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AM Frequency of the week: 860

cyberdad

cyberdad

Far northwest suburban Chicago....

Days" Extreme splatter from local WAIT (850). With WAIT off, a weak WNOV from Milwaukee comes through. (250 watts ND from about 65 miles)

Nights: All CJBC, Usually alone with a very good signal. I'll sometimes hear something underneath, but haven't been able to ID anything. Although one time I was reasonably sure I was hearing KONO on day pattern.

Sunrise/Sunset: With WAIT off, I've heard KKOW (ex KOAM) a few times on day pattern. (10kw ND from Pittsburg, KS....southeast corner of the state).

Other Location: As usual, on our recent visit to the Pensacola area, I was able to hear CJBC most nights. Just part of the mix on the channel, but easy to pick out because of the French language programming. CFZM....diplexed on the same stick....was almost always absent.
 
In the near north Chicago suburbs daytime it's a weak WNOV from Milwaukee. When I first heard this station many, many years ago it was WFOX. I'll bet Cyberdad remembers that.
At night it's all CJBC with a very good signal.
 
In northwest Arkansas -

Daytime - KKOW Pittsburg, KS

Nighttime - KKOW - sometimes along with another station - CJBC Toronto, ON among them.

Kegan
 
From west Houston - days a weak KONO San Antonio can be heard mixed with slop from my local 850 KEYH. Nearing sunset, KKOW takes over with a good signal and KONO mostly disappears. Around sunset I can sometimes hear Spanish talk (XEUN) and light Spanish pop music (presumed XENL) mixing in, and then the frequency becomes a jumble. I have not heard CJBC so far at this location. I have also never heard any of the lower powered Texans, KPAN, KSFA, or KFST.

It appears CKBF-2 in Saskatoon's programming is separate from CJBC, wonder if anyone hears them.

Retro, from Tulsa in the 70's, KOAM (predecessor to KKOW) was loud and clear day and night from about 100 miles away. IIRC, KOAM went off every Monday morning and I recall easily hearing CJBC at their sign-on at 5am. XEUN was also heard when KOAM was off.
 
As I recall, the call letters of WFOX changed to WNOV when Leonard and Phil Chess bought it. They had sold WTAC Flint after owning it about a year. They used the sale proceeds to buy WHFC 1450 Cicero, changed it to WVON, and later bought WFOX/WNOV 860. They also acquired a then low valued FM 97.9, and later made it WLUP, officially The Loop, but again reflecting Leonard and Phil Chess. The Corporate name was the L and P Corporation. WLAP 630 was/is used in Lexington. See the History Cards. It’s all there on the Microfiche Pages.
 
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In the Valley of the Jolly Green Giant (Le Sueur, MN)

daytime-KNUJ New Ulm
Nightime-CJBC

Sometimes KNUJ almost sounds like they forgot to turn down power because they are at a paltry 5 watts at night and a few nights leaving work in Mankato (which is 30 miles away) at 11:30pm KNUJ comes in decent (over CJBC). When they are at night power its CJBC clear
 
Schroedingers Cat said:
As I recall, the call letters of WFOX changed to WNOV when Leonard and Phil Chess bought it. They had sold WTAC Flint after owning it about a year. They used the sale proceeds to buy WHFC 1450 Cicero, changed it to WVON, and later bought WFOX/WNOV 860. They also acquired a then low valued FM 97.9, and later made it WLUP, officially The Loop, but again reflecting Leonard and Phil Chess. The Corporate name was the L and P Corporation. WLAP 630 was/is used in Lexington. See the History Cards. It’s all there on the Microfiche Pages.
Click to expand...

Yes, WFOX changed their calls to WNOV after the Chess brothers bought the station. It was after they bought WVON which I think was around 1963. I don't remember when they bought WFOX, but I'm guessing around 1965 or 66, but I'm not sure.
 
From the Chicago lakeshore:

WAIT is sufficiently far away it doesn't really interfere that much. On the right parts of Lake Shore Drive I can barely make out WNOV during the daytime, but it's very difficult to hear. At night CJBC in Toronto comes in well.

Retro: 80s SF bay area... KTRB was in Modesto, about 80 miles away, but you could still hear it during the day pretty well. It's now apparently moved to a few miles away from San Francisco.
 
East Tennessee: Days-nada. Blank frequency
Night: CJBC
Retro/other: Dayton, Ohio area. The last breath of formerly WGOM, now WMRI days, CJBC night. Lafayette IN, WGOM came in stronger but not that strong
 
Warminster PA(Philly 'burbs):

Daytime: local WWDB(talk/brokered ethnic, ex-WTEL-those calls now on 610 ESPN).
Night: CJBC Toronto(I remember RCI on there in the late 70's).
 
