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AM Frequency of the Week: 1220

cyberdad

cyberdad

Crystal Lake IL......

Days: WKRS from Waukegan, IL. mostly aimed north. I'm about 30 miles west of their towers, so the result is a fair signal at best here. Sometimes I can hear 500 watt WLPO from La Salle, IL underneath.

Nights: Usually WHKW from Cleveland on top of the mess. Less frequently, CFAJ from the Niagara Falls area sneaks in. Even more rare is when XEB from Mexico City makes the hop. But that hasn't happened for at least the past 6 months.

Other location. On the Gulf near Pensacola, XEB is pretty much a night time regular with a fair-good signal.

Retro: One of my favorite catches was on 1220. One nght about 25 years ago, CJRL 1kw from Kenora, ON. In with a fair, but steady signal for about 15 minutes. Kenora is a Northwoods resort town about 100 miles east of Winnipeg and about 100 miles north of International Falls, MN. Which means about 650 miles NW of my home location. I've actually spent a few nights there on biz trips making the run from Duluth to Winnipeg....an absolutely gorgeous drive. CJRL has since migrated to FM.
 
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From the southwest suburbs of Chicago ...

Nights, it's invariably WHKW Cleveland, first heard as WGAR, then WKNR. It was also WHK for a short time.

Days, WLPO LaSalle, Ill., 1 kW days, is a visitor. I've never picked up WKRS. Maybe I should hang out on 1220 more.

Bonus: WCPH Etowah, Tenn., running a test with 1kW, on 1/2/2021.
 
Melbourne FL

closest is WOTS in Kissimmee - La Primera/La Voz - daytime

1220 WHKW Cleveland - 1220 The Word – NE Ohio Christian - nights

1220 CMBY - La Fe CU - Radio Caribe - Spanish 2016
 
DFW, Texas

Daytime: I heard presumed semi-local KZEE Weatherford, TX testing during the day with continuous loop of music back in Dec. 2021, otherwise, the station has been silent. Channel is empty during the day.

Nights: XEB Ciudad Mexico DF mixing with KMVL Madisonville, TX (AC Standards).
 
Nothing much here different from last check-in of 1220, except for an explanation of an asterisk blurb I made a few weeks ago on the 1210 FOTW thread.
The loggings here annoyingly remain WJUN (Juniata County) from Mexico PA, about 40 miles northwest of Harrisburg. That's in the midday.
WFAX from Virginia was a sunset catch. To this it might be proper to add their Fax: 703-533-7572 .
Nighttimes it's Cleveland, logged here as WKNR. They, of course, were WGAR long ago, when they were the equal pest in Queens.

That 1210 sidebar I mentioned was from the afternoon working on a house in St. Clair, about 5 miles south of the den here. I was listening to the Mets and Phillies game from WPHT 1210. Maybe about 2:30. GE Superadio 2.
There was some hash and splash onto WPHT from something. Turned out to be Oldies, from 1220. I figured maybe WJUN 1220 had switched format. But that loud? Crashing onto an adjacent 50K omni?
Then this 1220 station -- some syndicated feed was mentioned -- dove into a spot break. There were mentions of Walden, a Route 9, Wappingers Falls and a few other places that evoked memories ; my first radio job was up that same Hudson River valley*. WGNY Newburgh was the station.
WGNY does send a lot of their wattage due west, but I've not heard them before or since. So as they were slopping all over my ball game from 120 miles away that afternoon, I figure it to've been that daytime-skip reception.

(* No, my first radio job was not at Sing Sing.)
 
Tyler, Texas:

Days are a really weak KMVL Madisonville, which is most of the time Adult Standards, but does simulcast classic country sister KMVL-FM, from time to time.

Nights, KMVL is a goner. Replaced by XEB Mexico City, with a fair but unsteady signal.

You've heard KZEE during this decade, @TXPH97? Better than me. Haven't heard the station here in many moons now. It and KCLE have seemingly fallen off the face of the earth.
 
From west Houston TX

Daytime, nothing. Once heard KMVL but it's usually not strong enough to overcome local 1230 slop
Sunset and night, KMVL and XEB both come up with XEB dominant
Sunrise, same. I've heard KZEE before but not since 2019.
 
rosecitymedia said:
Tyler, Texas:

You've heard KZEE during this decade, @TXPH97? Better than me. Haven't heard the station here in many moons now. It and KCLE have seemingly fallen off the face of the earth.
Click to expand...
@rosecitymedia Yes, heard the station on for approximately a week in Dec. 2021. Tripped my car radio scan at noon with local strength. Some sort of test, just continuous music with audio freezes every few minutes. No IDs or announcements. Presumed KZEE, not heard since.
 
Wilmington Delaware

Very disappointing frequency. No stations day or night. A very weak unidentifiable signal at night maybe WHKW. They appear to have a highly directional N-S signal but there aren't any other major signals on 1220 so who are they protecting?

Retro - I remember hearing WGAR quite well many many years ago in SE PA.
 
East SFBA:

Days, it's KDOW out of Palo Alto.

Nights, it's a mushy mess. I haven't been able to definitively ID what any of it is (a night power (145 Watts) KDOW is presumably in there somewhere).

c
 
anwar said:
Wilmington Delaware

Very disappointing frequency. No stations day or night. A very weak unidentifiable signal at night maybe WHKW. They appear to have a highly directional N-S signal but there aren't any other major signals on 1220 so who are they protecting?
Click to expand...
My guess is XEB, and perhaps also secondary would be the Canadians on1220....past and present. (And yes...it will always be WGAR to me.)
 
Denver, CO - Day and night, it's local KLDC - even with 12 watts at night, I still can't fully null it out. It's hard to tell what's underneath.

Retro (from Missouri) - WGAR Cleveland, multiple times; XEB less often; and, once, at critical hours, KOFO Ottawa, KS, about 150 miles distant from my location, with all of 250 watts.
 
Hartland, VT:

WZBK Keene, NH, classic hits, relaying "Rewind 92.7" WKVT-FM Brattleboro, VT. The AM frequency is never mentioned and the WZBK call is only heard at the top of the hour.

Meriden, CT:

Not sure what's being heard there now. When I moved, in December 2021, WATX Hamden was running moldy oldies on the frequency using reduced power and an improvised dipole or long-wire antenna (or so I understood) in the absence of an actual transmitter site. It was not audible in Meriden, but started to appear with muddy audio about five miles down I-91. Not sure whether owner Clark Smidt (noted Boston radio programmer/personality of the '70s) has been able to get this hobby project of his back up to 1 kilowatt, as it's listed on Wikipedia. As WSCR, WNNR and WQUN, reception was always very good in Meriden.
 
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East Tennessee (days): The last breath of WCPH, Etowah, TN, or the even more rare WLSD, Big Stone Gap, VA.
Night: A mess that includes WHKW, Cleveland and XEG, Mexico. The WCPH test made it here, as well as other places.

Retro/other: Back home in West Central Ohio, Daytimer WERT Van Wert was and is about 30 miles away from where I grew up. WGAR would still interfere quite awhile after sunrise.
Nights...I was a regular night listener to:
+++WGAR, Cleveland, an Ed Snyder station (name changed daily) in high school. A friend who lived in the area was a big fan. These were the days of Phil Gardner, who could be a bit blue (for that time), but eventually got religion, moved back to Fort Wayne, got religion and had a long career under his real name of Phil Reasor.
WGAR's night signal was decent but sometimes iffy, because I was still in the null toward XEG
WSLM, Salem IN has been known to be on day power at night, and I used to hear them in Lafayette IN.
 
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.
Nighttime: WHKW usually heard, but easily nulled making way for WSLM or CFAJ

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), WFKN (Franklin, KY), WCPH (Etowah, TN), CJRB (Boisevan, MB). 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. The most recent new logs on this frequency are WFAX (Falls Church, VA) and WAYB (Birmingham, AL) in 2022 and 2023 respectively.
 
CADXER said:
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.
Click to expand...
Nice going with WKRS given their pattern. IME, they start fading rapidly when driving down the Tri-State tollway around the Lake-Cook county line. (But they still sound great in the southern suburbs of Milwaukee). The fact that you're hearing what's left of WLPO at your location is less surprising to me. :)
 
Clifton, New Jersey

Days: Nothing

Nights: It's usually WHKW "AM 1220 The Word" Cleveland, OH, which airs Christian programming. The only other station I have received was WZBK Keene, NH on 05/16/2022. The station identifies itself as "Rewind 92.7 & 102.3", the dial positions of its sister FM stations.
 
Central Kentucky:
Days: A weak WSLM, Salem Indiana.

Nights: WHKW Cleveland. Years ago, enjoyed them when they were country WGAR.
 
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