AM Frequency of the week: 1690

[cyberdad]

One step away from the top. What are you guys hearing on 1690....

For me, 40 odd (sometimes very odd) miles northwest of downtown Chicago....

Days: Semi-Local WVON which is diplexed with WGRB (1390) on the south side of Chicago. The result from this setup at this signal is a daytime signal that's fair at best. Distance is about 50 miles. Good ground conductivity but lots of urban development surrounding the transmitter site.

(1390 was the home of WVON in an earlier incarnation.)

Nights: A weaker WVON is still usually on top, but sometimes the Landover, MD and/or the Atlanta 1690 take over.)

Retro/Other location: When the Chicago area 1690 originally came on as WRLL, I was still travelling far more frequently than I am now. Of course the channel was nearly empty, and in places like Toronto, Kansas City, and Memphis, I would get a better night signal from WRLL than I was getting at home!

 

[radioman148]

In the near north Chicago suburbs: Daytime WVON has a pretty decent signal. At night their power drops considerably and I can hear Atlanta & Maryland underneath in a crowd.

Retro/other: when his station first went on the air as WRLL in 2003, the format for me was great. 50s & 60s oldies with deeper cuts than most oldies stations at that time.
The morning show with Larry Lujack & Tommy Edwards was excellent. However, they still had the same signal problems. In fact Lujack once remarked that they can hear us in Australia, but not in the Chicago suburbs at night. Unfortunately for me that format didn't last beyond August of 2006.

 

[cyberdad]

In the near north Chicago suburbs: Daytime WVON has a pretty decent signal. At night their power drops considerably and I can hear Atlanta & Maryland underneath in a crowd.

Retro/other: when his station first went on the air as WRLL in 2003, the format for me was great. 50s & 60s oldies with deeper cuts than most oldies stations at that time.
The morning show with Larry Lujack & Tommy Edwards was excellent. However, they still had the same signal problems. In fact Lujack once remarked that they can hear us in Australia, but not in the Chicago suburbs at night. Unfortunately for me that format didn't last beyond August of 2006.

Format was great for me as well. Larry and Tommy were also great, but the other dayparts were usually...and badly....voictracked, Also the format included one Sinatra cut per hour or two. I like Sinatra, but the result in this case sounded flat-out weird. At least to my ears.

As for the signal, Lujack barked about it on a repeated basis. Plus he and Tommy would often read notes from listeners complaining about lousy reception. That said, the signal works better for WVON, where the target audience is largely in the city and some of the close-in suburbs. I also know from (indirect) personal experience that WVON owner, Pervis Spann, can make an attractive chicken salad from whatever batch of chicken feathers you give him to work with. I'm not sure if Spann is still involved with running the station day to day. He pretty much passed the torch to his daughter Melody, who's a force in her own right.

 

[radioman148]

Format was great for me as well. Larry and Tommy were also great, but the other dayparts were usually...and badly....voictracked, Also the format included one Sinatra cut per hour or two. I like Sinatra, but the result in this case sounded flat-out weird. At least to my ears

Thanks for reminding me about the Sinatra music LOL! Actually I like many of his songs, but one per hour?
You are right, the signal was lousy in the Northern suburbs at night. I used to listen online when I was home.
The funny thing was that they used to get letters/emails regularly from distant places where the signal could be heard. I wasn't joking about Lujack's Australia listener.
Their frequency did wonders for skywave, but was terrible for groundwave.
You're also right about the voice tracking on other shifts. Sometimes the computer would get out of sync. I emailed Tommy about that and the signal. He was very frustrated with Clear Channel. Apparently they had made him some promises that weren't kept.Too bad they couldn't get an FM signal.

 

[gr8oldies]

East Tennessee: WVON is in pretty frequently just before sunset. Before it signed off for good, WMLB was barely perceptible in the daytime. WMTX, Lexington Park MD is probably the most common.

Eclipse day: WVON strong during and just after totality.

Retro/other: I remember WRLL signing on, with a slightly different take on Real Oldies than WCKY, namely with the Sinatra and Big Band/Music of Your Life cuts mixed in. Lujack and Edwards weren't far off when they said the signal didn't reach across the street in the early mornings. I could get WRLL in Dayton, Ohio well before sunset all days, but unlike Madison and Kalamazoo, I never remember all day winter reception. I had them in Lafayette weakly by day.

Also remember getting 1690 in Atlanta during its "Wild America TIS" days.

 

[WCJ]

Orange County, TX; Days-Nothing; Nights a mix of WVON with WMLB nulled & vice versa with an unknown station in the background.

 

[kf4rca]

Sadly the Atlanta station (WMLB) is no longer on the air. The owner pulled the plug when his studio lease ran out. It was on the air for 20 years and he never made any money. But, in a local business magazine, he basically admitted he didn't know what he was doing.
SO, I can get WVON till about 9AM here.
The diplexing isn't really a problem as long as the traps are tuned right. Each station has a trap in its line tuned to the other station's frequency.

 

[schmave]

Nothing here in Ohio by day, WVON at night. No surprise with the frequency, but when I've heard it it's always been one of the first skywave stations in and probably one of the last to leave (I'm rarely if ever DXing in the morning). I remember when it was an oldies format a decade or more ago. When I'd visit family and friends in Naperville and have occasion or a chance to try for 1690 at night, I don't remember hearing it very well if at all so I can second those comments about the signal in the suburbs.

 

[cyberdad]

You're also right about the voice tracking on other shifts. Sometimes the computer would get out of sync. I emailed Tommy about that and the signal. He was very frustrated with Clear Channel. Apparently they had made him some promises that weren't kept.

