• 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: 1320

cyberdad

cyberdad

Due to previous commitments involving the Easter Bunny, your correspondent is here with this one day early. Here's wishing everyone a safe/enjoyable Holiday weekend!

From my location northwest of Chicago....

DAYS: 1320 is pretty much blank. On a clear winter's day, I can sometimes get a whiff of WKAN from Kankakee, IL. 1kw ND from about 100 miles south-southeast of me.

Nights: WILS from Lansing, MI used to be fairly regular around here. But for the past 10-20 years, I've seldom heard them. Usually 1320 in these parts sounds pretty much like a graveyard channel. This morning before sunrise, I hung out on 1320 for about a half hour waiting for something to surface from the slop. Nothing ever did.
 
In the near north Chicago suburbs I hear nothing much during the day. WILS used to come in fairly well, but lately they're much tougher to get. At night mostly a graveyard mess.
 
Reynoldsburg, Ohio ...
WLOH from Lancaster, a little over 20 miles southeast of me, with a good signal daytime. It completely disappears at night, dropping to 16 watts and rendering itself unlistenable even within parts of Lancaster itself. When it transmitted from along U.S. 33 on the northwest side of Lancaster before moving to its current location east of town sometime back around 2000, it was easily heard at night in Pickerington and throughout most of Fairfield County. I think it might have run with a little more night power in those days.
Luckily, the AM coverage problems are largely moot nowadays because it simulcasts on FM at 104.5. That signal used to be audible in east and southeast parts of Columbus until the translator for WRFD-AM (880) signed on a few years back.
Occasionally I'll hear oldies on this frequency if I happen to stop there.
 
Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: weak WKAN
Nightime: nothing really stands out these days, WILS and CFGM were common in the past

DX/RETRO: Not much to report as far as DX: KXYZ (Houston, TX), WJAS (Pittsburgh, PA), WHIA (Griffin, GA). Also KSIV (Clayton, MO) during a DX test.
 
In Charleston, 1320 is Jacksonville usually, whatever their call letters are today. They are a gospel station now. If you go farther inland, Columbia’s WISW with NBC Sports Radio is listenable around Summerville.
 
Daytime: KMAQ Maquoketa, IA (weak)

Nighttime: most often KELO Sioux Falls, SD. Have also heard WJAS Pittsburgh and CHMB Vancouver.
 
East Tennessee: Daytime, WGOC, Business news from Kingsport TN. Heard a station underneath but coiuldn't ID it.
Night: Hodge podge.
 
From NW San Antonio…

Daytime: Splatter from local 1310 KAHL

Sunset: The splatter can be nulled somewhat to hear KXYZ, a Houston station with Spanish and Asian-language Christian programming. Also, it sounds like there's some groundwave/skywave cancellation going on with its signal. News talker KWHN in Ft. Smith, AR, can sometimes be heard faintly.

Night: KWHN is stronger and sometimes takes over from KXYZ. The cancellation issue still persists at times. Also, in the null of those stations, I recently started hearing a new one fade in and out weakly - KRDD "La Que Arde" in Roswell, NM.

Sunrise: KXYZ is stronger and KWHN is still there occasionally, but KRDD is also stronger in their null. "Caddo Country" KNCB in Vivian, LA, comes up for a while when it goes to day power.

Retro: I used to sometimes hear XERJ in Mazatlán at night and XECPN in Piedras Negras at night and weakly during the day, but they've both migrated to FM.
 
Even here in more casual DX days, 1320 has been pretty friendly to me.
Daylight it's WKAP Allentown, weak but 'there'
Sunsets have resulted in WJJS from somewhere in VA.
Nighttime it was WJAS Pittsburgh on one occasion, and on a real treat of a tune-in, WLEE Richmond. They probably didn't lower the power. As I look at the Radio-Locator map I see that they're directional at night, and send many of those 8 watts my way, but I wasn't hearing any of those nighttime watts.

Retro years in NYC, 1320 was downright cordial -- 23 in all.
A weak WATR from Waterbury was the daytime occupant. At sunset, WICO from MD would show up a lot via the water-path.
A lot of the time, adjacent local channel 1330 was sufficiently silent. WEVD and the weaker WPOW shared the frequency. And many a Monday Morning, neither of them were on. That really opened up 1320.
One catch was a station Cyberdad mentioned -- WILS. They put on one of those terrific DX Tests from those days, perhaps 1965 or 1966. They positively boomed in.
 
Last edited:
Update: Went to 1320 about 90 minutes before sunrise this morning and got a surprise. WJAS with a good signal. Not alone, but comfortably on top. I don't recall ever having heard them.....although others around here certainly have. I'm also not quite sure what was going on this morning, but my best guess is that they were at 7kw ND day power. The night pattern's northwest null goes right by me to the north, but even with that, but even so, it isn't exactly favorable for my location.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom