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AM 1500 WPJX Zion flips to HEAVY Metal

A

avtosalon

I was scanning the AM band yesterday, and I noticed that Mexican-talk 'Radio Formula' format is gone on AM 1500, replaced full-time with Scott Davidson's 'Rebel Radio'.

Apparently the first day of the new format was Wednesday, February 11th. Spanish programming remains only on Sunday mornings. WPJX is a 250-watt daytimer. Sign-off was at 5:30 PM right during the middle of a song. The station has a Construction Permit for night operation with 2 watts!

I presume the studio is at Polnet's Northbrook house at Dundee Road and the Tri-State Tollway, which is also the studio for 1330 WKTA Evanston, and 1430 WEEF Highland Park-Deerfield.

'Rebel Radio' also airs Sundays from 4:00 PM-8:00 PM on 1330 WKTA Evanston, and Wednesday-Saturday from Midnight-2:00 AM on 1240 WSBC Chicago, simulcast on 1470 WCFJ Chicago Heights.

WPJX likely is the heaviest station in the country. I applaud Polnet for trying something different, although I don't like the black metal/death metal often heard on Rebel Radio. I can't handle when a singer for a band sings like a monster or a dog barking.
 
No, Polnet does not own WSBC or WCFJ. Scott Davidson purchases the time from Newsweb to air his show (Rebel Radio) on those stations. He probably gets good price for the hours after Midnight.

Polnet owns:

1030 WNVR Vernon Hills
1330 WKTA Evanston
1430 WEEF Highland Park-Deerfield
1500 WPJX Zion
910 WRKL New City, NY (simulcast of WNVR)
1580 WLIM Patchogue, NY (simulcast of WNVR)1
1280 WTMY Sarasota, FL
1590 WRXB St. Petersburg, FL
 
...if Joe Wrona* isn't with us anymore, I'm sure this news will send him spinning like a lathe in his grave! ;-) ...

*"owner" of AM 1500 Zion under the calls WRJR in 1984-86, whom I worked for during that period
 
Does anyone have an idea if this format will last on the station? No format seems to last more than a few years on this signal. If only WPJX moved their
tower further inland so that they didn't waste almost half of their power over Lake Michigan! ...Wonder if anyone listens on the Michigan side directly
opposite Zion?

It seems the problem is that it's a weak signal and doesn't reach much of the population. WPJX should try to increase its power and/or get a better frequency...
 
Wow, I haven't heard of a heavy metal format on an AM station since the old "Z-Rock" network!
 
"Can this station be heard in the western suburbs?"

With a good receiving setup perhaps, though WPJX's strongest signal is primarily east and west of Zion. http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WPJX&service=AM&status=C&hours=D
... there is WPNA 1490 in Oak Park and WWHN 1510 in Joliet so it depends on how selective and sensitive your radio is, how good your antenna is and whether you're able to null 1490 and 1510 out and of course, where in the western suburbs you're located. Then there's trying to pick WPJX up in the "critical hours" when the skywave of other stations in Detroit, Washington DC, St. Paul and Indianapolis, among others are coming in (roughly 2 hours after sunrise and 2 hours before sunset) WPJX's modulation could be louder, that would make it easier to receive further away...

Rebel Radio has a website: http://www.myspace.com/rebelradiochicago They have a stream on this site but it did not match WPJX's audio on air when I checked it.

Also found some history on Heavy Metal Radio in Chicagoland here: http://www.g-forceradio.zoomshare.com/
 
avtosalon said:
1580 WLIM Patchogue, NY (simulcast of WNVR)
Click to expand...

Just wanted to clear up that WLIM hasn't been a simulcast of WNVR in years. It was for a year or 2 after PolNet bought them, but then they became a Spanish Music Station called Radio Formula USA. Since late last year WLIM has been running a Spanish Language Christian format.
 
Just wanted to clear up that WLIM hasn't been a simulcast of WNVR in years
Click to expand...

Sorry for the mis-information about WLIM. My source was the legal ID that I heard on WNVR a couple of weeks ago.

"AM 1030 WNVR Vernon Hills-Chicago, AM 910 WRKL New City-New York, and AM 1580 WLIM Patchogue-Long Island-and Southern Connecticut".

I am not surprised that they are using an incorrect legal ID. I just listened to the top-of-the-hour ID on my radio about 15 minutes ago, and it's still there.

If you're not in the Chicago area, you can hear this at:

http://www.polskieradio.com/
 
This story is pretty weird! I'm curious who would listen to a 200 watt AM daytime station at 1500 khz which can barely reach Chicago, to listen to heavy metal music? You have thousands of internet stations, plus XM/Sirius and iPods. A better move for the owners would be local sports, which is always easier to sell for high school games and such. The owners sound like they have thrown in the towel, and are just taking the brokered money for airtime.
 
sportstatic said:
This story is pretty weird! I'm curious who would listen to a 200 watt AM daytime station at 1500 khz which can barely reach Chicago, to listen to heavy metal music? You have thousands of internet stations, plus XM/Sirius and iPods. A better move for the owners would be local sports, which is always easier to sell for high school games and such. The owners sound like they have thrown in the towel, and are just taking the brokered money for airtime.
Click to expand...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this must be a cheap format to run. If you do high school games you have to pay announcers,
engineers, and pay for remote equipment.
 
In my opinion, it wouldn't matter what they put on it-- the station has no coverage. It's had everything on it from classical to heavy metal and from Hispanic to Polish. For awhile, I think some guy was playing records from his house over it. It's like a slightly over-sized Part 15 with call letters.

This is one that could be done away with, unless someone actually wants to program it for the immediate surrounding community. Whether or not it is live, it IS local. Only!
 
DToTheJ said:
Wow, I haven't heard of a heavy metal format on an AM station since the old "Z-Rock" network!
Click to expand...
In Dundalk, which is just outside of Baltimore, there was what was either a part-15 or pirate station at 1630 which broadcast a heavy-metal format back, I believe, in the late '90s. IIRC, they used the callsign WDKW and used the handle 'AM 1630, the Claw'. They were receivable only on the south and east sides of Baltimore, and of course the communities adjacent to Dundalk. I believe they broadcast from Dundalk High School and were a successor to both '97 Underground', a 20 watt station which utilized the old WBYQ (of Essex Community college) transmitter when the college wasn't using it during the late 1980s; and '103.1, the Underground' out of Grasonville, MD, a class-A signal started by the same people which lasted only about two years or so. This 'station' continues on the internet at http://www.97underground.com/.

I believe that there were two stations in California KZXR (in the Monterrey area I believe) and KSJX San Jose (which used the handle '1500, X-Rock') during the late '80s or early'90s which also had a Hard Rock/Metal format. I believe both stations were locally programmed.

IMNSHO, I think if an AM stereo standard could've been implemented much earlier than it was and included with it a quality transmission standard, we might've seen marginal, specialty formats prevail on the AM band.
 
>>In my opinion, it wouldn't matter what they put on it-- the station has no coverage.>>

That's for sure. You can't even get them on the northern edge of cook county.
 
radioman148 said:
>>In my opinion, it wouldn't matter what they put on it-- the station has no coverage.>>

That's for sure. You can't even get them on the northern edge of cook county.
Click to expand...

Both of you guys have alot to learn. The station is licensed to cover Zion....not Chicago.
The fact that it isn't heard in northern Cook county means that it's directional antenna is working properly.

The station is a 250 watt directional signal that is aimed at Zion, IL...it's designed to provide local service to Zion.

There are alot of these little signals all around the U.S. providing service to small communities. If every AM station was a 50,000 watt station like WGN, the interference on the AM band would make all the stations unlistenable.
 
[email protected] said:
radioman148 said:
>>In my opinion, it wouldn't matter what they put on it-- the station has no coverage.>>

That's for sure. You can't even get them on the northern edge of cook county.
Click to expand...

Both of you guys have alot to learn. The station is licensed to cover Zion....not Chicago.
The fact that it isn't heard in northern Cook county means that it's directional antenna is working properly.

The station is a 250 watt directional signal that is aimed at Zion, IL...it's designed to provide local service to Zion.

There are alot of these little signals all around the U.S. providing service to small communities. If every AM station was a 50,000 watt station like WGN, the interference on the AM band would make all the stations unlistenable.
Click to expand...

I never meant to imply that they were a 50KW powerhouse, but I can say that 22 miles from their tx their directional array is working perfectly because I can't hear them.
 
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