AM Frequency of the Week - 1560 kHz

[Buckeyes2001]

What do you all get on 1560 AM? For me in Vermilion, OH it is a rather weak WWYC from Toledo, OH and at night WQEW from NYC with Radio Disney.

 

[crainbebo]

1560 here in Monroe is one of Seattle's worst AM signals. KZIZ in Sumner with 1000w. I can get a whisper, on a CLEAR DAY.

At night it's KVAN Burbank, WA (SS Religion) mixing with KNZR Bakersfield (News/Talk).

-crainbebo

 

[Gregg]

WQEW NYC is the only 50,000 watt station on 1560 in North America. WQEW and KNZR Bakersfield are the two original Class I-B stations at 1560. But Bakersfield never sought permission to go 50,000 watts in the early AM era. Of all the I-B stations, only KNZR and 1550 CBE Windsor never went to the max. (A few Mexican I-Bs powered down at night but went to 50,000 watts or more by day.) KNZR had been 10,000 watts till a few years ago when the FCC allowed it to increase to 25,000 watts in the daytime but remaining at 10,000 watts after sunset.

I live in NJ and WQEW is all I hear on 1560.

 

[Icangelp]

Here in Cinci, it is...

Days
WCNW Fairfield (Cincinnati) OH

Sunset
WAGL Lancaster SC

Night
WQEW NYC

I don't frequent this frequency, but I'm sure I'd have a longer list if I did.

 

[ftballfan]

Day: Nothing
Night: WQEW

 

[cyberdad]

Far northwest suburbs of Chicago....

Days: Pretty much empty since WSQR (Sycamore, IL) left the channel for 1180. When WSQR was here, the signal was fair.

Critical Hours: KGOW sometimes pays a visit.

Nights: Paducah, Kentucky (as WDXR and later WPAD) used to be fairly reliable, but I haven't heard them for a few years. WQEW is semi-regular, but not very strong.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

Springfield, IL:

Day (on car radio): weak WBYS Canton, IL
Night: usually weak WQEW

 

[jd]

This is a very interesting frequency here in East Texas near Tyler. Most of the year during critical hours KGOW Bellaire/Houston (about 190 miles distant) is a frequent "seek stopper" on a car radio. It can still be heard virtually throughout the remaining daylight hours in the colder months but it's subject to long, deep fading. In the middle of the day during the warmer months, however, KGOW is essentially gone and a weak KHBR from Hillsboro (95 miles west of here) can be heard.

At night KGOW is gone and replaced by a mix of 250-watt KEBC from Del City (Oklahoma City) and KTXZ West Lake Hills (Austin). Either or both of them can be surprisingly strong at times, but both experience some adjacent channel splatter from XERF.

 

[tomservo]

1560 is a pretty dead frequency on the Alabama Gulf coast. For the most part, it's nothing day and a jumbled mess at night.

However, close to the beach, I've heard WSLA from Slidell, Louisiana faintly during the day. It's 1 kW at about 120 miles due west.

Around sunset, it's an often strong and reiable KGOW from Houston, 475 miles west. I think it's a daytimer only, right? I don't recall hearing it at night.

After dark, the only station I can recall logging is WPAD from Paducah, at 471 miles north. That was a one time deal, haven't heard it since.

 

[schmave]

1560 is a pretty dead frequency on the Alabama Gulf coast. For the most part, it's nothing day and a jumbled mess at night.

However, close to the beach, I've heard WSLA from Slidell, Louisiana faintly during the day. It's 1 kW at about 120 miles due west.

Around sunset, it's an often strong and reiable KGOW from Houston, 475 miles west. I think it's a daytimer only, right? I don't recall hearing it at night.

After dark, the only station I can recall logging is WPAD from Paducah, at 471 miles north. That was a one time deal, haven't heard it since.

KGOW runs at all hours. Oddly enough, its night pattern favors you more than the day pattern. The day pattern largely shoots northeast from Rosharon, Texas, and unless something has changed recently the night towers are out near Katy, Texas, west of Houston, and shoot the signal back over the city to the east/southeast.

 

[purpledevil]

WQEW NYC is the only 50,000 watt station on 1560 in North America.

Uh...no. KGOW-Bellaire, Texas is also @ 1560 with 50,000 watts during the day, & 19kW @ night.
Of course being in Houston that's all there is here day and night, even though surprisingly enough there are parts of Houston that KGOW is fairly weak. I have never heard anything else @ 1560 since it upgraded to the 50,000 watts a couple of years ago.

 

[benale]

In NE Pa, daytime nothing, at night WQEW which has an incredible nighttime signal in the Northeast and Canada. It's a shame they waste that signal with Radio Disney. When it ran standards from 1992 to 1998 it was great to listen to.

