• 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: 1160

cyberdad

cyberdad

40 miles northwest of downtown Chicago....

Days: WYLL with a good signal. But not quite as good as the other Chicago 50kw blowtorches.

Nights: WYLL still good, but from a nighttime site about 20 miles south from the daytime (and original) site. Also a tighter pattern protecting KSL. SC calculated a few years back that around 31kw is effectively what WYLL sends my way at night. The net result of the more distant location and tighter pattern is, while the signal is still good, I can usually hear unidentifiable stuff underneath.

Retro: The Chicago 1160 has a rather interesting history. In the early 1960s, as WJJD, it signed on at 4am local when KSL signed off AT 2:00AM Salt Lake City time. Then during winter months, WJJD had to sign off for 15 minutes when KSL came back on. After those 15 minutes were over, it was local sunrise, and WJJD got to sign back on. The "flip side" of that convoluted arrangement came during summer, when WJJD got to stay on as late as 10pm CDT.

Fast forward to the 1980s, when WJJD went fulltime with 5kw nights. The resultant directional signal was nowhere near adequate to cover the entire metro. That became painfully obvious when WSCR took over 1160 for several years before they moved to 670. Callers repeatedly called in with their nighttime reception complaints. The night signal problem was eventually solved by goint to the current 50kw from a second site.
 
From the southwest suburbs of Chicago:

Originally: WJJD until nightfall in Salt Lake City, then a reasonably reliable signal from KSL, which long used the slogan, "CBS for western America." I didn't know about the early sign-on, sign-off, sign-on antics that cyberdad remembered.

Now: WYLL from Des Plaines days, and from Lockport nights.

Way back, once of twice: The Voice of Cuba, likely with 100+ kW, giving KSL a fight.
 
Daytime: nothing!
Nighttime: A smorgasbord or melange of WYLL, KCTO from Kansas City, and rarely KSL.
Long ago random memory (1970s): I was up in the middle of the night getting ready to go on a family vacation (mom and dad wanted to get a really early start!) and heard WJJD. I didn't understand why because I thought they always signed off at sunset. After that, I thought they were on all night. But that wasn't until 1982. Now I know it wasn't a mistaken memory -- it must have been just after 4 AM and WJJD had signed on. Thanks for explaining this cyberdad.
 
In the near north Chicago suburbs days: it's WYLL with a very strong signal. I'm about 6 miles from their daytime towers. At night the signal from the other location is not as strong, but WYLL's pattern is focused in my direction so the signal is still good.
From the night location their signal shoots north so they can now be heard in Northern Wisconsin, Canada, and when the Arctic SDR is open WYLL can be heard at night.

Retro: As WJJD they were Chicago's first Top 40 station, before WLS went pop music on May 2, 1960. However, WJJD was limited hours due to KSL. In those days KSL and WJJD were the only US stations on 1160.
 
Here in Coal Country PA, it always'd been semi-local WYNS coming in in the day. Fine station. But I don't even see them listed anymore on Radio-Locator.

A CE pal of mine once spent a few months transfiguring WVNJ Oakland NJ's patterns so the owners could put 50,000 watts through Times Square. 'Hawk' finally got them to 20,000 watts (though 4 towers) before WVNJ had to avoid a Jersey Shore station on 1160. Pierce (he had a crooked eye) passed a few weeks ago. What a character. See, when he designed the current WVNJ array, he did it all from an, uh, four-month upstate New York vacation for his fourth dee-wee.

SRS and SSS catches here have been WCNS PA -- the other side of the state -- plus some unID from (?) Morkenson. WJJD always has been a faithful catch.
WVNJ came in here one OVERNIGHT. The devil knows where Pierce had it going. But they were well over the semi-local WYNS 1160.

No KSL here yet. Do they still ring 'The Sound of The Nauvoo Bell' at the top of the hour ? This charming alert sounded to us on the East Coast like a 100-year old spade striking a rusty oil drum ......
 
From SE Michigan near Detroit:

Day: Local WCXI 1160. 15kw days, 400w nights. Backwater talk station with crummy, muddy-sounding audio. But they put in a decent signal from 15 miles NW of me.

Nights: WYLL shows up in the late afternoon and hangs in all night. Good signal, nearly equal to WCXI's night operation from here. Nights are basically a mash-up of WCXI and WYLL.

These two make it extremely difficult to hear anything else on the frequency. I'd love to add KSL to my logbook. Maybe someday..
 
A few nights ago, I had something colliding with WYLL in the middle of the night. Could it have been WCXI with 15 kW earlier than scheduled? Didn't sound great, and K8PLW's description seems to explain why.
 
Chicago by the lakeshore:

WYLL day and night. I hear stuff in the background at night, and I wouldn't be surprised if I eventually ID something, but as of now I haven't gotten any IDs other than WYLL.

Retro: 80's Bay Area. KSL came in at night with a good signal.
 
East Tennessee: Daytime----Blank except when WCFO, Atlanta fades in.
Sunrise/sunset----fresh listen today via the SDR between Knoxville and Oak Ridge---
3:30pm I had a hodge-podge including WCFO, Atlanta, WWQT, Tryon NC and someone playing Christmas music, presumed but by no means sure WODY, Feildale VA. At 4 WCFO had taken completely over.
Nights---a hodge-podge that can include WYLL and WCVX (Covington KY)

Retro/other: At one time the WDJO people were leasing 1160 before they bought 1480 (the old WCIN), aand I'd listen from north and east of Dayton. During the winter, I'd often find WYLL droning on underneath it all day. Night there was always WYLL.