Orange County, TX Like wildthangjim it's mostly KKOW nights. KONO & XEUN can be heard underneath, haven't heard any Canadians that I know of.
 
Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: WNOV weak but there almost every time.
Nightime: CJBC, Toronto usually with very good signal.

DX/RETRO: despite CJBC dominating the frequency at night, 860 has been quite a productive frequency DX wise with over 20 stations logged including KKOW (Pittsburgh, KS), KONO (San Antonio, TX), KVAA (Phoenix, AZ), KWRF (WArren, AR), KSFA (Nacogdoches, TX), KOSE (Osceola, AR), KNUJ (New Ulm, MN), WEVA (emporium, VA), WGOM (Marion, IN), WACB (Taylorsville, NC), WTZX (Sparta, TN). Also 6 different foreign stations heard on 860, including the legendary Radio Clarin from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The others were from Cuba, El Salvador and Mexico.
 
Righto on WTEL 860. Ryan. Seems I remember them being a 250-watt daytimer back in the 60's.
The now-WWDB comes in here fairly well in the day and is the regular.

Sunset snatches include WBGR Baltimore (used to be WAYE) ..... and WACB Taylorsville NC.

Nighttimes its CJBC.
Except for one night when I heard an English station WAY under them. Between the loop antenna with its wires on the floor, and with the GE SR II and me contorted every which way, hoping I didn't sneeze, I nulled CJBC completely and got a WAMO ID from out in Pittsburgh.

* * * * * * *

Perhaps not *all* that on-topic (yet): it's an annual Christmas Eve ritual here, for reasons that I'm originally sure made sense, to have CJBC playing while we wrap gifts and do Nog. Despite my partial/partial ancestries of Walloon French and Canadian French and despite the wife's partial ancestral distractions, we only make out maybe one out of ten things they say. But it's tradition. The can-opener/radio that came with the house is tuned to 860 all year.
I mentioned 'yet'. Indeed, this CJBC ritual is once a year, during the Seasons. But we figure to give them a bit of a head start for when stations everywhere start in with the Christmas music just after Memorial Day.
 
radioman148 said:
In the near north Chicago suburbs daytime it's a weak WNOV from Milwaukee. When I first heard this station many, many years ago it was WFOX. I'll bet Cyberdad remembers that.
Click to expand...

Yep! I remember it from before WAIT came on and the place where I grew up, ten miles east of where I am now. Weak but listenable. CJBC would routinely overtake it before sign-off at sunset.

And I also remember Steve's Christmas eve story with CJBC and the can-opener radio! Thanks for repeating it....it's a classic!
 
Reynoldsburg, Ohio ...
* Daytime: Nothing.
* Nighttime: A usually strong CJBC. It easily can be heard daytime to the northeast of Cleveland, out of the main lobe of WKNR on 850.
 
From NW San Antonio:

Daytime: My local, KONO

Night: When KONO drops from 5 kW to 95 watts, I can get a small but almost total null to the NE/SW (especially with my Terk loop). In it, I can hear KKOW, XELN, and XEUN. KKOW is the most dominant.

Some nights, KONO broadcasts S.A. Missions semi-pro baseball games rather than its usual '60s/'70s hits format.
 
Last night around 8:30 CDT, KKOW was weaker than usual and there was someone in the mix playing tropical-ish SS pop music, heard reverb announcement between songs but couldn't ID. This does not appear to match either the XEUN program schedule (listed as talk program) or the XENL format. Any ideas what this could be?
 
Days:: 50KW KTRB.

Nights::Same as day, but the majority of their signal is being sent westward ( out to the pacific ocean ), which is a good thing!! I can null this station enough, that I do hear what I think is KPAM from Portland, OR, getting through. As for it being sent out to the Pacific ocean, its a good station, and I do listen to it on occasion, but as DXer, I still want to listen to KOA Denver, and whatever I can snag on 870 without to much splatter. I see no point in having 50KW, and sending it all out into the Pacific ocean. This station could serve the San Francisco bay area just fine on 5KW.
 
formula72 said:
Days:: 50KW KTRB.
Nights::This station could serve the San Francisco bay area just fine on 5KW.
Click to expand...

"Back in the day" inexperienced media buyers, who never heard of directional antennas, etc., could sometimes be very impressed with 50kw.
 
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