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AM Frequency of the week: 1470:

cyberdad

cyberdad

40 miles west of downtown Chicago. 9 miles north of Sleepy Hollow, Illinois (Yes, its a real place)......

Days: 1470 is usally blank. Sometimes a very weak WMBD from Peoria,IL. There used to be a Gospel station on 1470 in Chicago's south suburbs. I've also heard that one on cold winter days (WMPP if memory serves).

Nights: WMBD with one of the strongest "regional channel" signals at my location. Absolutely owns 1470 most nights. i used to sometimes hear WOHO from Toledo, OH every now and then on WMBD fades. If I'm not mistaken, WOHO is now dark, KWSL from Sioux City, IA also sometimes used to sneak in....but not since they dropped night power to 69 watts. (Formerly 5kw).
 
In the near north Chicago suburbs: daytime nothing. Before it went off the air I used to hear a fairly weak WMPP. At night mostly WMBD with some fading.

Retro: Waaay back WMBD was the first station that Jack Brickhouse worked at before he came to Chicago.
 
Chicago by the lakeshore:

Daytime: Like for cyberdad, WMBD Peoria is on the edge of audibility... it's there but barely.

Critical Hours: WMBD starts strengthening but also sometimes other stations break through. I've logged WGNR in Anderson IN near Indianapolis, and KWAY in Waverly, IA in the northeast part of the state.

Nightime: WMBD takes over and I rarely hear anything else.
 
I just heard WFNT near the Straits of Mackinac during Critical Hours tonight. WLCO was booming in on 1530 with 5000 watts. I was even getting WFLT 1420 intermittently with 500 watts. Usually, in most of Michigan, WMBD is heard at Night a lot on 1470. Also WVOL in Berry Hill, TN.
 
In the southwest Chicago suburbs, WMPP / WCFJ used to be a regular daytime; can't remember if I even noticed their nighttime signal fighting with WMBD. It's been silent since 2015.

WMBD is an easy listen most nights. Tonight, there's been a hint of country music and ESPN's NBA broadcast underneath WMBD at various times in the last hour. No IDs have leaked through, naturally.

Once, back in November 2015, WFNY Flint popped in for a bit at 4 a.m.

Radioman148 noted Brickhouse's early tenure at WMBD. Other graduates of 1470 are fellow WGN sportscaster Vince Lloyd, Tom Kelly (who came back to call the Illinois high school basketball tournament on TV for decades after making it big in L.A.) and WGN Radio's John Williams. Brickhouse, Lloyd and Kelly all called Bradley Braves basketball.
 
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East Tennessee: WBCR, Alcoa TN, Your one-stop for Alex Jones and all things conspiratorial, with a mighty 1000 watts/
Night: WBCR still on top with 77 watts but barely, above the graveyard-sounding din.

Retro/other: Ohio (west central). Daytime: The present day WGNR as WHUT with now apparently defunct WOHO. Sometimes WMBD at night.
 
tvnut said:
Radioman148 noted Brickhouse's early tenure at WMBD. Other graduates of 1470 are fellow WGN sportscaster Vince Lloyd, Tom Kelly (who came back to call the Illinois high school basketball tournament on TV for decades after making it big in L.A.) and WGN Radio's John Williams. Brickhouse, Lloyd and Kelly all called Bradley Braves basketball.
Click to expand...

Another alumnus of WMBD is the late sportscaster Bob Starr. When I grew up in Peoria in the 1960s, Starr was a play-by-play voice of Bradley University basketball. The games were also broadcast on local rival station WIRL [1290 kHz] with Mort Cantor as the play-by-play voice. It was unusual that separate broadcast rights were granted to two stations in the same market for many years. Cantor had an almost cult-like following in the Peoria market during that era. Starr had the much better voice and a more professional delivery while Cantor was highly animated and energized.

Another sportscaster alumnus of the Peoria market on then WEEK [1350 kHz] was the late Chick Hearn. Hearn was also a play-by-play voice of Bradley basketball when WEEK had broadcast rights in the late 1940s through the mid 1950s until Chick left for Los Angeles. On a personal note, my late father was the Chief Engineer of WEEK radio [until the station was sold in 1960] and later TV until 1974. He and Chick traveled on the road together in order to broadcast sporting events. Chick was my godfather.

As an aside, I have yet to receive WMBD here in the Kansas City area. I have tried many times.

Bob
 
I forgot that Vince Lloyd and Tom Kelly were with WMBD. I remember Bob Starr back in the 80s doing California/LA Angels games. Lots of talented people passed through WMBD.
 
In my previous post, make that WFNT Flint. Apparently you can't edit a post after a while.

Peoria has a hotbed for radio talent over the years. I didn't know Starr worked at WMBD. He was with KMOX for years working Cardinals baseball alongside Jack Buck, in Boston before that covering the Patriots on WBZ, and working Angels and Rams games on KMPC after his St. Louis stint.
 
Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: Same situation as the others. Hear WMBD during day on few occasions in the past.
Nightime: WMBD dominant at night

DX/RETRO: Not much DX done on this frequency mainly due to WMBD domination at night. Stations heard: KWSL (Sioux City, IA), WHUT (Anderson, IN), WVOL (Berry Hill, TN), and the two stations that are no longer on 1470 kHz: CHOW (Welland, ON) and WQSN (Kalamazoo, MI) which moved to the expanded band (1660 kHz).
 
Here in west central Georgia, 1470 am is usually WRGA Rome GA news/talk 5000 weak during the day and audible in the evenings from time to time. According to Radio Locator their signal is directional north and south during the day, and directional south in the evening, all of which favors reception in my area.

During critical hours have heard WQXL Columbia SC 11000/100 news/talk.
 
I received WKMF/WFNT 1470 in Cedar Grove, WI when we stayed a Night there circa 1973. I heard it right at LSS at the station, and it went from 5000 to 1000 Watts and went from Day to Night pattern. I didn't have much problem nulling out WMBD. I also remember hearing a surprisingly strong signal from WIND 560, as strong or stronger than WMAQ/WSCR 670. WHBL 1330 from Sheboygan, WI also had a surprisingly good signal there at Night off the back of their pattern, about 10 or so miles South. We passed their towers before staying in Cedar Grove, along what is now I-43. Interestingly, both WHBL and WKMF (as WCLC) had been owned by the Carrell family, and WHBL happened to be parked in Sheboygan, when the FCC decreed that mobile stations had to stay put or go of the air. They may have used some of the leftover mobile equipment for WCLC, but they were never mobile. By that time, Charles L. Carrell had passed away and Adelaide Carrell owned the stations that stayed put.

http://www.theradiohistorian.org/portable/portable.html
 
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radioman148 said:
I forgot that Vince Lloyd and Tom Kelly were with WMBD. I remember Bob Starr back in the 80s doing California/LA Angels games. Lots of talented people passed through WMBD.
Click to expand...

Indeed. And all of those mentioned...including Chick Hearn...have spoken fondly of their days at WMBD. Frequently referring to it as "The Alma Mater." The station has always had a great reputation, not only as an incubator for topnotch talent, but also for being widely respected in its community. WMBD is now also co-owned with WIRL, another small market standout.

WMBD-TV has a notable history of its own, although it is no-longer co-owned with the radio station. WMBD had been an applicant for VHF channel 8. An assignment that eventually went to Moline, IL and was occupied by WQAD-TV that went on the air in 1963 as an ABC affilliate. The legal battle went on for most of the 1950s, with WMBD-TV (CBS) eventually getting Peoria Channel 31.

I'm not 100% sure, but I seem to recall that there were other markets involved besides Moline and Peoria involved in the contest for the Channel 8 allocation. I wouldn't be surprised if DXBob knows the answer to that. Bu t the bottom line, as I recall, was that the FCC wanted Peoria to be an all-UHF market. With channel 31 to go with then-WIRL-TV on channel 19 (ABC) and WEEK-TV on channel 25 (NBC).
 
cyberdad said:
WMBD-TV has a notable history of its own, although it is no-longer co-owned with the radio station. WMBD had been an applicant for VHF channel 8. An assignment that eventually went to Moline, IL and was occupied by WQAD-TV that went on the air in 1963 as an ABC affilliate. The legal battle went on for most of the 1950s, with WMBD-TV (CBS) eventually getting Peoria Channel 31.

I'm not 100% sure, but I seem to recall that there were other markets involved besides Moline and Peoria involved in the contest for the Channel 8 allocation. I wouldn't be surprised if DXBob knows the answer to that. Bu t the bottom line, as I recall, was that the FCC wanted Peoria to be an all-UHF market. With channel 31 to go with then-WIRL-TV on channel 19 (ABC) and WEEK-TV on channel 25 (NBC).
Click to expand...

You are correct about the FCC wanting Peoria to be an all UHF market versus a split UHF-VHF market. I know my father testified at a number of FCC hearings on this matter. Although, I do not recall specifics. He supervised the construction of WEEK-TV, the first TV station in Peoria which went on the air in 1953 on channel 43. Later, WEEK-TV moved to channel 25 in 1964. The transmitter power was increased substantially at that time. My father had to recruit Engineers who were familiar with UHF broadcasting technology from primarily the east coast at the time. WMBD-TV went on the air in 1958.

I still have newspaper clippings and photos from 1953 when station went "live" on the air. In that era, UHF coverage areas were far less than their VHF counterparts.

Bob
 
A couple of terms and organizations involved with Peoria and other cities like South Bend and Fort Wayne.

