Here in NJ I used to get WARM from Scranton, PA until they dropped their daytime power from 5000 to 1800 watts so they could get rid of two of their five towers. The once-"Mighty 590" isn't so mighty anymore.
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AM Frequency of the Week: 590
- Thread starter cyberdad
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Fot 'em mixed up, I'll give London a tryI think you may have meant to say the London SDR. It's a better performer on the AM band than Kingsville.
It's good to know that I'm not the only one who knows of the World Radio Television Handbook (WRTH)!
As for the W to K call changes, I'm not sure. St. Louis had a few call sign changes like this in the 1980s. Doubleday's KWK were able to change Granite City, IL based WWWK to KWK-FM in 1981, and KATZ Alton, IL sister station WZEN to KATZ-FM in 1986. WRTH and KEZK were co-owned in 1982, and the station became KEZK-AM before changing to KFNS in 1993.
It may be that the proximity to the Mississippi river and the FCC relaxing rules like these played a role.
Thanks for the info on the London, Ontario SDR. Auroral conditions tonight. The NYC blowtorches were mostly absent except WCBS.
From Chicago WGN and WBBM were just OK. WSCR and WLS were getting covered up by Cuba--especially WSCR. WMVP was strong and WYLL was in and out. I'll be checking this one out more often.
From Chicago WGN and WBBM were just OK. WSCR and WLS were getting covered up by Cuba--especially WSCR. WMVP was strong and WYLL was in and out. I'll be checking this one out more often.
Ah yes...590. Back in the day we used to tweek our radios here in the SFV to get a better signal from KFXM in the IE to add to our collection of LA Top 40 stations!
I did a quickie daytime bandscan today a litle after 11am CDT, No real surprises other than the lack of listenable signals on the upper end of the dial. At least in part, I'd attribute this to Canada's success in migrating smaller-signal AMs to the FM band. CKTY (1110, Sarnia, ON), CJCS (1240, Stratford, ON), CJSL (1410, London), and the 1570 from St. Thomas, ON, being examples of area stations that either moved to FM or simply folded.
Curiously....or perhaps not...most of the metro Detroit signals were absent, while most of the Toronto signals were present. (London is roughly midway between the two.) CFZM and CJBC were the strongest from Toronto, with CFTR CHAM, and CJBC also good. WJR was top dog from Motown. 690 and 1130 also listenable (whatever calls they have nowadays). CKWW and CKLW present but weak. Cleveland represented with WHKW, WTAM and WKNR (although the latter had some serious splatter from CJBC). WGR also in with a fair signal from Buffalo on 550.
Nothing from Chicago, although I was hearing something very weak on 670, which was unintelligible. Could have been WSCR, but I'm really unsure. I've heard WBBM on daytime skywave in London before, but no trace of it today.
"Radio Free Canada"/"Radio Free North Pole", aka WTVN, also missing on 5kw omnidirectional day pattern.
Many of the Detroit Area complex DAs have very narrow major lobes, and they may miss London, ON off the sides of the major lobe.
I always wondered how it came about that 980, 1290, and 1410 were duplicated in both Dayton, OH and London, ON, all with high power Night signals, by the standards back in the day. I imagine the higher NIFs of the London AMs were mainly due to the Dayton stations. CKSL is gone now. The call letters CJBK were actually picked by the owner at the time due to his admiration of WJBK and George Storer.
I always wondered how it came about that 980, 1290, and 1410 were duplicated in both Dayton, OH and London, ON, all with high power Night signals, by the standards back in the day. I imagine the higher NIFs of the London AMs were mainly due to the Dayton stations. CKSL is gone now. The call letters CJBK were actually picked by the owner at the time due to his admiration of WJBK and George Storer.
Just checked it out myself and noticed the same signals you mentioned although I hear nothing on 670. WWJ very weak, but expected with their DA.I did a quickie daytime bandscan today a litle after 11am CDT, No real surprises other than the lack of listenable signals on the upper end of the dial. At least in part, I'd attribute this to Canada's success in migrating smaller-signal AMs to the FM band. CKTY (1110, Sarnia, ON), CJCS (1240, Stratford, ON), CJSL (1410, London), and the 1570 from St. Thomas, ON, being examples of area stations that either moved to FM or simply folded.
Curiously....or perhaps not...most of the metro Detroit signals were absent, while most of the Toronto signals were present. (London is roughly midway between the two.) CFZM and CJBC were the strongest from Toronto, with CFTR CHAM, and CJBC also good. WJR was top dog from Motown. 690 and 1130 also listenable (whatever calls they have nowadays). CKWW and CKLW present but weak. Cleveland represented with WHKW, WTAM and WKNR (although the latter had some serious splatter from CJBC). WGR also in with a fair signal from Buffalo on 550.
Nothing from Chicago, although I was hearing something very weak on 670, which was unintelligible. Could have been WSCR, but I'm really unsure. I've heard WBBM on daytime skywave in London before, but no trace of it today.
"Radio Free Canada"/"Radio Free North Pole", aka WTVN, also missing on 5kw omnidirectional day pattern.
I used to be able to hear KFXM when I visited the LA area in the 60s. Not real strong, but good music.
Yeah, WWJ starts dropping off a cliff right around Chatham, Ontario, but still manages to make it to London in very weakened form. Chatham is roughly midway between London and Detroit. (About 53 miles from the latter). Speaking of Chatham, as you probably notice, CFCO is good in London. 24/7 actually. East of London CFCO degrades rapidly, as splatter the Toronto 640 becomes an issue.
I've wondered about that myself. Making the run between Detroit and Toronto on the 401 freeway is something I've done dozens of times. The London signals come and go rather quickly. Especially 1290 and the now-defunct 1410. CFPL on 980 does a little better, at least to tje west. If memory serves, CFPL makes it all the way or at least almost all the way, to Detroit. But going east CFPL doesn't do all that great. There's a 980 in Lindsay Ontario (CKRU), which is about 40-50 miles east-northeast of Toronto. The 970 in Buffalo may have also had something to do with CFPL's DA design.
Going east from London to a point about halfway to Toronto on the 401, you encounter a market consisting of three smaller more or less adjacent cities. Kitchener-Waterloo-Guelph. Again high-powered narrow-pattern stations aimed north.. CKGL, 710, CKWW 1090 (now silent), and CJOY, 1460. Each is inaudible (or nearly so) in Toronto and London, but come in well in "Cottage Country", 100 miles north of Toronto.
BTW, I didn't know the George Storer story. Cool.
Yes, WWJ was barely audible during the day when I listened on the London SDR.
WWJ was protecting the vacant CKBB 950 Barrie, ON, and WFDF the vacant CKLY 910 Lindsay, ON, and to a lesser degree, CKNX 920 Wingham, ON. There's now a CKNT 960 in Mississauga, ON which might come into play with WWJ 950. They still have to protect the vacant allotments, and there are few with opportunities to swap frequencies, like WYLL was able to swap 1170 for 1160 in Thunder Bay, ON to go North at Night with 50 kW from Lockport, IL. This is due to AM band congestion in the Niagara Falls Lake Ontario Region. WYLL also had to pay to upgrade WHBY 1150 Kimberly, WI to 20/25 U4 also, to duplicate its interference free contour they had with 5 kW. WWJ had to determine the actual WWJ 950 and WHAK 960 contours to go to 50 kW Day. The first WWJ Day application was for 12 kW because of this. I'd like to see those measurements, but it was before the APPs were on line with all the exhibits, and FCC copying and courier services charge by the page, and that would be exorbitant.
Looking on R-L, there is a WWJ null in the general direction of London, the one that protects the vacant 950 Barrie, ON frequency.
Looking on R-L, there is a WWJ null in the general direction of London, the one that protects the vacant 950 Barrie, ON frequency.
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Lol, Tomas Estafan -- 'Ah yes .... 590 ....'
This might be a good place for that 'second' 590 tale I threatened.
Back when I did news at Susquehanna's WGBB on Long Island -- BIG bureau they had -- some story came over the wire from Scranton .... some disaster or upheaval near there. The news director of Long Island Network News was big on voicers and 'wraps' from outside the usual crew or newscasters. So he called sister station WARM to request a voicer over the phone from their news department.
For some reason, no one was immediately available to do one except a WARM DJ. So he sent his take on the story over the phone to us.
Him being a true Smiling Susquehanna air personality, the voicer he sent had everything but reverb, jingles and those Susquehanna doorbell gongs.
In retrospect, the voicer he sent must've sounded like Jerry Carroll's TV spots for CRazy Eddie's.
THe news director said 'Oh for (expletive sake)! No. That's WAY too rah-rah-radio to use. Get one of the stringers to do it instead.'
This might be a good place for that 'second' 590 tale I threatened.
Back when I did news at Susquehanna's WGBB on Long Island -- BIG bureau they had -- some story came over the wire from Scranton .... some disaster or upheaval near there. The news director of Long Island Network News was big on voicers and 'wraps' from outside the usual crew or newscasters. So he called sister station WARM to request a voicer over the phone from their news department.
For some reason, no one was immediately available to do one except a WARM DJ. So he sent his take on the story over the phone to us.
Him being a true Smiling Susquehanna air personality, the voicer he sent had everything but reverb, jingles and those Susquehanna doorbell gongs.
In retrospect, the voicer he sent must've sounded like Jerry Carroll's TV spots for CRazy Eddie's.
THe news director said 'Oh for (expletive sake)! No. That's WAY too rah-rah-radio to use. Get one of the stringers to do it instead.'
Seems like in the coldest part of Winter, I can hear CJCL 590 in Southeast Michigan in some places.
CHLO 680, before they moved to 1570, and CFPL 980 were two of my long list of alternate Top 40/Hot AC stations. At that time I used various longwire antennas about 125 feet long, and used a Westinghouse 1938 Model Table Radio, and a Sony 6R-11, extra TRF stage, SuperSensitive Portable. The Sony was what I used to get WGR and WKRC on 550, WOSU and WAIT on 820, and WSAM and WJLB on 1400 by turning the radio to null out one or the other, and sometimes WXYZ and WCMR on 1270 and WDBC and CHFI on 680 before it went to 50 kW.
CHLO 680, before they moved to 1570, and CFPL 980 were two of my long list of alternate Top 40/Hot AC stations. At that time I used various longwire antennas about 125 feet long, and used a Westinghouse 1938 Model Table Radio, and a Sony 6R-11, extra TRF stage, SuperSensitive Portable. The Sony was what I used to get WGR and WKRC on 550, WOSU and WAIT on 820, and WSAM and WJLB on 1400 by turning the radio to null out one or the other, and sometimes WXYZ and WCMR on 1270 and WDBC and CHFI on 680 before it went to 50 kW.
I wonder if they were running on whatever the Canadian version of an STA is. Usually whether I'm heading out to Detroit or Ottawa/Montreal I lose CJCL in a hurry once I'm out of the Toronto metro. Of course, there's a 580 at the end of the road (401) in either direction. CKWW in Windsor and flamethrower CFRA in Ottawa.
I don't remember hearing CFPL or CHLO as top 40. First time I heard CFPL it was on my first visit to London (1980) and it was full service adult contemporary. I did hear CHLO on 1570 a few times, but my admittedly fuzzy memory was that it was adult contemporary. Fast forward to when it became CFTR on 680 and had a run as a top 40 station. And a good one, at that. Complete with Chicago icon John Landecker for a time.
This CFPL 980 Survey is from about the time I listened to it in my alternate Daytime Top 40 list. It was before CanCon, in any serious way anyway, obviously. The other Canadian stations I listened to in the Daytime, other than CHLO 680, were CHYR 710/CHIR 730 and CKLW 800. At Night, at that time, I would sometimes listen to CHUM 1050, and CFOR 1570.
CFPL_1967-07-21_1.JPG
By 1974, CanCon was firmly in place, as illustrated by CFOR. Don't you love those in house and limited run, some for record store racks, dittoed surveys that are still out there? Some have the intro "post" times and total track times.
CFOR_1974-04-11_1.jpg
CFPL_1967-07-21_1.JPG
By 1974, CanCon was firmly in place, as illustrated by CFOR. Don't you love those in house and limited run, some for record store racks, dittoed surveys that are still out there? Some have the intro "post" times and total track times.
CFOR_1974-04-11_1.jpg
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Interesting stuff. Can con taking off with a vengence. 10 songs out of the top 30, plus two of the three that were "bubbling under". I believe the rule is...or was....28% canadian content required for most music stations. CFOR's survey more than complies.. And certainly contrasts with the CFPL survey from seven years previous.
I remember CFOR as the most common pest for XERB "back in the day". (There! I'm back on topic....sort of).
I don't remember what the rule was in the 70s, but the ruling was actual airplay....they didn't have to be all currents. CKLW got creative with some of the oldies that had Canadian artists, producers and writers. Some artists recorded in Canada for CKLW CanCon points. They didn't include all the non-hit CanCon on the printed surveys
From NW San Antonio:
Day: KLBJ's signal is fairly strong, but it can be nulled partially if I aim NW/SE.
Sunset: XEFD and XEPH "Sabrosita" in Mexico City start to come up weakly in the null.
Night: KLBJ is still listenable but weaker and fighting it out with XEPH. Aiming NW/SE, it's a mix of XEPH and XEFD with the former dominating most often. Radio Musical Nacionál in Cuba will pop up occasionally.
Sunrise: XEPH is noticeably stronger when it goes to day power and sometimes covers KLBJ for a while. After XEPH fades down, a weak XEE in Durango can usually be heard under KLBJ when I aim E/W until the latter goes to day power.
DX/Retro: On rare occasions I've heard KXSP in Omaha mixing with KLBJ at night and KCSJ in Pueblo in its partial null.
Day: KLBJ's signal is fairly strong, but it can be nulled partially if I aim NW/SE.
Sunset: XEFD and XEPH "Sabrosita" in Mexico City start to come up weakly in the null.
Night: KLBJ is still listenable but weaker and fighting it out with XEPH. Aiming NW/SE, it's a mix of XEPH and XEFD with the former dominating most often. Radio Musical Nacionál in Cuba will pop up occasionally.
Sunrise: XEPH is noticeably stronger when it goes to day power and sometimes covers KLBJ for a while. After XEPH fades down, a weak XEE in Durango can usually be heard under KLBJ when I aim E/W until the latter goes to day power.
DX/Retro: On rare occasions I've heard KXSP in Omaha mixing with KLBJ at night and KCSJ in Pueblo in its partial null.
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