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AM Frequency of the Week - 1530 kHz

B

Buckeyes2001

What can you get on 1530 AM?

Here in Vermilion, OH, 1530 is blank during the day and at night its all WCKY/Cincinnati, OH 'ESPN 1530' with a good signal. Their night pattern favors my direction.
 
Durham, NC:

Daytime is WLLQ in Chapel Hill, NC (antenna array actually in Durham County)

Nighttime (and anytime WLLQ is off-air) is WCKY, Cincinnati, OH
 
This is a real dead frequency here, even though I'm on the Gulf Coast. The nearest station is about 350 miles away and runs only 1,000 watts days, so I hear nothing at all on this frequency.

At night though, it's all ESPN 1530 from Cincinnati.
 
SW Ohio

Surprisingly enough, here in Cincinnati the only station I am able to hear day and night is WCKY. I wonder if that has anything to do with my living less than 5 miles from their transmitter site?

WCKY's transmitter and antenna array are located in Northern Kentucky on a bluff overlooking the Ohio river. Has to be one of the more picturesque spots for an AM station.

The historic Anderson Ferry still plies the river between Ohio and Kentucky, and on the trip across you get a unique view of the WCKY towers up on the bluff.
 
From Kandahar, Afghanistan
Daytime:
Nothing
Evenings
IRIB Iran 50 KW @ 657 miles
AIR North India 20 KW @ 504 miles when Iran is nulled.
TRF portable receiver
 
From Gary, IN, I sometimes get WJJG Elmhurst, IL, but not always. Too much interference from adjacent channels 1520 WKVI-AM Knox, IN & 1540 WLOI LaPorte, IN. At night, I get WCKY Cincinnati. WLOI signs off at local sunset to protect KXEL. WKVI-AM is supposed to sign off at local sunset, but a lot of times, they stay on the air at night. I'm sure if Kankakee Valley Broadcasting had the money to seek night time broadcasting, that they'd do it. They're far enough from both WWKB Buffalo, NY & KOKC Oklahoma City, OK, that they could get night time broadcasting. Being in a rural town with nothing but corn in the broadcasting area, that won't happen.
 
In Central Mass-nada In SW Fla, local WENG, Englewood FL from about 2 mi away. Good local programming. I actually listen to it a bit. At night, I get WCKY weakly but audible in the null of WENG ( by turning the Bose radio).
 
Far northwest suburbs of Chicago....

Day: WJJG, Elmhurst, IL. Fair to weak...and regularly trashed by WCKY during "critical hours".

Night: WCKY. Good while still on day pattern (before sunset at KFBK). Weaker on night pattern, but still Fair to good.
 
Memphis: days nothing, nights usually WCKY

i've ocassionally heard something fight with WCKY, news talk format i've never been able to identify....
 
foreverchanges1975 said:
Memphis: days nothing, nights usually WCKY

i've ocassionally heard something fight with WCKY, news talk format i've never been able to identify....
Click to expand...

You may have heard KFBK.
 
Here just east of Columbus, Ohio, it's all WCKY at night, but not always as good a signal as you might expect for being only 110 miles or so from the tower. WCKY is EXTREMELY weak here daytime (whereas WLW is one of the strongest signals, but we've been over and over that road!).
 
ddsparxx said:
foreverchanges1975 said:
Memphis: days nothing, nights usually WCKY

i've ocassionally heard something fight with WCKY, news talk format i've never been able to identify....
Click to expand...

You may have heard KFBK.
Click to expand...

I've been trying forever to snag KFBK here in the Chicago area for years. I think I may have heard it a couple of times, but I've never been able to ID it, so I'm not at all sure. They do a good job of protecting (co-owned) WCKY.

I have heard 5kw WLCO from Lapeer, MI a few times around sunrise....usually mixing with or underneath WCKY.
 
Up to several years ago, WMBT Shenandoah PA (oldies) was the local. Their one tower was just a few miles from us. They'd go off at sunset, of course. Yet, often they'd still be broadcasting, late afternoon, 2500 watts -- and we'd drive around that Ashland Mountain to their west and get WCKY slicing them up with a lot of daylight left.

For some reason, WMBT, up there in Shenandoah Heights, never signed on during the morning aftermath of a 1996 blizzard. The satellite dish must have buried. And, like I said ..... Shenandoah *Heights* ..... way, way up there.
I managed to pull out WCTR from Maryland that midday, as well as WTHU from Marlyand on neighboring 1520.

WMBT has been dark for several years. But it was Winter 2010 when that mid-winter Anomaly kicked in about 1:30PM. WVBF from Massachusetts was the one most atop the frequency, with an hour-long show about Vitamin E. Next day, a weaker WVBF and a quite-loud-at-times WLLQ's 'La Grande' from NC was there.

WCKY/WSAI/WCKY at nights, naturally.

* * * * * * *

Too bad about WMBT going dark. They were mostly satellite oldies, but the midday guy was live and local. Frank Jordan was his name, raised in nearby Frackville PA and once one of the regional singing group the Jordan Brothers. Back in the DXing days on Western Long Island, WMBT was a sunset regular, even at 250 watts, before WCKY took over.

* * * * * * *

Lol : Has anyone had occasion to check out WVBF's nighttime coverage map on their monster 2-watt signal?
 
From Tampa ...

Daytime - nothing in summer but sometimes WYMM in the winter.

Nighttime - fairly strong WCKY fading in and out and when I've moved the radio to a WNW direction, I can often hear a talk station but I've never had an ID.

At least I know it's not KFBK because I compared it to their audio stream and it's definitely not them.

This mystery station is not a news station and the times it's come in the best, they always seem to be doing some kind of commercial. (at least the last time I listened last winter)

Looking at the AM stations by frequency log, I haven't any clue as to where that station is from.
 
If it's not KFBK, that remains a mystery... ???

Forgot to add...back in 2007, I've heard KFBK as early as 3 PM Pacific time when I was in western Oregon.
 
gar fla said:
From Tampa ...

Daytime - nothing in summer but sometimes WYMM in the winter.

Nighttime - fairly strong WCKY fading in and out and when I've moved the radio to a WNW direction, I can often hear a talk station but I've never had an ID.

At least I know it's not KFBK because I compared it to their audio stream and it's definitely not them.

This mystery station is not a news station and the times it's come in the best, they always seem to be doing some kind of commercial. (at least the last time I listened last winter)

Looking at the AM stations by frequency log, I haven't any clue as to where that station is from.
Click to expand...

Could it be WENG in Englewood, down near Port Charlotte? They are authorized a whopping 1 watt at night but who's to say they don't leave the daytime power on all night sometimes. ;)
 
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