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AM Frequency of the week: 1440:

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cyberdad

cyberdad

40 miles noethwest of downtown Chicago....

DaysL: 1440 is WROK from Rockford, IL, 35 miles west of me. 5kw aimed mostly away from me, The result here is a fair signal.

Nights: WROK drops to 270 watts ND, (used to be 500 watts ND), The result now (as it was back in the day) is a disappearing act. Ptherwise, 1440 around here at night is a jumble of very weak signals with next to nothing rising to the top. But....while I spent no small amount of time this past week on 1440...finally KPUR from Amarillo, Texas came through. Details in my post this week in "post your latest DX"
 
WWCL - Lehigh Acres FL (near Fort Myers) - Radio Vision Cristiana - Spanish - good around sunset

WPRD - Winter Park-Orlando - La Voz - Spanish is closer but barely audible in the daytime.

kw - Melbourne FL
 
East Tennessee: Daytime---nada.
Pre-Sunset: A mix that included WAJR. Morgantown, TN and WHIS, Bluefield WV.
Night---a mess with WZYX, Cowan TN dominating.
Retro/other: I worked for a 1440 in WPGW, Portland, IN, which put aa good signal into my home in Western Ohio, and could be heard at least to Kenton (a little southeast of Lima). Nighttime was a hodgepodge (WHIS making it in before sunset) that included WROK and WNFL.Quincy/Hannibal area also had a local on 1440 (WGEM). That day signal was fine, but driving back from Hannibal to Quincy at night showed WGEM to not have a good signal until I got closer to Quincy.
 
Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: WROK
Nightime: nothing really stands out

DX/RETRO/ETC: This frequency is troublesome for my at me current location thanks to WGN. Since I am just 4.5 miles from their stick, I keep getting a first harmonic of WGN on this frequency. I am able to eliminate it with my loop. Some of my DX catches include KKXL (Grand Forks, ND), KMLB (Monroe, LA), KTUV (Little Rock, AR), WHHY (Montgomery, AL), WNFL (Green Bay, WI), WJJL (Niagara Falls, NY), WZYN (Cowan, TN), WIBU (Paris, IL) as well as 4 different stations from Kentucky (WCDS, WMDJ, WEZJ, WYGH). My most recent new catch on 1440 is WAJR, Morgantown, West Virginia with high school football in September of 2022.
 
From northern DFW, Texas suburbs:

Daytime: Local KEXB Relevant Radio.
Nighttime: No dominant stations. Mostly mix of local KEXB at reduced power, KPUR Amarillo TX (Farm talk), and KMAJ Topeka KS (Talk).
 
gr8oldies said:
East Tennessee: Daytime---nada.
Pre-Sunset: A mix that included WAJR. Morgantown, TN and WHIS, Bluefield WV.
Night---a mess with WZYX, Cowan TN dominating.
Retro/other: I worked for a 1440 in WPGW, Portland, IN, which put aa good signal into my home in Western Ohio, and could be heard at least to Kenton (a little southeast of Lima). Nighttime was a hodgepodge (WHIS making it in before sunset) that included WROK and WNFL.Quincy/Hannibal area also had a local on 1440 (WGEM). That day signal was fine, but driving back from Hannibal to Quincy at night showed WGEM to not have a good signal until I got closer to Quincy.
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I might have shared this before about WPGW, but in the 80s and maybe into the early 90s, that was the station my grandparents used to hear daytime Cubs games in St. Marys. Much stronger than WGN, of course. At some point they switched to carrying the Reds, a practice they continue to this day.
Here around Columbus, Ohio, I don't think I've ever heard anything on 1440 except some slop from WBNS on 1460 depending on how close I am to their tower. Admittedly it's not a frequency I've tried much at night.
 
schmave said:
I might have shared this before about WPGW, but in the 80s and maybe into the early 90s, that was the station my grandparents used to hear daytime Cubs games in St. Marys. Much stronger than WGN, of course. At some point they switched to carrying the Reds, a practice they continue to this day.
Here around Columbus, Ohio, I don't think I've ever heard anything on 1440 except some slop from WBNS on 1460 depending on how close I am to their tower. Admittedly it's not a frequency I've tried much at night.
Click to expand...
The brief time I worked at WPGW in 1976, they carried the Reds and actually had a network line (some affiliates picked up off the air from an FM station). Carrying the Cubs later wouldn't have been a shock.
 
