AM Frequency of the Week: 1090

[cyberdad]

40 Miles NW of Downtown Chicago...

Days: 1090 is normally blank

Nights: KAAY is fairly reliable with a fair-weak signal. Noticeably weaker than it was a decade or so ago. On rare occasions WBAL sneaks in, WAQE sometimes is present around sunset or sunrise 5kw non-directional; from Rice Lake in Northwest Wisconsin.

Retro: Now-defunct WGLC from Mendota, IL. a 250-watt daytimer about 70 miles from here, sometimes would be faintly audible here. They migrated to FM about 15-20 years ago if memory serves.

 

[gr8oldies]

East Tennessee: A weak WENR, Englewood, TN.
Sunrise/sunset: WKFI, Wilmington, OH has been a visitor certain times of the year. Also WBAL drifting in.

Nights: Still KAAY.

Retro/other: Dayton, Ohio. A weak WKFI, pointed the other direction. WKFI is part of the WBZI/WKFI/WEDI simulcast. West Central Ohio was usually WFCV, Fort Wayne. In its top 40 days, I could get KAAY for about an hour before pattern change. Quincy, IL had a strong night-signal from KAAY, already doing fire and brimstone preaching by 1986.

 

[valvashon]

40 Miles NW of Downtown Chicago...

Days: 1090 is normally blank

Nights: KAAY is fairly reliable with a fair-weak signal. Noticeably weaker than it was a decade or so ago. On rare occasions WBAL sneaks in, WAQE sometimes is present around sunset or sunrise 5kw non-directional; from Rice Lake in Northwest Wisconsin.

Retro: Now-defunct WGLC from Mendota, IL. a 250-watt daytimer about 70 miles from here, sometimes would be faintly audible here. They migrated to FM about 15-20 years ago if memory serves.

Was KAAY on 1080 at one time and then switched (with a lot of on-air announcements about it) to 1090 back in the late 70's or early 80's? I was living in North Dakota at the time, remember listenting to them and hearing about this switch. I can't seem to verify this anywhere. Am I confusing two of the stations I was listening to at the time?

 

[Battenkill50]

1090 KAAY - Little Rock - 2023 (at night)

retro
1090 WNVY - Cantonment-Pensacola - The Light of Pensacola - Christian - 2009

1090 - HIJM - Santiago RD - Radio Amistad - Spanish - Christian - 2003

kw - Melbourne FL

 

[Mark Roberts]

Denver, CO:

Daytime: Local KMXA. 50 kw, with field strength comparable to KOA. Los deportes en español (TUDN).

Nighttime: BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP. I'm referring to the tone heard around the country for seven hours a night in November and December. Well, not any more. Either it's operating with 125 watts on its daytime pattern (that STA is more than a month old and still appears to be pending) or 500 watts on nighttime pattern. Signal strength in east Denver drops about 20 dB at sunset. Either way, the nighttime audio is quite distorted. The station is leaving the air nightly at 11 pm and resuming at 6 pm am. After 11, I've heard some faint signals but nothing I've been able to identify.

Retro: As a child of the Midwest, I must mention KAAY Little Rock, famous for its Top 40 programming and its late-night/overnight progressive-rock format.

(Edit: Rather obvious correction was needed regarding operating hours of KMXA.)

 

[Bouncer]

Springfield, OH:

Days-WKFI Wilmington, OH
Dusk- WBAL Baltimore, MD once
Nites-KAAY Little Rock fairly reliable but not all the time. Strange that I get this more often, my antenna is more often pointed toward Baltimore than Little Rock.

 

[TXPH97]

DFW, Texas

24/7 is IBOC hash from local 1080-KRLD. At night, I can get enough of a partial null to hear KAAY Little Rock with religious programming. In those rare occasions when KRLD turns off HD, I have heard KEXS Excelsior Springs MO at sunset with Catholic programming and XEAU Monterrey NL mixing with KAAY at night.

 

[JJSPC]

Rockford, Illinois:

Daytime - As mentioned above, used to get WGLC Mendota before Birach bought it and turned in the license to upgrade 1080 WNWI. Now nothing.

Night - Still KAAY with their current 12,500 watt STA.

