AM Frequency of the Week: 1600

[cyberdad]

40 Miles northwest of downtown Chicago.....

Days: Minor splatter from what's left of semi-local WCGO. Otherwise usually 1600 is empty, There used to be three suburban rimshot stations on 1600, but WCGO management bought those and shut them down so as to be able to increase power to 10kw ND.

Nights: Usually a mess. KGYM (ex-KCRG) most likely to rise to the top. I've also heard WRWC from Ripon, and WAAM from Ann Arbor, Michigan.

 

[Battenkill50]

1600 WLAA Winter Garden La Que Buena - Spanish/Mexican (around sunset)

1600 WAOS Austell (Atlanta) GA La Mejor Spanish -Mexican (around sunset)

1600 KLEB Golden Meadow LA 1600 AM The Ragin’ Cajun - 1999

 

[gr8oldies]

I've found 1600 to be an interesting frequency, especially having worked at one (WULM Springfield OH.)
East Tennessee: Days---mostly blank. Sunrise/sunset: Oldies/Adult Standards WTZQ, Henderson, NC. Also WAOS, Austell, GA "La Mejor"; WZZW, Milton, WV and WZNZ, Atlantic Beach, FL, now a Relevant Radio station, but I also logged its old True Oldies Channel format. Night--often long-time (we're talking decades) cheater WAOS dominates, sometimes also with WZZW. During strong auroral conditions, I used to get Ragin' Cajun KLEB, Golden Meadow, LA (I don't know this stations' current status....I know it suffered hurricane damage)

Retro/other: Dayton, Ohio was WULM. 1000 watts daytime, 272 watts pre-sunrise and a rocking 34 watts at night. Even a few miles away, stations like KATZ in St. Louis and WMQM, Memphis came in early and stayed late. I also logged WWRL early one morning. Then there was WAOS. We did a sports show in the 6pm hour, and at the studio, WAOS made it sound like it was coming from a Mexican restaurant in the winter. (I didn't, at the time know the source of this Spanish language format or that it wasn't supposed to be running 20000 watts at night or I would have filed a complaint.). Since WULM has gone religious with Radio Maria, they obtained a translator and were feeding it with the AM signal. I have a recording of the translator with WAOS's La Mejor programming foreground with a guy droning on about the evils of birth control in the background.

In my hometown near Celina, Ohio, it was generally then WBLY, Springfield mixed with now-defunct WARU, Peru, Indiana.

 

[schmave]

If anything around Columbus, it's a weak WULM. Listenable in the western suburbs and barely there by the time you get out east to my neck of the woods.
I always get a kick out of the Mexican restaurant line, @gr8oldies. I also get hungry.

 

[Deleted member 108832]

Tyler TX: KRVA "Radio Saigon" Cockrell Hills, TX (DFW Metroplex); 25kW day/930w night; fair day reception, non-existent at night.

Logged: KOKE "Puro Norteño" Pflugerville, TX (Austin, TX area); 5kW day/700w night

 

[fybush]

It's a pretty empty channel by day here in Rochester NY. If I hear anything, it's WMCR Oneida, 80 miles or so to my east. At night (and around sunrise and sunset, and even middays in the winter), it's skywave from WWRL in New York that usually dominates.

 

[cyberdad]

1600 KLEB Golden Meadow LA 1600 AM The Ragin’ Cajun - 1999

I remember that one, and should have mentioned it in m,y original post. I used to hear it as a daytime regular at the beach locatiom where I'm currently speding this month near Pensacola, Cajun, zydeco, and swamp rock/pop music. It all made for a great listen!. They had a good signal here daily via saltwater path from about 200 miles. On my last couple of visits here, they were missing, and presumably off the air. I'm unclear as to whether they shut down. migrated to FM, or if they;'ve returned. I;'l check 1600 within the next couple of days, and see what turns up.

 

[ente]

South Mississippi:

Day: KLEB Golden Meadow, LA -The Rajun' Cajun used to come in very well when they were at 5kw day/250w night. After losing 2 of the 3 towers due to Hurricane Zeta in 2020, they reduced to 720w day/60w night. Since then, it's weaker but still audible when near saltwater such as Lake Pontchartrain.
Around sunset, sometimes there's WMQM Memphis or KRVA Cockrell Hills, TX

Night: WAOS Austell/Atlanta "La Mejor" always can be heard well
rarely WUCT Algood/Cookeville, TN "NewsTalk 94.1"

 

[CADXER]

Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: nothing these days.
Nightime: WAAM most likely station to be heard at night.

DX/RETRO: over 20 different stations heard on this frequency in the past, but nothing new since 2005. Some of DX from the past includes WTRU (Muskegon, MI), WARU (Peru, IN), WSTL Eminence, KY), WNST (Milton, WV), WINX (Rockville, MD), WWRL (NY, NY) WAOS (Austell, GA), CHNR (Simcoe, ON), KCRG (Cedar Rapids, IA), KCGS (Marshall, AR), KATZ (St. Louis, MO)

WMCW (Harvard, IL) and WCGO (Chicago Heights, IL) used to be heard during daytime before they went off the air in 2008 and 2009 respectively in order to allow the current WCGO AM 1590 to increase power.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

KVRI 1600 Blane, WA serving Vancouver basically pounds the pavement here almost nightly when its dark, 1500 mile s away

 

[tvnut]

From the southwest suburbs of Chicago:

We haven't had a local on 1600 since the original WCGO's final sign-off on 4/10/2009. Their office was in a strip mall in South Chicago Heights. I guested on a show hosted by a pal once. Reasonably large studio, with a smaller news studio. Towers were south of town.

