AM Frequency of the Week: 1350

[cyberdad]

Far northwest suburban Chicago.....

Days: 1350 is usually blank. Occasionally, in winter, a very weak WPDR from Portage, WI will sneak in. 1kw ND from a little over 100 miles to my northwest. Possibly via daytime skywave.

Night: Not much to report during hours of darkness, either. Usually a relatively quiet jumble of weak signals. KRNT (Des Moines) or WIOU (Muncie, IN) most likely to surface, but neither is common.

Retro: WXCL from Peoria (1kw) used to be an occasional visitor, but they've long since gone dark. I also used to sometimes hear CKDO from Oshawa, ON before they moved to 1580 (and became more common.)

 

[Mike Raffone]

Far northwest suburban Chicago.....

Days: 1350 is usually blank. Occasionally, in winter, a very weak WPDR from Portage, WI will sneak in. 1kw ND from a little over 100 miles to my northwest. Possibly via daytime skywave.

Night: Not much to report during hours of darkness, either. Usually a relatively quiet jumble of weak signals. KRNT (Des Moines) or WIOU (Muncie, IN) most likely to surface, but neither is common.

Retro: WXCL from Peoria (1kw) used to be an occasional visitor, but they've long since gone dark. I also used to sometimes hear CKDO from Oshawa, ON before they moved to 1580 (and became more common.)

WIOU is in Kokomo...

 

[Miss Tuned]

Northern England: blank. This frequency is used for 1-watt (yes, one solitary watt) LPAM stations broadcasting on university campuses and in hospitals, but these have been declining in number, because for this type of station it's more user-friendly to broadcast via the internet and apps/smart speakers in this day and age, rather than expecting college students or hospital patients to dust off their AM radio to listen.

My nearest station still in existence on this frequency is University Radio York - an actual college radio station broadcasting on AM in 2022. The signal reaches pretty much all of the city of York with one watt of AM, from a small "white stick" antenna on the campus. They have recently started a small LPFM covering just the campus with 50mW, so the days of the LPAM are likely to be numbered.

The "how to listen" section of their website is amusing:

AM Radio
We are of course a legal radio station and we broadcast on AM radio all across campus on 1350KHz Medium Wave.

So what are you waiting for? Ask your parents if you can have their old boom box, and get it tuned into URY like it’s 1989.

FM Radio
We're also broadcasting across campus on 88.3MHz FM.

Did your parents get rid of the boom box at a car boot sale? Pick us up on that radio you got yourself because you're at uni and you're an "adult" now.

 

[schmave]

From Pickerington, Ohio, by day it's a very weak WCHI from Chillicothe and nothing at night. They're 1,000 watts during the day from about 40 miles south but drop to 28 watts after dark.
In some of northwest Ohio, it's WCSM-AM from Celina. Long an adult standards outlet, last year they essentially became the AM outlet for translator 100.3 playing country as "Lake 100," playing off Celina's proximity to Grand Lake St. Marys. WCSM is 500 watts but very directional to the north and east with only 500 watts by day and just 11 at night.

 

[tvnut]

From the southwest suburbs of Chicago:

Nothing during the day, and like Cyberdad's experience, night is a jumble. Over the years, I've gotten these to ID:

WSMB New Orleans; WXCL/WOAM Peoria (RIP); KRNT Des Moines; WIOU Kokomo; WARF Akron, Ohio, on 12/30/2018. That's the newest to rise to the top in this electronic stew long enough to ID.

And now I see I've listed WXCL and WOAM separately in my list, even though it was the same facility, so the total is off by one. Back to 553 stations!

 

[wildthangjim]

From west Houston, days mostly slop from local KWWJ 1360, but have heard KXTN San Antonio on occasion. Sunset and night belong to WWWL New Orleans (sports betting) and KXTN. I've never ID'd anything else on this frequency.

When I lived in Perth Australia, my most interesting catch on this 9khz frequency was DWUN in Malabon, Philippines, sometimes strong before sunrise at about 3,200 miles away.

 

[gr8oldies]

East Tennessee: Weak signal from WZGM, Black Mountain NC.
Sunset/daytime skip: WARF, Akron OH

Retro/other: Ohio. I worked for 1350 in WCSM, Celina, Ohio. We once did a test in 1981, and somewhere online there are a couple of QSLs I signed. We were heard mostly east and northeast, and someone sent a recording of us underneath WSLR, Akron in Akron.
Nights with WCSM off was generally WSLR but I had heard WXCL, late of Peoria.
During the day, it was possible to null WCSM out and hear WIOU, Kokomo. Going north from Celina, to and past Fort Wayne, it was WCSM and WIOU combined.

 

[fybush]

Not much doing on this channel in Rochester NY. CKDO Oshawa used to make it across the lake before they moved to 1580. Now there's a lower power 1350 in Brampton that can be heard up by the lake. WCBA 80 miles away in Corning is deleted now, and WRNY Rome 100 miles away doesn't survive the mediocre conductivity of central NY.

At night it's Akron if it's anything under the second-adjacent local WXXI 1370.

(See you on these threads again once we get to 1390!)

 

[CADXER]

Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: until recently I used to hear WQOG406 the municipal information station from Park Ridge, IL with weak signal. However they have been missing lately. No sign of them during my recent drive to Park Ridge, so they are definitively off the air. In the past WIOU Kokomo, IN was heard on couple occasions, but that was rare.
Nightime: WOAM (Peoria, IL) which seems to be back on the air and WIOU (Kokomo, IN) most common

DX/RETRO: Some notable DX include KCAR (Clarksville, TX), KXTN (San Antonio, TX), KRNT (Des Moines, IA), KCHR (Charleston, MO), WCSM (Celina, OH), WRWH (Cleveland, GA), WBLT (Bedford, VA), WARF (Akron, OH), WSMB (New Orleans, LA), WYLS (York, AL), WNVA (Norton, VA), WLOU (Louisville, KY), WGSW (Greenwood, SC), WHMI (Howell, MI), WSIQ (Salem, IL), CKAR (Oshawa, ON). My most recent relog on this frequency is CIRF from Brampron, Ontario with distinctive Radio Humsafar programming.

 

[gr8oldies]

Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: until recently I used to hear WQOG406 the municipal information station from Park Ridge, IL with weak signal. However they have been missing lately. No sign of them during my recent drive to Park Ridge, so they are definitively off the air. In the past WIOU Kokomo, IN was heard on couple occasions, but that was rare.
Nightime: WOAM (Peoria, IL) which seems to be back on the air and WIOU (Kokomo, IN) most common

DX/RETRO: Some notable DX include KCAR (Clarksville, TX), KXTN (San Antonio, TX), KRNT (Des Moines, IA), KCHR (Charleston, MO), WCSM (Celina, OH), WRWH (Cleveland, GA), WBLT (Bedford, VA), WARF (Akron, OH), WSMB (New Orleans, LA), WYLS (York, AL), WNVA (Norton, VA), WLOU (Louisville, KY), WGSW (Greenwood, SC), WHMI (Howell, MI), WSIQ (Salem, IL), CKAR (Oshawa, ON). My most recent relog on this frequency is CIRF from Brampron, Ontario with distinctive Radio Humsafar programming.

I forgot about Greenwood SC. I got them in East Tennessee when they were operating on an expired license. Goos to hear WCSM got to you

 

[gr8oldies]

From Pickerington, Ohio, by day it's a very weak WCHI from Chillicothe and nothing at night. They're 1,000 watts during the day from about 40 miles south but drop to 28 watts after dark.
In some of northwest Ohio, it's WCSM-AM from Celina. Long an adult standards outlet, last year they essentially became the AM outlet for translator 100.3 playing country as "Lake 100," playing off Celina's proximity to Grand Lake St. Marys. WCSM is 500 watts but very directional to the north and east with only 500 watts by day and just 11 at night.

I can remember still getting WCSM in Ottawa and near Findlay. No signal at all south and directly west.

 

[Battenkill50]

WMMV - Cocoa FL - Newstalk 92.7 - News, talk
operated in parallel with WMMB 1240 KHz in Melbourne FL....

kw - Melbourne FL

 

[cyberdad]

CKDO Oshawa used to make it across the lake before they moved to 1580. Now there's a lower power 1350 in Brampton that can be heard up by the lake.

I wasn't aware of the new 1350 in Brampton. That's about 40 miles west of the CKDO site. I'm not surprised that CKDO on 1350 made it across the lake. The transmitter site was (is?) on a narrow strip of land between the lake (Ontario) and the 401 Freeway. I used to drive by it regularly on my business trips to Canada.

 

[schmave]

I can remember still getting WCSM in Ottawa and near Findlay. No signal at all south and directly west.

I've never listened in those directions, but judging from the pattern and a few comments I've seen online over the years, it's always seemed the signal suffers big-time in southern Mercer County. No problem believing with low wattage and that dial position, it falls off rather fast in the nulls.

 

[ente]

South Mississippi:

Day: WWWL New Orleans "The Bet New Orleans"
Night: Mostly WWWL, along with
KXTN San Antonio "Tejano and Proud"

 

[gr8oldies]

I've never listened in those directions, but judging from the pattern and a few comments I've seen online over the years, it's always seemed the signal suffers big-time in southern Mercer County. No problem believing with low wattage and that dial position, it falls off rather fast in the nulls.

There's a slight lobe going toward Coldwater but nothing directly south. But for most of those years, WCSM was simulcast with FM (96.7).

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

For 1530 AM it's Iheart's News/Talk station KFBK Sacramento in my area.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

KSRO 1350 Santa Rosa from about 2100 miles away is quite regular on 1350 here and sometimes/often pretty good signal too

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

Downstate's omni WOYK* from York, now all-sports, is the daytime regular, with minimal nuisance slop from local WPPA 1360.
Haven't really listened at SSS.
Nights provided two nice ones, taped : WGPL* Portsmouth VA and, unaccountably, WINY* Putnam CT one June eve about 9:30, solid for about a half an hour. Rx-Locator says they're 5000 watts omni days and '79 watts' at night. Quite a signal for 79 watts that night, eh ?

* Retro days near JFK in Queens NYC had a faint 'Winny Radio for the Tri-State Area' ID once under the closer WNLK Norwalk CT. From Huntington Harbour on Long Island's North Shore you could see WNLK's two towers blinking at night across Long Island Sound .........
WOYK used to be WORK. I don't know about the rest of the week, but on Monday Mornings at 5:00 they'd sign on -- not with the SSB but with the Foggy Mountain Breakdown and then go into the Buck Benson C&W show........
WADC Akron was the regular all-nighter. They should be fairly easy to log here if and when. Later they were to become C&W 'Whistler', WSLR. One overnight in a WADC pause, there was this scratchy but clear 'WEZY' in the back (Cocoa FL) .....
WGPL was MoR WAVY for the longest while, then Top 40 'X-135', and WRAP, WBSK and WSVY. I may even have missed a few. Horrible signal in Norfolk proper. On a Navy oscilloscope you could hear and SEE other stations with them at night.

 

[TXPH97]

DFW, Texas

Daytime: Adjacent channel local 1360-KMNY spill over.
Nighttime: KXTN San Antonio in Spanish is the usual occupant of this channel. WWWL New Orleans is sometimes heard in the null with Sports programming.