Then there were (a very small number of) outdoor billboards promoting the station. Some in areas where the signal was unlistenable on most radios. On CLEAR CHANNEL billboards...LOL!

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

Interesting factoid that alot of people forget, WVON 1690 was originally WHTE Johnston City, IL. It was the sister to now deleted WDDD 810 Johnston City, IL which was a 250 watt 3 tower daytimer. It was never on the air down there as I recall before it mvoed to up "Berwyn"

 

[radioman148]

Then there were (a very small number of) outdoor billboards promoting the station. Some in areas where the signal was unlistenable on most radios. On CLEAR CHANNEL billboards...LOL!

I saw a few of those. One was on the Kennedy expressway coming out of the city. From what I'm reading on this thread their skywave signal did far better than the signal in the Chicago area.

 

[radioman148]

Interesting factoid that alot of people forget, WVON 1690 was originally WHTE Johnston City, IL. It was the sister to now deleted WDDD 810 Johnston City, IL which was a 250 watt 3 tower daytimer. It was never on the air down there as I recall before it mvoed to up "Berwyn"

Until your reminder I had forgotten that fact. I think it was shortly after the city of license was moved that WRLL went on the air.

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

1690 for me is just Lexington Park MD as the nighttime fare.
Back when my hair was brown and the dial was much quieter, I remember hearing them in the day once.
The Chesapeake guides a lot of signals up this way during the day.

* * * * * * *

@ Cyberdad : If you were referencing Chicago DX, you must remember when there was a WVON on 1450, with the COL as Cicero, broadcasting 24/7/52/365. We never heard them back in the JFK Airport days. I don't recall them being on 1390. When was that, pls ?
The 1390 from Chicago we'd get on 1390 every so often was WYNR/WNUS. Did they start out as Top 40 and then go to News, or was it vice versa?

 

[WCJ]

I'm hearing something with WVON nulled and thought that it was WMLB. I lost my long wires during Harvey so I'm "barefoot" until they are put back up. Whatever I'm hearing is in English.

 

[crainbebo]

Day - Nothing, but a weak KFSG Roseville CA (Spanish Rel./Brokered) is often heard in winter.
Nights - Aforementioned KFSG and KDMT Denver (Business/Conservative Talk) mixing all night long. Nothing else really makes it through. I have heard very faint talk underneath a couple times, and very faint music a couple more times, but never enough for an ID. Any of the other X-Banders in the U.S. and Canada are needed, especially WVON.

 

[CADXER]

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

Daytime: nothing but WVON Berwyn, IL with good signal.
Nightime: still WVOV but weaker and also nullable. When I null WVON I usually hear CHTO with Greek language programming.

DX/RETRO: prior to WVON taking over the frequency WPTX (Lexington Park, MD) and KDDZ (Arvada, CO) used to be common. The Georgia station also used to be easily heard. The only other station that I managed to hear on this frequency was the weather forecast TIS (WPUA401) from Aurora, IL

 

[radioman148]

1690 for me is just Lexington Park MD as the nighttime fare.
Back when my hair was brown and the dial was much quieter, I remember hearing them in the day once.
The Chesapeake guides a lot of signals up this way during the day.

* * * * * * *

@ Cyberdad : If you were referencing Chicago DX, you must remember when there was a WVON on 1450, with the COL as Cicero, broadcasting 24/7/52/365. We never heard them back in the JFK Airport days. I don't recall them being on 1390. When was that, pls ?
The 1390 from Chicago we'd get on 1390 every so often was WYNR/WNUS. Did they start out as Top 40 and then go to News, or was it vice versa?

Steve, I'm not Cyberdad, but I can help answer a few questions. I remember WVON on 1450. They were there for a loooong time. The original 1390 in Chicago was WGES, then in Sept 1962 it became WYNR. Sometime in late 64 WNUS was born. WYNR was Top 40, then R&B and then all news when WNUS was born.

 

[cyberdad]

* * * * * * *

@ Cyberdad : If you were referencing Chicago DX, you must remember when there was a WVON on 1450, with the COL as Cicero, broadcasting 24/7/52/365. We never heard them back in the JFK Airport days. I don't recall them being on 1390. When was that, pls ?
The 1390 from Chicago we'd get on 1390 every so often was WYNR/WNUS. Did they start out as Top 40 and then go to News, or was it vice versa?

Radioman's reply is correct, Steve. I'll see if I can fill in a few blanks....

WVON began life on 1450 in 1963. Taking the channel over from the old WHFC (COL Cicero, IL). A year earlier, Gordon MacLendon (Sp?) purchased the old WGES, a black-oriented station that occupied 1390. With considerable hoopla and stunting, WGES became WYNR, a top 40 station, but with a mostly black air staff and a plan to eventually turn it into R&B top 40. Long story short. WVON took off. WYNR never did. So around 1967 WYNR flipped to all news WNUS. WNUS was a true pioneer....at least for the Chicago market. But 5kw on 1390 was no match for CBS and WBBM when they decided to go all news in 1968.

Eventually, 1450 became an ethnic station (WCEV), and WVON wound up on 1390 for seven years beginning in 1977. During this phase they were "Dusty Radio". R&B oldies and a really good listen. Gannett eventually took over 1390, and WVON wound up back on 1450.

Sidebar note: Back to the original occupant of 1390, WGES. That station's biggest claim to fame is that one of their young announcers back in the 1930s was lad named Ray Kroc. Who went on to bigger and better things as the man who built the global McDonald's empire!

 

[gr8oldies]

I seem to remember "Dusty Radio" being much later, after a stint as . WGCI (AM), and maybe still with those calls.

 

[radioman148]

I’m not sure what year they ended, but they went straight from dusties to gospel.