From the southwest suburbs of Chicago:

Thanks to proximity to WXOL 1450, I've not had a lot of luck on 1440. Once in a while I get WROK Rockford, most recently 2/17/2020 in mid-morning. Other loggings: WRRO Warren, Ohio; KKXL Grand Forks, N.D.; and most recently WZYX Cowan, Tenn., likely on 5 kW at 2:12 a.m. on Nov. 26. That was a happy surprise.
 
WZYX Cowan, TN has really become frequent log here in Chicago lately and as tvnut mentions it's most likely because they keep "forgetting" to power down at night.
 
gr8oldies said:
The brief time I worked at WPGW in 1976, they carried the Reds and actually had a network line (some affiliates picked up off the air from an FM station). Carrying the Cubs later wouldn't have been a shock.
Click to expand...

They definitely did at least for a few years around that time. Grandparents might later have depended on a station in Fort Wayne, but eventually they just went back to listening to WGN.
Did they have the FM simulcast then? If so I don't remember ever listening.
 
West Houston TX:

Daytime, slop from KSHU 1430, occasionally classic rock from KETX in Livingston TX, "the Eagle".
Sunset: KDNT in Denton TX and KEYS, news/talk from Corpus Christi usually dominate with KETX there til they drop power. I've also heard XEEST in Mexico City, WVGG Lucedale MS, and KPUR in Amarillo.
Night: KDNT, KEYS, XEEST, and KPUR are all in the mix.
Sunrise: KDNT and KPUR are both strong after they go to day power. As it gets later, KPUR has an amazingly strong signal here. KETX underperforms considering being <100 miles away.
 
schmave said:
They definitely did at least for a few years around that time. Grandparents might later have depended on a station in Fort Wayne, but eventually they just went back to listening to WGN.
Did they have the FM simulcast then? If so I don't remember ever listening.
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I don't remember a Cubs affiliate in Fort Wayne that would have made it to St. Marys. WOWO never carried baseball, WMEE (1380) was top 40 at the time.

WPGW's FM signed on around 1979, I think previous owner Glen West (the "GW" in WPGW) had the CP and new owner Bob Brandon built it out. Glen West operated the daytimer with only him and his wife. They carried all 4 ABC networks.
 
If anything, it was WGL. I can't even swear to that but it seems like they depended on that station for the Cubs, however briefly.
The Cubs don't even have a Fort Wayne affiliate anymore. I am not sure any pro teams other than the Colts and Pacers do.
 
cyberdad said:
40 miles noethwest of downtown Chicago....

DaysL: 1440 is WROK from Rockford, IL, 35 miles west of me. 5kw aimed mostly away from me, The result here is a fair signal.

Nights: WROK drops to 270 watts ND, (used to be 500 watts ND), The result now (as it was back in the day) is a disappearing act. Ptherwise, 1440 around here at night is a jumble of very weak signals with next to nothing rising to the top. But....while I spent no small amount of time this past week on 1440...finally KPUR from Amarillo, Texas came through. Details in my post this week in "post your latest DX
Click to expand...
Wrok is hard to hear at my location in the near north Chicago burbs, but I can sometimes hear it during the day.
sorry I’ve been missing for awhile cyberdad,but I was under the weather. I will be back part time now.
 
Chicago by the lakeshore:

Daytime: I sometimes have heard WKPR Kalamazoo. Today I tried checking on Lake Shore Drive and I got a reasonably clear... WGN Chicago. Presumably this is because 1440 is twice 720, where WGN is. But in the past it wasn't as strong. As for WROK, on very rare occasions I'll get a whiff of it during the day but it's basically not there.

Critical Hours/Nighttime: Can sometimes get WROK. Other logs are WIBU in Paris, IL, WGEM in Quincy IL, WNFL in Green Bay, and WZYX in Cowan, TN.
 
radioman148 said:
sorry I’ve been missing for awhile cyberdad,but I was under the weather. I will be back part time now.
Click to expand...
Glad to have you back, radioman. I missed you, and I think that goes for most of us here, I was under rhe weather myself last month. Take care, stray well. and keep those posts cipmin'!
 
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WGEM, 1440 AM is still licensed to Quincy, IL for 5kW day, 1 kW night, DA-2 per FCC online records. However for many months now they have been totally absent on the AM broadcast band, and appear to be using only W255CY, a 250W FM translator mounted ~ 460' up on the WGEM Ch 10 TV tower.

Don't know any of the details behind that, but it would interesting to learn them.
 
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