I remember the days of WJJD from Ohio, with its Limited Time license. It was KSL (rarely heard in the east now) after WJJD's sign off.
 
In west Houston, daytime is usually nothing, but can sometimes get KRDY Relevant Radio from San Antonio in the wintertime. At sunset and nighttime, it's KRDY and KBDT mostly. I have heard KSL break through occasionally.
 
icybluelake said:
Long ago random memory (1970s): I was up in the middle of the night getting ready to go on a family vacation (mom and dad wanted to get a really early start!) and heard WJJD. I didn't understand why because I thought they always signed off at sunset. After that, I thought they were on all night. But that wasn't until 1982. Now I know it wasn't a mistaken memory -- it must have been just after 4 AM and WJJD had signed on. Thanks for explaining this cyberdad.
Click to expand...
Great story, thanks for sharing.
I should have also included in my OP that back when WJJD was off at night, KSL was a semi-regular at my location. Usually when it was in, it was pretty weak, but every now and then it would be clear and very listenable.
 
Hi, @cyberdad did I miss 1150? I've just been so busy lately.

Cheyenne, WY:
Daytime: Nothing
Nighttime: KSL without a doubt. I can even occasionally lock in their HD signal at 380 miles away, and is one of my first catches to do so.
 
I meant to mention a very short-lived offshore pirate that broadcast on 1160 briefly---10 hours to be exact. Rev. Carl McIntyre, very outspoken fundamentalist and anti-Communist preacher, lost his licenses, so went the offshore route. The FCC was still able to keep him off the air as the ship he used was US registered. No, I didn't hear it, perhaps someone on this board did. It was known as Radio Free America.
 
South Mississippi:

Day: nothing
Critical hours: WCRT Donelson, TN and KBDT Highland Park, TX
Night: mostly WYLL, sometimes there's KRDY San Antonio, TX (Relevant Radio). I've only heard KSL twice, very difficult to hear because of all the other stations.
 
Orange County, TX at one time KSL blasted in to my QTH nighttime. Don't know what has occurred but they now are an infrequent visitor. More times than not KRDY seems to be the dominant 1160 now. When KRDY fades the frequency sounds like a graveyard. Days, splatter from local KBPO Port Neches, TX on 1150.
 
From DFW, Texas

Day: Local talker KBDT
Night: I can get a slight null on local KBDT who sometimes has just a carrier running, which reveals a weak KSL.

Retro from Tampa: WJJD Chicago dominate, KSL easy, HJBL (Columbia), and HIBG (DR).
 
ZantennaG1 said:
Hi, @cyberdad did I miss 1150? ....
Click to expand...
Nope....as gr8oldies said, we're doing the "traditional clear channels" in this series. We've been alternating the clears with a series that encompasses the former "regional" and "local (graveyard) channels, along with the X-band. So, as a practical matter, we'll go from 1160-1200 through mid/late January. Then 1500-1580 through approximately mid/late March. If we decide to continue with the same format, we'll start over at 550 (or maybe the "oddball 530) commencing in the early spring of 2022.

I know there are a numberr of new people who've joined the board in recent months. For that reason, I had planned to post an explanation of why we skipped from 1140 to 1160, but it slipped my mind. My bad....sorry!

Finally if anyone is/was curious about 1150, here's a quick summary covering my location northwest of Chicago.

Days: WYLL splatter.
Nights: WHBY (Appleton, WI) usually on top.
Retro: Used to be CKOC (Hamilton, ON) on top for a few years until they fixed their "leaking" night pattern and opened the door for WHBY. (Which also MAY be a "leaker".)
Other Location: WHBY turns up from time to time on the Iceland and Norway SDRs.
 
gr8oldies said:
I think we're doing the (traditional) clears with this round.
Click to expand...
cyberdad said:
Nope....as gr8oldies said, we're doing the "traditional clear channels" in this series. We've been alternating the clears with a series that encompasses the former "regional" and "local (graveyard) channels, along with the X-band. So, as a practical matter, we'll go from 1160-1200 through mid/late January. Then 1500-1580 through approximately mid/late March. If we decide to continue with the same format, we'll start over at 550 (or maybe the "oddball 530) commencing in the early spring of 2022.

I know there are a numberr of new people who've joined the board in recent months. For that reason, I had planned to post an explanation of why we skipped from 1140 to 1160, but it slipped my mind. My bad....sorry!

Finally if anyone is/was curious about 1150, here's a quick summary covering my location northwest of Chicago.

Days: WYLL splatter.
Nights: WHBY (Appleton, WI) usually on top.
Retro: Used to be CKOC (Hamilton, ON) on top for a few years until they fixed their "leaking" night pattern and opened the door for WHBY. (Which also MAY be a "leaker".)
Other Location: WHBY turns up from time to time on the Iceland and Norway SDRs.
Click to expand...
Thank you that clears it up!
 
Vis-a-vis the 1150 & 1160 balance:
Back in the 60's near JFK Airport, my aforementioned WYNS 1160 used to be a sunset regular as a D-3 daytimer, 1000 watts, on 1150.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom