• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

"AM"azing AM signals

A

amfmsw

I had the opportunity to visit your state for the first time this week. We traveled by car from NJ to Mt. Vernon. This gave me the rare chance to hear many of your stations in the daytime for the first time ever. And I was floored by the signal coverage of your AM stations. In this area, the legend is WABC 77 NYC for the big signal daytime. It has eroded to hash and is unlistenable, day or night, in South Jersey Atlantic City/Wildwood area), about a 120 mile flight from it's xmtr in Lodi, NJ.

I was listening to Limbaugh at 1pm from WLS in Mt. Vernon, some 260 miles away! It was clean and interference free, just normal signal decay. It was cleaner than I remember WABC as a kid. I was blown away. Similar results for WBBM and WGN. This on a 1998 factory car radio. It's an Infinity, but not an exceptional receiver. That would be like listening to WABC in Washington DC. Simply amazing coverage.

I listened to 1550 WMDH-AM in New Castle Indiana near the Illinois border for at least 50 miles on Rt 70...only tonight to discover it's a 250 watt teapot! That power here in the NorthEast at that frequency would get you about 15-20 miles end to end coverage, if you're lucky, unless you're on the salt water. There's just too much noise on the dial, and the soil is somewhat sandy. Driving through Ohio, I looked forward to listening to KDKA, but being in critical hours, it was already hammerred by WBZ 1030 IBOC hash.

Now I know, You are living in AM Heaven. There's a lot of us in the East who envy you, as our band is totally trashed by NYC, Philly, Boston and DC Iboc sideband.
 
Several other 50kw blowtorches audible in Mount Vernon in the daytime.....WSM, WSCR, WLW, WHAS,
KMOX among them. And Illinois doesn't even have the best ground conductivity in the Midwest!
 
Just wait until you see what 250 watt stations can do in Iowa, Nebraska and the Dakotas. For fun, go to http://www.radio-locator.com and type in KBOE 740. 225 watts daytime, and while the pattern shown is pretty accurate, it goes out MUCH further. I've heard it in Springfield Illinois. That's a go0d 3 hour and 45 minute drive away. I used to just love how the Big 50 KW stations in Chicago were effectively local signals in the Quad Cities. You can drive from just outside of Windsor, Ontario to past Des Moines, Iowa, and listen to WSCR or WGN. Michigan doesn't even have that go0d of conductivity either compared to Chicago and points west.
 
Very true MIMO....

I recall listening to WBBM in broad daylight on my rental car radio at a service area on the 401 just outside London. I had a flight home to catch, and there was weather predicted to come into O'Hare.

As for KBOE, yup. They also have a pretty solid nighttime signal with about 63 watts or something like that. I forget exactly what the nighttime power is, but in actual practice, its good for a useable signal for about 30-40 miles on 740.

Then also out in Iowa, you've got WOI that covers the entire state (daytime) with 5kw (on 640)
 
KBOE is only 24 watts of power at night. I remember when they added night service at 12 watts of power. They went out about 15 miles before AM 740 Toronto ate them up.
 
WMT AM 600 Cedar Rapids is a regular daytime signal in Chicago. It gets a bit of splat from WTMJ 620 iboc these days.
WLW once was, but the splat from WSCR and WGN now makes this impossible.
 
I remember listening to WMT at Wrigley field, with a decent signal, even downtown there weren't many signal problems.
 
During football seasons, us Iowa Hawkeye fans in the Chicago area would be lost without WMT. My son (an Iowa alum) keeps a preset on 600 all year. Here in the northwest suburbs, the daytime signal is weak, but definitely listenable on a car radio, a good boombox, or other type of portable.
 
A couple of stations I find to have amazing signals are AM 580 WILL Urbana, when they are at full daytime power
of 5KW I pick them up rather clearly in the northern suburbs. When they are on post or pre sunrise power of 335 watts
I can still pick them up without much trouble on the southside.

Another station is AM 750 WNDZ Portage, In. when they were only at 5KW they were a regular catch in Springfield, Il.
I can imagine since the increase to 15KW they probably have an even better signal throughout central Illinois.

I know I only said a couple stations but, I thought of another station while I was typing. That would be 640 AM WMFN
out of Zeeland/Grand Rapids, Mi. at 1,200 watts they are regular catch for me throughout Chicagoland.
 
