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AM Frequency of the Week: 950

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cyberdad

cyberdad

(A reminder that this current series is about what used to be commonly known as "regional" and "local" channels, along with the X-banders. Thst's why we're jumping from 930 to 950. Skipping 940, which we include when we do the "clear" channels)

From 40 miles northwest of downtown Chicago....
hile
Days: WNTD from it;s daytime stick on the south side of Chicago, 1kw ND, fair signal. Simulcast of Catholic Radio programming with WKBM from Sandwich, IL. At my location, WKBM has a slightly better signal. (And slightly worse audio).

Nighs: WNTD powers up to 5kw, but goes to a very tight pattern aimed north. As a result, it's usually missing here. WWJ is fairly regular here. KOEL from Olwein, Iowa used to be as well, but is now rare. I also sometimes hear CFAM, which is easy to identify since the run classical music overnight.

Retro:: In the '60s, KIMN from Denver was a prized catch that I heard a few times. WKAZ from Charleston, WV was another top 40 station on 950 that was closer and more common. KFSA from Fort Smith Arkansas wass asnother occasional visitor. I havent heard any of these for quite a while. I believe the WKAZ calls are now on 680 in Charleston with oldies.
 
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From my house, it's local KPRC 24/7. I can null it enough at times to hear Radio Reloj underneath, but haven't ID'd anything else here. KPRC is moving their transmitter to the KBME site, which is closer to me. It will be interesting how this move (triplexing with KBME 790/KXYZ 1320) will impact reception here.

Retro: From Tulsa in the early 70's, KFSA could be heard day and night. They were off on Monday mornings, and I could often hear KIMN. I also remember hearing WSPA in South Carolina at their sign on along with WKAZ, which was my only WV catch from Tulsa.
 
In the near north Chicago suburbs during the day it's all WNTD with a good signal. At night when WNTD changes patterns the signal is still pretty good. Sometimes I hear WWJ underneath.

Retro: in the 60s and 70s when then WAAF and WJPC were off the air I also used to hear KIMN sometimes.
 
East Tennessee: Days---not much of anything.
Nights---at least with last night's check, the Habana Radio Reloj outlet was mostly alone on the channel. There was an English spoken word program but I don't know who...likely WORD, Spartanburg SC.

Retro/other: Dayton, OH was mostly a weak WXLW (Something BIG is happening)
Lafayette, IN area. Southern part of Lafayette, WXLW Indianapolis. West Lafayette WNTD of whatever it was a couple of decades ago.
 
From the southwest suburbs of Chicago:

Day and night, it's WNTD, which I remember first hearing as WGRT in the 1970s with soul music, with a solid signal.

Over the years, I've also gotten WWJ Detroit, KLIK Jefferson City, Mo. (I think with 500 watts), WSPA Spartanburg, S.C., KIMN Denver, KPRG Houston, WBFF Rochester, N.Y., and WKAZ Charleston, W.Va. All of those were before WNTD began nighttime coverage. I should give 950 another try or two at night.
 
tvnut said:
From the southwest suburbs of Chicago:

Day and night, it's WNTD, which I remember first hearing as WGRT in the 1970s with soul music, with a solid signal.

Over the years, I've also gotten WWJ Detroit, KLIK Jefferson City, Mo. (I think with 500 watts), WSPA Spartanburg, S.C., KIMN Denver, KPRG Houston, WBFF Rochester, N.Y., and WKAZ Charleston, W.Va. All of those were before WNTD began nighttime coverage. I should give 950 another try or two at night.
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WGRT had a great spot on the dial, smack between WLS and WCFL, with a lot of their music being soul that crossed over
 
tvnut said:
From the southwest suburbs of Chicago:

Day and night, it's WNTD, which I remember first hearing as WGRT in the 1970s with soul music, with a solid signal.

Over the years, I've also gotten WWJ Detroit, KLIK Jefferson City, Mo. (I think with 500 watts), WSPA Spartanburg, S.C., KIMN Denver, KPRG Houston, WBFF Rochester, N.Y., and WKAZ Charleston, W.Va. All of those were before WNTD began nighttime coverage. I should give 950 another try or two at night.
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The WGRT calls were right after they dropped WAAF. "WGRT Great Radio".
 
Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: WNTD with good signal
Nightime: WNTD with fair signal

DX/RETRO: the 1kW site at Western Av. and 15th St. is one of the local stations that still has their tower on top of a building. At night they switch to the 6-tower site in Burnham, IL with 5 kW. I can null them at night, which usually brings in WWJ. Others heard on this frequency are KWOS (Jefferson City, MO), WAKM (Franklin, TN) and the time pips and "RR" code from Radio Reloj, Cuba.
 
Happy Father's Day, @cyberdad
From Cheyenne, WY: KKSE Denver (just under 100 miles) all hours.
During the day, KKSE is somewhat weak, but can be listenable throughout town.
At night, the station is generally strong, and it has a strong hold on 950 AM.

I have also heard the station in Scottsbluff and Wheatland during the days, as well as all over at night. Sadly, this means I haven't grabbed WWJ Detroit yet.

