AM Frequency of the Week: 950

[cyberdad]

40 or so miles northwest of downtown Chicago....

Daytime: WNTD fair. 1kw non-directional, from about 42 miles southeast of me.

Night: WNTD goes up to 5kw aimed straight north from a 6-tower array on the south side of Chicago. That pattern doesn't particularly favor me. I'm just off to the west of it. So the bottom line is, while WNTD is still audible (barely), it's not listenable. WWJ is usually in the mix, and occasionally rises to the top. During the last couple of years, CFAM has been occasional visitor on an increasing basis (most recently being the night before last). R. Reloj time pips break through on very rare occasions.

Other Location. My son lives about 12 miles northeast of me. Nighttime reception of WNTD is much better at his place than it is here (as would be expected).

Retro: I used to hear WKAZ from Charleston, WV quite a bit at night. KIMN from Denver a little less frequently. Also KOEL from Oelwein, Iowa once in a while. It's been at least 10-15 years since I've heard any of these.

 

[schmave]

Reynoldsburg, Ohio ...
* Daytime: Nothing. WWJ does not come close to reaching this area.
* Nighttime: If anything, a very weak WWJ. Oddly enough, Radio Locator shows a little bit more signal sent in this direction during the day but neither of their patterns favor Ohio at all. Even when I attended Toledo reception in that area was pretty bad, as it is for all Detroit (and Windsor) AMs except WJR and CKLW.

 

[radioman148]

Near north Chicago suburbs during the day it's a fairly solid WNTD. At night WNTD is still good, but sometimes in the background I can hear WWJ.

Retro: Years ago when Chicago's 950 was WAAF/WJPC daytime only, it was mostly WWJ at night and occasionally Denver would pop through.

 

[gr8oldies]

East Tennessee: Not much during the day. Sunrise/sunset and night a hodgepodge including WORD, Spartanburg, SC and WAKM, Franklin, which I've heard frequently on the Central Indiana remote SDR, even as close as WXLW is to that site. Radio Reloj makes it in occasionally but usually just the pips.

Retro/other: During my time in Indiana, particularly Lafayette, on the south side it was WXLW, West Lafayette was the Aurora station (whatever the current WNTD was).
Schmave, WWJ is like most of the other Detroit stations, shooting all their signal north across the metro. Radio Free Canada. I'd gotten it in the Celina area and Fort Wayne in the past.

 

[cyberdad]

(...the Aurora station whatever the current WNTD was).

To my knowledge, the the station COL has always been Chicago. For roughly the first half of its life it was WAAF, a 1kw daytimer with a small, but loyal following. In the late '60s, it changed call letters to WGRT ("W-great") and became a top 40 R&B station. If I'm not mistaken, WGRT's owners were Phil and Leonard Chess, of Chess Records fame (and also owers of Chicago's WSDM-FM) Then, ultimately the station was bought by the owners of Jet Magazine and became WJPC. Other ownership and call letter changes followed (inclucing a stint carrying a limited schedule of Chicago White Sox baseball games, and another brief run as an "Air America" lib-talk outlet).

Eventually, the station became a Catholic Radio owned outlet and simulcasts with WKBM/930, which is based in the Aurora, IL area. That may be what you're thinking about with the Aurora reference. In fact, WKBM carried the call letters WAUR for some time. I believe the same Catholic Radio program is also simulcast on WWCA/1270 in Gary, IN. That station is highly directional and not audible at my location.

 

[radioman148]

WGRT's owners were Phil and Leonard Chess, of Chess Records fame (and also owers of Chicago's WSDM-FM) Then, ultimately the station was bought by the owners of Jet Magazine and became WJPC. Other ownership and call letter changes followed (inclucing a stint carrying a limited schedule of Chicago White Sox baseball games, and another brief run as an "Air America" lib-talk outlet).

I'm a little confused here or my memory is failing (both possible). As a lifetime White Sox fan I do not recall their games on 950AM. I do remember in the early 70s when they were on several suburban stations for a few years such as WTAQ, WJOL, WJOB and WEAW-FM. I think also a station in Dundee carried the games-(WVFV?) This was when Harry Caray came to Chicago to do the Sox games. I do not recall the games being on 950 in the early 70s when this took place with the White Sox, but I stand to be corrected.

 

[gr8oldies]

That's what I was thinking of. I think they were co-owned with 107.9, that was WAUR-FM at one time. There's an aircheck on reelradio.com of the WGRT format (half way between WLS and WCFL was a good place to be, especially if you were playing music(preferably crossover) while the 50kW neighbors were in news).

To my knowledge, the the station COL has always been Chicago. For roughly the first half of its life it was WAAF, a 1kw daytimer with a small, but loyal following. In the late '60s, it changed call letters to WGRT ("W-great") and became a top 40 R&B station. If I'm not mistaken, WGRT's owners were Phil and Leonard Chess, of Chess Records fame (and also owers of Chicago's WSDM-FM) Then, ultimately the station was bought by the owners of Jet Magazine and became WJPC. Other ownership and call letter changes followed (inclucing a stint carrying a limited schedule of Chicago White Sox baseball games, and another brief run as an "Air America" lib-talk outlet).

Eventually, the station became a Catholic Radio owned outlet and simulcasts with WKBM/930, which is based in the Aurora, IL area. That may be what you're thinking about with the Aurora reference. In fact, WKBM carried the call letters WAUR for some time. I believe the same Catholic Radio program is also simulcast on WWCA/1270 in Gary, IN. That station is highly directional and not audible at my location.

 

[Mr Tony]

South of the Minnesota River suburbs (Minneapolis, MN)

daytime-KTNF Minneapolis
nightime-KTNF Minneapolis

 

[jammerdave]

Here in the Sierra foothills near Auburn, CA, it's KAHI, Auburn 24/7, with some underlying spanish usually after pattern change to night mode. No idea where the spanish is from.

df

40 or so miles northwest of downtown Chicago....

Daytime: WNTD fair. 1kw non-directional, from about 42 miles southeast of me.

Night: WNTD goes up to 5kw aimed straight north from a 6-tower array on the south side of Chicago. That pattern doesn't particularly favor me. I'm just off to the west of it. So the bottom line is, while WNTD is still audible (barely), it's not listenable. WWJ is usually in the mix, and occasionally rises to the top. During the last couple of years, CFAM has been occasional visitor on an increasing basis (most recently being the night before last). R. Reloj time pips break through on very rare occasions.

Other Location. My son lives about 12 miles northeast of me. Nighttime reception of WNTD is much better at his place than it is here (as would be expected).

Retro: I used to hear WKAZ from Charleston, WV quite a bit at night. KIMN from Denver a little less frequently. Also KOEL from Oelwein, Iowa once in a while. It's been at least 10-15 years since I've heard any of these.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

Retro - Midland. KSEL Lubbock - which in the 60's and early 70's was a top-40 that was less censored than local KCRS. But only slightly less censored. Still, it put a nice signal over Midland, as did KCRS over Lubbock. There were probably defections in both cities.

 

[Sammi Brie]

Here in the Sierra foothills near Auburn, CA, it's KAHI, Auburn 24/7, with some underlying spanish usually after pattern change to night mode. No idea where the spanish is from.

df

My personal guess is XEKAM Tijuana (Playas de Rosarito). It's only one of two Mexicans operating at night on 950 (due to AM-FM migration, plus the third is an indigenous daytimer). The other is on the opposite side of the country. KMHR (Boise) does not sound likely with its 35 watts.

 

[joebtsflk1]

Now: in the RF hot spot of Colorado Springs, a big change from being in terrain shielded Cañon City, it's the former KIMN on 950, these days doing sports as KKFE, Parker/Denver.

Then: 1977, I remember listening to KIMN 950 one overnight in SE Iowa, weak but listenable. 1996, winter daytime listening to St. Louis Park's (Minneapolis) 950 heading south from the Cities with KOEL 950 Oelwein underneath. Summer 1978, on vacation in CO, KIMN was branding as "Denver 95."

Time/Space Discontinuum: Listened to a 950 KIMN aircheck from September 1960 via WHAS 840 on Joe Donovan's Saturday night show in 1978. Submitted said aircheck to ReelRadio about 2000 and with help of another RR contributor from Maryland who taped the same 1978 broadcast, they were able to piece together segments of the best reception from both of our 1978 tapes.

Space Discontinuum, or "Pirate, Play DX for Me:" Today, while hitting Scan on the car radio, heard talk on 101.9 in Colorado Springs while in a parking lot. Closest 101.9 here is 40 miles north near Centennial, KXWA, the Denver Way-FM outlet. Host began talking about a past squabble between the Edina and Hopkins school districts. With 102.1 an active channel in the Twin Cities, figured someone was feeding their on-line reception of a Twin Cities station through an FM micro-xmtr, until we left the parking lot and kept a scratchy but intelligible signal for a couple of miles. Pirate was playing St. Louis Park's AM 950, KTNF. The 101.9 signal seemed best around I-25 near downtown CO Springs, for what it's worth.