Making markets all VHF or all UHF was called "Deintermixture". This was when most markets only had ABC, CBS, and NBC. When FOX and other networks popped up, they had to be UHF, until some of the VHF affiliates got bought out by FOX.

There was an organization called "Maximum Service Telecasters" involved in stopping VHF drop ins. It was headed up by Lester Lindow, a Renaissance man, who had previously been the General Manager of WFDF 910 Flint. The last I checked he was still alive, but maybe it was an old link. Ironically, WFDF-TV, which also applied for Channel 12, lost out to competing applicant WJR 760, owned by Goodwill Stations. Goodwill tried to make WJRT-TV a rim shot Detroit station, with its tower near high elevation Clarkston, MI, but was forced to modify and move the proposed TL to Chesaning, MI in order to be approved as the otherwise superior applicant. Of course, Channels 2, 4, and 7 were thrilled to not have additional VHF competition. UHF was a joke back then, except for smaller markets like Peoria. Now, the stations' worst fears and nightmares have been realized, with the vast majority of major market TVs on physical UHF channels.
 
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cyberdad said:
Indeed. And all of those mentioned...including Chick Hearn...have spoken fondly of their days at WMBD. Frequently referring to it as "The Alma Mater." The station has always had a great reputation, not only as an incubator for topnotch talent, but also for being widely respected in its community. WMBD is now also co-owned with WIRL, another small market standout.

WMBD-TV has a notable history of its own, although it is no-longer co-owned with the radio station. WMBD had been an applicant for VHF channel 8. An assignment that eventually went to Moline, IL and was occupied by WQAD-TV that went on the air in 1963 as an ABC affilliate. The legal battle went on for most of the 1950s, with WMBD-TV (CBS) eventually getting Peoria Channel 31.

I'm not 100% sure, but I seem to recall that there were other markets involved besides Moline and Peoria involved in the contest for the Channel 8 allocation. I wouldn't be surprised if DXBob knows the answer to that. Bu t the bottom line, as I recall, was that the FCC wanted Peoria to be an all-UHF market. With channel 31 to go with then-WIRL-TV on channel 19 (ABC) and WEEK-TV on channel 25 (NBC).
Click to expand...

The FCC's interest in deintermixture didn't always work. In Illinois alone, WREX Rockford stayed on 13, and WCIA Champaign stayed on 3, after legal fights. The other commercial stations in those markets were UHF in the analog era. (WILL 12 Urbana was the exception, and NET/PBS.)
 
tvnut said:
The FCC's interest in deintermixture didn't always work. In Illinois alone, WREX Rockford stayed on 13, and WCIA Champaign stayed on 3, after legal fights. The other commercial stations in those markets were UHF in the analog era. (WILL 12 Urbana was the exception, and NET/PBS.)
Click to expand...

The Channel 2 allocation for Springfield was eventually swapped with St. Louis, with them getting 2 and Springfield getting 36, which was moved to 49 sometime in the 1960s. That swap allowed Channel 2 to also be allocated to Terre Haute IN. KTVI Channel 36 St. Louis moved to 2 as a result.

The VHF channel assignments in most of the Midwest underwent massive changes in the 1950s.
 
KeithE4 said:
The Channel 2 allocation for Springfield was eventually swapped with St. Louis, with them getting 2 and Springfield getting 36, which was moved to 49 sometime in the 1960s. That swap allowed Channel 2 to also be allocated to Terre Haute IN. KTVI Channel 36 St. Louis moved to 2 as a result.

The VHF channel assignments in most of the Midwest underwent massive changes in the 1950s.
Click to expand...

Those dominoes all started with WTMJ-3 Milwaukee, which was causing interference with WKZO-3 Kalamazoo into 1953. The FCC decided on these moves to fix that and more:

1. WBBM-4 Chicago (just bought by CBS from Balaban and Katz, who moved WBKB to 7, merging with WENR in the Paramount-ABC merger) would move to 2, displacing Zenith's experimental KS2XBS, which would be moved to UHF.

2. With 4 open, WTMJ could move from 3 to 4, eliminating the interference with WKZO and opening up 3 for Madison (WISC). It also allowed WCIA-3 Champaign to sign on without being short-spaced with Chicago.

3. WCIA's presence on 3 and 2's full-power status in Chicago meant 2 in Springfield had to move; St. Louis was the destination, which also opened up 2 for Terre Haute.

The result was 2s in Chicago, St. Louis and Green Bay (duplicated on 5), 3s in Kalamazoo, Madison and Champaign, and 4s in Milwaukee, Bloomington (Ind.) and Rock Island (effectively duplicated on 6).

At the same time on VHF-high, WOOD Grand Rapids moved from 7 to 8 to eliminate interference with WENR/WBKB.
 
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