Hispanic station comes through.

On 890, the Spanish language station is most likely Cuba.

That's not "Hispanic" as that term is a pure United States Government OMB and Census Bureau creation, and not used or accepted outside the USA.

 

[davideduardo]

Take a look at the back of those magazines and you had ads for mail-order brides.

I have a few of the older electronics magazines like Popular Electronics and the like and none have that kind of ads.