That WCGO was a daytimer so 1600 was busy at night, and remains so. WWRL New York was the first catch, back in the 1970s, followed by WFRC Reidsville, N.C.; KCRG Cedar Rapids, Iowa (relogged last week as KGYM); WLRC Whitehall, Mich.; WDHB Harrimann, Tenn.; KATZ St. Louis; WAOS Austell, Ga. (based on what I've read, guessing 20 kW day power instead of the listed 667 watts at 2:43 a.m.); WZZW Milton, W.Va.; and WKKX Wheeling, W.Va., the latter two within 14 minutes of each other signing on (or just on) one January morning in 2021.

 

[MarioMania]

Rocklin, CA

Daytime: KUBA Yuba City/Marysville with a weak signal
Nighttime: KGST Fresno Very Weak with KUBA on top

Vallejo, CA

Daytime: KUBA Yuba City/Marysville Very Weak
Nighttime: KGST Fresno

 

[MichaelTheZ]

Chicago by the lakeshore:

Daytime: Occasionally you get a trace of WAAM in Ann Arbor during the day. It also shows up periodically with daytime skywave.

Nighttime: Several weak signals competing. KGYM in Cedar Rapids is the most likely. Others logged are WAAM again, WARU in Peru IN, KATZ in St Louis, WZZW in Milton, WV (this one may have been daytime skywave though), and WWRL in New York City. WWRL is 25 KW during the daytime so you can also hear it during critical hours at times.

 

[wildthangjim]

From west Houston TX

Daytime, it's all KMIC 1590 slop.
Around sunset it's usually a mix of KOKE Pflugerville (Austin) w/Tejano, KRVA Cockrell Hill TX (Vietnamese), and KUSH Cushing OK w/Americana/country. KOGT Orange TX used to be in there before they went off the air last year.
Nights, KOKE is usually on top with KRVA mixing in. I've also ID'd KIVA Albuquerque NM and KLEB but haven't heard either in several years.
Sunrise, similar to sunset with KUSH stronger.

When we were in Eleuthera Bahamas last summer, I was surprised to hear WKWF 1600 in Key West pretty well during the daytime. 500w at ~350 miles, the wonders of salt water.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

Does WAAM mainly come in Pre Sunrise in Northern Illinois? Here are the DA-2 Patterns, two 4 tower inline arrays, different azimuth, one tower in both, 7 towers total. Strangest looking array I had ever seen before I figured it out.

 

[cyberdad]

Does WAAM mainly come in Pre Sunrise in Northern Illinois? Here are the DA-2 Patterns, two 4 tower inline arrays, different azimuth, one tower in both, 7 towers total. Strangest looking array I had ever seen before I figured it out.

I haven't heard WAAM here for quite a while. Sunrise or otherwise. Perhaps it's been a year or so.. But I confess 1600 isn't a channel that I spend much time with.

 

[cyberdad]

South Mississippi:

Day: KLEB Golden Meadow, LA -The Rajun' Cajun used to come in very well when they were at 5kw day/250w night. After losing 2 of the 3 towers due to Hurricane Zeta in 2020, they reduced to 720w day/60w night. Since then, it's weaker but still audible when near saltwater such as Lake Pontchartrain.

This explains why I haven't heard KLEB here on my last 2 or 3 visits, Although given how well it did at 5kw ND, they could at least be audible on 720 watts via saltwater path. I'll give it another trry and post the results.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

No way to display all seven towers unless you look at the satellite image for WAAM 1600.

But WXYT 1270 now holds the record for the weirdest looking tower arrangement.

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

After another self-asserted male hour of not reading or asking directions once more, I finished a spread-sheet list of AM cartches just last evening.
In the 'newer' digs of PA here on 1600, where I turned the 'total heard' odometer back to 000 , here's a partial readout.
't' is taped
D or N is Day or Night reception (or SRS - SSS, none logged on 1600)
Blank cells are 'You're asking the wrong person'.
As you can see, not a lot of recent excitement or motion.

1600​	WNEV ​	W Va​	3-19-93 ​	t​	N​
​	WPDC ​	PA ​	​	​	D​
​	WWRL ​	NY ​	9-9-94 ​	​	N​
​	WINX​	MD​	9-13-94 ​	t ​	N ​
​	WHOL ​	PA ​	2-15-95 ​	​	D​
​	WKEN ​	DE ​	7-30-96 ​	t​	​

 

[gr8oldies]

Does WAAM mainly come in Pre Sunrise in Northern Illinois? Here are the DA-2 Patterns, two 4 tower inline arrays, different azimuth, one tower in both, 7 towers total. Strangest looking array I had ever seen before I figured it out.

So WAAM has 7 towers, but WCGO managed to be non-directional at 10kW? If I was WAAM I'd see if I could ditch some towers.