• 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 Frequency of the Week: 1030

Status
Not open for further replies.
cyberdad

cyberdad

40 Miles NW of downtown Chicago....

Day: All WNVR. 10kw from 3 miles away aimed eight aat me. Stromgest signal at my location.

Night: When they even bother to leave their AM transmitter on. it's 120 watts. And I'm in the null protecting WBZ. Which is usually clearly audible underneath. When the WNVR AM transmitter is off, as is usual, WBZ is completely in the clear with a good signal.

.Other Location. On the Gulf near Pensacola. a very weak KCTA is sometimes able to make the hop via saltwater from Corpus Christi, Texas. Night is usually a mix of weak inaudible signals, with Mexico City sometimes on top. I have no memory of WBZ ever making it in. Although I suspect that it has and I've missed it.
 
Last edited:
Wilmington Delaware

Days - Nothing, but I've occasionally heard WBZ around noon during this time of year.

Sunrise/Sunset - WBZ appears an hour or so before local sunset and fades out an hour or so after local sunrise. Currently it fades in around 330pm and fades out just after 8am. A complicating factor is daytimer WWGB in Indian Head MD. It sends a signal SE away from me but it can still mix in with WBZ during the late afternoon and early morning.

Nights - All WBZ Boston with the best night time signal other than local KYW 1060 and WDEL 1150. I've tuned into WBZ by mistake many times on my analog radio thinking it was KYW and wondered why I was hearing Boston traffic reports instead of Philly ones.
 
Denver, CO:

Daytime - Nothing.
Critical hours and nighttime - KTWO Casper, Wyoming. Sometimes it's strong enough to chew into whatever's on 1020 and into WHO 1040. Sometimes WHO returns the favor.
 
Near north Chicago suburbs: days WNVR with a decent signal, nights WBZ best east coast signal.
I’ve heard KCTA sunrise and sunset.
 
East Tennessee: Days--Nada. Sunrise/sunset. A good signal from the aforementioned WNVR, Nights WBZ.
Retro/other: Dayton/West Ohio: WBZ nights, and at least on 2 winter days, WBZ hanging in at high noon. Sometimes KCTA just past sunset. Briefly there was a daytimer, WBNN, Union City, OH/IN with all of 180 watts, but it was paid by the WNVR owners to shut down.
I did catch WBNN in Lafayette IN.
 
That more curious of the two 1030 catches here on the NEPA log was a very early one after we moved here. The aforementioned Indian Head MD station was 'WWTL' then, a SSS visitor. Here's their day pattern from Radio-Locator :

WWGB-AM Radio Station Coverage Map

radio-locator.com radio-locator.com
The only other 1030 logged here is WBZ Boston. Much as two-towered WWL had the foresight to do long ago, WBZ intently sends all their stuff as inland as possible.
A great DXing pal since the 4th (?) grade and his bride have a retreat on Cape Cod, near Barnstable Town on this map.

WBZ-AM Radio Station Coverage Map

radio-locator.com radio-locator.com
He maintains that WBZ's monster signal isn't really as formidably smothering a presence by them as it apparently is to so many in the Eastern USA.
And that neither are Boston's 1150, 590 and 850.
I believe a lot of what Vinny tells me. ,
 
From the southwest suburbs of Chicago:

Days: WNVR Vernon Hills, Ill. – decent 10 kW signal days (originally 1 kW). Never have heard their 120 watt night candle.

Critical hours and nights: WBZ Boston rules the roost. I've been near Vernon Hills at dusk and it does a number on WNVR there as well. ERP must be 75-80 kW headed our way thanks to their voluntary directional array. WBZ is virtually always the first eastern clear channel to pop in because of that.

Others: KCTA Corpus Cristi, Tex., and KTWO Casper, Wyo., way back; WNOW Mint Hill, N.C. with 9.7 kW day power after midnight on 3/5/2021; WUFL Sterling Heights, Mich., with 5 kw blasting over WNVR in morning drive on Christmas 2021. Ho ho ho!
 
Clifton, New Jersey

Days: I can get WBZ "NewsRadio 1030" Boston, MA mainly during critical hours. It usually has faint to weak reception.

Nights: I usually get WBZ in good reception.
 
Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: WNVR with good signal
Nightime: WBZ

DX/RETRO: Despite WBZ at night I managed to heard few other stations including KCTA (Corpus Cristi, TX), KTWO (Casper, WY), KFAY (Farmington, AR), WQSE (White Bluff, TN), WCTS (Maplewood, MN), WGSF (Memphis, TN), WWBG (Indian Head, MD), WNOW (Mint Hill, NC), WEBS (Calhoun, GA), WONQ (Oviedo, FL), WUFL (Sterling Heights, MI) and XEQR (Mexico City).

