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AM Frequency of the Week: 810

cyberdad

cyberdad

Another week, another tweak of the dial. This time, it's 810. What are you hearing there these days?

For me 40-odd miles northwest of downtown Chicago, it's moderate splatter from WCPT (820) daytime. Sometimes I'll hear WSJC from Magee, MS at sunset on their 50kw day pattern. Usually when it's in, the signal is quite good.

At night with WCPT (and WSJC) powered down, it's WGY all alone with what I'd describe as a surprisingly weak signal. Fair at best. For some reason it doesn't do as well here as the other 50kw ND stations from the northeast, even though there's hardly anything to challenge it. The Kansas City and Winnipeg 810s do a nice job of protecting it.
 
Houston daytime - very weak WJSC. It is interesting, because there is a much closer 810 in San Antonio - KYTY that I have never been able to pick up. The only thing under WJSC is XERI Reynosa. Nightime is the usual jumble of stations with nothing really on top.
 
In the near north Chicago suburbs it's WCPT splatter during the day. At night it's all WGY. As Cyberdad pointed out WGY is not as strong as it used to be. In the Chicago area WGY used to be very strong at night. Not as strong now. I have heard Kansas City in the fall & winter months at sundown before they drop power & go directional.
 
Daytime is a strong KTBI Ephrata, WA - about 70 miles on 50KW. They air Christian programming relayed from KSPO-106.5 Spokane, called the American Christian Network.
Sunset - Usually KTBI and KGO San Francisco (News/Talk), though KBHB Sturgis SD makes some appearances in winter (Country/Agriculture).
Nights - Always KGO, a very strong S9+ usually. They have the big N-S pattern to protect WGY.
I also have a one-off log of WHB Kansas City, under KGO one night with ESPN. That was 5kw at 1400+ miles on the 3 ft loop.

On the wish list are several I'd like to hear at sunrise, mainly. Obviously, WGY Schenectady, that has been heard in BC and Oregon before, but never at my QTH. The only hints I've gotten were faint wisps of Coast to Coast AM under KGO (which WGY carries). I need an ID!
Also - KSWV Santa Fe (sunrise possibility, 5KW with Spanish programming); KLVZ Brighton CO (2.2KW with Christian Talk) and CKJS Winnipeg (which should be semi-common, it is heard in BC often, but not here!)
 
Daytime, usually nothing, thanks to local KXIC on 800. If anything, a weak WHB Kansas City. But with 50 kW daytime, why isn't WHB there all the time, even considering my local adjacent? Radio-locator.com shows that my area should be right on the edge of its fringe signal area. Maybe there is a null in our direction that the map doesn't show, or the presence of sorta-nearby WDMP in Dodgeville, WI, a 250 watter about 100 miles away in the opposite direction. Kansas City is about 250 miles over much better terrain from a conductivity standpoint.

Nighttime, often WGY, although it has never been a slam-dunk predictable catch that I can remember. Sometimes WHB shows up. Maybe as cyberdad suggests, the Winnipeg station may be a factor although I don't recall ever catching it. Don't recall ever hearing KGO from here. The best days of catching it are probably over.
 
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Daytime - nothing

Nighttime - KGO which ranges from barely audible to listenable but not nearly as good as KNBR or KSFO.

First time I heard it here, I was surprised because their signal pattern doesn't favor this direction at all.

Speaking of KGO, whatever happened to Ray Taliaferro? I know he's been gone for years but I used to hear him when I visited my brother in the Bay Area.

He would often say in addition to the station ID ... "also heard in parts of Canada and parts of Mexico".
 
Daytime, north of Atlanta, WCKA is it, decent signal. At night its a free for all. Sometimes WGY, sometimes the Bahamian station, and a host of others.
 
icybluelake said:
. Maybe as cyberdad suggests, the Winnipeg station may be a factor although I don't recall ever catching it.
Click to expand...

I've never heard them here, but CKJS might be do-able where you are on a good night where you are. They're 10kw directional, same pattern day/night with deep nulls protecting WGY and KGO, but there's a little lobe that goes almost due south (and actually more or less towards WHB, which I assume they're not obliged to protect. I think the eastern edge of that little lobe might be enough to make it to Eastern Iowa. Especially if WHB isn't a significant factor there.
 
hawaiigar said:
Daytime - nothing

Nighttime - KGO which ranges from barely audible to listenable but not nearly as good as KNBR or KSFO.

First time I heard it here, I was surprised because their signal pattern doesn't favor this direction at all.

Speaking of KGO, whatever happened to Ray Taliaferro? I know he's been gone for years but I used to hear him when I visited my brother in the Bay Area.

He would often say in addition to the station ID ... "also heard in parts of Canada and parts of Mexico".
Click to expand...

Back in the 70s I was in Acapulco, Mexico and KGO put in a big nighttime signal down there then.
 
WGY now completely owns the frequency at night, now that the station in New Brunswick has left the air for good. They used to come in fairly well if the radio was positioned right, and sometimes they'd come out on top. In the daytime...I can only hear WGY IF I take my CC Plus and terk advantage to a park.
 
Nothing daytime in Reynoldsburg, Ohio except slop from next-door neighbor WVSG on 820.
At night, usually WGY with a moderate signal. One night maybe 10 years ago, the 810 from Kansas City must have been non-directional because it fought with WGY for quite a while. Only time I've ever heard Kansas City here.
 
Daytime in Pittsburgh it's local WEDO in McKeesport. Recently sold and now playing a very nice
selection of music between 6PM and sign-off.

At night it's WGY with a spotty signal.
 
In Northwest Arkansas -

Daytime - usually nothing

Early evening-nighttime hours - WHB, Kansas City
 
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Day and night in northwest San Antonio it's local KYTY, which is about 25 miles south of me in Somerset.

I can partially null the station by aiming NW/SE and hear a weak-to-moderate XERI at sunset.

At night in that null, both XERI and WHB can be heard fading in and out weakly. XERI comes up a bit stronger at sunrise.
 
810 here is a mix of stations daytime. WWOS St. George, SC (about 50-60 mi NW) is the dominant with a religious format. It used to be a Catholic format as WQIZ, but moved from Charleston back to St. George last year. Under that 810 I sometimes get Orlando's station or even ZNS from Freeport, Bahamas.

At night, it is usually WGY or a jumble. One time about 15 years ago I heard WHB. It was a one-off reception on my Walkman.
 
I remember hearing WHB 810 strong and alone at Michigan Sunset before pattern and power change, shortly after they switched with KCMO 710. My first reaction was that WHB was a clear channel station (in the technical sense of a I-A or I-B) so I shouldn't be surprised. And the three letter callsign also gave that impression. I wasn't aware of the switch before I heard this.
 
All we get in the Bay Area is what's left of KGO. Local nickname: "K-GOne." 50,000 watts of yak that few listeners dig. Morning show outsourced to Sacramento (Armstrong & Getty). Ronn (sic) Owens middays, working out a contract that keeps him on KGO and forbids a move to co-owned KSFO (Cumulus tried and the lawyers said "No way!"). The rest of the day is more tonsils from the basket of deplorables. You may hear the occasional sporting event if KNBR can't clear it, though less of that in the future with the Warriors moving to Entercom's 95.7 The Game. KGO news is an afterthought now, and many former KGO reporters are working for KCBS.

The transmitter site is three towers at the eastern end of the Dumbarton bridge. For a long time, KCBS traffic reports would use KGO's site as a landmark: "Traffic is backed up on the Dumbarton from the old radio towers to mid-span...."

If you're somewhere hoping to hear KGO, it can't be because of the programming. The last few years have seen a steady dismantling of the KGO institution, first by Citadel, then by Cumulus. KGO had an amazingly long streak at #1 in Arbitron, but PPM showed the truth about the KGO audience - they were the loyalists who would write KGO all day, every day in a diary, but once ratings were based on what's actually heard, big difference. KGO-TV is still around and a major player, but no longer are the stations co-owned.'

So that's the 810 that may dominate the Pacific Coast but is a has-been in its local market.
 
I used to listen to KGO nightly. Including Ray Taliaferro, although I disagreed with much of his politics, he was intelligent and informed. And a great radio voice.

I miss their lineup, but life goes on. I notice they play John Batchelor's show, which often is interesting, although it covers a lot of geo-political stuff and historical stuff that probably goes over the heads of most radio listeners.
 
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