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AM Frequency of the Week: 1550

cyberdad

cyberdad

Far northwest suburban Chicago.....

Days: Not much of anything. 1550 here used to be daytimer WMIR 1kw very directional east-west from Lake Geneva, WI. The result here...being in the WMIR null...was a weak signal. But WMIR and its successors are long gone. When I get back home, it will be interesting to discover if I might be able to hear the new incarnation of WCSJ from Morris, IL. I never heard it from its old site about 60 miles south of me.

Nights: 1550 continues to be an odd frequency for me from the standpoint of what I used to hear on the channel is now mostly defunct. Former occasional visitors WOKJ, Jackson, MI, KKJO from St. Joseph, MO, KQWB Fargo, ND, and CBE from Windsor, ON are now all gone (or at least the result in the case of KQWB, moved).

At present, 1550 at night at my home location is a battle of weak and basically unidentifiable signals.

Other Location: Here on the beach this month near Pensacola, 1550 is basically vacant during the day. At night, a couple of strong signals fight it out it night. The stronger one is R. Rebelde. I'm not sute what the weaker signal (in Spanish) is. My understanding is that the Cubans got serious about blocking 1550 on their island when they discovered a South Florida station on the channel which was not to their liking. Perhaps David or someone else with knowledge of this can shed some light on this.
 
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From northern DFW, Texas suburbs:

Daytime: Very weak KMAD Madill, OK on the car radio. Does not rise above RFI floor in the house.

Sunset: KWBC College Station, TX (Willey Radio) is a regular, KUAZ Tucson, AZ (NPR) heard a couple of times.

Night: WPFC Port Allen, LA (urban gospel) and KYAL Sapulpa, OK (ESPN) are regulars, depending on which way I point the radio. Both seem stronger than their listed night power. I have also heard KESJ St. Joseph, MO (Rock hits).

Sunrise: I have heard KAPE Cape Girardeau, MO and KQNM Albuquerque, NM (Relevant Radio). Also KWBC comes back up.
 
Here in Cheyenne, WY, 1550 is a weird one for me too.

As far as I can tell, KKCL "Cloud 96.9" ,(Denver's 1550AM station) has been off air for a while now. I have occasionally heard it weakly during sunset, but the last time that happened was sometime in early 2021. Even the Denver SDR's won't bring it up.

At night, there is a hodgepodge in general, with KESJ (St. Joseph, Missouri) sometimes leading the charge with their classic hits.
 
ZantennaG1 said:
At night, there is a hodgepodge in general, with KESJ (St. Joseph, Missouri) sometimes leading the charge with their classic hits.
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Do you know if there's a connection between KESJ and the former KKJO? In any event, I didn't know KESJ was out there, and I've obviously never heard it. IIRC, KKJO was 10kw day/5kw night both directional. KESJ is 2.5kw day, 500 watts night. Directional with a null in my direction at night.
 
cyberdad said:
Do you know if there's a connection between KESJ and the former KKJO? In any event, I didn't know KESJ was out there, and I've obviously never heard it. IIRC, KKJO was 10kw day/5kw night both directional. KESJ is 2.5kw day, 500 watts night. Directional with a null in my direction at night.
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Apparently the old KKJO is now "revived" on 105.5FM, and I would probably call that the correct incarnation of K-Joe. KESJ switched from ESPN to Classic Hits in 2019, as far as I can tell. I don't think the current iteration of KESJ is connected in any way to KKJO anymore. KCJK (formerly KFME) seems to be a connection point somehow, but I truly don't know otherwise
 
In the near north Chicago suburbs there isn't much on 1550 during the day or night. I remember WMIR as I used to drive by their location in SE Wisconsin. At night it's a mix of unidentifiable signals here too.
 
Chicago by the lakeshore:

Daytime: I don't think I've ever gotten anything.

Critical Hours: WIGN in Bristol, TN has come in a few times lately. It operates at 35 KW during the day (but 6 watts at night.) I've also heard KAPE in Cape Girardeau, MO, WHIT in Madison, WI, and WIRV in Irvine, KY during critical hours.

Nighttime: Recently WQCD in Delaware, OH has been coming in pretty regularly, despite officially being 500 W by day and 29 W by night, with a southward pointing signal. I wonder what the deal is here. On other occasions I've heard KAPE and CBEF in Windsor, ON. If I'm directly on the lake, it's not unusual for CBEF to fade in periodically.
 
East Tennessee: Days--Usually a weak WIGN, Bristol TN. Sometimes (when it's even on the air) WAZX, Smyrna, GA.
Night---sometimes WIGN when it stays on day facilities....it's widely heard then. For quite a while I was hearing WDLR (WQCD NOW), Delaware, OH running day facilities nightly. I've also caught WLTI, NewCastle, IN with a surprisingly good signal for 250 watts.

Retro/other: Both Indiana and Ohio: When WAAX was Spanish language in the 90s and 00s, it was a daily regular post-sunrise and pre-sunset. Of note is the pair in Indiana, WLTI (ex WCTW) and WCVL, Crawfordsville. On the map you could see both with narrow east-west patterns, 250 watts apiece. They made DX reports frequently. WCVL gave up the directional and are now on night flea power.

My first ever 1550? At our vacation location in Fremont, Michigan, WSHN was the local station and the only one I could get on my "deaf" transistor radio. (I had better radios for subsequent trips).
 
West Houston, daytime is a weak KWBC in Navasota with classic country with a lot of slop from local 50kw KGOW 1560. At sunset WPFC starts to come up and they stay around all evening (surely not at listed 42w night power), with continued KGOW slop. I've also heard KUAT Tucson when it gets closer to their sunset. I get classic hit music mixed in occasionally, which may be KESJ but haven't ID'd.

DXing from Tulsa in the early 70's I remember KKJO coming in around sunset, but the dominant station was WOKJ in Jackson MS with it's excellent R&B format. I don't know if they were directional toward me, but they were at almost-local strength in Tulsa most evenings.
 
Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: usually nothing since WAUX (WMIR) went dark. WCSJ also heard in the past, but is currently off the air (coming back soon from a new site)
Nightime: usually a mix of stations with CBEF fading in once in a while, but in no way is it as common as CBE used to.

DX/RETRO: this frequency is one of the most productive one for me DX wise. Well over 25 different stations heard, including KQFN (West Fargo, ND), KOKA (Shreveport, LA), KYAL (Sapulpa, OK), KRPI (Ferndale, WA), WLOR (Huntsville, AL), WSAO (Senatobia, MS), WYOU (Tampa, FL). Most recent logs include WIGN (Bristol, TN), WQCD (Delaware, OH), and WCVL (Crawfordsville, IN)

One foreign stations logged on 15050 is HJCB Barranquilla, Colombia. Of note is also the split frequency of 1555 kHz, which provided a fairly easy catch of Radio Cayman, Cayman Islands in the Chicago area, but of course that one is no longer on the air.

Interesting fact about this frequency in Chicago area is the operation of several billboard stations with advertisements back in the 1998 - 2002 span. You were able to listen to advertisement messages from Old Navy Billboard while driving on I94 near North Avenue. That one eventually switched to Radio Cadillac. There was another Radio Cadillac billboard at I90 and Elmhurst Rd.
 
radioman148 said:
In the near north Chicago suburbs there isn't much on 1550 during the day or night. I remember WMIR as I used to drive by their location in SE Wisconsin. At night it's a mix of unidentifiable signals here too.
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I worked in sales at WMIR (World's Most Ignored Radio) for a few months in the 70s. A pretty miserable place, but a rather easy job. Only station in a county of nearly 200,000 and an underpriced rate card. We were often sold out, which to me meant that our rates were too low. The absentee owner lived in Arizona and showed up unannounced every 2-3 months to check on the station, The call letters stood for the guy's wife, Miriam. He reminded me of "Big Enis" in the Smokey and the Bandit movies. Complete with the long Cadillac Eldorado and cowboy hat!

I considered the place to be "sales boot camp", but I had the bank, the local Cola bottler, and a couple of Car dealers signed up, so I didn't have to work very hard. I worked for the sales manager, who didn't care what I did or when I worked, so long as I made life easier for him. Before long, I got tired of this stuff and left for a real job.
 
cyberdad said:
I worked in sales at WMIR (World's Most Ignored Radio) for a few months in the 70s. A pretty miserable place, but a rather easy job. Only station in a county of nearly 200,000 and an underpriced rate card. We were often sold out, which to me meant that our rates were too low. The absentee owner lived in Arizona and showed up unannounced every 2-3 months to check on the station, The call letters stood for the guy's wife, Miriam. He reminded me of "Big Enis" in the Smokey and the Bandit movies. Complete with the long Cadillac Eldorado and cowboy hat!

I considered the place to be "sales boot camp", but I had the bank, the local Cola bottler, and a couple of Car dealers signed up, so I didn't have to work very hard. I worked for the sales manager, who didn't care what I did or when I worked, so long as I made life easier for him. Before long, I got tired of this stuff and left for a real job.
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I've driven by there alot over the years, certainly sometime in the 70s. Had I known you were there I would've stopped by and bought you a beer or two. :)
 
From the southwest suburbs of Chicago, this is a goulash frequency: a little bit of everything.
The daytime regular used to be WCSJ Morris, all 250 watts of it; caught it ever so briefly the night of 5/8/2020 running 6 watts. Radio trivia: Blackhawks radio play-by-play announcer John Wiedeman worked there briefly at the start of his career.

Nights, CBE and now CBEF was an irregular regular with 10 kW. After that I managed these from the early 1970s through 1991: KKJO St. Joseph, Mo.; WAAY Huntsville, Ala.; KGMO Cape Girardeau, Mo.; WCTW New Castle, Ind.; WMOO Mobile, Ala. and KQWB Fargo, N.D. Some of those calls have changed.

The only two more recent catches date from 2020: WOCC Corydon, Ind. (250 watts in morning drive) and WDLR (also as WQCD) Delaware, Ohio, deep in the night and more likely running 500 watts than 29 watts. Right this second, a couple of music stations are fighting it out.
 
Here in Pickerington, Ohio, all WQCD from Delaware daytime and a lot of nothing at night.
I can't say I'm surprised to hear the far-flung reception reports from when this station was WDLR, especially considering the other co-owned stations seem to go farther than their licensed power would indicate! But that night signal skips right over my location about 35 miles south-southeast of their tower. The groundwave is good at all hours into far northern Franklin County, then skywave interference kicks in just south of 270 in my experience.
Can't speak to the depths/effectiveness of their nulls. The maps seem to indicate those would be noticeable at all hours even in parts of Delaware County.
 
Cyberdad, I thought CBEF Windsor was still on the air. It seems like I have heard it in recent times? I believe the 1550 in St. Joseph, MO, is still there as well. I haven't heard that one recently, but have sometime in the last year or two. Anyway, this frequency is a hodgepodge at night for me too, or rather, it's kind of unpredictable. I've been hearing WJIL from Jacksonville, IL, at my place recently. (Daytime, nothing but spillover from KXEL; at night KXEL doesn't disturb 1550 very much at my place.)
 
In Los Angeles, nothing until late afternoon when daytimer KUAZ Tucson fades up.
After it shuts down at sunset, a mix of several weak stations with splash from local 1540.
KXEX Fresno occasionally rises to the surface.

...
 
Moses Lake, WA

Daytime: Nothing
Nighttime: KRPI Ferndale and KGMZ San Francisco are dominant, depending on the direction my antenna is pointed. I've logged KKOV Vancouver before, but it's silent currently.
 
No, KKOV's back, doing what it does best: barfing spurs all over shortwave and bleeding in to the phone lines. Wanna know how I know this? They switched it back on last month because I guess their silent STA was about to expire.

I don't see how they can be making enough money off it to justify staying on the air since what Vietnamese population we have here isn't big enough to warrant an entire 10 kW former AM Only affiliate to broadcast to it. Clark Public Utilities ain't cheap, KKOV's coverage into the Portland area has been worse than terrible for ages (going back to when it was still KVAN going to 50 kW about 20 years ago, off way too small of antennas for the power involved, in way too small a transmitter site, in too populated an area to make even usable coverage practical, plus there's a big developed hill full of McMansions and strip malls directly to the south), and the current format's target audience would probably be much better served by Internet streaming anyways. At least it would yield intelligible audio.

ArcGIS Web Application -- bring up the basemap selector (the little "Window$" icon) and select one of the imagery hybrid maps. You'll see the transmitter site and its immediate surroudings. North of NE 28th street is fairly flat until you get into Orchards and Sifton, but south of there is about 100' of sudden elevation gain. See that fat strip of trees on the map going off to the southwest towards the Evergreen High School campus (my alma mater)? That's the hillside. You also have the Silver Star mountains and the Cascade Range not even two miles directly to the east.
 
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