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AM Frequency of the Week: 1220

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cyberdad

cyberdad

40-ish miles northwest of downtown Chicag0.....

Days: 1220 is WKRS from Waukegan, IL. 1kw aimed north. Not a favorable pattern, so the result here is a fair-weak signal from 25 miles to my east. I can usually also hear 1kw WLPO from Lasalle, IL underneath. WLPO uses an east-west figure eight pattern that's also unfavorable to me from a distance of 75 miles to my southwest.

Night: Usually WKNR (ex-WGAR) from Cleveland rises to the top with a signal that's only fair at best. I've also heard CFAJ from the Niagara Falls area a few times.

Retro: XEB from Mexico City used to be an occasional visitor around here, but not recently since the channel has gotten more crowded. I still hear XEB most nights when I'm at our beach location near Pensacola (where its usually strong enough to break through the slop.)
 
In the near north Chicago suburbs days are a weak WKRS and maybe a little bit of WLPO underneath. At night WHKW usually rises to the top. Also used to hear XEB from time to time.
 
Chicago by the lakeshore:

Daytime: Very little... I have logged both WKRS in Waukegan IL and WLPO in La Salle, IL, but both are rare.

Nighttime: WHKW in Cleveland is the most likely. I've also logged CFAJ in St Catherines ON (near Niagara Falls), KLPW in Union, MO, and KDDR in Oakes, ND.

KDDR is one of only two North Dakota stations I've logged. Some would argue that it's the only one, since the other station is KQWB 1660, which while officially is in W Fargo, ND, their transmitter is across state lines in Minnesota.
 
"1220 WGAR, Cleveland. An Ed Snyder Station" That's how I always remember 1220 in Cleveland

Days: East Tennessee: A weak WCPH, Etowah TN. Sometimes WLSD, Big Stone Gap VA. Far out man.

Night: Mostly WHKW, sometimes XEG. WSLM, Salem IN has made it occasionally.
WCPH, mentioned above, ran a DX test and it of course, made it here at its daytime level.

Retro/other: I grew up a county south of Van Wert, Ohio, home of WERT. In the morning.critical hours period, it was still easy to get WGAR underneath. I was a frequent WGAR listener during the Phil Gardner days, and their night signal was good, but with a lot of fades and cancellation.
 
Coastal Alabama:

Days, 1220 WERM Mobile, weakly. This used to be WABF, transmitting from Fairhope on the Eastern Shore, but's diplexed now with 1480 (formerly WABB, WERM, now WABF).

Nights, I honestly don't think I've ever heard anything consistently enough to ID anything.
 
From the southwest suburbs of Chicago:

For a signal aimed my way, WLPO LaSalle, Ill. is a turkey. Not always there. Barely there when it is there. Can't remember the last time I caught it. Not there today. And WKRS Waukegan is a never-was here.

Nights, it's WHKW Cleveland, heard first as WGAR, then WKNR. Somehow I missed it as WHK. Reliable as darkness.

One on a test that snuck in under WHKW: 1 kW WCPH Etowah, Tenn., on Jan. 2 last year.
 
From west Houston, daytimes I can sometimes hear a weak signal from KMVL, adult standards music from Madisonville, but mostly slop from local 1230 KCOH. At sunset, it's mostly XEB, sometimes with KMVL underneath. Nighttime, all XEB. I have also heard KZEE with their south Asian programming, but have not heard them for a couple of years.
 
wildthangjim said:
From west Houston, daytimes I can sometimes hear a weak signal from KMVL, adult standards music from Madisonville, but mostly slop from local 1230 KCOH. At sunset, it's mostly XEB, sometimes with KMVL underneath. Nighttime, all XEB. I have also heard KZEE with their south Asian programming, but have not heard them for a couple of years.
Click to expand...
I hear that one on occasion here in central Texas, north of Austin in the Georgetown area.
 
tvnut said:
For a signal aimed my way, WLPO LaSalle, Ill. is a turkey. Not always there. Barely there when it is there. Can't remember the last time I caught it. Not there today. And WKRS Waukegan is a never-was here.

Nights, it's WHKW Cleveland, heard first as WGAR, then WKNR. Somehow I missed it as WHK. Reliable as darkness.
Click to expand...
I remember when the WHK calls were on 1220, but I obviously forgot in my OP that the legal designation du jour is now WHKW.

As for WKRS, they have a tough time making it to the Lake Forest oasis on the Tri-State tollway. But they sound great in Milwaukee. :)
 
Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: WKRS (Waukegan, IL) fair signal being 27 miles away from my location.
Nightime: WHKW usually heard, but easily nulled

Retro/DX: WLPO (La Salle, IL) heard few time during daytime with WKRS nulled, or when WKRS was off air when their transmitter was flooded. Other DX catches: KZYM (Cape Girardeau, MO), KVSA (Mc Gee, AR), KZEE (Weatherford, TX), WTCN (Stillwater, MN), WSLM (Salem, IN), CJRB (Boisevan, MB), CFAJ (St. Cathrines, ON). Foreign AM DX on this frequency is mostly XEB (Mexico City), but also heard HJVN (Barranquilla, Colombia), and my best DX catch on this frequency: Radio Globo (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) in October, 2012.
 
From DFW, Texas:

Daytime: Nothing until recently - a station began testing mid-December and is still going. Playing standards/classics with no announcements. The audio briefly freezes on a note every minute or so. Strong enough to trigger car radio scan. I suspect it is KZEE Weatherford, TX which had been missing from the airwaves and would be considered semi-local.

