AM Frequency of the week: 920

[cyberdad]

Well, it's been a little over a week, but let's bring on another one.... What are you guys hearing these days on 920?

Here in the far northwest suburbs of Chicago, it's a weak WOKY from Milwaukee daytime. 5kw, but I'm in a rather severe null. Sometimes, WBAA from West Lafayette, Indiana can be heard underneath, or more commonly in the car in WOKY dead spots.

At night, WOKY goes to 1kw, but the night pattern sends more signal in my direction. Today that usually means barely enough to stay on top of the mess. But back in WOKY's heyday as a top-40 powerhouse, on a less crowded channel, it made for an easier listen. Currently there's usually no station that's reliably on top other than WOKY. Although I have heard WBAA a couple of times. CKCY from Sault Sainte Marie, Ontario used to be a frequent pest, but they're long gone.

 

[radioman148]

Here in the near north Chicago burbs its WBAA in the daytime, weak, but always on top. At night it's WBAA but more of a mess. During WOKY's Top 40 days it was very frustrating for me because I wanted to listen, but at my location WBAA was always on top and I was rarely ever able to hear WOKY unless I drove north towards Wisconsin.

 

[Ai4i]

Well, it's been a little over a week, but...

(a little over a month)

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

920 been good to me here in NEPA, though none of the DX has been more recent than 1995!

The daytime regular: WKVA* Lewistown PA.

Past sunsets and nighttimes have brought in WKRT Cortland NY, WBBB NC, WIRD upstate NY, WSTK MD, CHNX, and -- a goodie in WGHQ* Kingston NY. WGHQ probably didn't drop their power that eve.


* = taped ID

 

[schmave]

Here in Reynoldsburg, Ohio ... of course it's local WMNI, but with a relatively weak signal. Even daytime, WMNI is quite directional to the north over Columbus and beyond. Their towers are at the west corner of the 71/270 intersection in Grove City, about seven miles southwest of downtown Columbus, and WMNI is so directional that you can hear yourself going through the nulls on the other side of the interchange. It's truly impressive.
I have heard WMNI better on State Route 2 driving between Toledo and Sandusky, about 130 miles north of Columbus, than I have 25 miles east or southeast of Columbus.
At night, forget about WMNI in my part of town. It's at best fighting to be heard and at worst buried in mud.

 

[cyberdad]

Here in the near north Chicago burbs its WBAA in the daytime, weak, but always on top. At night it's WBAA but more of a mess. During WOKY's Top 40 days it was very frustrating for me because I wanted to listen, but at my location WBAA was always on top and I was rarely ever able to hear WOKY unless I drove north towards Wisconsin.

Yeah, you were very much in the WOKY nulls day and night. Daytime they threw quite a bit of signal west. You could pick them up along the Illinois/Iowa state line all the way to Dubuque, Iowa. At night, you were still in the null directed at WBAA, but they had a little spike to the southwest where I was, which was aimed right at me. A lot of people I knew discovered WOKY when they were tuning down from WCFL and thinking they had landed on WLS. It was a really good top 40 station.

 

[purpledevil]

Here in north Houston, it's KYST Texas City. Good signal days, weak nights. 5kW daytime, a kilowatt at night. Airs a full service format in Spanish. One of the few mom & pops left. The format's flow is a real old school feel, playing old Rancheros, mixed with news & talk. Every so often, it'll throw in a real "out in left field" musical selection. Just this week, I happened past KYST playing Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up". You never really know what may come from Texas City, but it's usually entertaining and well presented.

 

[radioman148]

Yeah, you were very much in the WOKY nulls day and night. Daytime they threw quite a bit of signal west. You could pick them up along the Illinois/Iowa state line all the way to Dubuque, Iowa. At night, you were still in the null directed at WBAA, but they had a little spike to the southwest where I was, which was aimed right at me. A lot of people I knew discovered WOKY when they were tuning down from WCFL and thinking they had landed on WLS. It was a really good top 40 station.

WOKY was good as I listened the times the family went to Wisconsin. There was a day in the early 60s that WOKY came in fairly well in the near north suburbs. I thought they turned up their power, but it never happened again. I still wonder to this day why that happened? At night it would be understandable, but this was during the day.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

WOKY was good as I listened the times the family went to Wisconsin. There was a day in the early 60s that WOKY came in fairly well in the near north suburbs. I thought they turned up their power, but it never happened again. I still wonder to this day why that happened? At night it would be understandable, but this was during the day.

Perhaps they were doing nondirectional proof of performance measurements. Perhaps I will start a new thread about stations I have heard better during proofs.

I hear WOKY, CKNX, and WMNI in my area Daytime, by turning the radio and going to slightly different locations, where reradiation makes it seem like they are coming from different directions, at least when WFDF is not running IBOC. At a previous location, I had to go to a WFDF null to hear WOKY in the Daytime. It was almost always there, some 215 miles away. The Daytime major lobe is equivalent to around 20 kW based on Class III/B minimum efficiency. WOKY gets a lot of interference from WBAA as I recall, which drives its NIF into the mid teens. It was Class III.

 

[radioman148]

Perhaps they were doing nondirectional proof of performance measurements. Perhaps I will start a new thread about stations I have heard better during proofs.

