AM Frequency of the Week - 690 kHz

[Gregg.]

I remember being in the Portland OR area some years ago, when XETRA 690 Tijuana was still a Top 40 station, aimed at both San Diego and Los Angeles listeners. Before 6am one morning I was listening very clearly to The Mighty 690 (that's what they called themselves, never using their call letters in English). Then a few minutes before 6am, the Top 40 stopped and CBU 690 Vancouver signed on.

I always wondered how the two stations' signals overlapped so much, from Fresno to Portland. When CBU was off the air, XETRA came in strong. When CBU signed on, XETRA was gone.

BTW, XETRA tried very hard NOT to have anyone think it was a Mexican station. Yes, they had to do their legal I.D. in Spanish, which they'd bury quickly between two commercials. And they had to run La Hora Nacional on Sunday nights. But the rest of the time, it was all American Top 40. And they had an advantage over U.S. Top 40 stations. In morning drive, they didn't have to do any newscasts. And aiming at both LA and SD, they didn't bother to do traffic reports either. It was all music with maybe 10 commercials per hour. If they ran a contest, they'd have you send in a post card to "The Mighty 690, Southern California, 92121." They didn't even give the city, just the zip code, so their LA listeners wouldn't think they're a San Diego, let alone Tijuana, station. Of course, if you were one digit off on the zip code, your post card probably wouldn't get to the station, since there was no city listed.

 

[cyberdad]

Wasn't XETRA all news before they flipped to top 40? (X-tra news, IIRC). And also, wasn't Gordon Maclendon (sp?) running he place. I do remember the top 40 from some of my first business trips to So-Cal. And I also remember the local-grade signal up the coast to Santa Barbara.

 

[radioman148]

I think it was 63 or 64 when I was in Southern California and "XTRA NEWS" was calling themselves the first all news station in the world. FWIW: WNUS in Chicago, also a McClendon station was second. Anyway, I think XTRA was Top 40 after they were news, but I think they also played Rock & Roll in the late 50s under different call letters.

 

[schmave]

Just looked up the XETRA towers and saw how far south into Mexico they actually are. Wouldn't they have had cancellation issues at night over LA? Or was the salt-water path enough to overcome that?

 

[cyberdad]

Just looked up the XETRA towers and saw how far south into Mexico they actually are. Wouldn't they have had cancellation issues at night over LA? Or was the salt-water path enough to overcome that?

That may have been the case, but in my admittedly small sample size (2-3 biz trips a year to So-Cal), I never noticed any of that. Perhaps David, or someone else with more knowledge is lurking and can provide a better answer.

 

[cyberdad]

I think it was 63 or 64 when I was in Southern California and "XTRA NEWS" was calling themselves the first all news station in the world. FWIW: WNUS in Chicago, also a McClendon station was second. Anyway, I think XTRA was Top 40 after they were news, but I think they also played Rock & Roll in the late 50s under different call letters.

I remember WNUS....pretty ambitious effort, but parked on a lousy signal (1390). The also were on 107.5 FM, but in those days, the FM wasn't much of a help. I seem to remember that WNUS was supposedly using the "XTRA NEWS" template.

 

[radioman148]

I remember WNUS....pretty ambitious effort, but parked on a lousy signal (1390). The also were on 107.5 FM, but in those days, the FM wasn't much of a help. I seem to remember that WNUS was supposedly using the "XTRA NEWS" template.

That's correct. In fact WNUS billed themselves the "2nd all news station in the world". You are also correct that it was an ambitious effort and set the table for WBBM which went all news just a few years later.

 

[radioman148]

Just looked up the XETRA towers and saw how far south into Mexico they actually are. Wouldn't they have had cancellation issues at night over LA? Or was the salt-water path enough to overcome that?

On my trips to LA I never noticed cancellation issues for XETRA in the LA area, however if you went east towards San Bernardino you could notice it.

 

[fordranger797]

W. Washington

Days, just CBU / KIRO splash.
Nights, CBU, XEWW, sometimes KRCO Prineville, sometimes CBKF-2 from Saskatchewan. And KIRO splash.

That KIRO noise is awful.

 

[davideduardo]

Just looked up the XETRA towers and saw how far south into Mexico they actually are. Wouldn't they have had cancellation issues at night over LA? Or was the salt-water path enough to overcome that?

At present, the man made noise levels in LA make use of 690 pretty much limited to southern Orange County and the extreme coastal areas. It's not a viable signal where 90% of the population lives.

The site was designed to minimize skywave and to shoot a roughly 300 kw lobe up over San Diego and the California coast.

 

[davideduardo]

Wasn't XETRA all news before they flipped to top 40? (X-tra news, IIRC). And also, wasn't Gordon Maclendon (sp?) running he place. I do remember the top 40 from some of my first business trips to So-Cal. And I also remember the local-grade signal up the coast to Santa Barbara.

690 was XEAK and Top 40 before going to McLendon. McLendon was reported to have vacationed in Cuba where he heard Reloj Nacional, the all-news station that had been going for more than a decade. He made a deal to lease XEAK, and changed the call letters and began all news as X-tra News Over Los Angeles. After KFWB went All News in LA, XETRA became Beautiful Music (patterned after co-owned KABL) and then became Adult Top 40 before becoming a gold station.

At that time... around 1961... 690 had a good enough signal to cover LA because the noise levels were much lower back then and, of course, AM radios were much better made.

 

[davideduardo]

Just looked up the XETRA towers and saw how far south into Mexico they actually are. Wouldn't they have had cancellation issues at night over LA? Or was the salt-water path enough to overcome that?

The towers are along the toll highway just south of the Tijuana city limits. It's truly on the border in the sense that nearly all the power is directed towards SoCal.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

That reminds me of another conversation I had with Jesse Champion in 1969 about Birmingham Radio, David. I told him that the only radio station that I had ever heard from Birmingham was 50000 watt WVOK 690, now WJOX. When they signed off when they were a Daytimer, they played "Dixie". As I recall, Mr. Champion was not particularly offended by the sign off though, when we discussed it. He seemed concerned when I told him WSGN 610 reduced from 5000 to 1000 watts night, and asked if WBRC 960 did. I told him WBRC was still 5000 watts at night, but directionalized at night.

As for XETRA, they show in the Region II Database as 77000 watts day and 50000 watts night, with 2 towers day and 5 towers at night. The biggest reason that it reaches the LA Area quite well is that it cuts across the Pacific Ocean to get to the Coastal Areas around LA. It looks like the minor lobe in the night pattern goes toward LA and the major lobe South toward most of Baja California.

 

[K.M. Richards]

690 was XEAK and Top 40 before going to McLendon. McLendon was reported to have vacationed in Cuba where he heard Reloj Nacional, the all-news station that had been going for more than a decade. He made a deal to lease XEAK, and changed the call letters and began all news as X-tra News Over Los Angeles. After KFWB went All News in LA, XETRA became Beautiful Music (patterned after co-owned KABL) and then became Adult Top 40 before becoming a gold station.

And McLendon was long gone before "The Mighty 690" replaced the elevator music.

 

[ftballfan]

Nothing here during the day. All CKGM at night

 

[davideduardo]

That reminds me of another conversation I had with Jesse Champion in 1969 about Birmingham Radio, David. I told him that the only radio station that I had ever heard from Birmingham was 50000 watt WVOK 690, now WJOX. When they signed off when they were a Daytimer, they played "Dixie". As I recall, Mr. Champion was not particularly offended by the sign off though, when we discussed it.

I DXed WVOK in 1959. I was about 13 at the time, and when I sent them a reception report, I asked about the unusual fife and drum version of Dixie that I heard. In response, they sent me an ET with 6 cuts of Dixie on it. The engineer explained that they ordered the disks by the box, and played each cut until it got noisy and then when the whole disk was worn, they broke open a new one. I also got a picture of the home-brew Daughrety transmitter. Later, in Birmingham, I witnessed how the station's bandwidth would change in the heat of B'ham summers as the big coil of coax used in the circuit got warmer and changed characteristics.

 

[davideduardo]

As for XETRA, they show in the Region II Database as 77000 watts day and 50000 watts night, with 2 towers day and 5 towers at night. The biggest reason that it reaches the LA Area quite well is that it cuts across the Pacific Ocean to get to the Coastal Areas around LA. It looks like the minor lobe in the night pattern goes toward LA and the major lobe South toward most of Baja California.

Reflect on this as you consider XEWW's directional system: I once visited a supposedly NARBA conforming Class IV in the Dominican Republic. It was licensed at 1 kw days and 250 watts nights, as were all Class IV's at the time. On the "power cut" button on the rather old RCA transmitter was a bunch of duct tape and, written in MagicMarker, the Spanish equivalent of "Under no circumstance should this button be touched, ever".

 

[joebtsflk1]

On 690 in far southeastern SD was the former KUSD (I think) at Vermillion SD...University of SD owned. Was a daytimer with 1000 watts. I believe it's been gone over 20 years now.

 

[boombox4]

That KIRO noise is awful.

No kidding. It goes from 680 to 730 -- on those two frequencies there are prominent splash peaks. DX still makes it through now and then, though.

I guess on the positive side it's a sign of an AM station that is not losing it's punch....

 

[boombox4]

I remember the Mighty 690. Sometimes it would come in rather well here the Seattle metro area on my boombox -- in the 80's it often covered CBU at night, depending on where you were. I liked their mix of music.