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AM Frequency of the week: 870

From the southwest suburbs of Chicago:

Night, WWL New Orleans, with its voluntary directional 50 kW. I remember that during hurricane Katrina, WWL dropped to 30 kW to save fuel – it was on generator then – and still got out. Only then did I find out it was directional to throw more power over land than sea.

Otherwise, it's a quiet frequency. One of the Radio Relojs has been heard, along with WKAR East Lansing early on a morning, and a couple of times, WTIM Shelbyville, Ill., all 500 watts of it. That one fooled me at first, at it was at 7 a.m. CT on a February morning with the CBS World News Roundup, and I thought it was WWL. It carried the full 10 minutes – few CBS stations do – and I was rewarded with a WTIM ID and local news at the end.
 
Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: WKAR
Nighttime: usually WWL along with Radio Reloj time pips and "rr" code underneath.

DX/Retro: other stations heard in the past include KUUY (Orchad Valle, UT), KAAN (Bethany, MO), KPRM (Park Rapids, MN), WHCU (Ithaca, NY), WQXR (Valley Head, AL), WMTL (Litchfield, KY), WPWT (Colonial Heights, TN), Mar Caribe, Barranquilla, Colombia. WTIM, Assumption, IL has been an easy catch recently. In the past they were heard as WINU (later WTIM) Shelbyville, IL before they switched COL to Assumption, IL. The Cary, IL TIS (WPIV413) is no longer on the air. They used to be heard during daytime mixing with WKAR. The O'Hare Airport TIS (WPIJ539) briefly used this frequency in 1995 before they switched to 800 kHz.
 
What are people hearing tonight on 870 AM? I’m listening online to WWL’s non-stop live and local Hurricane Ida coverage and they just reported on-air that they are on generator power as the entire city of New Orleans is out of power and it may also be effecting the strength of the 870 signal. Reports are coming into the WWL studios that the 870 signal is weaker than usual. Being that I am on the West Coast and can’t pick-up WWL even under ideal conditions, I am unable to check to see if this is true, but I am thinking that the DXer’s back East and in the Midwest that usually receive WWL at night might notice a difference.
 
In the southwest suburbs of Chicago, WWL is coming in clearly at times, and almost surely at lower power than their usual 50 kW. During Katrina, WWL ran 30 kW for several days to conserve power. That was still strong enough to hit all affected areas, especially at night. Then as now, they simulcast on co-owned FMs as something like the New Orleans Radio Network.

The signal is being affected somewhat by the Wobbler.
 
tvnut said:
In the southwest suburbs of Chicago, WWL is coming in clearly at times, and almost surely at lower power than their usual 50 kW. During Katrina, WWL ran 30 kW for several days to conserve power. That was still strong enough to hit all affected areas, especially at night. Then as now, they simulcast on co-owned FMs as something like the New Orleans Radio Network.

The signal is being affected somewhat by the Wobbler.
Click to expand...
The Wobbler should have some mercy tonight on all the people trying to listen to the 24/7 live Hurricane Ida coverage on WWL. Shame on the Wobbler!!
 
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asugeorge1 said:
The Wobbler should have some mercy tonight on all the people trying to listen to the 24/7 live Hurricane Ida coverage on WWL. Shame on the Wobbler!!
Click to expand...
f Cuba hasn't fixed the transmitter causing the wobbler by now, it's not going to make a special effort to fix it now
 
Via Edinburgh IN SDR. Much weaker than normal with thunderstorm static in Indiana. Between that and the wobbler, it was still listenable with difficulty
 
The most recent AUX for WWL is diplexed with WWWL, formerly WSMB 1350, which was recently granted a CP for 5/0.48 U1, nondirectional all hours.



David, are the stations shown as XELY 870 and XENG 870 still on the air? If they have vacated, looks like XELY has moved as XHLY-FM, I wonder if WWL 870 could be given some international agreement special dispensation to operate AUX with 10 kW Night. Those apparently limit it to 5 kW Night.
 
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Right now, give it a try. Very strong skywave, station with translator on 96.3, The Possum, on 870, WPWT Colonial Heights, TN. 10000 Watts Nondirectional. Classic Country. No significant WWL signal. Then the Wobbler could be heard. First time I ever heard this one.
 
I tried 870 a little after 4am this morning and did not hear anything. Including WWL and the wobbler. Tried about an hour later, and did hear a very weak WWL all alone. I doubt that they were running their full 50kw. Alone/no wobbler. This was about an hour before local sunrise. From the sound of it, I'd guess maybe they were only at 5kw...or even less. According to multiple reports, finding gasoline to fuel generators in the impacted area is getting to be an issue. Meanwhile conditions overall seemed to be reasonably good. For example, WSB was blasting.

Then there's WWL-TV which this morning was returning to it's regular schedule. Complete with commercials. From what I could glean from watching a 9am talk show, one of the first things advertisers want you to do in the wake of the storm is go online and gamble, and then hop in your car and go to the gym. Both could prove to be a bit problematic with no power....but what do I know? :)
 
McGrath, Alaska

Day? HA!

Night? CFBV Smithers, BC ONCE
 
cyberdad said:
I tried 870 a little after 4am this morning and did not hear anything. Including WWL and the wobbler. Tried about an hour later, and did hear a very weak WWL all alone. I doubt that they were running their full 50kw. Alone/no wobbler. This was about an hour before local sunrise. From the sound of it, I'd guess maybe they were only at 5kw...or even less. According to multiple reports, finding gasoline to fuel generators in the impacted area is getting to be an issue. Meanwhile conditions overall seemed to be reasonably good. For example, WSB was blasting.

Then there's WWL-TV which this morning was returning to it's regular schedule. Complete with commercials. From what I could glean from watching a 9am talk show, one of the first things advertisers want you to do in the wake of the storm is go online and gamble, and then hop in your car and go to the gym. Both could prove to be a bit problematic with no power....but what do I know? :)
Click to expand...
WWL Radio was still doing continuous live and local coverage all of last night with their local hosts taking calls and answering text messages since the phone lines were down in a lot of places. I will check to see tonight if they are still doing their wall-to-wall coverage.
 
@cyberdad, I'm located about 18 miles almost due East of the WSB transmitter. We had no weather here last night and less than an inch of rain today with moderate wind now. It's definitely not an issue here.

@Schroedingers Cat, The Possum has been known to sometimes not power off at night. It's been noted on this board. They do get out though, I've picked them up barefoot in my office during the day at 199 miles away. I actually like their music, too. I'm a rocker but I dig blues and I grew up on classic country.
 
WWL is continuing their all-night live and local coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Ida and it is very interesting to hear a station stay live and local all night taking calls from listeners. While the emergency that caused this programming is serious, it has been entertaining hearing the normally local day-time hosts like Scoot doing a 2:00 AM to 5:00 AM show live with the hosts sleeping at the station between shifts. Today during the 3:00 AM hour, the topic of the Illinois Enema Bandit came up, a story I had never heard of, but it provided some levity for the audience. Not sure how long it will last, but it’s nice to hear some alternative programming live all night long that isn’t Coast to Coast AM or Red Eye Radio.
 
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