I hear WOKY, CKNX, and WMNI in my area Daytime, by turning the radio and going to slightly different locations, where reradiation makes it seem like they are coming from different directions, at least when WFDF is not running IBOC. At a previous location, I had to go to a WFDF null to hear WOKY in the Daytime. It was almost always there, some 215 miles away. The Daytime major lobe is equivalent to around 20 kW based on Class III/B minimum efficiency. WOKY gets a lot of interference from WBAA as I recall, which drives its NIF into the mid teens. It was Class III.

Yeah it was very strange that time as they were in all day and never again. Maybe you're right about running ND. The other question I have is wasn't WOKY only 1KW during the day until some time in the early or mid 60s when they were allowed to raise their day power to 5KW?

 

[HGR1290]

Back in the day, WOKY was always there during the daytime at Higgins Lake MI....easy to hear there. This was back in the 1970's when there was hardly any other RF in Northern MI. 'Cept for WHGR 1290 and WGRY on 1590.

Now-a-days, 920: North of Atlanta is WAFS Atlanta, daytime. Critical hours, WGOL over in AL. WAFS is pretty weak here at night.

KARN is a frequent signal at night, mixing with WAFS.

I have heard WBAA here

 

[charlestondxman]

Here, 920 is mostly splatter from our local WTMZ. However, close to the coast, you can get Melbourne, FL with a Catholic format, and farther inland (15-20 miles), you can get WYMB from Manning, SC with a sports format.

At night Atlanta is usually in. Sometimes KARN comes in. KARN is usual around Nashville at night. I've heard them there several times.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

Springfield, IL daytime: Very faint WBAA, with traces of WGNU Granite City, IL (directional toward the west because of WBAA) in the background.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

Yeah it was very strange that time as they were in all day and never again. Maybe you're right about running ND. The other question I have is wasn't WOKY only 1KW during the day until some time in the early or mid 60s when they were allowed to raise their day power to 5KW?

1966 is the first Yearbook showing 5 kW Daytime 1 kW Nighttime. Before 1966, it shows 1 kW DA-1. I strongly suspect you heard the original ND proofs for the 5 kW Day pattern. If you heard switching back and forth, from strong to weak to strong, it was going from ND to DA for directonal proofs.

 

[DX_AR]

Living about 30 miles from their tower, 920 KARN in Little Rock is all I can get.

 

[radioman148]

1966 is the first Yearbook showing 5 kW Daytime 1 kW Nighttime. Before 1966, it shows 1 kW DA-1. I strongly suspect you heard the original ND proofs for the 5 kW Day pattern. If you heard switching back and forth, from strong to weak to strong, it was going from ND to DA for directonal proofs.

I don't remember any switching back and forth, but I know it was before 1966.

 

[cyberdad]

I don't remember any switching back and forth, but I know it was before 1966.

WOKY went to 5kw in early 1965. When I got home from spending my junior year in high school in Honolulu, they were running a jingle promoting the fact that they were now "5,000 strong" (without mentioning watts). Actually, the day signal where I was (Wauconda) wasn't noticeably different from what it had been at 1kw ND. If anything, it may have even been a little weaker.

(The other new thing from Milwaukee that greeted me when I got back from Hawaii in late spring '65 was the booming daytime signal from WISN, which had moved from 1150 to 1130. A move which included a power increase from 5kw to 25kw. David has previously provided us with some of the details regarding how this got "shoehorned" in between two high powered 1130s in Detroit and Minneapolis.)

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

Usually, the first BC Yearbook after a facility is licensed will show it as being the actual facility. But usually they will show a CP in a previous year. It should have showed something like (CP for 5 kW-LS 1 kW-U DA-2), where "LS" does not mean "Largest Store" but "Local Sunset". At that time, it was almost as if the Night power defined the official facility. Now, overlaps for multiple ownership, contours for translators to be within, etc., depend strictly on Daytime facility contours.

The Night minor lobe of WOKY is the equivalent of about 500 watts at about 200 degrees true. I think if the CP had been issued, they could use 1250 watts nondirectional for the proofs. So it would be stronger, and if you were near Lake Michigan, the Night 1 kW pattern would have been even less than the Fox Valley areas some of you describe.

 

[RyanHoward]

Warminster PA(Philly 'burbs):

WPHY Trenton NJ, both day and night.

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

A National Radio Club frequency logbook from the 60's plus their Nighttime Pattern Book from then situated WOKY as a 1000-watt nighttime station, directed mostly NNE.
A somewhat modest null toward -- I presume -- the West Virginia station (WMMN) existed.

Yet, our little bunch near JFK Airport in Queens often would hear WOKY atop the frequency overnight, more than readable and tape-able. It wasn't exactly 'WLS' loud, hi, but it sat atop the channel with ease.
There were fewer stations on the air back then, of course. And there sometimes existed clear REGIONAL frequencies overnight on early Monday mornings. 1150 and 1380 come to mind.

So it's little surprise that WOKY, alone on the channel, would come in. Back then in the Sixties (Wowwww, man ... our monitoring group heard Arkansas, Indiana, Florida, Georgia and three Canadian provinces on 920 at various overnight sessions.

@ Ryan Howard: The very final DX 'catch' I logged from the JFK Airport area before moving away was the 920 station from Trenton -- the one that's a 'pest' by you, hi. Wow, were THEY a tough one to log. Not only did they send no signal at all toward us -- we were co-linear with Providence RI -- but the splashy local WPAT 930 was always in the way. I managed to arrange a wicked null of WPAT one midday; the lights in their studios must've dimmed. And even THEN, 920 Trenton was third on the frequency behind Providence and Kingston NY.

I've found that, often, the exact midday is the time to try and chase those 'closest-unheards'.