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AM Frequency of the Week: 1430

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cyberdad

cyberdad

Crystal Lake, Illinois....

Days: 1430 is WEEF from north suburban Highland Park, IL, 1600 watts from a six-tower array aimed mostly into Lake Michigan, The result here, from a distance of about 25 miles is a weak signal. Sometimes WCMY from Ottawa, IL can be heard underneath.

Night: WEEF drops to 750 watts with a different pattern and disappears (although it becomes listenable about ten miles east of me. The result is a typical nightime jumble, but with WXNT (ex WIRE) from Indianapolis on top as often as not,

Retro: In recent years KZQZ (ex WIL) from St. Louis ruled 1430 on most nights. But they've been dark since the FCC pulled the plug on them a couple of years ago. Before that, during most of the 60s and 70s, 1430 at night around here was pretty much a battle between WIL and WIRE.
 
Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: WEEF - not the best of signals, but listenable
Nighttime: very weak and almost non-existent WEEF mixing with others, WXNT most common catch

DX/RETRO: other heard throughout the years include KELI (Tulsa, OK), WCMY (Ottawa, IL), WWWQ (Panama City, FL), WWHK (Mt. Clemens, MI), WDIC (Clinchco, OH), WZQZ (St. Louis, MO), WION (Ionia, MI), WYMC (Mayfield, KY), WPLN (Madison, TN) with BBC World Service programing, WCWC (Williamsburg, KY), WFOB (Fostoria, OH) and the lone Canadian CHKT(ex-CKFH, CJCL) (Toronto, ON). My mpost recent new catch on this frequency is WLCB Buffalo, KY in April of 2022.

Speaking of WEEF their previous transmitter site (before they moved and diplexed with WKTA) was at the intersection of Aptakisic Rd. and Weiland Rd. in Prairie View, IL. Back in 1980/1990's I used to worked for a company located in Lincolnshire, IL just half a mile from their Prairie View site. WEEF's signal used to create severe interference with our electronic experiments and equipment in our MRI lab. We had to do extensive shielding in order to cut down the interference from WEEF.

BTW the current city of license is Deerfield, IL even though in the past they IDed as WEEF Highland Park - Deerfield at the top of the hour. Their current transmitter site is in Northbrook, IL (I-294 & Dundee Road) sharing the site with sister station WKTA. Their original transmitter site was at Lake Cook Road and Pfingsten Rd in Deerfield, IL before they moved to Prairie View site sometimes in 1987.
 
Mostly CHKT here in Rochester NY, on the back side of their pattern from across the lake.
 
CHKT 1430 is usually one of the stations often heard in Michigan during Pre Sunset Critical Hours and unusual conditions, once in late afternoon during an odd thunderstorm, blaring in between lightning strikes, also CHIN 1540 was heard then. I figure there was a low ionic cloud related to the thunderstorm that brought in closer signals. I remember Top 40 on 1430 as CKFH. Since WION 1430 Ionia, MI went to 4700 watts nondirectional with extensive radial conductivity measurements, it is often heard during critical hours, as is WXNT. WFOB Fostoria is another heard sometimes. With WBRB Mt. Clemens gone, WFOB comes in in SE Michigan on ground wave, in the 50-100 uV/m signal range.
 
East Tennessee: Daytime, really nothing, unless WCWC, Williamsburg KY makes it in. They are a high school-owned station in Williamsburg KY. Pre-sunset has recently brought WMNC, Morgantown, NC.
----Night: WXNT dominates, but CHKT and WPLN are frequent visitors. I don't remember getting KZQZ here.
Retro/other: Dayton, Ohio area was mostly WXNT (which I'll always think of as WIRE). . Edinburgh, IN remote SDR had KZQZ often dominating WXNT, and after WZQZ signed off, CHKT.
 
Tried (again) just yesterday for WNAV Annapolis on this grumpy, stingy daytime frequency. Are they still on the air? At Radio-Locator's 5000 omni daytime watts the station should reach here. There's even an accomodatingly daily path to the Chesapeake basin from this den.
The following are SSS catches from this place: WVAM Altoona, WENE Endicott NY., and a WPNI, which iIrc was once WTTT Amherst MA.
Nights it's usually WNJR Newark, with a logging from a CFAN once. I'm guessing that was once CKFH?

