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AM Frequency of the Week - 1220 kHz

From Rochester NY, it used to be CHSC St. Catharines ON during the day, but the CRTC pulled the plug on them last year. Now it's a fairly open channel by day, WHKW at night. There's a pending app for a new semi-local 1220 in Lakeville NY; it would be a sister station to (and co-located with) WYSL 1040 Avon NY.
 
And I was going to joke...day and night, it's 1220...WGAR...CLEVELAND!

:D

Still 1220, though sadly it's WHKW "The Word" now, of course.

I'm not at all surprised it's weak at night as close as Vermilion. When 1220 was WKNR, I used to lose the station at night at the Summit-Medina County line just south of the Cleveland area.

That same directional pattern is why it booms to the east at night.
 
WHKW here in the Pittsburgh area. I have an old RCA Victor tube radio that used
to pull them in very well during the day back in their old WGAR days. Now the IBOC
splatter from WDDZ just blows them clean off the dial. I can get them at night when
that shuts off.
 
FreddyE1977 said:
WHKW here in the Pittsburgh area. I have an old RCA Victor tube radio that used
to pull them in very well during the day back in their old WGAR days. Now the IBOC
splatter from WDDZ just blows them clean off the dial. I can get them at night when
that shuts off.
Click to expand...

Back in the WGAR days their 50,000watt signal got out pretty good. While it always was directional it use to get out a lot better than it does now a days. I remember listening to WGAR back in the 70's and they would get calls at night from people that were listening from a whole lot of different states up and down the eastern seaboard. They even got calls from Daytona Beach Florida. I guess like what has happened with so many AM's their signals have deteriorated over the years. Shame.

!220 will always be WGAR to me. It was one of the leading stations in Cleveland for many years with their light rock/oldies type of format. The other big thing they had going for them was their strong personality DJ's. I remember when Don Imus got his start there. After Imus cam Lannigan who is still a major player in Cleveland radio to this day. There were many others too like Joe Mayor, Fig Newton, Chuck Collier, Norm N Nite and many others. It was truly a classic station, the likes that just don't exist any longer in radio.
 
boiseengineer said:
So what is that Canadian on 1220?

BTW, the 1220 CJOC Webpage is still up.
Click to expand...

Is it classical/easy listening? If so, CJRB Boissevain, MB

-crainbebo
 
I used to regularly listen to WGAR when getting up at 3:30 AM to sign on the small market coffee-pot I worked for back in the day. I remember them have tons of great PAMS jingles and overnights were sponsored by some business selling rings and jewelry, the name escapes me! This was back in the '70s.
 
30 years ago, 1220 was a DISASTER in Puget Sound. In Auburn, (south of Seattle) there was a station called KASY.

To the northwest, CKDA Victoria, BC (also on 1220) also boomed in and both signals clashed in areas north of Seattle. Add to that adjacent channel interference from KWYZ, Everett (1230).

KASY eventually moved to 1210 in 1985, CKDA moved to 1200 the following year and finally to FM in 2000.....
 
What was KASY? Was it country? 1220 now is much, much quieter now. Try it one night, CJRB might come in, KPJC's 171w might come in, who knows?

-crainbebo
 
crainbebo said:
What was KASY? Was it country? 1220 now is much, much quieter now. Try it one night, CJRB might come in, KPJC's 171w might come in, who knows?

-crainbebo
Click to expand...

KASY was B/EZ through most of the '60s and '70s and flipped to AC in the early '80s. They once tried to sue then-KLSY in 1983 for perceived call letter similarities, but the suit was thrown out......

1220 is crystal clear - nothing at all in Bellingham, WA. And I hear it that way on all my radios, day and night....
 
317C50KW said:
I used to regularly listen to WGAR when getting up at 3:30 AM to sign on the small market coffee-pot I worked for back in the day. I remember them have tons of great PAMS jingles and overnights were sponsored by some business selling rings and jewelry, the name escapes me! This was back in the '70s.
Click to expand...

Larry Robinson, "The Diamond Man," in the Schoefield Building
 
Still chuckling about that WGAR Cleveland and WKNR Dearborn stuff. Because, well, it's RIGHT, darn it.

1220 was a pretty good frequency back in Ye Old DX Days. The log shows 14 stations from it. It must've been a wonderful SRS and SSS frequency for DX. But I was one of those all-night guys and only touched briefly on those two twilight windows.

Here in NE PA, it's a weak WJUN from Mexico PA -- Juniata County. But about a year ago, WGNY Newburgh NY decided to careen in and out one early afternoon, with its oldies. The 'How Far Is It?' site says 126 miles. WGNY does send most of its stuff west in the day, but at times during peaks, it was splashing onto 1210 WPHT.

At night, of course, it's WGAR ;D
 
Here in SW Ohio, it is pretty much a two station frequency. During the day, a weak WSLM, Salem IN. At night, WHKW in Cleveland, often stronger than one would expect considering its pattern.

I know I've written this before, but WSLM is one of the few remaining, small, locally owned, community stations, and continues to offer "home town" programming including some shows that have been on for decades.

Check out their Wiki profile.
 
It's still WGAR to me too. WHKW is heard day and night in SE Michigan, and almost nothing else. I also don't know why 850 has to keep the WKNR call letters. There should be a move to return legacy call letters to historic stations like WHKW. WKNR, Keener 13, along with several other Michigan stations, and those that spread to Ohio markets (and the whole East Coast) and other stations via CKLW, broke many relatively obscure recordings that now appear on the "Top 500 Northern Soul Hits Of All Time". That's not just "Soul", but ignored pop and rock of that era that "big" stations like WLS and WABC refused to play, because they might "stiff". It often became a self fulfilling prophecy. If CKLW wouldn't play it, you took it to WKNR. If WKNR wouldn't play it, you took it to WTAC, because you could hear it in Detroit. If WTAC wouldn't play it, you took it to WTRX, WILS, WAAM and WPAG, hoping WTAC and WKNR would pick it up.
 
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