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AM 1300 WRDZ goes silent

CADXER

CADXER

My local on 1300 kHz WRDZ has gone silent and has requested an STA status from the FCC. The land where their 6-tower array is located (Alsip, IL, right next to I-294) was sold and they are looking for a replacement site. Good chance for local DXers to hear something new on 1300.

Originally this station was WTAQ before being acquired by Radio Disney in 1998. In 2015 Polnet purchased the station to broadcast their Polish language programming.
 
After ABC allowed WLS to dump their long-form network news programming in the late '60s, it moved to WTAQ. It ran until at least the late '70s, as an Entertainment Network affiliate.
 
You could see the old WTAQ 4 tower array from I-94. Their late engineer Charles Gustafson told me that even though it looked like they were in a line, they were a "squished" parallelogram to allow slight asymmetry in the pattern.
 
I had noticed WRDZ was off overnight occasionally lately, but this is a surprise. Apparently time-brokering isn’t what it used to be. (Unless their tower site has been sold in this era of warehouses springing up like weeds.)

This is the closest tower to me. It hammered 1290 and 1310. If I had a couple of spare bucks and spare time, I’d look into buying it.
WTAQ was indeed the White Sox radio flagship in 1971 and 1972, after the Sox left WMAQ in a huff and sued NBC for carrying a handful of games in August 1968 on WMAQ-FM so NBC’s Democratic Convention coverage could run in AM. Station owner and sports voice Ralph Faucher worked with new-to-town Harry Caray and fed a network of local AMs and FMs in Chicagoland and downstate. The Sox and NBC kissed and made up in 1973 and 670 was their radio home again.

WTAQ was also notable for carrying the state high school basketball tournament finals each year (Lyons Township’s team was a perennial powerhouse) and for picking up the Indianapolis 500.
 
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Schroedingers Cat said:
You could see the old WTAQ 4 tower array from I-94. Their late engineer Charles Gustafson told me that even though it looked like they were in a line, they were a "squished" parallelogram to allow slight asymmetry in the pattern.
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I think you meant I-294, but you needed a sharp eye to spot it looking west.
 
I lived in Westerrn Springs for a couple of years when I was in grade school. WCFL and WTAQ were the extent of what I could pick up on my "rocket" crystal radio.
 
tvnut said:
WTAQ was indeed the White Sox radio flagship in 1971 and 1972, after the Sox left WMAQ in a huff and sued NBC for carrying a handful of games in August 1968 on WMAQ-FM so NBC’s Democratic Convention coverage could run in AM.
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I've read over the years that NBC dumped the Sox, not the other way around. Sox ownership (by that time, John Allyn) was running the franchise into the ground, and going broke doing it. They had one foot in Milwaukee in 1968 & '69 (they played 10 games there), and were headed for Seattle until Allyn sold the team to Bill Veeck after the '75 season. Part of the deal was that the Oakland A's would have moved to Chicago. That went over like a lead balloon in both cities.
tvnut said:
Station owner and sports voice Ralph Faucher worked with new-to-town Harry Caray and fed a network of local AMs and FMs in Chicagoland and downstate. The Sox and NBC kissed and made up in 1973 and 670 was their radio home again.
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Harry had everything to do with the Sox returning to WMAQ. He was that popular. But IIRC, the official flagship in the early '70s was WEAW-FM 105.1, which covered the metro, not WTAQ.
 
KeithE4 said:
I've read over the years that NBC dumped the Sox, not the other way around. Sox ownership (by that time, John Allyn) was running the franchise into the ground, and going broke doing it. They had one foot in Milwaukee in 1968 & '69 (they played 10 games there), and were headed for Seattle until Allyn sold the team to Bill Veeck after the '75 season. Part of the deal was that the Oakland A's would have moved to Chicago. That went over like a lead balloon in both cities.

Harry had everything to do with the Sox returning to WMAQ. He was that popular. But IIRC, the official flagship in the early '70s was WEAW-FM 105.1, which covered the metro, not WTAQ.
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I’ve heard three things about official flagships: WEAW, WTAQ and WLNR 106.3 Lansing. Have no clue, but recall stations paid the Sox per game something like $25 a game to carry the broadcast and sold their own air time. It was about as rinky-dink as you can get.

