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AM Frequency of the week: 1440:

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Welcome back radioman. Nice to hear from you again. Stay well.
 
rfry said:
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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Per FCC records, WGEM (now owned by Gray Television along with the FM and TV station) filed a silent STA 9/9/2022, after going silent 6/24.
"
4873-3592-5289.1
Silent Statement
WGEM(AM), Quincy, IL, facility ID 54277, went silent as of June 24, 2022 due to equipment
failure. Authority to remain silent is hereby requested while the station assesses repair options"

C'mon, if you really wanted to fix it, there are equipment manufacturers across town.
Unless they are feeding the translator through an HD2, they've been operating that translator illegally since June.
 
gr8oldies said:
Per FCC records, WGEM (now owned by Gray Television along with the FM and TV station) filed a silent STA 9/9/2022, after going silent 6/24.
"
4873-3592-5289.1
Silent Statement
WGEM(AM), Quincy, IL, facility ID 54277, went silent as of June 24, 2022 due to equipment
failure. Authority to remain silent is hereby requested while the station assesses repair options"

C'mon, if you really wanted to fix it, there are equipment manufacturers across town.
Click to expand...
The "assessing" going on is ownership weighing whether the cost of fixing the equipment would ever be recouped through advertising. If the prices they're seeing indicate that it wouldn't, then it's goodbye WGEM(AM) and hello to whatever fire-and-brimstone bottom-feeder operator wants to take the station off their hands and let the scared flock fund it through their donations.
 
Hearing about WGEM being silent made me wonder if the reason WKPR Kalamazoo couldn't be heard anywhere on Chicago's Lake Shore Drive yesterday was similar. So I looked online and sure enough they shut down on August 8 of this year.
 
Gray doesn't generally do radio, so I can see them unloading the FM as well if there are any takers. Yes, if the AM survives at all, either fire 'n' brimstone or Catholic.
 
rfry said:
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.
Click to expand...
Sorry to hear that WGEM is off 1440. They had a very good dy signal for being on the upper end of the dial. On my biz trips to Saint Louis, WGEM was my go-to for Chicago Cubs daaytime baseball.
 
cyberdad said:
Sorry to hear that WGEM is off 1440. They had a very good dy signal for being on the upper end of the dial. On my biz trips to Saint Louis, WGEM was my go-to for Chicago Cubs daaytime baseball.
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All 3 of the major Hannibal/Quincy AMs (WTAD, KHMO, WGEM). made it into the Warrenton, MO SDR with ease (no reason they shouldn't have). I've never DXed WGEM outside of the area. WGEM made a big deal about being stereo when I worked across the river in 1985-86
 
Welcome back radioman, good to see you on here again.
 
From NW San Antonio:

Day: A weak KELG "La Palabra" from Manor, TX, near Austin. The signal is intelligible on my more sensitive radios.

Sunset: A jumble with KELG a bit stronger, KEYS in Corpus Christi, XEEST in Mexico City, and KPUR in Amarillo. The former is usually first to disappear, and the latter two eventually dominate. KEXB in University Park sometimes mixes in weakly.

Night: KPUR is usually most dominant and mixes with KEYS, which can sometimes take over for a while. Occasionally I'll hear brief snatches of XEEST, classic rock KETX in Livingston, TX, and WWCL in Lehigh Acres, FL (see below).

Sunrise: KEXB and KELG return weakly when they go to day power/pattern. Just as wildthangjim notes in Houston, KPUR often puts in an amazingly strong sunrise signal here as well.

DX/Retro: This past week I started hearing WWCL for the first time ever. It comes in weakly for brief bits with Spanish-language Christian music and occasional preaching. I've only been able to ID it via stream match.

I've heard KTUV "La Voz" in Little Rock just twice. One-time catches include classic hits stations KAZG in Scottsdale, AZ, and KRDZ in Wray, CO, as well as XEABCJ (ABC Radio - now retired) in Tonalá.
 
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jim-satx said:
DX/Retro: This past week I started hearing WWCL for the first time ever. It comes in weakly for brief bits with Spanish-language Christian music and occasional preaching. I've only been able to ID it via stream match.
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This is interesting. Recently, for the first time I can remember, I've been hearing some Spanish religious programming on 1440 near sunset. I've suspected KELG, but haven't ID'ed it yet. I need to check 1440 again.
 
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