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AM Frequency of the week: 540

Daytime in eastern is all KWMT Fort Dodge, IA. Nighttime is a mix of a weak KWMT, CBK Saskatchewan, and occasional appearances from WAUK Milwaukee.
 
Daytime: When it's on the air, WGOP from Pocomoke City, MD with oldies programming at the moment. When WGOP is off a very weak WLIE with Spanish programming.

Nights: Usually nothing stands out. I have logged WFLF, WYNN, WWCS (when it was full power) and Cuba.
 
Has always wondered how WFLF got out. I feel like it should come in better in Brandon/Tampa than what it does. It is WFLF heer all the time bTW.
 
WFLF has an extremely directional signal. Most of the power goes to the east.
Years ago, when the station was WGTO, their signal was much better in the Tampa Bay area.
 
Before the huge tsunami of digital racket filled the airwaves here in recent times, a 'very' weak WWCS from Canonsburg PA could be detected, early afternoon.

Trivia: Both singers Perry Como and Bobby Vinton, although a generation-and-a-half apart, were from there.

* * * * * * *

What one 'gets' on a frequency and what one 'got' on a frequency can be two distinct pursuits, non? The AM log on 540 here has been
WWCS Canonsburg, CJSB (5-23-94), WLIX (10-18-94)
The last two were nighttime catches. WLIX had been issued a pretty fair nighttime wattage -- 400 watts or so -- and they came in one eve about 10 PM.
Back when WLIX was strictly a 250-watt *daytimer*, I heard them once around 1PM one summer day on the Delaware Memorial Bridge. That reception was about a 140-mile poke.
 
I'm still figuring out, all these years later, if I received CBEF in the middle of the day about 70 miles south of Columbus, Ohio or the then-ethnic WWCS with a program in French.
 
I seem to remember that the call letters meant "Way Low" but it seems they called it "Why Low" on the air.
I had gone to the NW Chicago Suburbs for Thanksgiving. I remember being in the basement and tuning across the AM band, and hearing WYLO for the first time. I'm not sure if it was before or after seeing the radio listings in The Chicago Tribune or The Chicago American. Whenever I looked at an out of town newspaper, I looked at the radio listings. The Chicago American radio listings were very complete, and I may have seen it there first before trying to listen. It was in the late 1960s, it could have been as late as 1969, because I remember "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" by Steam on WLS or WCFL when it was bounding up the charts, when I was doing the same type of AM scan on the same kind of radio.
 
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I'm still figuring out, all these years later, if I received CBEF in the middle of the day about 70 miles south of Columbus, Ohio or the then-ethnic WWCS with a program in French.

My money's on CBEF. Not because of patterns or propagation, but once you get outside of Louisiana or maybe northern Maine, you're not going to encounter much ethnic programming in French.

As for WFLF, that tight pattern that Frank's talking about greatly reduces the amount of signal that goes north. Including northeast and northwest. IIRC, they DO, however,. have a secondary lobe to the west
 
Daytime here in NW San Antonio is a moderate XEWA, but hearing it requires a radio with good selectivity because of heavy splatter from local KTSA.

At sunset I sometimes hear KMLB peeking through briefly. On rare occasions in wintertime I've heard KWMT very briefly.

At night XEWA is fairly strong, but XEHS "La Mejor" in Los Mochis sometimes mixes in and takes over. Also, I can often get a decent null of XEWA and hear XETX "La Ranchera de Paquimé" in Nuevo Casas Grandes. On Sunday nights XETX airs German-language programs, which used to throw me off.

Last night I was hearing KMLB popping in an out with a fairly decent signal. They must've been on daytime power because I've never heard them at night before.

On the night of Sept. 10 last year, I logged WFLF as well as WASG in Daphne, AL. Both of them were on daytime power because Hurricane Irma was close to making landfall. WFLF was providing hurricane coverage, but WASG was airing its regular Christian programming.
 
Thanks Cyberdad! You're probably right. I don't remember what their pattern looked like. As for Florida, I remember getting the old WGTO as close in as Macon, GA on a 1980 trip


My money's on CBEF. Not because of patterns or propagation, but once you get outside of Louisiana or maybe northern Maine, you're not going to encounter much ethnic programming in French.

As for WFLF, that tight pattern that Frank's talking about greatly reduces the amount of signal that goes north. Including northeast and northwest. IIRC, they DO, however,. have a secondary lobe to the west
 
Thanks Cyberdad! You're probably right. I don't remember what their pattern looked like. As for Florida, I remember getting the old WGTO as close in as Macon, GA on a 1980 trip



I've heard WGTO in downstate Illinois, as well as in central and southern Indiana. Just not here at my Illinois home location, which is less than 20 miles from the Wisconsin state line.
 
Daytime here in NW San Antonio is a moderate XEWA, but hearing it requires a radio with good selectivity because of heavy splatter from local KTSA.

Interesting, over here in Houston, KMLB is the only thing I've identified on 540 during the day. There is something underneath, but not strong enough to ID. I'd assumed it had to be the Dallas station, hadn't considered XEWA making it this far (~600 miles) even with 150kw. It appears I should re-think that...
 
Here, in the Kansas City area:

Daytime: A very listenable KWMT, Fort Dodge, IA.

Critical Hours: KWMT, KMLB – Monroe, LA, KDFT – Ferris, TX

Night: Strongest to weakest signals: XEWA – San Luis Potosi, MX, WAUK – Jackson, WI [a real catch at 400 watts], CBK – Regina, Saskatchewan. However, on many nights there are no identifiable signals. I am surprised that I do not receive a stronger signal from CBK.

Bob
 
Bumping this thread up from a couple of weeks ago....

I had occasion to do a round trip drive this morning from my home area to the south side of Chicago. Roughly 100 miles round trip by car. I also had my radio set on 540 the whole time because I wanted to hear the football news coming out of Green Bay. Long story short, not only did I have WAUK along for the ride, but most of the time, also KWMT underneath.

I doubt that KWMT was daytime skywave. I can hear it during the day here at home with WAUK nulled on the SuperadioII, as well as on good car radios in nearby suburbs. But this was the first time I tracked it all the way into the city on the freeway. A truly amazing 5kw daytime signal.

Sidebar point in case you guys hadn't heard....WAUK owner "Good Karma Broadcasting" (Greg Karmazin....Mel's son) bought WTMJ AND full power WKTI-FM from Scripps in a deal which closed about a month ago. WKTI was flipped from country to a sports simulcast of WAUK. My guess is that WTMJ will stay pretty much the same, and that WKTI-FM (now branded as "ESPN-FM") will eventually be the lone sports outlet of the cluster, while WAUK either gets sold or becomes brokered.
 
Bumping this thread up from a couple of weeks ago....

I had occasion to do a round trip drive this morning from my home area to the south side of Chicago. Roughly 100 miles round trip by car. I also had my radio set on 540 the whole time because I wanted to hear the football news coming out of Green Bay. Long story short, not only did I have WAUK along for the ride, but most of the time, also KWMT underneath.

I doubt that KWMT was daytime skywave. I can hear it during the day here at home with WAUK nulled on the SuperadioII, as well as on good car radios in nearby suburbs. But this was the first time I tracked it all the way into the city on the freeway. A truly amazing 5kw daytime signal.

Sidebar point in case you guys hadn't heard....WAUK owner "Good Karma Broadcasting" (Greg Karmazin....Mel's son) bought WTMJ AND full power WKTI-FM from Scripps in a deal which closed about a month ago. WKTI was flipped from country to a sports simulcast of WAUK. My guess is that WTMJ will stay pretty much the same, and that WKTI-FM (now branded as "ESPN-FM") will eventually be the lone sports outlet of the cluster, while WAUK either gets sold or becomes brokered.

Thank you for sharing! I lived in Milwaukee from 1989 until 2005 so this is quite interesting news. It is hard to imagine WTMJ being anything less than full service, news talk...

Bob
 
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