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AM Frequency of the Week: 1390:

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cyberdad

cyberdad

After last week's "misfire", let's try getting this week's thread up and running a little early.

Far northwest suburban Chicago....

Days: 1390 is WGRB, 5kw directional north (right up the Lake Michigan shoreline), 47 miles to my southeast. Result her
Nights: WGRB is most likely to be on top...if only barely. Occasional visitors include WNIO (ex-WFMJ), Youngstown, OH, KCLN. Clinton, OH, and WRIG, Schofield (Wausau) WI, likely on 10kw day power/pattern.

Other Location: WGRB usually turns up once or twice each winter on the Arctic and or Iceland SDRs

WGRB's predecessors have a notable history in Chicago. From WGES, where Ray Kroc once worked before founding McDonald's. to WYNR, where Gordon McLendon's ambitious top 40 operation was no match for WLS' much bigger signal... To WNUS, McLendon's pioneering all-news operation (based on XETRA), but this time, the signal turned to also be no match for WBBM. Eventually, the WVON calls landed on 1390, and something more akin to a successful run was achieved.
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Middays here it's a weak but steady WLAN from downstate Lancaster, 1100 watts omni. They drop to 18 watts at night. WLAN was formerly full-time 5000 / 1000 watts but directionl night and day. Their noisy but sometimes fun 97.1 FM makes the money and is a semi-local regular up here.
SSS three years ago I caught a WLLI from Jackson TN ('also 94.1,; they said.
After it's dark: WFBL Syracuse
Not to much dial time on 1390 here in PA. WZHF Arlington, the former, great WEAM, should be there ; there's always a good path between here and Balt-DC-Chesapeake.
 
From DFW, Texas

Daytime: KBEC Waxahachie, TX fair signal with classic country.
Nights: No real owner of the frequency, if anything, WMER Meridian, MS is heard with religious programming. I've also heard WNLA Indianola, MS with weather for The Delta a few times, perhaps late in reducing power. KULP El Campo, TX will sometimes pop up with Texas country. Heard once - KCLN Clinton, IA with Neil Sedaka song.
 
From west Houston Texas:

Daytime: splatter from KRCM 1380 mostly. I can also hear KULP El Campo TX w/country music
Sunset/night: KBEC Waxahachie TX overpowers KULP. I also regularly hear WNLA Indianola, MS w/gospel. WNLA is sometimes strong and on top, surprised if it's on 44w night power, but pretty strong for the listed 1kw day power too.
 
Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: WGRB
Nightime: WGRB with average signal, but still dominating the frequency

DX/RETRO: Only 3 stations logged with WRGB (WVON, WGCI) on the air and nulled: KJPW (Waynsville, MO), WFMJ (Younstown, OH) and WTJF (Jackson, TN). All others heard with WGRB off the air: KLNT (Clinton, IA), WFBL (Syracuse, NY), WCSC (Charleston, SC)
 
East Tennessee: Daytime, basically nada. Maybe a whiff of nearby WYXI, Athens, TN. Winter sunsets or daytime skip days can bring in WNIO, Youngstown (I seem to have a pipeline to Northeast Ohio). Also, one-time sunset reception from WMPO, Middleport-Pomeroy, Ohio (there buddy).

Night is usually now Urban Gospel WSPO, Charleston, SC, the one-time top 40 WCSC. It's usually mixed with others.

Retro/other: It's a tale of 2 stations: One with apparently just enough of a small lobe to send it into the midwest, and that being what was then WCSC, Charleston SC. I've heard this facility in several iterations. The other is present-day WGRB, in its history as WVON, WGCI, "Dusty 1390", it would make it to Ohio and parts of Indiana. I once had it almost sounding like a local in Logansport, IN.
 
From the southwest suburbs of Chicago:

On 1390, it’s WGRB all the time. Never caught them in a silent period. The same was true under previous calls going back to WNUS. As I’m six or so miles from their four-tower site, I’ve never heard anything else.

WNUS was all-news with a 15-minute format from 1965 to 1968, going to beautiful music (also on WNUS-FM) about when WBBM went all-news. Bernard Shaw of CNN fame worked there.
 
Western Detroit, MI suburbs:

Not one of my better-traveled frequencies, for whatever reason. So I listened this evening while working on other projects around the basement.

Results:

Surprisingly good signal from WGRB Chicago (~250 miles).

The only other identifiable signal above the mash was WNIO Youngstown, Ohio (~160 Miles).
 
I neglected to mention WBLL (the former WTOO), Bellefontaine OH with a weak daytime signal at my Western Ohio and Dayton, Ohio locations.
 
Not much day or night around Columbus, Ohio, although in the northern and western portions of the metro a very weak WBLL from Bellefontaine can be heard daytime. 500 watts, previously talk and now country. It's really weak even up around Dublin, only 35 miles or so line-of-sight from its tower.
I've heard WMPO from Pomeroy, Ohio here in the southeast part of the metro. 5,000 watts from roughly 75 miles away. I've never detected co-channel interference from WBLL.
 
schmave said:
Not much day or night around Columbus, Ohio, although in the northern and western portions of the metro a very weak WBLL from Bellefontaine can be heard daytime. 500 watts, previously talk and now country. It's really weak even up around Dublin, only 35 miles or so line-of-sight from its tower.
I've heard WMPO from Pomeroy, Ohio here in the southeast part of the metro. 5,000 watts from roughly 75 miles away. I've never detected co-channel interference from WBLL.
Click to expand...
Bellefontaine's 98.3 obviously gets out a lot better than 1390, especially with the high elevation.
WMPO is just there for the translator. It's been years since it's been relevant....at one point in the 90s they were just tracking country albums on a CD changer. Some of us remember the jingle package spoof some Ohio University students came up with at WMPO's expense. (WMPO There Buddy).
 
From NW San Antonio:

Day: Blank except for a bit of splatter from semi-local 1380 KWMF. One December day in 2018, I heard KBEC in Waxahachie shortly before 3 p.m., which was more than 2½ hours before sunset.

Sunset: A weak WNLA in Indianola, MS, is usually the first to appear, and 1390 becomes almost like a graveyard frequency. Stations regularly heard in the mess or breaking through include KBEC, KULP in El Campo, XEOR in Reynosa, and XECSAG in San Nicolás de los Garza. The latter plays Spanish-language (and occasionally American) hit pop, and IDs as "Radio Universidad Pedro de Gante."

Night: It's a bit less graveyard-like. The aforementioned stations are still heard in/out, with WNLA and KULP being more rare. KBEC and the two Mexico stations are heard more often. Also, news/talk KENN in Farmington, NM, comes up and has the closest thing to a steady signal. XERW in León is supposedly retired, but I've heard occasional Spanish-language talk (not matching XEOR) with "Radio Fórmula" IDs recently.

Sunrise: Similar to nighttime, with XEOR, KULP, and KBEC stronger when they go to day power/pattern.

DX/Retro: One-time loggings include XEXO in Ciudad Mante and XETL in Tuxpan (both now retired) and KFRA in Franklin, LA. Stations I've only heard a few times include WMER in Meridian, MS; KHOB in Hobbs, NM; and the eclectic KGNU in Denver, CO.
 
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