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AM Frequency of the week: 1100

cyberdad

cyberdad

Up six notches this week to 1100......

Day: Light to moderate splatter from WMBI (4.2kw on 1110, about 25 miles from me). On occasion in winter, I've heard a weak signal from WISS in Clintonville, WI. About 160 miles north of here. They have a CP for 50kw daytime with a pattern that doesn't favor my location. I'm not sure if that's been built, so my guess is that it's their "original" 2.5kw non-directional operation via daytime skywave.

Night: All WTAM with a good signal. Very reliable.
 
At my location in the near north Chicago suburbs daytime is WMBI splatter. At night all WTAM with usually a very good signal. Last night I was listening to the Northern Ireland receiver and WTAM was coming in very well along with most of the big east coast sticks. WBBM was also putting in a decent signal.
 
Warminster Pa(Philly 'burbs):

Daytime: semi-local daytimer WGPA(Sunny 1100), Bethlehem PA(weak signal).
Night: WTAM most of the time.
 
East Tennessee: Nothing regular during the daytime, but winter skip and sunrise/sunset conditions often bring WWWE, Hapeville GA. WTAM Cleveland can be in early and sometimes even in the daytime with winter skip. It owns the frequency at night.

Retro: From Dayton, Ohio I logged WZFG, Dilworth MN during the Fargo ND flood while they were on daytime power at night for a few days. I also logged it last winter off the Central Indiana SDR during winter skip conditions.
 
In Charleston, 1100 daytime is WCGA, Woodbine, GA with a talk format, usually weak. At night, 1100 is a dominant WTAM. You can hear it pretty much anywhere in the eastern part of the country at night. Tom Hamilton and the Indians and the Cavs have gained a lot of listenership over the years.
 
Reynoldsburg, Ohio ...
Not surprisingly, WTAM at all hours. Weak daytime (3-4 on a scale of 1-10), and at night subject to deep fades. Sometimes, it comes in very well but we are absolutely in the cancellation zone. WTAM starts to phase around Mansfield (70 miles or so from its tower).
 
Other: One morning....ten or fifteen years ago, IIRC....I tuned 1100 before sunrise and heard country music with a strong signal. I was really anxious and excited to learn what this great new catch was.

It turned out to be WTAM. And I remembered that it was April 1. April Fool's joke....and a good one! They certainly had me for a few minutes.
 
Here in near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: Nothing possible due to WMBI on 1110 just under 3 miles away from me.
Nightime: WTAM dominates the frequency with occasional Latin American making it through when conditions are right

Notable DX catches on this frequency: KDRY (Alamo Heights, TX), KKLL (Webbb City, MO), WSGI (Springfield, TN), WCGA (Woodbine, GA). Also heard WZFG, Dilworth, MN during an emergency broadcast in 2009. As for the latins, Barranquilla, Colombia as well as several Cubans heard during the past 37 years of DXing.
 
A radio buddy of ours came back east and stayed with us for a month, right arounf Y2K. He got a kick out of the WGPA midday guy, who played Oldies and gave the time as 'the big tick-tock says ...'
WGPA is, here, faint but steady in the day. I'm surprised that Ryan Howard can log them, what with Gospel Highway 11 right next to them on 1110.
I once caught this first-time-heard song off The Big Tick Tock's show one afternoon. Sounded like a combination John Lennon/Buddy Holly. I'd thought I'd heard it back-announced as 'The Flames From Lavendar Hill'. I finally found it to download ('Stop -- Get A Ticket') and it's still filed as The Flames From Lavendar Hill, hi.

At night, it's solid Cleveland on 1100. Ha! -- I have them logged as WWWE here. One SUNSET though -- and I have it taped -- WHLI Long Island was on top of that pick-up-sticks reception. Well into the '90's, WHLI used to show up well in ratings books for a few coastal Connecticut markets plus two books in coastal Jersey.

* * * * * * *

I had once asked somewhere if WHLI's two-tower directional signal was designed not to protect Cleveland but to protect WGPA. I got back no verification. Allentown/Bethlehem sits right in the cranny of one of those mild 2-tower WHLI nulls. Cleveland does not. I believe that WGPA was on 1100 first, and when WHLI wanted to raise its power it had to avoid bumping into WGPA.
Some people maintain that WHLI is directional to protect WTAM. I disagree. WHLI is a strict daytimer. They shouldn't have to protect Cleveland during the day. Perhaps someone here knows the story. Until then, I will insist that WHLI's directional daytime signal is that way to protect The Big Tick Tock.
 
Daytime: 11 kW local KDRY.

Night: KDRY drops to 1 kW directional, and I can get a tiny partial null in which I usually hear a weak to moderate XETGO "Radio Cañon" in Tlaltenango. When propagation is very good, news talker KNZZ in Grand Junction, CO, will sometimes pop up weakly for a while. I've also heard a very weak WTAM briefly a few times.

Sunrise: Back in February, KDRY got knocked off the air for a while during a storm, and at sunrise the next morning I was able to hear a weak KKLL playing country gospel music.
 
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