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AM Frequency of the Week: 1510

CADXER said:
I get WSPY at home on my receiver (Drake R8) and loop antenna with weak signal. Hearing it in the car (also Equinox) is a different story. It's there, but I also get splash over from WPNA. I am surprised that FCC has been granting them the STA all these years. It was first granted back in 2002 and renewed as recently as July 2019. According to their application they are using a long wire antenna with 125 watts of power. The other interesting thing is the Batavia SDR, which I suspect is operated by the same person that runs WSPY. The WSPY signal on that SDR is very strong, while other local stations are much weaker, including the big 50kW blowtorches. The link to that SDR is http://w9xa.us:8073/
Click to expand...

If I'm not mistaken the stick....er, "the wire"...is on the south end of Geneva, which is adjacent to Batavia. That makes sense because where the signal began to deteriorate on the car radio was on Geneva's north side. Thanks also for the info and the SDR link. I'll check it out. And finally, your theory about the connection between the owner of the SDR also being the person in charge of WSPY seems plausible. :)
 
cyberdad said:
Correct. Although IIRC, "Brickhouse Broadcasting" was in his (first) wife's name as owner.
Click to expand...

When I was driving back from NIU in De Kalb in the early 70s I stopped there because the station made it known that they were giving away their entire record collection. I went in there and they had lots of 78's for the picking. I think that was around the time that the divorce was taking place.

Now back to your regularly scheduled 1510 thread :)
 
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cyberdad said:
If I'm not mistaken the stick....er, "the wire"...is on the south end of Geneva, which is adjacent to Batavia. That makes sense because where the signal began to deteriorate on the car radio was on Geneva's north side. Thanks also for the info and the SDR link. I'll check it out. And finally, your theory about the connection between the owner of the SDR also being the person in charge of WSPY seems plausible. :)
Click to expand...


The longwire is on McKee Street in Batavia. If you look at the co-ordinates it puts you on Stonefield Way.. but coordinates can be off a bit go north up that road to McKeee... there's a house with two towers .. one you can kinda see from the road fairly wel land one you cant.. id bet $20 the longwire is drapped off the taller painted tower you can't see quite too well
 
From NW San Antonio:

Daytime: Normally nothing, but I've heard XEQI a few times during winter daytime skywave.

Sunset: XEQI starts to come up along with WLAC. I can sometimes hear daytimers KMND in Midland, TX, and KAGC in Bryan, TX, popping in before they sign off. Less often I'll hear daytimers KROB in Robstown, TX, and KBED in Nederland, TX.

Night: XEQI is usually most dominant with WLAC running second. (I seriously doubt that XEQI powers down to 250 watts at night.) Sometimes XEPBGR "Origen Radio" in Guadalajara will pop up briefly. Aiming NW, I can sometimes hear KCKK coming through weakly.

Sunrise: It's usually the same mix as at night. Also, I start to hear the daytimers when they sign on, mostly KMND and KAGC.

DX/Retro: This past Monday morning, I logged a new station, KSTV "Fiesta Radio" in Stephenville, TX. I've yet to hear it at sunset.
 
Daytime - Nothing

Nighttime - A station that plays rap music from Spokane, Washington called 103.5 'The Game'.

I looked it up and the call letters are KGA.
 
hawaiigar said:
Daytime - Nothing

Nighttime - A station that plays rap music from Spokane, Washington called 103.5 'The Game'.

I looked it up and the call letters are KGA.
Click to expand...

I think it's a sports station most of the day. Apparently they have a construction permit to operate with 540 watts at night. Receiving KGA
in Hawaii may become more challenging.
 
Daytime here in W. Washington, nothing.

Nighttime it's wall to wall KGA, usually. I listen to them more now that they've gong hip-hop, especially since hip-hop has gotten more musical over the past few years.

They were all-sports, and then before that I think they were talk (if memory serves). Waaaay back they were country. A lot of truckers all over the west tuned into KGA.
 
boombox4 said:
Daytime here in W. Washington, nothing.

Nighttime it's wall to wall KGA, usually. I listen to them more now that they've gong hip-hop, especially since hip-hop has gotten more musical over the past few years.

They were all-sports, and then before that I think they were talk (if memory serves). Waaaay back they were country. A lot of truckers all over the west tuned into KGA.
Click to expand...

Seems they can't decide on a format.
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
The longwire is on McKee Street in Batavia. If you look at the co-ordinates it puts you on Stonefield Way.. but coordinates can be off a bit go north up that road to McKeee... there's a house with two towers .. one you can kinda see from the road fairly wel land one you cant.. id bet $20 the longwire is drapped off the taller painted tower you can't see quite too well
Click to expand...

Classy....and apparently all you need to operate on an STA for the better part of two decades! And on a less sarcastic note, fits perfectly with what I experienced in the car the other day.

I went to Google Maps and found a pretty good 360-degree view of the site. Across the driveway from the house there's a small building....perhaps originally a storage shed....that looks like it could house the transmitter. One of the two towers on the site abuts this little building. And what looks like the longwire is draped from the top to the ground. There's what looks like a VHF or ham radio antenna on top of the tower. The second tower is next to the house, and mostly obscured by trees. But you can see what also looks like an antenna structure on the top of it.

And @radioman, I remember the record library giveaway. I had forgotten all about it, until your post. And yes, I think there was some sort of connection between that and the divorce.
 
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By the way, John R was the late Night DJ for many years on WLAC. The SPONSOR was Ernie's Record Mart. Many people thought that the DJ owned the record store, and that he was Ernie. John R had a kind of Wolfman Jack mystique.

There WAS an Ernie who was a DJ AND owned record stores. It was "Frantic" Ernie Durham, who became "Frantic" when he commuted between closely spaced airshafts at WBBC in Flint and WJLB in Detroit, both of which were owned by Booth Broadcasting Company, in the late 1950s. This Ernie has become a kind of folk legend due to his friendship with full time hippie radical John Sinclair, the man who inspired a John Lennon album track, not his best work.
 
Route66Fan said:
From Carrollton, MO.
Daytime: KCTE, Kansas City, MO (ESPN Radio.).
Nighttime: ??
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This has been close to my experience in Overland Park, Kansas. I have received WLAC when they are on daytime pattern before KCTE signs on. I do hear stations under KCTE during critical hours. At night, no WLAC [in a null here]. I have not ID'd a station at night on this frequency, as yet. There are signals present but none of them ever increase in strength to the point of being identified.

Bob
 
West Dennis, Cape Cod:

Day: It's supposed to be WMEX

Night: Nothing really

Retro: St. Peters, MO

Day: WQQW.

Night: WLAC
 
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