According to my log book, WNVR first came on the air on March 1st, 1988 with a 0.5kW single tower located next to pet cemetery in Vernon Hills, IL. It was only a mile and a half away from where I used to work. They moved to their current site near Crystal Lake around 2003. They kept changing their power throughout the years. Currently they are licensed for 10kW daytime, 3.2 kW critical hours and 0.12 kW nighttime. At one point in 2010 WNVR applied for 27 kW daytime, 8 kw critical hours, 0.21 kw daytime, but nothing came out of it. As noted by others their daytime signal is good, but at night they disappear letting WBZ rule the frequency.
 
Tyler, TX:

This one can be odd. 1030 is usually a fair signal from daytimer KCTA Corpus Christi with religious talk. It doesn't shut down at sunset, which brings it in much better during the early evenings and early morning hours, as well. Honorable mention is KBUF in Garden City, KS, who will sneak underneath KCTA and deliver snippets of poultry prices and what have you. Pretty tough to overtake KCTA, but it tries at times.

At night, no sign of KBUF. All KCTA until it shuts down, which then yields Spanish language programming. I believe this night signal to be from KC, but it is too weak (and my Spanish, too) to identify.
 
In central Ohio, nothing during the day and a dependably strong WBZ at night. Usually one of the first signals in. Whether it's one of the last to leave, well, I'm usually not up early enough to tell.
I remember KCTA always putting a solid daytime signal into the Houston area. I am pretty sure I never heard WBZ during my two years down there.
 
Here on the coast of Maine, of course it's WBZ 1030 "Boston's News Radio". 50,000 watts blasting across the ocean from Hull, MA.
 
DFW, Texas

Daytime: Splatter from local daytimer 1040-KGGR.

Sunset: KCTA Corpus Christi in strong with religious programming. KBUF Holcomb KS sometimes makes an appearance with ads for Garden City farm equipment.

Nights: Most often it is KFAY Farmington AR with conservative talk. With good conditions, I can sometimes hear WBZ Boston sneaking in, and occasionally I've heard KTWO Casper WY with a fair signal. At least once, I've heard WGSF Memphis TN with regional Mexican music.

Sunrise: KCTA
 
From NW San Antonio:

Day: A fairly good signal from KCTA in Corpus Christi.

Sunset: As rosecitymedia noted, KCTA does not shut down right at sunset. XEQR "Radio Centro" in Mexico City starts to mix in with it, and eventually XEROPJ "W Radio" in Lagos de Moreno comes up as well, with either English-language pop or sports.

Night: When KCTA is finally gone, XEQR usually dominates. XEROPJ is still there and sometimes comes to the fore. If I aim the radio NE/SW, KFAY in Farmington, AR, and WGSF in Memphis will sometimes pop up. Aiming NW/SE, I'll occasionally hear KTWO in Casper for brief bits. (XEQR often seems weaker after midnight. I wonder if it waits until then to go to night power.)

Sunrise: KCTA signs on a good bit before its local sunrise time. XEROPJ and, to a lesser extent, XEQR mix in with it. Later, aiming NE, I sometimes hear KFAY and/or WGSF underneath when they go to day power/pattern.

DX/Retro: Surprisingly, WBZ in Boston occasionally pops up briefly at night with an intelligble signal. XEYC "Radio Fórmula" in Ciudad Juárez was a regular nighttime visitor before it was moved to 1460, and I've heard newstalker KVOI in Cortaro, AZ, and KBUF in Holcomb, KC, once each at night and at sunrise.

My one time loggings include KCWJ (back when it was "Real Country") in Blue Springs, MO, and XESDD "La Tremenda" (currently silent) in Puerto Nuevo.
 
In eastern Iowa: nothing daytime; nighttime is usually WBZ. Have also caught KCTA Corpus Christi, TX and WCTS Maplewood, MN. Have probably heard WGSF Memphis although haven't heard an ID. Still looking for KTWO, since forever.
 
Central Kentucky:
Days: Nothing but during the winter months, WBZ may appear around 4 in the afternoon at times.

Nights: WBZ loud and clear. Causes splatter on adjacent KDKA which should be stronger at my location than it is.
 
KD4YQR said:
Central Kentucky:
Days: Nothing but during the winter months, WBZ may appear around 4 in the afternoon at times.

Nights: WBZ loud and clear. Causes splatter on adjacent KDKA which should be stronger at my location than it is.
Click to expand...

Exactly the same as central Ohio. WBZ clobbers KDKA on a regular basis to the point of the latter being unlistenable.
When WBZ was running IBOC, some posters reported it giving KDKA's groundwave heavy interference within the Pittsburgh market. No idea if the reverse was true with WBZ's groundwave.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.


Back
Top Bottom