The big thing the Sox lost after 1970 was their sponsorship by General Finance (the Friendly Bob Adams brand). GF arranged a big network of stations outside the Chicago area, especially in the south, reportedly as large as 90 stations, though I have no idea how many carried every game. That did not return in 1973.
 
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They had a railroad track going right through the middle of the 6-tower array. I wonder if they ever tried tying it into the ground system to see how that would affect the signal.
 
tvnut said:
I think you meant I-294, but you needed a sharp eye to spot it looking west.
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You are correct. Their 6-tower array is just barely visible when driving on I-294. WTAQ was originally licensed by FCC in 1950 with a transmitter site located near the intersection of Hwy 66 and Rt. 45 in La Grange, Illinois. The Alsip, IL site near I-294 and 115th Street was constructed in 1990.

Here are two pictures of the Alsip site that I took in 2001 and 2021. The 2021 pictures showing 4 of the 6 towers was taken while driving southbound on I-294.

1300-WRDZ-2001.JPG1300-WRDZ-2021.jpg
 
I actually meant the original site but I was wrong on the direction: it was northeast on Joliet Road (I'd guess the tower lights could be seen at night in the winter if you knew exactly where to look); the current site is a bit easier to spot adjacent to I-294 on the north side but the trees sometimes get in the way.
 
tvnut said:
I’ve heard three things about official flagships: WEAW, WTAQ and WLNR 106.3 Lansing. Have no clue, but recall stations paid the Sox per game something like $25 a game to carry the broadcast and sold their own air time. It was about as rinky-dink as you can get.

The big thing the Sox lost after 1970 was their sponsorship by General Finance (the Friendly Bob Adams brand). GF arranged a big network of stations outside the Chicago area, especially in the south, reportedly as large as 90 stations, though I have no idea how many carried every game. That did not return in 1973.
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I seem to remember WEAW being with the White Sox.

As for "Friendly Bob Adams".... General Finance was a White Sox sponsor going at least back to the 1950s. Helping Bob Elson to broadcast every "White Owl Wallop" from Comiskey Park!
 
Yes, I meant I-294. Recently, I was traveling to Wisconsin, and was on I-94, and then back to I-94 into Wisconsin. But it was Daylight when I saw the previous 4 tower array, that I thought was in a line, but Charlie Gustafson said they weren't quite in a line. That was from I-294, and I was riding so I had a chance to look for them. I saw the old WCFL self supporting towers a few times from I-294. But WLTH, WIND, and WBEE were the easiest to see from the expressway, until you got to WAIT, once with the tall 4 towers in a line, and then WJJD and WEAW. I remember the old top loaded WIND and WEAW towers that were near the expressways. I was puzzled when the top loading towers were no longer there. I knew WIND was moving nearby, but I don't remember seeing that they were going to monopoles. I'd like to see all the previous patterns for those, but even fccinfo.com doesn't have them. Can't even find the old 3 tower WTMJ array information. I've looked for some or all of the old arrays on there. Saw the WHBL towers South of Sheboygan back in the early 1970s.
 
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I also went past WKDC/WJJG/WCKG 1530 several times before I realized that the two short self supporting towers were an AM Directional Antenna.

The description on the WTAQ/WRDZ 1300 History Card for their first DA is 0.3 miles SE of the intersection of US 66 and US 45. Before that it was 500 watts nondirectional Daytime only at a site nearby.
 
Drove by the WRDZ site this afternoon and noticed that all six towers have allready been removed. That did not take long.
 
CADXER said:
Drove by the WRDZ site this afternoon and noticed that all six towers have allready been removed. That did not take long.
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The FCC Silent STA filing seemed to indicate that in a roundabout way, by talking about removing "infrastructure".

They could find or diplex a tower nearby and go 25% power Day and Night nondirectional STA. Many stations are kicking the can down the road that way, though in many cases, I don't know if they will ever be as good as the presently licensed facility.
 
Schroedingers Cat said:
They could find or diplex a tower nearby and go 25% power Day and Night nondirectional STA. Many stations are kicking the can down the road that way, though in many cases, I don't know if they will ever be as good as the presently licensed facility.
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Wonder if Polnet Communications could diplex WRDZ with the the co-owned WNVR (AM 1030).
 
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