Nighttime: XEB Mexico, DF is reliably listenable. KMVL Madisonville, TX 160 miles @ 12 watts (supposedly) SSE is a regular, sometimes under, sometimes over XEB. Also hearing the above testing station, but not nearly as strong as daytime.
 
CADXER said:
Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:
Retro/DX: WLPO (La Salle, IL) heard few time during daytime with WKRS nulled, or when WKRS was off air when their transmitter was flooded.
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WKRS has experienced both flooding and fire. But they've remained in the same building at the transmitter site for over 60 years.

WKRS had the original allocation of 106.7 FM for the Chicago area. But they surrendered that when their FM was destroyed by fire and they opted not to rebuild. I'm not sure when the fire occured, but I beleive it was in the late 1950s or early 1960s. What's now WPPN (ex-WYEN) eventually got the allocation, whch went to Des Plaines with 50kw transmitter in Buffalo Grove.
 
From Cheyenne, WY:
Daytime: Nothing, not even a hint of KLDC (although I keep trying).
Nightime: It can be a mumble jumble, or it can be downright nothing. Occasionally, you will hear either KLDC or that Mexican clear channel try to breakthrough the barrier, but it is rare when it actually does.
In conclusion, it is the emptiest frequency on the dial 24/7.

I hope to one day snag KDDR before it goes off day power
 
cyberdad said:
WKRS has experienced both flooding and fire. But they've remained in the same building at the transmitter site for over 60 years.

WKRS had the original allocation of 106.7 FM for the Chicago area. But they surrendered that when their FM was destroyed by fire and they opted not to rebuild. I'm not sure when the fire occured, but I beleive it was in the late 1950s or early 1960s. What's now WPPN (ex-WYEN) eventually got the allocation, whch went to Des Plaines with 50kw transmitter in Buffalo Grove.
Click to expand...

I did not know that. I know that the owners of WKRS also operate WXLC 102.3 FM which broadcasts from the same site as WKRS at 3250 Belvidere Rd in Waukegan, Illinois. Did WXLC come on the air after they gave up on the 106.7 frequency?
 
CADXER said:
I did not know that. I know that the owners of WKRS also operate WXLC 102.3 FM which broadcasts from the same site as WKRS at 3250 Belvidere Rd in Waukegan, Illinois. Did WXLC come on the air after they gave up on the 106.7 frequency?
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WXLC came on in the early 1960s. I want to say '62 or '63 They were separate from WKRS, operating from tje basement of a downtown building. (I visited it0. Power was 1kw, IIRC. I don't know where the stick was, but I'm pretty sure it was not on the WKRS tower(s) on Belvedere Road a couple of miles west of downtown. Reception where I was in Wauconda was "spotty".
 
Daytime: a weak KQMG from Independence, Iowa, 40 miles away.
Nighttime: hash, usually with WLPO on top. I've mentioned this before -- WKNR used to be a regular at night years ago (as WGAR), but I never hear it now. Nor do I hear XEB, which surprises me. I have heard WSLM Salem, IN on occasion.
 
Schroedingers Cat said:
WXLC 102.3 was authorized in 1961 before the new rules took effect. Maximum Class A facilities went from 1 kW/250 feet HAAT to 3 kW/300 feet HAAT, and it went to 3 kW by the mid 1960s. WXLC had been authorized at 1 kW from 185 feet.

History Card.

Click to expand...
Thanks, SC. I don't think WXLC was actually on the air until 1962, or maybe even early 1963, Either of which, of course, would fit with a 1961 authorization date. I knew they were up to 3kw in relatively short order. I haven't really kept track of them down through the years, but I can say that their signal here in Crystal lake at a distance of 25 miles is pretty decent.
 
Around Columbus, Ohio, it's slop from local WYTS on 1230 day and night, more prominent the closer one is downtown Columbus of course. If WHKW makes it here at night, it's extremely weak with those monster nulls they send to the west and southwest at all hours.
I remember spending a week in Oberlin for a youth leadership seminar in the summer of 1993 and even there, then-WKNR was pretty weak. Not even close to 1100's signal. The next year, the same seminar was held in Alliance and 1220 blasts there. Heading back to Columbus, it was very weak by Wooster and effectively gone at Mansfield.
 
A repeat here from 5 year ago, hi. Nothing's changed. Except the dial is noisier.

>> 'When I first moved here, the now-dark WJUN (for JUNiata County) was a weak regular, often near sunset.
Sunset also delivered WFAX from Virginia.

Nowadays ..... no discernable signal atall midday.

Cleveland is the nighttime occupant. I have them logged and taped as 'WKNR'.

One afternoon, though, in St. Clair, roughly 1:15 to 2 PM, I was doing a touchup paint job and tuning around for some 70's-70's oldies. I found 'em allright. 1220 was good listening, solid. They were pretty loud at times. I thought maybe WPHT Philly had switched formats. But no; WPHT was right there next door, a touch weaker.

Now I realize that WGNY Newburgh NY sends a bit of its E-W signal to the very far northeast part of our state.
But enough of it in our direction to splash onto WPHT at times from 126 miles off?' <<

* * * * * * *
I enjoy how that daytime skywave often seems to follow that Appalachian range arc, like an Overground Railroad route from the SW. WGNY is the only one I've heard from the *opposite* direction of that Anthracite Arc de Triumph, though.

Radio-Locator.com

Radio Station Search Engine
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We're about 1/8 inch off that map, SW of Hazleton
 
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