I live in the Chicago area and frequently go up into various areas of Wisconsin and I have never heard KKOB. WABC comes in well in both states
as long as you null WBBM if you're in the Chicago area.
 


Hello fellow radio geeks. I'm new to the board, but I've been a radio geek
for the better part of 20 years.

I remember as a teenager listening to 1500 WLAC HIT-RADIO out of
Nashville. I'm not sure if it was 50,000 watt blowtorch, but the signal
was perfect on my Panasonic radio. I recorded all the jingles and still
have the tapes from 22 years ago. Do any of you remeber WNOE out
of New Orleans? It was a powerful Top 40 station in the late seventies.

I look forward to many conversations ahead on this board.
 
WNOE was a great top 40 station in the 60s. Their signal was limited at night to 5kw & directional because they had to protect KYW Philadelphia. However, I picked up WNOE frequently in the Chicago area for about
45 minutes to an hour in late fall & early winter before New Orleans sunset. Their 50kw signal could reach the midwest at that time of year before they powered down around 5 or 5:30PM.
Excellent sounding Top 40 station in the 60s.
 
I can remember several years back, I was in Fairfiled Iowa one evening and listened to KYW Philadelphia. They had a great signal and also listened to KYA in Denver all in the same evening from the same spot. Maybe some good skip.
 
KYA would have been a heck of a catch in Fairfield! ;D

KYW and KOA, however, are both pretty much regulars there.

WNOE? Back when those were the calls and when the 1060 channel was a little less crowded, it wasn't unusual to hear it in the Midwest for a little while before they powered down at sunset.
 
Lets just say I know Fairfield Iowa better than I wish I did. I've heard WNOE there, mostly after sunrise. KOA and KYW, and every clear is a regular visitor to Fairfield at night and most winter afterno0ns....Even the Californians come in once or twice a year.
 
the 1530 out of Cincinnati is now a sports station, but "back in the day" they sold headstones and baby chicks "guaranteed to arrive alive" via the blowtorch all night signal. It's 50k clear days and doesn't turn the pattern on until Sacramento sunset, so it floods WJJG off the dial most afternoons this time of year. When they point it, it goes to Fort Laurderdale better than most Miami stations. For a station at the top of the dial, it's hard to find one that covers more bodies.

Growing up in Fort Wayne, imagine the sampling I had at night. Chicago's finest and The Big 8 days and at night, something almost every 10 between WSM and WOWO. No wonder I went through so many 9 volt batteries, leaving the radio on all night while I slept.
 
I have always been impressed by Chicago's AM daytimers and how far they get out in the daytime. To be able to hear WLS or WGN almost at the very bottom of the state is mind-blowing.
 
One AM station with a very impressive signal (covering parts of eight states) with only 5 kw is 540 KWMT Fort Dodge, IA (country). In western and west central Illinois (Peoria westward), particularly on at least a "halfway decent" car radio you could pick up Fort Dodge's signal (about 75 miles northwest of Des Moines) slightly better than even WHO-1040 (50 KW) in DSM.

The one that takes the cake for an "AM"azing AM signal is WCAZ-990 Carthage, IL (a locally owned and operated 1 kw station in the Hancock County seat with only about 2,700 population).

www.wcazam990.com

Although most of its programming now comes off the bird as part of the Radio America talk radio network, they have lots of local programming including local news, church services, LOTS of local sports coverage (including even grade school sporting events and high school volleyball as opposed to just football and hoops), and local public affairs. All of this while enjoying the benefits of a monster signal (there is an ancient lake, IIRC, under modern-day Hancock County that helps WCAZ's signal get OUT even with only 1 kw). In the past I've picked up WCAZ's signal very clearly on a good car radio as far as the St. Louis metro area, Savanna (Carroll County), and east of Decatur before. I have even read reports of WCAZ being received as far west as far southeastern Nebraska and southwestern Wisconsin (the latter I also discovered on my own while visiting Mineral Point in fall 2000). I might have barely heard WCAZ's signal in Rockford too (IMO if it wasn't for WMVP at 1000 it may be possible to detect WCAZ's signal even in the Chicagoland area too).
 
Thanks for your response Radioman148 on WNOE in New Orleans.


I think we need a 50,000 AM Top 40 station with the same sound of the old
WLS. I really believe people would listen in large numbers if the station
had strong air personalities and a disciplined format. Look at the numbers
WLS brought in during the Big 89 Rewind Weekend.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom