AM Frequency of the Week: 620:

[cyberdad]

40 Miles Northwest of Downtown Chicago.....

Days: WTMJ with a good signal. 50kw from a site about 37 miles northeast of me. 50kw with a signal beamed mostly away from me (north).

Nights: WTMJ drops to 10kw and tightens their pattern, The signal is notably weaker, but still usually listenable. CKRM (ex CKCK) is the main pest, and it can occasionally rise to the top.

Retro/Other Location Once during a WTMJ evening pattern change, WJDX (Jackson, MS) came through on my car radio with a positive ID.

WJDX on 1kw directional nights has been fairly common for me on my trips to the Gulf Coast. Distance is a little over 160 miles. One night a few years back near New Orleans, XENK from Mexico City was in with pop music in English and Spanish.

WDAE from Tampa-St. Pete is strong enough daytime to trip a car radio scan button at our Gulf vacation location east of Pensacola at the Alabama-Florida state line. It disappears at night. That hop is more than 300 miles.

In the mid 1970s, when I lived in the Quad Cities (Illinois-Iowa), 620 was something of a three way battle betweend WTMJ, CKCK, and (then-) WDNC from Durham, NC. WTMJ usually got the best of it, but the other two also took turns taking over. WTMJ was audible daytime, but weak. In those days, the day signal was 5kw non-directional.

I could also hear WTMJ daytime at my college loccation, about 70 miles southeast of the Quad Cities. Very weak at that location.....but college & NFL football still listenable.

 

[ZantennaG1]

From Cheyenne, WY:
Daytime is generally a whole bunch of nothing.

At night is when it gets interesting, as normally KEXB Dallas comes in with weak to moderate strength. However, springtime is usually a great opportunity to look for KJOL Grand Junction rignt around sunset, and it has delivered more than once.

Travel:
I looked back on my Rapid City nighttime Bandscan, and there's something there, but I couldn't make out anything useful.

In Sheridan and Riverton, I was in a too noisy area.

 

[radioman148]

In the near north Chicago suburbs it's all WTMJ day and night. Even though their night signal is weaker they still rule the frequency at my location. I have heard CKRM underneath and once many years ago when WTMJ was off the air at night I heard Tampa which was then WSUN. At the time that was my first Florida catch.

 

[KenoGuy]

Kenosha, WI Days- WTMJ Milwaukee. 50KW about 17 miles northwest of me, near Union Grove. Their 6 towers are about a mile from WISN's 9-tower array.

I continue to be surprised at the places I hear this station when on day power. I have listened pretty much all the way to Detroit. I have heard them in Sault Ste. Marie and pretty much anywhere in the UP, all over northern Indiana, well into Iowa and SE Minnesota; on a recent Illinois trip I heard them clearly about 30 miles from St. Louis.

Nights- WTMJ with heavy fading and phase-shifting, as I am on the side of their pattern. Although I can usually hear other stations underneath, I have never ID'ed anything else.

BTW, WTMJ just lost the Green Bay Packers to iHeart's WRNW; They were the Packers' flagship station for 92 years.

 

[gr8oldies]

East Tennessee: This will be a short report, as WRJZ dominates day and night, non-directional days and still 5000 watts with several lobes in many directions at night. I've received it along the Lake Erie shoreline, and even on the former Farmington MI SDR. At one time WRJZ fed its translator in Sevier County with the air signal, but nothing identifiable showed up, just rumble

Retro/other: Dayton, OH. Nothing during the day, especially with WTVN next door on 610 and WLAP on 630.

Indiana: WTMJ with a moderate signal with the 5kW signal by day. Edinburgh IN SDR has WAKY from Louisville (only way to hear them online outside of the Louisville area.). By night Cuba, but I've heard Tampa during a hurricane watch.

 

[CADXER]

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

Daytime: WTMJ
Nightime: WTMJ

DX catches/retro: In the old days WTMJ was fairly easy to null at night producing some nice DX catches. In 1980's/1990's this frequency was the best bet to hear the state of Vermont on AM here in Chicago area. Heard WVMT (Burlington, VT) few times in those days. Other catches include WSUN (St. Petersburg, FL), WSKQ (Newark, NJ), WHEN (Syracuse, NY), WRJZ (Knoxville, TN), KWFT (Wichita Falls, TX), WAKY (Louisville, KY), CFCL (Timmins, ON - no longer on the air), CKRM (Regina, SK). Another common station in those days with WTMJ nulled used to be Radio Rebelde from Cuba. I also have several tentative logs of La Voz de Nicaragua back in 1980's, but I could never get a positive ID, so I am not counting it. Once WTMJ increased their power and started using IBOC it became difficult to DX 620 kHz. They stopped using IBOC eventually, but it is still difficult to null them. The most recent catches on this frequency are WFMV (Cayce, NC) in 2020 and XENK (Ecatepec de Morelos, Mexico) in 2021.

 

[cyberdad]

BTW, WTMJ just lost the Green Bay Packers to iHeart's WRNW; They were the Packers' flagship station for 92 years.

Wow! Pigs fly in Milwaukee!

 

[cyberdad]

In the near north Chicago suburbs it's all WTMJ day and night. Even though their night signal is weaker they still rule the frequency at my location.

At my oldest son's house about 14 miles east northeast of me, WTMJ's night signal is noticeably stronger than it is at my location. CKRM is usually missing. WTMJ sends a little spike south from the Union Grove transmitter site. My son's place is in it....I'm just west of it.

 

[tvnut]

From the southwest suburbs of Chicago:

It's WTMJ, day and night. Days, as strong or stronger with the directional 50 kW from Union Grove as they were with 5 kW omni from Brookfield. Nights, a hair stronger; the old 5 kW was really subject to fading and other signals.

The only other ID on 620 here was WJDZ Jackson, Miss., way back one night. Similarly way back, I had a tentative reception of KTAR Phoenix, but never counted it because I couldn't get a positive ID on a really weak signal. Otherwise, I really haven't DXed 620 much.

 

[radioman148]

I've also noticed that WTMJ's night signal is stronger in the near north Chicago suburbs since they moved years ago. Less fading here too.

 

[ZantennaG1]

Considering that 620 is a designated regional frequency, I'm kind of suprised that WTMJ was allowed to go to 50/10kw when the norm is usually 5kw. Although I imagine that in the name of "primary service", the FCC realized that WTMJ needed that extra room. Class B stations are allowed 50kw, but I didn't realize 550-630 had this option.

 

[cyberdad]

Considering that 620 is a designated regional frequency, I'm kind of suprised that WTMJ was allowed to go to 50/10kw when the norm is usually 5kw. Although I imagine that in the name of "primary service", the FCC realized that WTMJ needed that extra room. Class B stations are allowed 50kw, but I didn't realize 550-630 had this option.

Someone can feel free to correct me, but I've always thought stations on the former "regional" channels can have as much power as they want (up to 50kw), so long as they can prove non-interference with other stations on the same or adjacent channels. WTMJ's pattern is primarily aimed north, which means it goes into Wisconsin's most populous area. But they old just fine in that region with the old 5kw non-directional setup. I don't think going to 50kw directional accomplished much. The former signal in places like Madison was actually slightly degraded.

 

[wildthangjim]

In west Houston, daytime is KILT 610 splatter. Once in 2018 I caught XEGH in Rio Bravo Coahuila during the day but don't recall hearing them since. At sunset, KEXB in the DFW area is dominant, but have also heard XENK Radio Rebelde, WJDX, and WDAE. At night it's similar with KEXB and XENK most often emerging from the mess.

 

[DXBob]

WTMJ's pattern is primarily aimed north, which means it goes into Wisconsin's most populous area. But they old just fine in that region with the old 5kw non-directional setup. I don't think going to 50kw directional accomplished much. The former signal in places like Madison was actually slightly degraded.

I lived in downtown Milwaukee from 1989-2005. The old nighttime 5 kW WTMJ pattern actually had interference from man-made sources downtown. Additionally, on occasion I could hear signals underneath WTMJ on this pattern. Once they changed to the 10 kW nighttime pattern, this interference was totally eliminated. About 30,000 people live in downtown Milwaukee and reportedly, this is one the reasons they made the switch. The 50 kW daytime pattern penetrates almost every structure downtown.

Bob

 

[cyberdad]

I lived in downtown Milwaukee from 1989-2005. The old nighttime 5 kW WTMJ pattern actually had interference from man-made sources downtown. Additionally, on occasion I could hear signals underneath WTMJ on this pattern. Once they changed to the 10 kW nighttime pattern, this interference was totally eliminated. About 30,000 people live in downtown Milwaukee and reportedly, this is one the reasons they made the switch. The 50 kW daytime pattern penetrates almost every structure downtown.

Bob

I spent a night in Downtown Milwaukee (at the Hilton) when I was attending a meeting there about 10 years ago. WTMJ was absolutely crystal clear...with great audio. That, of course, was at 10kw. Go back another ten years, and my wife's sister and her family were living in Brookfield, Wisconsin....about 12 miles west of downtown. The night signal was excellent there, too. But her house was practically in the shadow of the old 5kw site.

Fun fact: The company I worked for in the late 2000s hired away WTMJ's CFO to become our CFO. Nice guy. I didn't get to know him very well, and I never did "talk shop" with him about his days at WTMJ (radio and TV). But I did get the impression that it had been a pretty good place to work.

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

One SSS here I have to tune in to hear WKHB, from out in Pittsburgh. Odd, they're listed by Radio-Locator as omni, but with 5500 daytime watts.
The loggings to date here in NE PA :
1. WSKQ NJ is a weak daytimer. Lotta fun listening to the Mets games they carried in Spanish. I will never forget the PBP guy pronouncing the name of the pitcher as 'Bdddetttt Sobberrrrrhoggen'.
2. WHEN Syracuse -- a frequent nighttime visitor.
3. Those renegades from Cuba.

Retro chuckle: Back in the older days of DX, near Kennedy Airport, a buddy of ours bought one of those keyboard-style radio monsters (Grundig, maybe?). It had ivory keys with musical instrument insignias on them rather than 'bass-midrange-treble' knobs.
Huge Art was not a DXer of the radio-club elite strata ; he just was curious enough about the younger pups in the group and our pastimes to spin dial on a nice radio.
Local WVNJ used to sign off their 620 AM really early some nights. Well, next day he murmured to us about him hearing 'some station with a whole bunch of T's and J's in it.'
WTMJ was indeed a frequent interloper to us in the East, back when they were 5000 watts.
They ought to be a nice new catch here, 150 miles closer to them than we were back in Queens.

 

[cyberdad]

.'IWTMJ was indeed a frequent interloper to us in the East, back when they were 5000 watts. They ought to be a nice new catch here, 150 miles closer to them than we were back in Queens.

I'm not familiar with the former WTMJ night pattern, but I'm pretty sure the idea was to null the signal to the south in order to protect (then-) WSUN. The flip side of that being that the 5kw from Waukesha wasn't as tight to the east (and west) as what they're currently doing with 10kw nights from Union Grove.

 

[DXBob]

I'm not familiar with the former WTMJ night pattern, but I'm pretty sure the idea was to null the signal to the south in order to protect (then-) WSUN. The flip side of that being that the 5kw from Waukesha wasn't as tight to the east (and west) as what they're currently doing with 10kw nights from Union Grove.

The old WTMJ tower site was actually in Brookfield, Wisconsin.

Bob

 

[TXPH97]

DFW, Texas

Local KTNO 24/7. Back in the day in Tampa, FL, I was surprised to hear CKCK Regina, SK one Monday morning when local WSUN happened to be off the air.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

Any of the 41 Regional Channels are now allowed 50000 watts, Day and Night. However, the lower the frequency, the less likely it is to fit in with 50000 watts, unless they can send the signal into the Oceans, Seas, and Gulfs, or Canada into thinly populated areas.

Only FOUR stations were able to get to 50000 watts Day and Night on Regional Channels. KMJ 580 goes into the Pacific Ocean, KJR 950 into the Pacific and Central Canada, WWJ 950 into Canada, and WXYT 1270 into Canada.

KKOL 1300 was 50/47, but is now down to 50/3.2 due to radiation and interference concerns and lawsuits as I recall. KEIB 1150 is 50/44. The last I recall, it then dropped down to a couple in Michigan, WFDF 910 50/25 into Canada, and WOOD 1300 20/20 into Canada, Due to the upgrade of WYLL 1160, WHBY 1150 was able to go 20/25. WPEN/WKDN 950 is or was 43/21. Many 50000 watt Day stations in general are downgrading now to a few tens of watts nondirectional Night, Class D.

The early upgraded ones, WTMJ 620 50/10, WRC/WTEM 980 50/5, and WADO 1280 50/7.2, and a few others, used traditional in line and parallelogram type arrays. The late Glen Clark later devised a multinodal supercomputer to design some of the higher power "near parallelograms" with a couple towers slightly out of place, "dogleg" 3 towers such as WCFL/WMVP 1000, and "constellation" arrays, and it looks like DLR has used his methods on a few.

It's amazing how much more power could be designed with dogleg type designs. WLCM 1390 went from an inline 1 kW Night design to a 4.5 kW Night design with a dogleg/near inline 4 tower array, and WJMK 1250 was able to use the three 1/2 wave old WKNX 1210 towers, and a 4th 1/4 wave dogleg to get 1.1 kW Night, with 3 of the four being existing towers. They probably could have done more power starting from scratch, but with much greater expense. Plus the 1/2 wave towers give them much more gain in the horizontal than shorter towers. In Canada, CFCO 630 was able to use 5 existing towers to get very different patterns with 10 kW Day and 6 kW Night, increasing from 1 kW to 6 kW Night with those towers.