By the way, it's awesome that y'all mention the great KIMN! 950 in Denver has had several famous call letters in its day, like KYGO and KKFN. As recently as about 2015 or so, it was still "Cruisin' Oldies" before the switch to Altitude sports/Fox Sports. They still air FOX sports programs, but any instance of Altitude has been replaced with the "Vegas Sports Information Network" (VSIN).
 
cyberdad said:
Retro:: In the '60s, KIMN from Denver was a prized catch that I heard a few times. WKAZ from Charleston, WV was another top 40 station on 950 that was closer and more common. KFSA from Fort Smith Arkansas wass asnother occasional visitor. I havent heard any of these for quite a while. I believe the WKAZ calls are now on 680 in Charleston with oldies.
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And in the early 60's, KIMN became a pest from my location in NE Ohio. When it signed off at midnight, there was a chance to get Boise if it signed off a minute or two later and then it was open for Seattle. And after Seattle singed off for maintenance, there was an hour to wait for LR3, Radio Belgrano, one of two bellwether stations for deep South America (The other was CX28 on 1090 in Uruguay... 10 kw but a frequent catch).
 
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DavidEduardo said:
And in the early 60's, KIMN became a pest from my location in NE Ohio.
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If anything was a pest for me" back in the day", it was little 500 watt KOEL Especially, as to be expected, on 5kw day pattern. Ironically, I seldom here them at my location these days. But on my trips to the Twin Cites. daytime KOEL mixes with....,or trashes....the local KTNF before you even get out of the metro going south or southeast.
 
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DFW, Texas

Daytime: Nothing
Nights: KPRC Houston with R. Reloj audible most nights.
Early morning infrequent catches - KWOS Jefferson City, MO, WORD Spartanburg, SC, and WAKM Franklin, TN.
 
950 being "Smack Dab In The Middle" between WLS and WCFL might also have inspired cross town AM rivals the Chess Brothers to change 97.9 to WSDM.

Many R & B stations would add a few mainstream Top 40 top songs to avoid their audience tuning out to such stations as WLS or WCFL. You'll see it on ARSA, songs as diverse as "Harper Valley PTA" and "Ode To Billie Joe" on local station R & B charts. In a few cases, they may have crossed over, or sounded like they belonged on R & B stations.
 
Schroedingers Cat said:
950 being "Smack Dab In The Middle" between WLS and WCFL might also have inspired cross town AM rivals the Chess Brothers to change 97.9 to WSDM.
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For me, "Smack Dab in the Middle" meant WOKY! Although WGRT was still a "great" listen. And they did strengthen to "middle" when they hired newsnan Phil Thomas from KIOA. Now, if WGRT only had all-girl jocks like WSDM. Although they Did have LaDonna Tittle, who was excellent. But I believe she came after the calls changed to WPC.
 
950 in the Eastern parts Michigan was always dominated by WWJ, Day and Night. When the TL was on 8 Mile, the nulls went toward Detroit, and for a while circa 1940, they got monthly STAs to stay nondirectional to have a more interference free signal. They had applications to move Downriver to Ecorse after the FCC told them no to more STA extensions, but they stayed put until the late 1990s. I was puzzled in the 1960s when my Remco Caravelle received WWJ at Night in Genesee County after WFDF 910 (selectivity wasn't that great) signed off at 12:30 AM. I didn't realize that the pattern primarily went North, and far in excess of a typical 5000 watt station because of the DA and tall towers.

Like I mentioned, WKTS Sheboygan came in Days in West Central Michigan.

I think I heard WGRT Days in Berrien County, but more amazing was WEAW and no WYNR/WNUS/...

KLIK Jefferson City, MO had some arrangement with WWJ to be 5000 watts nondirectional during the experimental period after the Monday Morning maintenance sign off of WWJ. They had AT40 when not many stations did.
 
Another thing about the old WWJ pattern. After it moved from 920 to 950, the tallest tower went from 180 to 186 degrees, so it had a vertical pattern null down from the vertical, so there was a reflection distance where the pattern became essentially nondirectional. It showed up plain as day on Radiosoft's AMR 3D pattern display. Before WJPC went full-time, and WXLW got a PSSA, you could hear it quite regularly at Night in SW Michigan and NE Indiana.
 
Schroedingers Cat said:
Another thing about the old WWJ pattern. After it moved from 920 to 950, the tallest tower went from 180 to 186 degrees, so it had a vertical pattern null down from the vertical, so there was a reflection distance where the pattern became essentially nondirectional. It showed up plain as day on Radiosoft's AMR 3D pattern display. Before WJPC went full-time, and WXLW got a PSSA, you could hear it quite regularly at Night in SW Michigan and NE Indiana.
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Yes, I heard WWJ at night in the Chicago area before WJPC went 24 hours.
 
Actually, by the time you got around to about 260 degrees True, it was probably pretty close to the RMS for the 5000 watt Night pattern. The null toward KPRC Houston, at about 215 degrees True, was the equivalent to the 1000 watt nondirectional Night pattern. But above the Horizontal, it increased. The new 50000 watt 6 tower Night array actually has a fairly deep null toward WAAF...WNTD.

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The maximum IDF of the WWJ 50000 watt Night pattern is close to 8000 mV/m @ 1 km at 355 degrees True in the Horizontal plane, the greatest IDF of any station in the US.
 
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Here in the wilds of NW WA state, it is 50kW KJR all day and all night. Like a lot of stations in this part of the world, much of the signal is sent out to sea or beaming to the wolves and beavers of British Columbia. Well known and beloved calls, at least regionally.
 
There must be some people aboard here who remember when WGRT 950 was a 1000-watt directional daytimer .......

850 days here used to be WEEU Reading. Since they moved their towers closer to Pottsville than to Reading in order to change frequency to 830, they're the second-loudest AM station on the dial.
WRMR Cleveland and WEEI Boston were nighttime nabs from here.
WRBZ North Carolins was a SSS catch.
WYLF from upstate NY, WREF Danbury CT and WTAR Norfolk were dragging-in-the-SRS discoveries.
 
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