 

[jim-satx]

My personal guess is XEKAM Tijuana (Playas de Rosarito). It's only one of two Mexicans operating at night on 950 (due to AM-FM migration, plus the third is an indigenous daytimer). The other is on the opposite side of the country. KMHR (Boise) does not sound likely with its 35 watts.

Raymie, what is the other Mexican station operating at night on 950 nowadays? I'm assuming the indigenous daytimer is XEOJN.

I used to hear XERN and XEMAB at night sometimes and occasionally XEOJN at sunrise. However, the only Spanish-language station I'm hearing on 950 these days is KDCE in Española, NM.

 

[cyberdad]

I'm a little confused here or my memory is failing (both possible). As a lifetime White Sox fan I do not recall their games on 950AM.

They only carried a handful of them as a "shadow station". It was 1998 or thereabouts, and only lasted for one or two seasons. I think they were all night games, and I remember thinking that a lot of fans were going to miss hearing the game due to 950's highly directional night pattern.

 

[radioman148]

They only carried a handful of them as a "shadow station". It was 1998 or thereabouts, and only lasted for one or two seasons. I think they were all night games, and I remember thinking that a lot of fans were going to miss hearing the game due to 950's highly directional night pattern.

Thanks, I completely missed that.

 

[Sammi Brie]

Raymie, what is the other Mexican station operating at night on 950 nowadays? I'm assuming the indigenous daytimer is XEOJN.

I used to hear XERN and XEMAB at night sometimes and occasionally XEOJN at sunrise. However, the only Spanish-language station I'm hearing on 950 these days is KDCE in Española, NM.

XEMAB which now is a Spanish oldies station. There is the off chance that it is not broadcasting on AM.

 

[Schlep82]

In Saint Bernard, OH in the daytime. It is nothing actually. I know there is a powerful radio station signal from Indianapolis WXLW. But I've never heard it in My location at all.
The nighttime is a mixture. WWJ shows up pretty rarely and other stations on that dial keeps getting mixed with WWJ from Detroit.

 

[Gunsmoke]

40 or so miles northwest of downtown Chicago....

Daytime: WNTD fair. 1kw non-directional, from about 42 miles southeast of me.

Night: WNTD goes up to 5kw aimed straight north from a 6-tower array on the south side of Chicago. That pattern doesn't particularly favor me. I'm just off to the west of it. So the bottom line is, while WNTD is still audible (barely), it's not listenable. WWJ is usually in the mix, and occasionally rises to the top. During the last couple of years, CFAM has been occasional visitor on an increasing basis (most recently being the night before last). R. Reloj time pips break through on very rare occasions.

Other Location. My son lives about 12 miles northeast of me. Nighttime reception of WNTD is much better at his place than it is here (as would be expected).

Retro: I used to hear WKAZ from Charleston, WV quite a bit at night. KIMN from Denver a little less frequently. Also KOEL from Oelwein, Iowa once in a while. It's been at least 10-15 years since I've heard any of these.

I noticed a seven bay fm antenna on the daytime tower, is that an old fm xmtr looks ancient...

 

[cyberdad]

I noticed a seven bay fm antenna on the daytime tower, is that an old fm xmtr looks ancient...

Probably IS ancient. The original 1kw daytime signal on 950 has been around since WAAF, Daddy-O Daylie, and the early days of radio.

 

[jim-satx]

Daytime: A very weak news-talker KPRC in Houston with some splatter from local 930 KLUP.

Night: KPRC has a moderate signal. R. Reloj is heard underneath consistently, at least the time pips and sometimes the talk, too. (I'd forgotten this when I mentioned not hearing any Spanish on 950 in a while.) Aiming more NW/SE, I can get a pretty good null of these stations, in which I can usually hear KJTV "The Score" in Lubbock. KDCE "¿Que Dice?" in Española, NM, can often be heard under or mixing with it. There is some splatter from 50 kW XEQ on 940, though.

Sunrise: KXJK "Hometown Radio" in Forrest City, AR, sometimes comes up briefly with a fairly good signal. Also, a few times I've heard classic country WAKM in Franklin, TN, and news-talker KWOS in Jefferson City, MO. Later, KDCE sometimes often comes up with a fairly good signal for a while.

Retro: In the past I've heard XERN, XEOJN, and XEMAB. But except for recently catching a very brief snatch of the Mexican national anthem at sunrise, I haven't heard any Mexico stations lately. Also, I once heard KKSE in Parker, CO, around sunrise back when it was oldies station KRWZ.