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AM Frequency of the Week: 1440

And to bring another 1440 into the discussion, KMAJ Topeka KS appears to be the station WGEM had to protect way back when, as Radio-Locator shows for WGEM's night pattern: http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WGEM&service=AM&status=L&hours=N

So to try to confirm my suspicions, I checked out the .pdf History Cards on both stations, available on the FCC's AM Query search (not all stations have been done yet) The first app for a CP for what is now KMAJ was filed in October of 1945, 1 kW-D, .5 kW-N. They amended in January 1946 to specify 5 kW day and night with the same DA pattern.

Meanwhile WGEM first filed for 1440 at Quincy with 1 kW day and night in June of 1946. I can only guess that some sort of deal was struck between KMAJ and WGEM, for on 4/28/47 and 4/29/47, respectively, both stations filed for new CPs, with KMAJ at the present-day 5 kW-D/1 kW-N and WGEM at 1 kW-U with DA. (now 5kW-D/1kW-N)

And so that's how WGEM came to have that odd "rabbit ear" night pattern with the spot between the ears pointed at Topeka.

And in the daytime (map at: http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WGEM&service=AM&status=L&hours=D) it appears that WGEM was impaired to the east due to other 1440s in Paris, IL (the current 1kw WPRS) and a station out of Bloomington/Normal that went dark around 1990. Plus a 1450 (formerly WCVS now WFMB-AM Springfield, IL).
 
Mutually exclusive applications were often both granted if the interference issues were resolved to full protection, or an interference agreement was reached without full protection. That is probably what happened with those two stations.

Right after WWII ended, there was not only a huge number of applications filed for new and existing stations, but a huge increase in the number of directional antennas used to squeeze in new stations and upgrade existing stations. In order to put stations in cities that needed them, they often had to be extremely directional. Three tower in line and four tower parallelogram arrays had appeared in applications before the war, and some were completed and licensed with materials delivered before December, 1941. The history cards and other information showed that these stations were licensed in 1942. The big increase in these DAs happened in the late 1940s.
 
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At night XEEST, "Quiéreme 1440" in Granjas near Mexico City...

Just as a point of information, the Mexican government's IFT has for some reason begun to list stations based on the transmitter site and not the city of license.

"Granjas México" is a neighborhood ("colonia") in Mexico City just a couple of km to the SW of the Mexico City airport. It's not an incorporated entity... just a name for a neighborhood.

I have no idea why the IFT is doing that, but it is really confusing and makes me Google a lot of places I did not even know existed (although Granjas" is familiar as it was only a short distance from where I used to live in Colonia del Valle in the DF)
 
Re 1440, David:

Did you ever ID audio from Radio Luxembourg's 600,000-watt signal on 1439 (or whatever power they ran)?

It used to drive us kid Long Island DXers nuts, hearing what we only could classify as this 'obviously testing' 1000 cycle tone station mixing with the other 1440 stations at night, like at 9PM or 11PM. The darned station never IDed when they should have.

Eventually, we were made wise : 1,440,000 cycles minus 1,439,000 cycles emits a 1000 cycle tone.
Oh.

I only caught audio from R.Lux once. Some guy was talking in a foreign language. That was a convincing-enough ID for me to count them. Heck -- what else could the audio have been ?
 
Re 1440, David:

Did you ever ID audio from Radio Luxembourg's 600,000-watt signal on 1439 (or whatever power they ran)?

I was farther inland than you... about 600 mile, in fact. But in the late fall and winter months, Radio Luxembourg was a fairly frequent visitor, particularly when using a loop antenna and a good communications receiver. I was often able to get clear readable audio off of it.

The other "fun" station was Radio Monte Carlo just up the dial at 1466. It was the only real pop music station for the south of France (given the limited coverage and less urban area served by the Andorra stations) and it sounded like a US Top 40 but with France Gall and Johnny Halliday and Gilbert Becaud tunes instead of Bobby Darrin and Little Peggy March.
 


Just as a point of information, the Mexican government's IFT has for some reason begun to list stations based on the transmitter site and not the city of license.

"Granjas México" is a neighborhood ("colonia") in Mexico City just a couple of km to the SW of the Mexico City airport. It's not an incorporated entity... just a name for a neighborhood.

I have no idea why the IFT is doing that, but it is really confusing and makes me Google a lot of places I did not even know existed (although Granjas" is familiar as it was only a short distance from where I used to live in Colonia del Valle in the DF)

It's worse with AM, and it's worse with the FCC. The IFT AM table just lists it among the "Ciudad de México" stations as it should.

If you wonder how you get a callsign like XEEST, it's because the station used to be "Estudiantes AM" — a strange name for a format of rock aimed at young people. The original calls were XELZ, which were sequential calls like most AMs received.

The other Mexican on 1440 is XEABCJ-AM. That mouthful of a callsign is because the station is an O&O of the ABC Radio news/talk network (similar logo to the ABC we know in the States, completely different ownership). It used to be XECCC.

In Phoenix we have a 1440 of our very own —*to which this very forum has devoted a 180-page thread. Have at it!
 


Just as a point of information, the Mexican government's IFT has for some reason begun to list stations based on the transmitter site and not the city of license.

"Granjas México" is a neighborhood ("colonia") in Mexico City just a couple of km to the SW of the Mexico City airport. It's not an incorporated entity... just a name for a neighborhood.

I have no idea why the IFT is doing that, but it is really confusing and makes me Google a lot of places I did not even know existed (although Granjas" is familiar as it was only a short distance from where I used to live in Colonia del Valle in the DF)

Thanks for the correction, David. That's interesting to know about the colonias. I've updated my logs to state Mexico City for those stations.
 
Thanks for the correction, David. That's interesting to know about the colonias. I've updated my logs to state Mexico City for those stations.

The "colonias", called "barrios" in much of the rest of Latin America, are neighborhoods within the jurisdiction of a city. They help immensely in pinpointing a location.

In most of Latin America, suburbs of a central city are not separate legal jurisdictions. When the city grows beyond the limits of its urbanized area, the city just annexes the zones and grows.

So everything in the Federal District of Mexico is Mexico City. You do see the rather unusual situations of areas in the State of Mexico on the periphery of the DF being separate cities or towns, but that is due to the crossing of state borders... Gómez Palacio, Durango would be part of Torreón were it not that Torreón is in Coahuila.

Examples of cities in the State of Mexico that are truly cities are Naucalpan de Juárez and Ciudad Satélite.

Colonias and barrios have no government, no infrastructure, no separate school system.

This is somewhat similar to Manhattan where Midtown and the Upper West Side and Hells Kitchen and SoHo are our equivalent of "colonias". In another part of the US this practice is quite common: In Puerto Rico all the Municipalities (cities) are divided into barrios. San Juan has Hato Rey, Old San Juan, El Condado, Río Piedras, Puerta de Tierra, Miramar, Santurce, Caparra, etc.
 
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Usually, 1440 here is nothing daytime.
Sunsets - usually KMED Medford OR (News/Talk), KODL The Dalles OR (Classic Hits), CKJR Wetaskiwin AB (Classic Hits)
Nights - usually the same. In deep auroral conditions, KVON Napa CA (Fox Sports) or KUHL Santa Maria CA (News/Talk) shows up - I've also gotten KRDZ Wray CO when they were on day power one evening. Still no Lamptimer/Goldminer from Scottsdale...yet. Also have picked up KPTO Pocatello ID on occasion.

Also on the want list - KFNY Riverside. Maybe in deep aurora.

-crainbebo
 
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