 

[tvnut]

Before Birach barged in with the move of WNWI, which bleeds over from 1080 in my area, 1090 was more interesting:

Nights, it was KAAY Little Rock most of the time. Sometimes, WBAL Baltimore would drop by. At least once, WMUS Muskegon, Mich., paid a visit. Most recently, thanks to a 3/14/2021 DX test, WENR Englewood, Tenn. (with calls once familiar in Chicago as the share-timer with WLS on 890), made it through with sweep tones and Morse code.

Days, as Cyberdad noted, 250-watt daytimer WGLC Mendota, Ill., could be pulled in with a little effort, until Birach bought it and killed it.

 

[CurtisNEPA]

In the Wilkes-Barre(Northeast PA) area, days I can get WBAL Baltimore with a faint signal, but by using the loop antenna pointing southwards and best heard outside. This is common during summer months when the days are longer. Nights, it's, as always, WBAL all the time.

 

[radioman148]

Near north Chicago suburbs days not much of anything, nights KAAY but not nearly as strong as it used to be. WBAL during critical hours. Saginaw, Mi. Sometimes during the days.

 

[wildthangjim]

From west Houston TX, daytime used to be KULF in Bellville TX, about 45 miles NW of here w/Chinese language programming. They have been off the air (with license cancelled) since 2022. Nowadays, I get nothing on 1090 during the day.

Nearing sunset, KAAY starts to come in, with heavy IBOC noise from KRLD 1080. XEAU from Monterrey is heard underneath on occasion. I used to hear XEWL from Nuevo Laredo, but not in a long while. They're no longer listed in the IRCA Mexican Log, so apparently are now off the air.

At night, it's all KAAY and KRLD's IBOC noise.

Around sunrise I've also heard KMXA Aurora CO, KVOP Plainview TX, and XEAU.

 

[KenoGuy]

Kenosha, WI Days- WKBZ Muskegon, MI. 1000 watts ND makes it across the lake OK, but will drop out pretty quickly as you head west. WGLC Mendota, IL used to be a very weak daytime regular until they went away.

Nights- KAAY is the nighttime regular with a usually crappy signal. This station used to pound in during their Top 40 days. I hear WBAL quite often (often, considering that I don't spend a lot of time on 1090). WAQE Rice Lake, WI is the only other thing I recall hearing here.

 

[anwar]

Wilmington Delaware

Days - WBAL Baltimore MD with a fair signal. Despite being only 65 miles away the signal is weaker than the 50KW non directional signals from NYC.

Nights - WBAL with a slightly better signal. I occasionally hear something underneath and one time I heard a public service announcement with a mention of Arkansas so it must have been KAAY.

WBAL is the flagship station for the Ravens and Orioles so if you hear Sports Play by Play on 1090 it is probably them.

 

[cyberdad]

At least once, WMUS Muskegon, Mich., paid a visit.

I heard WMUS here a few times. That was quite ;p,g wjile ago. Always around sunrise And before the WKBZ call letters were migrated from 850 to 1090.

 

[gr8oldies]

Was KAAY on 1080 at one time and then switched (with a lot of on-air announcements about it) to 1090 back in the late 70's or early 80's? I was living in North Dakota at the time, remember listenting to them and hearing about this switch. I can't seem to verify this anywhere. Am I confusing two of the stations I was listening to at the time?

I'm not aware of KAAY being anywhere other than 1090

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

WOAP 1080 Owosso, MI had a CP for moving to Waverly, near Lansing, MI with 50000 watts Day and 4500 watts Night. This was part of a plan to upgrade WCAR 1090 Livonia, MI to 1000 watts Day with it's Nighttime 6 tower array. This also required WTIC 1080 Hartford, CT to directionalize at Sunset in Hartford instead of Sunset at KRLD 1080 Dallas, TX, or for both WOAP 1080 and WNWI 1080 to reduce power and or sign off in the in between period. WOAP Waverly was never built, but WNWI benefitted with more Night power.

KAAY has had a complex history of moves and upgrades, which I just read about. The Top 40 Era started around 1962.