Real retro stuff, back from Queens NYC near JFK, late 60's. Local WNJR was off one morning, and within some :30 mins or so of each other this hat trick flew out of the speaker: WIRE Indianapolis, then WIL St. Louis, and finally KELI from Tulsa. That spree must've been some conjugal combination of cx.
 
From the southwest suburbs of Chicago:

Days, WEEF Deerfield / Prairie View, Ill., if I set the radio just so (which was also true of predecessor WVVX Highland Park / Northbrook. Among the most difficult to hear regulars here.

Nights, in recent days, WXRT (nee WIRE) Indianapolis is a pretty reliable signal. Over the years, the regulars have included WIRE, CKFH/CJCL/CHKT Toronto (easy to pick out when it carried the Maple Leafs through the mid-1970s thanks to the squeaky voice of Foster Hewitt, the FH in CKFH), WIL/WRTH/KZQZ St. Louis, and most recently WION Ionia, Mich., heard June 2020 in mono and April 2021 in stereo via a Sony SRF-A100.
 
Here in Pickerington, Ohio, it's 500-watt WCLT from Newark, about 25 miles to my east-northeast. They carry an AC format and are branded on air as "Kate 98.7," giving their FM translator primary billing.
They drop to 48 watts at night, but when I lived in Thornville, about 10 miles due south of their tower, they were still listenable despite increasing skywave traffic. I was actually surprised to see that nighttime wattage on Radio Locator.
For anyone who happens to find themselves in Newark, the WCLT tower is easy to find. It's high on a hill just south of town, off State Route 13.
 
schmave said:
Here in Pickerington, Ohio, it's 500-watt WCLT from Newark, about 25 miles to my east-northeast. They carry an AC format and are branded on air as "Kate 98.7," giving their FM translator primary billing.
They drop to 48 watts at night, but when I lived in Thornville, about 10 miles due south of their tower, they were still listenable despite increasing skywave traffic. I was actually surprised to see that nighttime wattage on Radio Locator.
For anyone who happens to find themselves in Newark, the WCLT tower is easy to find. It's high on a hill just south of town, off State Route 13.
Click to expand...
I went there for an interview just after the blizzard of 1978, and snow was still around that tower. The main FM is country T-100
 
Steve Green NEPA said:
a logging from a CFAN once. I'm guessing that was once CKFH?
Click to expand...
The Toronto 1430 was using the call letters CJCL at one time. Those call letters now reside on the Toronto 590 which also brands as "The Fan". I'm not sure if there is/was a direct connection at some point, but I'm guessing there well could be.

IME, the 1430 in Toronto was "a box of chocolates". You never knew what you were going to get They flipped call letters/formats often, During the days that I was in town on a frequent basis, I usually made it a point check out 1430 to see what they might be up to. If not dark! Their coverage was no match for Toronto's big signals.
 
Schroedingers Cat said:
I forgot WIL...KZQZ, especially when it was on 50000 watts Day pattern.
Click to expand...
KZQZ on day power could be a monster at my location."The THING from St. Louis" But...as I posted a few years back. I was stant. During that time, KZQZ did a pattern change. Which took it from "city grade signal" to "invisible" in the blink of an eye"
 
cyberdad said:
The Toronto 1430 was using the call letters CJCL at one time. Those call letters now reside on the Toronto 590 which also brands as "The Fan". I'm not sure if there is/was a direct connection at some point, but I'm guessing there well could be.

IME, the 1430 in Toronto was "a box of chocolates". You never knew what you were going to get They flipped call letters/formats often, During the days that I was in town on a frequent basis, I usually made it a point check out 1430 to see what they might be up to. If not dark! Their coverage was no match for Toronto's big signals.
Click to expand...
There was a connection. Hockey announcer Foster Hewitt (or his company, to be precise) sold it in 1980, the CJCL calls followed, and in its "The Fan" incarnation, it was traded for 590 by TeleMedia in 1995. 1430 was dark for a very short time before Fairchild took it over as CHKT with the same tower site.
 
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