• 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: 1040

cyberdad

cyberdad

So on these long winter nights, what are you guys hearing on 1040? This time around, I'm wondering if everyone on the board has heard WHO at one time or another. On my just concluded cross country trip, I heard it coast to Coast. Florida (Destin) and California (High Desert east of LA). Might be a little tougher for Gar, with a 1040 in Honolulu, but still could be doable

Anyway, here in the Chicago area at night, it's WHO alone with a good signal. Daytime, it's splatter from WNVR (1030), with towers about 3 miles from me. If WNVR goes off, a weak WHO can be heard on a good radio in a noise-free location. At night WNVR goes to "flea power" and what little splatter is still left from WNVR is a non issue.
 
And WHO can remember when what was then Radio Moscow was relayed from Cuba on 1040.
We have a 1040 in Palm Beach county that fought with them for the duration.
 
I don't remember Radio Moscow anywhere but 600 back in the day, but I've slept since then. Of course Cuba has been on multiple frequencies.

1040 is an easy night catch about everywhere I've been including here in East Tennessee. During the day it's local urban WJBE (the calls, but not the facility, once graced a station owned by James Brown)
 
Don't have my logs with me (at work) but I've heard WHO on 1040 numerous times, and most times I hear it it's fairly readable. Also have heard KXPD Oregon (CRI programming) maybe twice. Nights CKST Vancouver BC comes in rather well most of the time.
 
In the near north Chicago suburbs, days are all WNVR splatter. At night it's a solid WHO. Many years ago before WNVR came on the air, WHO was weak but listenable during the day especially in winter.
 
gr8oldies said:
I don't remember Radio Moscow anywhere but 600 back in the day, but I've slept since then.
Click to expand...
Good morning!
I do not remember which came first, RM was on both frequencies during the middle 1980's,
but never at the same time.
 
Even here, during the casual DX years in NE Pennsylvania, 1040 has been a pretty good channel.

Cybredad did ask 'nights', and that has to be WHO.

(And in answer to your question, ai41, some lore has it that WHO was on first :) )

Afternoons, sunsets and Auroral nighttimes have brought:
Afternoons - WNJO - NJ
WSKE - Everett PA
SSS's - WSGH North Carolina and WYSL from upstate NY
Auroral nighttime in 1997 brought in WYFX -- the Fox -- from some beach in Florida.
 
Steve Green NEPA said:
(And in answer to your question, ai41, some lore has it that WHO was on first :) )
Click to expand...
WHO's on first?

I might have been misunderstood.
Yes, WHO has been on the air for a verrry long time,
in fact, they had a mid-twentieth century staff announcer you might have heard of.
He went on to star in a movie called, "Bedtime for Bonzo",
and later got into California politics and then national politics.

What I meant was that I do not remember whether RM was first on 1040,
and then 600, or 600 and then 1040.
I belieeeve they went from 1040 to 600.
 
Last edited:
Re: WHO's on first? If I remember my history correctly, WHO was first on 570, then it had to share second base with WOC (who got WOC'd to get on base in the first place) on 1000. WHO found third base on 1040 but all allegories to an old Meat Loaf song will end here.

In southern Colorado, 1040 KCBR Fountain (Colorado Springs) is running oldies along with translator K283AH on 98.5. 98.5 does battle with Denver's 98.5 KYGO in the far northern suburbs of the Springs while KCBR does battle with WHO every post sunrise and pre sunset.

It seems to me like the KCBR signal is not as strong as it used to be. I wonder if KCBR is running the 2 kW critical hours level all day. It's a big difference between 10 kW and 2 kW when it comes to utility bills, I suppose....
 
1040 is very prone to RFI at my house when aiming other than N-NE/S-SW, and I'm guessing it's the house wiring. I have to find unique spots to DX it or go outside.

Daytime there's nothing.

At sunset, WHO comes up first, and then XECH "Radio Capital" in Toluca starts bubbling up. Eventually daytimer KGGR "Great Gospel Radio" in Dallas pops up for a short while and sometimes dominates before signing off.

At night WHO mostly dominates and never usually fades for too long, but it has to contend with some adjacent channel splatter from 100 kW 1050 XEG in Monterrey. When it does fade, XESAG "Radio Lobo" in Salamanca takes over most often. I'll occasionally hear XECH and XEBBB "Radio Mujer" in Zapopan (Guadalajara) underneath or mixing in.

At sunrise, XEBBB gets stronger when it goes to daytime power, and KGGR pops up again. They can be heard mixing with WHO, XECH, and XESAG, with one sometimes taking the lead for a while. WHO usually fades first, and KGGR is the last to disappear.
 
Last edited:
Warminster PA(Philly 'burbs):

Daytime: WCHR Flemington NJ(strong semi-local).
Night: same WCHR but weaker, often overpowered by WHO.
 
Last edited:
Use to be a weak but listenable signal from news/talker WZSK in Everett, PA. Over the last few years the station has downgraded from a 10 Kw daytimer to the most recent application of 2.5 Kw; guess hard times and trying to cut the power bill. Today 1040 is pretty much nothing in central Maryland during the day; at night it's Des Moine's WHO that usually dominates.
 
BTW...here is an addendum to my post #9:
(click on it for a larger image)
Ronald_Reagan_as_Radio_Announcer_1934-37.jpg
 
What is the other tower for?
(so close and so big, it must be detuned at 1040,
or is the BIG one really the Franklin?)
 
Last edited:
The big one is the WHO Franklin (main antenna). The shorter one further from the building is their auxiliary antenna for 1040 kHz. The tower next to the building holds the studio-transmitter link antenna (and others), and is detuned for 1040 kHz. The aux antenna is detuned for 1040 kHz when the Franklin is active, and vice-versa.
 
I have been unsuccessfully looking all over the web including the FCC database for,
but could not find the electrical or physical height of WHO's main Franklin.
Is it a true ½/½, or a shorter modified Franklin?
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom