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AM Frequency of the week: 1410

cyberdad

cyberdad

Far northwest suburban Chicago area...
Day: Semi-Local WRMN from Elgin, IL. 1kw non directional. Good signal from about 15 miles to my south,

Night: WRMN increases to 1300 watts, but goes to a figure 8 directional pattern designed to protect WIZM (LaCrosse, WI) and WING (Dayton, OH). My location is just on the edge of the lobe that goes north-northeast. Up until relatively recently, this was enough to keep WRMN comfortably on top. But recently, 1410 has become more of a nighttime dogfight, This past Friday morning two hours before sunrise I heard three stations battling with more unidentifed stuff underneath, I actually thought WRMN was off. Then, at 430a.m. in rapid succession I heard positive IDs from WING, WRMN, and WIZM. All three in the space of about ten seconds. I don't remember something like that happening ever before, and I honestly couldn't which one, if any, was on top!

As for what's causing 1410 to sound just a little more like a GY channel these days, it's probably a combination of factors. WIZM used to be rare, and WING only an occasional visitor. Perhaps both stations' patterns are now "leaking". As for WRMN....between my location and their stick used to be almost entirely farm fields. Now it's mostly suburban commercial and residential development. The bottom line is WRMN is less robust nighttime at my location than it was with their old 500-watt setup,
 
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In the near north Chicago suburbs WRMN has a pretty good signal during the day. At night WRMN is still there most of the time, but WING sneaks in from time to time. Others are there in the background, but mostly unidentified.
 
Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: WRMN with good signal
Nightime: WRMN weaker and able to null them with a loop

DX/RETRO: KCLQ (Leavenworth, KS), KQV (Pittsburgh, PA), WIZM (La Crosse, WI), WING (Dayton, OH), WTIM (Taylorville, IL), WXQT (Grand Rapids, MI), WFTE (Lafayette, IN), WLBJ (Bowling Green, KY) WUNI (Mobile, AL), WHLN (Harlan, KY), and the Canadian CKSL (London, ON). All those were heard between 1980 - 2000. Nothing new since.
 
Chicago by the lakeshore.

Unlike the others, WRMN doesn't really come in that well here. During the daytime it's there but weak, and at night it's lost in the mix of stations.

At night, when I first started doing this a couple of years ago it was usually WING in Dayton running sports. More recently it has been more of a mix and I'd say WIZM in La Crosse WI is the most likely.

The only other stations I've ID'd occurred one time right after sunset I was listening right on the lakeshore. One after the other I got CJWI Montreal and WSCW in Charleston WV. Haven't heard either one since.
 
East Tennessee: (Knoxville/Sevierville) Daytime. Go far enough west and its daytime WVVB, Kingston which exists to "feed" a translator. It's almost more likely to hear WHLN, Harlan KY especially with even the slightest daytime skip. WING is a frequent visitor sunrise and sunset, and any daytime skip days. Night, WING predominates, sometimes WHLN and a mess underneath. During a particularly good day of winter skip, I made a trip to Nashville and heard WING at 3pm EST/2pm CST (along with WHIO-1290).

Retro/other: Dayton OH is the home of WING, of course, but the night pattern excludes the Springfield part of the market. (There's a story that came from a late friend who used to work there. WING had brought in Stacy Taylor (who eventually worked at WLS and in San Diego) for an evening talk show and wanted to buy an ad in the Springfield paper. When engineers explained the signal did not reach Springfield at night, he said "we'll fix that!".

Further up in Ohio, I remember the 70s and 80s seemed to be predominantly WING, but KQV and WPOP were often there. THe WING/KQV/WPOP combo was heard in various parts of the east and midwest. We would vacation in Fremont, MI during summers in the late 60s. I listened to WGRD for top 40 from a fringe area, and the minute it signed off there was WING.
 
From tip of Texas (near South Padre Island) 1410 is usually a lot of overflow from nearby XEEW 1420 (Matamoros, MX). But one day a couple weeks ago when 1420 was off the air I picked up KITE out of Victoria, TX (185 miles as the crow flies) and their Classic Hits format
 
In Central Genesee County Michigan, WAMM/WFLT 1420 would normally overpower WGRD/WNWZ. When it was off the air, WGRD/WNWZ would come in with a 50 uV/m signal on a good radio. Because it is in a relatively good ground conductivity location, it came in almost as well as WOOD did with 5 kW Nondirectional. I don't think WOOD is even as good there now with 20 kW DA-1 due to the directional antenna and new poor conductivity location. On the WCCW application, WOOD had several radials that were between 1 and 3 mS/m frgom the new site, compared to the M-3 Map value of 8 mS/m. Back in the old days, WGRD had a better signal to the East than the old 5 kW minimum efficiency WMAX 1480, just a few miles further away from the Butterworth Dump Area in Grand Rapids. At Night, to was usually WING. In the Summer, it sometimes rivaled the WLS signal, along with WAKR 1590.
 
West Central Georgia:

Day: WNGL Mobile AL 5000/4600 Catholic Radio very weak

Night: WNGL most common with WING Dayton OH 5000 ESPN Sports and WZZA Tuscumbia AL 500 urban contemporary underneath

Dawn: strong WNGL signal
 
CADXER;6338447: said:
..... the Canadian CKSL (London, ON).
Click to expand...

I don't think I've heard that one at my location since probably the 1970s. But on my business trips, I used to spend quite a few nights in London. A nice place roughly midway between Detroit and Toronto. Quite a few good hotels and restaurants right off the 401 freeway.

Anyway CKSL is no longer on 1410. I'm pretty sure what they did was migrate to FM. What I remember about CKSL on 1410 are two things. First, the day pattern was Very directional to the north. 10kw, IIRC. Going east or west on the 401 they were only listenable for 20 or 25 miles despite the relatively good ground conductivity. The other thing I remember about CKSL on 1410 is it seemed like they had a different format every time I came through town. At one point, they even tried comedy.
 
In west Houston, in the daytime I can sometimes hear KHCH in Huntsville TX with a Spanish Christian format. At sunset I've heard KITE in Victoria, Catholic programming (assume WNGL Mobile but haven't ID'd), and XEBS "La Bandolera" from Mexico City. I assume XEAS "Fiesta Mexicana" in Nuevo Laredo is in there also, but haven't ID'd them. At night it's a mess with XEBS sometimes on top.
 
From NW San Antonio:

Day: Still a bit of splatter from nearby 1350 KXTN even this far up the dial.

Sunset: To the N/S it's classic country KROY in San Saba, TX, and a weak XEBS. To the east it's KITE in Victoria, TX. WNGL in Mobile eventually comes up and takes over KITE.

Night: WNGL dominates to the east, and sports talk KGSO in Wichita, KS, and XEBS are heard most to the N/S. KROY, KITE, and KNTX in Bowie, TX, occasionally pop up.

Sunrise: XEBS and KGSO dominate to the N/S until KROY goes back to day power. Also, KITE comes up with a fairly good signal when it goes to day pattern.

DX/RETRO: DX catches on this frequency include XEAS once at sunset and KLVQ in Athens, TX, once at night. Also, I've heard KROY during winter daytime skywave.
 
Here around Columbus, it's a weak WING daytime and nothing to replace it at night except a bunch of garble.
WING has a few interesting nulls in that night pattern. You can be driving on 70 northeast or northwest of the Dayton metro, including in Montgomery County itself, and completely lose the signal for a few miles before it pops back in. One of those nulls is the one toward Springfield that gr8 mentioned earlier. Decent signal heading up 75 toward Lima and Toledo but forget it if you're heading toward Cincinnati.
 
The WING DA has two 200 degree towers, which provide high angle protection to nearby stations. They also increase efficiency and limit fading. This WRMN application interference study shows which stations they would have to protect with the four nulls. They probably go right toward the really low NIF stations. WKBH LaCrosse (now WIZM) is one. Notice how WRMN has to protect WIZM's whole ground wave area, not just the TL. That's all the different points, like a clear channel, but for gorundwave.

https://licensing.fcc.gov/cdbs/CDBS...?appn=101146876&qnum=5170&copynum=1&exhcnum=1
 
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