Near north Chicago suburbs days: nothing but WCPT splatter. At. Night WGY but not as strong as it used to be. I’ve heard WHB occasionally. When I’m out west it’s KGO up and down the coast at night.
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AM Frequency of the Week: 810
- Thread starter cyberdad
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From west Houston, daytimes are usually nothing here, but have heard a weak KYTY San Antonio on occasion. I used to regularly hear XERI from Reynosa, but they're apparently silent now. Sometimes WBAP is strong enough to slop over to 810.
At sunset, WHB is usually strongest, but KYTY is there as well. I've also heard XEHT and WCKA. At night, it's WHB and KYTY dominating, but in 2022 I heard ZNS-3.
At sunrise, it's WHB, KYTY, and WCKA until they fade. Also, WSJC and KSWV are often heard. I have heard a possible KLVZ in Brighton, CO but haven't been able to confirm yet.
At sunset, WHB is usually strongest, but KYTY is there as well. I've also heard XEHT and WCKA. At night, it's WHB and KYTY dominating, but in 2022 I heard ZNS-3.
At sunrise, it's WHB, KYTY, and WCKA until they fade. Also, WSJC and KSWV are often heard. I have heard a possible KLVZ in Brighton, CO but haven't been able to confirm yet.
At least every minute of the station's time is bought and paid for. Try another format on that frequency and see if you can make the same claim.
Boise Idaho
Day nothing
Night KGO OK signal.
Sunrise KGO, KBHB Sturgis and/or KVLZ Brighton then KTBI Ephrata,
Sunset KTBI Ephrata then KGO.
Day nothing
Night KGO OK signal.
Sunrise KGO, KBHB Sturgis and/or KVLZ Brighton then KTBI Ephrata,
Sunset KTBI Ephrata then KGO.
I'm inclined to agree. But management might somehow find it within them to console themselves about it if it becomes a cash cow. 🤣
One of several Kansas City-area nighttime figure-8 patterns...including 810 KCMO, which downgraded from 10 to 5 kw in 1979 to loosen the nulls that just happened to be over the fastest-growing parts of the Kansas CIty metro!
A Kansas City Times article from April 24, 1979 reported that KCMO was about to test out AM stereo for three months. The reporter, Steve Nicely, also mentioned in the article that, "after sunset you may not be able to pick up KCMO in certain parts of town even when you can see the tower." Nicely's explanation of the station's nighttime directional status was generally correct.
I found some notes regarding other stations picked up on 810 in the 1980s in Columbia, Missouri (which is east of Kansas City and thus doesn't get anything from KCMO/WHB at night):
WSJC Magee, MS in the time between Missouri local sunset and Mississippi local sunset
WGY Schenectady, NY, late at night
CKJS Winnipeg, Manitoba! - got it for a full half hour just before midnight on November 23, 1984. There was no station ID, just a time announcement, classical music, and top of the hour news from "Broadcast News". CKJS was my best guess (at least in 1984).
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Here in Kansas City where I am now, WHB, of course.
I've spent a few nights in Columbia, as well as in Higginsville, Mo, which is 50 miles east of KC. Both stations at night invisible there. In Higginsville, 810 at night (as KCMO) was pretty much spent. 710 (as WHB) was still listenable although with lots of fading after sunset.
CKJS had a nice day signal, ut effectively was gone at night before the U.S. border. Format. IIRC was similar to CFAM (950). Mostly religion and brokered stuff. I seem to also remember some country music as well.
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Both 710 and 810 are impossible in Columbia, about 125 miles east of Kansas City. 610 is fine and even 980, at least on the old antenna system in Westwood, Kansas, could be heard with not much fading. KMBZ was directional toward the west at night but not very directional, obviously.
Columbia was a good AM DX location: only one local at night, KFRU at 1400. The other local, KTGR, was a daytimer. Otherwise, it was pretty much wide-open. Disclaimer: I was news director of KFRU from 1980 to 1984.
Agreed, but it won't. It's a milk dud at best. Cumulus owns four AM stations in the SFBA market. (Aside from KGO, 560/KSFO, 680/KNBR and 1050/KTCT.) And the statement "four AM's in the same market" should be stating the obvious. KTCT does nothing in the ratings, and a sports betting format would have fit it just as well, with the mighty KGO signal getting used for something, anything (excuse my choice of word) better. In fact, even if they'd moved the right-wing talk from KSFO to KGO and put the sports betting on the 560 signal, IMO it would have been preferable.
Days here is an even fainter WYRE Annapolis than what Delaware's anwar must get. But as he says: for such a low wattage, that little station does get out.
(I live in that part of this hill town where, on the East side the creeks tend to flow into the Delaware and here on the West side, the headwaters and tributaries flow into the Susquehanna Drainage all the way to Chesapeake Bay. There's a DX window of sorts available there, I guess.)
One sunset session here brought in WEDO McKeesport PA for a good tape ID. They're SE of Pittsburgh.
Nighttimes its WGY, an inconvenience like a parked car taking up two spaces, because they seem to have one of the worst 50K nightime omni signals ever licensed. Maybe it's because of their latitude and some prevailing Aurora effects at work whenever I tune in?
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Back in Queens NYC at SSS, that WGY often would be nibbled and tormented by the wee, aforementioned Annapolis. Our bunch all had them logged first as WABW, as in AnnapolisBaltimoreWashington.
radio-locator.com
And be assured -- that pictured signal DOES go all the way down the Chesapeake into Norfolk.
(I live in that part of this hill town where, on the East side the creeks tend to flow into the Delaware and here on the West side, the headwaters and tributaries flow into the Susquehanna Drainage all the way to Chesapeake Bay. There's a DX window of sorts available there, I guess.)
One sunset session here brought in WEDO McKeesport PA for a good tape ID. They're SE of Pittsburgh.
Nighttimes its WGY, an inconvenience like a parked car taking up two spaces, because they seem to have one of the worst 50K nightime omni signals ever licensed. Maybe it's because of their latitude and some prevailing Aurora effects at work whenever I tune in?
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Back in Queens NYC at SSS, that WGY often would be nibbled and tormented by the wee, aforementioned Annapolis. Our bunch all had them logged first as WABW, as in AnnapolisBaltimoreWashington.
WYRE-AM Radio Station Coverage Map
radio-locator.com
@Weiserguy
True enough about that KGO signal and the ratings.
Sure, I know that it was back last century, but KGO had killer numbers both in SFO and San Jose. (Pal of mine from Brooklyn worked for a while at 97.7 KPEN in San Jose, and so did a buddy from Long Island, at a smooth jazz (?) SFO station. I was curious enough about the Coast to've sent an audition cassette to KLOK 1170 at the time).
As you probably know, the East Coast's WBT Charlotte has an ink-blot 50 K signal much the same as KGO's, and WBT shows up with things like 4.5 using a similar News-Talk offering.
I agree that 560 and 810 should have reconsidered. This 24/7/52 casino stuff has yet to prove it has a place in the ratings. In fact, they appear not to be concerned with ratings in the least. It's too late now (for the time being) but the thought here is put the roulette wheel and Lost Wages stuff on 560, and put the similarly sold out, if whorish, N/T on the bigger 810.
Lol -- my Grandpa, whom I kid was named after me, was a bookie from Queens. As a result, Dad and I learned never to bet. But nowadays .... ah, what's the use? Advertising will follow us everywhere to try and convince us that our money would be safer and better off in their pockets than in ours.
True enough about that KGO signal and the ratings.
Sure, I know that it was back last century, but KGO had killer numbers both in SFO and San Jose. (Pal of mine from Brooklyn worked for a while at 97.7 KPEN in San Jose, and so did a buddy from Long Island, at a smooth jazz (?) SFO station. I was curious enough about the Coast to've sent an audition cassette to KLOK 1170 at the time).
As you probably know, the East Coast's WBT Charlotte has an ink-blot 50 K signal much the same as KGO's, and WBT shows up with things like 4.5 using a similar News-Talk offering.
I agree that 560 and 810 should have reconsidered. This 24/7/52 casino stuff has yet to prove it has a place in the ratings. In fact, they appear not to be concerned with ratings in the least. It's too late now (for the time being) but the thought here is put the roulette wheel and Lost Wages stuff on 560, and put the similarly sold out, if whorish, N/T on the bigger 810.
Lol -- my Grandpa, whom I kid was named after me, was a bookie from Queens. As a result, Dad and I learned never to bet. But nowadays .... ah, what's the use? Advertising will follow us everywhere to try and convince us that our money would be safer and better off in their pockets than in ours.
Nothing during the day for me on 810. Nights, sometimes WGY. Often nothing. I too am surprised by the weakness of WGY in this part of the country; sometimes it's there, but usually not. Occasionally hear WHB at night, but seldom. I don't think I've ever managed to pull in KGO and the door has probably closed on that possibility.
As for KGO, I agree it's a shame and a waste of a once-great station, but that's life. I guess they were just stuck. To set up FM simulcast operations that would serve their market sufficiently, they would probably need a bunch of small translators around the Bay Area in an already crowded band. And put what format on them exactly? KGO as a talker wasn't killing it on AM, don't know that they'd be any more of a hit on FM. I understand that this betting stuff is finding advertisers but I don't really expect KGO per se to be long for this world. What amount could the station be sold for? Whatever, David Eduardo has probably explained all this already, lol.
As for KGO, I agree it's a shame and a waste of a once-great station, but that's life. I guess they were just stuck. To set up FM simulcast operations that would serve their market sufficiently, they would probably need a bunch of small translators around the Bay Area in an already crowded band. And put what format on them exactly? KGO as a talker wasn't killing it on AM, don't know that they'd be any more of a hit on FM. I understand that this betting stuff is finding advertisers but I don't really expect KGO per se to be long for this world. What amount could the station be sold for? Whatever, David Eduardo has probably explained all this already, lol.
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Where?
That would have been a tricky transition to pull off: the day when radio stations could shift frequencies, and listeners would follow, seems to be over. The one exception might be migration from an AM to an FM signal. That's not a good option for Cumulus in the SF market except for implementing an HD additional channel, which Cumulus has in fact done, with KSFO being simulcast on KSAN-HD2.
Remember, the San Francisco Metro Survey Area runs from Santa Rosa down to Gilroy. You'd need a dozen average translators to even cover the bulk of it.
A lot of stations are resorting to formats that do not depend on ratings. That applies to all the religious and Asian language stations in San Francisco as well as formats that appeal to specific interest groups, like gambling.
In gaming, there is a reason just a few people get free airfare, comped rooms and meals and shows: they leave lots of money on the tables. The same concept works in special radio formats where tiny listener segments mean a lot to some advertisers.
Look at Bloomberg Business Radio. No ratings, or maybe a 0.1 share. But it is a brand enhancement to remind business folks who use the terminals how valuable having Bloomberg is. This works when a single terminal is about $30 thousand a year!
BBR is definitely not for everyone. It's an acquired taste. But it also offers a lot of solid financial and investing information alongside the expert interviews. One does not need to be a Bloomberg subscriber, or lease a Bloomberg terminal, to learn a lot, or come across actionable information from WBBR, KNEW* or the other BBR repeaters around the country.
OTOH, the goal of the betting format is to insert the sports betting company's hand into the listener's pocket and keep it there until the well has run dry, then rinse and repeat whenever said well gets replenished. It's thievery in the guise of gaming. There is no redeeming societal value to the practice or the format. If a station is so bereft of ideas that that's the best idea they can come up with, just sell the land and turn in the license. (Unfortunately, the unique location of KGO's transmitter array, in the SF Bay adjacent to the Dumbarton Bridge, means that land will never be sold, just eventually turned back into protected marshland.)
(* Anyone else note the irony that the WBBR programming airs on KNEW out here, and WBBR previously was the late, great WNEW?)
KGO and KCBS show what a well-chosen directional pattern and transmitter site can do.
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Chicago by the lakeshore:
Daytime: nothing.
Nighttime: WGY Schenectady predominates. I have gotten WHB Kansas City a few times and WWOS Walterboro, SC at least once. These were all in my prior apartment. I tried tonight and got a clear commercial for MyPillow. I am guessing this is once again WGY, and somehow I resisted the urge to buy a MyPillow.
Daytime: nothing.
Nighttime: WGY Schenectady predominates. I have gotten WHB Kansas City a few times and WWOS Walterboro, SC at least once. These were all in my prior apartment. I tried tonight and got a clear commercial for MyPillow. I am guessing this is once again WGY, and somehow I resisted the urge to buy a MyPillow.
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