 

[ddsparxx]

Northern VA,

It's weak daytimer WKIK La Plata, MD with a country format, and nights, it's the Radio Disney from NYC.

 

[stormy01]

Far northwest suburbs of Chicago....near Crystal Lake/McHenry, IL

Days:
WGLB Elm Grove, WI (very weak with a longwire [not "barefoot"]; formerly Port Washington, WI - they had a better signal then)
WSQR Sycamore, IL [when it was on this freq., it was quite listenable]

Critical Hours:
WRIN Rensselaer, IN
WNWN Portage (Kalamazoo), MI (a regular mornings and late afternoons/early evenings)
KGOW Bellaire (Houston), TX (can't miss this one! a sports station)
KLNG Council Bluffs (Omaha), IA [mornings]
WTOD Toledo, OH (haven't heard them as WWYC yet)

Nights:
WPAD Paducah, KY(agreed that the former WDXR came in much better and haven't heard 1560 from Paducah in a long time)
WQEW NYC, NY (sometimes surprisingly strong, often just a so-so signal)

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

Ditto on the WQEW signal. We're a hundred fifty miles west of them and they send a lot of it away from us, yet WQEW is here day and night with their, um, entertainment.

* Did * manage to get an ID from an Oldies station in December 1995. Word was that WMRO was operating at some STA power that night, and they were IDable. The wife thought she heard 'Callahan' as the ID, and I heard something else. We were both right. The city was Gallatin (Tennessee).

Also got WPAD from KY here in Feb 1993.

(I'll wager that if WQEW went back to Standards, they'd have more of a mass audience -- INCLUDING more of those among that all-important, crucial 6-11 demo

 

[jd]

WQEW NYC is the only 50,000 watt station on 1560 in North America.

Uh...no. KGOW-Bellaire, Texas is also @ 1560 with 50,000 watts during the day, & 19kW @ night.

Not to quibble over small details, but KGOW operates with 46kW day and 15kW at night. In 2011 a reduction from 50kW (originally licensed in 2006) along with alteration in height of one of the towers was made to address the problem of daytime skywave. Whether or not that was successful largely depends on where you're listening; at my location I noticed little if any change. Also, the nighttime power was scaled back from the the once planned 19kW (coupled with with a slight adjustment in the basic pattern orientation) to satisfy some concerns from the SCT in Mexico.

For the record there is another 50kW station besides WQEW on 1560, albeit a daytimer, WAGL in Lancaster SC.

 

[tomservo]

KGOW runs at all hours. Oddly enough, its night pattern favors you more than the day pattern. The day pattern largely shoots northeast from Rosharon, Texas, and unless something has changed recently the night towers are out near Katy, Texas, west of Houston, and shoot the signal back over the city to the east/southeast.

Hmm. I'll have to give a listen then now that's well into the overnight hours and see if KGOW comes through. I had checked Radio-Locator when I made that post and I swear it said it was daytime only. Did the night power start just recently?

 

[jd]

That's an error on the part of RL related to the application that affected their daytime facility only, as mentioned earlier. Their current nighttime operation was licensed in January 2010; prior to that they ran a temporary facility near Bellaire with just 100 watts due to problems in locating a suitable nighttime site.

 

[schmave]

WQEW NYC is the only 50,000 watt station on 1560 in North America.

Uh...no. KGOW-Bellaire, Texas is also @ 1560 with 50,000 watts during the day, & 19kW @ night.

Not to quibble over small details, but KGOW operates with 46kW day and 15kW at night. In 2011 a reduction from 50kW (originally licensed in 2006) along with alteration in height of one of the towers was made to address the problem of daytime skywave. Whether or not that was successful largely depends on where you're listening; at my location I noticed little if any change. Also, the nighttime power was scaled back from the the once planned 19kW (coupled with with a slight adjustment in the basic pattern orientation) to satisfy some concerns from the SCT in Mexico.

For the record there is another 50kW station besides WQEW on 1560, albeit a daytimer, WAGL in Lancaster SC.

How is KGOW reception within the immediate area jd? The new patterns finally took effect shortly after I left the area three years ago, so I never got to experience the improved signal.

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

One more for the 1560 log I forgot, sri.

I don;t have the date for it, but WQEW was scheduled to go off the air overnight for some reason. The occasion was around 2001 or so.

We indeed did get WKIK from MD then, playing C&W. In fact, some rather immediate-New York area folks heard them as well.
Thanks for the new catch here, ddsparxx
The NYC folks also heard a station or two on 1570 in the WQEW absence. That had to be a rarity for them ; a nice window.

* * * * * * *

The 1560 facility (as far back as when it was classical WQXR) was the closest station to where we DXed back then. Ye Olde Logbook from those days list 14 catches on 1560 despite the WQXR proximity. Three of them are from two fairly-difficult-to-log states ; two from SC and one from SD.