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

Nor frost, nor QRN, nor sideband hash shall stay a good DXer from his appointed observations and communications rounds.
Great to see your FOTW byline once again, Cyberdad ! With everyone else here, am hoping all continues to go well by uou.
* * * * * *
Much the way CurtisNEPA's reception goes, it's a steady WBAL all day and a loud one all of the night. My 'NEPA' outpost is actually closer to the MD state line than to the NY state line but is indeed in that anthracite arc forever associated with a region where neighbouring counties have names like Carbon and Union.
WBAL is all I've ever IDed on 1090 here. Maybe one wintry DX dawn I'll be able to log that omni thing from Boston (WILD), since there is a curious form of *something* that way -- terrain enhancement? -- that's brought in a few unlikely catches from cities I never knew existed until I herd then here,
* * * * * * *
Re everyone's favourite KAAY, here's a tale about the other side of that nighttime bowtie signal. Back in 1970 I got my first-ever paid vacation from a job and drove to see a pal in Florida and a girl I'd dated back on Long Island who also had moved there. We were the only customers at this all-night laundromat on some sleepy avenue in Clearwater. KAAY and their blues, or folk music, was playing over the house speakers and the spin dryers.
* * * * *
Back in Queens, late 60's, WBAL was off one Monday morning. A real faint KAAY was there, poised for their sign-off. IIrc, it was 1 AM. Their sign-off song was 'Take Five' by the Dave Brubeck Quartet.
KAAY indeed must've been quite the long-distance rage for a lot of listeners back then. We Northeast folks never got to experience its iconic delirium that so many others enjoyed.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

Nor frost, nor QRN, nor sideband hash shall stay a good DXer from his appointed observations and communications rounds.
Great to see your FOTW byline once again, Cyberdad ! With everyone else here, am hoping all continues to go well by uou.
* * * * * *
Much the way CurtisNEPA's reception goes, it's a steady WBAL all day and a loud one all of the night. My 'NEPA' outpost is actually closer to the MD state line than to the NY state line but is indeed in that anthracite arc forever associated with a region where neighbouring counties have names like Carbon and Union.
WBAL is all I've ever IDed on 1090 here. Maybe one wintry DX dawn I'll be able to log that omni thing from Boston (WILD), since there is a curious form of *something* that way -- terrain enhancement? -- that's brought in a few unlikely catches from cities I never knew existed until I herd then here,
* * * * * * *
Re everyone's favourite KAAY, here's a tale about the other side of that nighttime bowtie signal. Back in 1970 I got my first-ever paid vacation from a job and drove to see a pal in Florida and a girl I'd dated back on Long Island who also had moved there. We were the only customers at this all-night laundromat on some sleepy avenue in Clearwater. KAAY and their blues, or folk music, was playing over the house speakers and the spin dryers.
* * * * *
Back in Queens, late 60's, WBAL was off one Monday morning. A real faint KAAY was there, poised for their sign-off. IIrc, it was 1 AM. Their sign-off song was 'Take Five' by the Dave Brubeck Quartet.
KAAY indeed must've been quite the long-distance rage for a lot of listeners back then. We Northeast folks never got to experience its iconic delirium that so many others enjoyed. far enough

The KAAY signal after Sunset decreased dramatically from Chicago to Western Michigan to Eastern Michigan. WCAR 1090 Livonia was far enough from the KAAY protected contour to go to 500 watts Night with a 6 tower array around 1980. It was squeezed in between WBAL and KAAY, and rules concerning overlap in Canada being excluded, and a new skywave model also possibly helped. WMUS/WKBZ Muskegon was too close to KAAY to go full-time. I guess KAAY wasn't one of the "Southern Stations" heard by Starbuck on Chesapeake Bay in "Moonlight Feels Right", due to WBAL. I really could never figure out what "Southern Stations" you could hear there, that had Top 40 formats. Maybe WLAC? Others were probably AC or Full Service by then.

KAAY_Coverage_f.jpg

 

[CADXER]

Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: WKBZ heard occasionally in the past
Nighttime: KAAY solid, WBAL occasionally

DX/RETRO: WGLC (Mendota, IL) used to be a common at daytime but they are gone. Same for WISS (Berlin, WI) which moved to 1100 kHz. Other DX includes KEXS (Excel Springs, MO), KMXA (Aurora, CO), WFCV (New Haven, IN), WMYD (Rice Lake, WI), WILD (Boston, MA), WHGG (Kingsport, TN), WENR (Englewood, TN), CHRS (Longuevil, PQ), XEPRS (Rosarito, Mexico), HJOM (Cartagena, Colombia). Most recent new logs on this frequency are WENR Englewood, TN during DX test in 2021 and WCZZ Greenwood, SC in 2022.