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Best AM Signals in Oklahoma

W

wxman76

Which do you guys think has the best AM signal?

KRMG-740? KFAQ-1170? KOKC-1520? WWLS-640? WKY-930?

What causes some of these 5,000 watt stations (WWLS, WKY)to have as good of a signal than a 50,000 watt station (KRMG, KFAQ, KOKC)? I know directional pattern has a lot to do with it, but it seems like there is more to it than just that. Driving to the south and west of OKC, one can pick up The Sports Animal clearly in Lawton and Wichita Falls. At the middle of the day, on a good car radio I have picked up 640 more faintly in Dallas/Ft. Worth, Abilene, Lubbock and Amarillo. Does the Sports Animal have another tower down in SW Oklahoma? I have also picked up KRMG as far west as the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandle during the day.

Whats the longest you heard an Oklahoma station at night? I know 1170 and 1520 have commonly been heard in other states.
 
An engineer can explain it better, but you can have a 50kw station on 1560 and the 5kw on 610 will have a better daytime signal, typically.

Has to do with wavelengths, etc. My vote is for the station on 640! But KRMG has a pretty decent signal, even though it's directional.
 
Sgeirk said:
An engineer can explain it better, but you can have a 50kw station on 1560 and the 5kw on 610 will have a better daytime signal, typically.

Has to do with wavelengths, etc. My vote is for the station on 640! But KRMG has a pretty decent signal, even though it's directional.
Click to expand...
Too bad the KRMG signal is pretty much wasted with wall-to-wall satellite programming. Just a morning show, local news and everything off the bird. How interesting and interactive.

The station is but a shell of itself.
 
I regularly pick up the station formerly known as KOMA-AM (err, KOKC) up here in Kansas City at night. We have a 1510 up here, but they're a daytimer. I have also picked up WKY in KC at night.

Of all the AMs, I think WKY sounds the best (maybe not as big a range, but it sounds the best).

As for WWLS' towers, the only towers they have are on Indian Hills Road between Moore and Norman. Caribou/Citadel put a lot of work into WWLS when they bought it from Fox. It sounds much much better than it did back in the 90s.

And KRMG: I can hear from practically anywhere I go in the state.

wxman76 said:
Which do you guys think has the best AM signal?

KRMG-740? KFAQ-1170? KOKC-1520? WWLS-640? WKY-930?

What causes some of these 5,000 watt stations (WWLS, WKY)to have as good of a signal than a 50,000 watt station (KRMG, KFAQ, KOKC)? I know directional pattern has a lot to do with it, but it seems like there is more to it than just that. Driving to the south and west of OKC, one can pick up The Sports Animal clearly in Lawton and Wichita Falls. At the middle of the day, on a good car radio I have picked up 640 more faintly in Dallas/Ft. Worth, Abilene, Lubbock and Amarillo. Does the Sports Animal have another tower down in SW Oklahoma? I have also picked up KRMG as far west as the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandle during the day.

Whats the longest you heard an Oklahoma station at night? I know 1170 and 1520 have commonly been heard in other states.
Click to expand...
 
Don't forget about KGYN in Guymon. AT 1210 AM that station can be heard in five states. I can even get them in Dallas sometimes at night. As far as FM I think KQTZ 105.9 in Altus has one of the best FM signals in the state.
 
1520 is an amazing signal, blowing down Tulsa much of the time.

1170 comes through all electrical appliances in town, is a true clear channel station, and changes pattern at night to protect a station in MAINE, pointing all that wattage to the west... and they're east of Tulsa, so you can't ever not pick them up.

740 appears to be an impressive signal, but a lot of that has to do with their pattern which is basically a figure eight covering OKC and Tulsa, giving them a lot of population but not a lot of coverage either side... great history behind that, for another thread I'm sure. :)
 
Quote from NightAire:

1170 comes through all electrical appliances in town, is a true clear channel station, and changes pattern at night to protect a station in MAINE, pointing all that wattage to the west...
Click to expand...

I believe the signal KFAQ protects at night is from WWVA in Wheeling, WV.
 
Is it WV?

You may be right...

It would hardly be the first time I was wrong. :D

(I knew it was way the heck northeast.)

KRMG's problems really come up at night. They protect Mexican & Canadian stations on 740, and have to cut their power in half. As a result of the power cut and a crazy pattern, there are portions of Tulsa county (like past 56th St north!) that have a hard time picking them up at night. At the same time OKC is getting them reasonably clear... crazy.

I forgot about FM... hm... years ago 98.5 here in Tulsa was a boomer, but it doesn't seem as impressive as it used to be. 107.5 in Vinita is covering a whole bunch of farm land in four states really, really well. ;) 97.1 out of Muskogee covers crazy acreage.

Judging the OKC FMs is tough for me because I'm not in town enough and the stations I get here may just be because their tower is on the east side of town or something... but 107.7 KRXO has always impressed me as a solid long-throw signal. 95.1 out of the Shawnee area was a bit of a disappointment as it was supposed to be a flame-thrower and cover Tulsa and OKC and I get the feeling it does neither very well.

This IS a fun conversation! It's kinda fun to put programming aside and go back to DXing like I did when I was a kid. :)
 
NightAire said:
I forgot about FM... hm... years ago 98.5 here in Tulsa was a boomer, but it doesn't seem as impressive as it used to be. 107.5 in Vinita is covering a whole bunch of farm land in four states really, really well. ;) 97.1 out of Muskogee covers crazy acreage.
Click to expand...

Since you brought up FM....

Besides most of the Class C OKC and Tulsa stations, another strong FM that no one has mentioned yet is KWOX 101.1 (K-101) Woodward.

KYAL 97.1 Muskogee has applied for a tower increase that is slightly further north to get a better signal in Tulsa. So that may even get stronger.

Although marketed for Fort Smith, Arkansas, the best signals might be 97.9, 99.1, 99.9 on top of Cavanal Mountain near Poteau. They broadcast at 100kw at 1900-2000 ft above average terrain!
 
I have picked up both KOKC (1520) and KFAQ (1170) here east of Houston. 740 does not make it here because of KTRH in Houston. Years ago, I was also able to pick up KTBZ (1430) here as well.

As far as strong FM stations, I can remember picking up Oklahoma City stations in Tulsa in the 1970s. I'm surprised that they haven't built stations halfway between OKC and Tulsa in an attempt to cover both markets.
 
They sort of have built a couple in between. 103.7 and 95.1 come to mind. The bad news is those two stations don't cover either market well, especially poorly into OKC due to a ridge between the site and OKC. If someone could get a 2000 foot or higher tower for either or both of those signals, chances are they would make it OK here.
 
Nightaire, the mainest thangg that caused me to choose the University of Tulsa, was the amount of time I'd spent listening to KRMG during my highschool years in Stuttgart, Arkansas. They were almost a "local" after dark down in rice&duck country.
Also, believe they protect KTRH (maybe different CLs now) out of Houston. But even with the reduced 25kW at night, if
you're in any of the directions they're pointed, they will definitely light you up.
KVOO also came into that part of Arkansas like gangbusters. Maybe somebody should do field-strength measurements on the
conductivity of our area's mosquitoes.
 
kudzooter said:
Nightaire, the mainest thangg that caused me to choose the University of Tulsa, was the amount of time I'd spent listening to KRMG during my highschool years in Stuttgart, Arkansas. They were almost a "local" after dark down in rice&duck country.
Also, believe they protect KTRH (maybe different CLs now) out of Houston. But even with the reduced 25kW at night, if
you're in any of the directions they're pointed, they will definitely light you up.
KVOO also came into that part of Arkansas like gangbusters. Maybe somebody should do field-strength measurements on the
conductivity of our area's mosquitoes.
Click to expand...

Would today's relatively bland or mediocre programming attract anyone to move to Tulsa? Just to hear that station?

I remember when the station was filled with locally-focused shows, news and sports talk.

Today, it's primarily a mouthpiece for a political viewpoint.
 
Sorry. Should have indicated that this was in the mid2late 1950s. At that time, KRMG ID'd as "one of America's two great radio stations." Sadly, until the early 60s, they were mostly "the radio people's radio station." All us guys who were majorly kicking their ass in the ratings, would have given our left
(?channel?) to be able to work there. From early 60s until at least the mid 90s, their combination of killer morning show, equally good local personalities in other dayparts, and unbelievably good news coverage...finally got them the ratings/billings they deserved. Yep, kinda sad to see (hear) 'em degraded to a pictureless version of "fair&balanced." But that's the deal ya make, to make it in third-milennium corporate radio, I guess.
 
kudzooter said:
Sorry. Should have indicated that this was in the mid2late 1950s. At that time, KRMG ID'd as "one of America's two great radio stations." Sadly, until the early 60s, they were mostly "the radio people's radio station." All us guys who were majorly kicking their ass in the ratings, would have given our left
(?channel?) to be able to work there. From early 60s until at least the mid 90s, their combination of killer morning show, equally good local personalities in other dayparts, and unbelievably good news coverage...finally got them the ratings/billings they deserved. Yep, kinda sad to see (hear) 'em degraded to a pictureless version of "fair&balanced." But that's the deal ya make, to make it in third-milennium corporate radio, I guess.
Click to expand...
No, not really. Not to be disagreeable, but look at sports talk throughout the nation (perhaps not in Tulsa, though). Sports talk stations feature many local personalities wrapped around syndicated fare, the way many powerful and "heritage" NTs did until recently.

http://www.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,97657.0.html

I think the reason KRMG has gone downhill since the 1990s - when it had real personalities, not canned satellite programming or boring tape-delayed shows, was because today's station owners (CC, Cox, et. al.) want to bleed every red cent out of their "properties." Some, like CC, view anyone behind a microphone as a drag on their enterprise.

So radio's owners are killing the medium.
 
Driving at night, I can listen to KGYN up and down most of I-40 between Fort Smith and Little Rock. That is an interesting station in a part of the world that is kind of creepy...

KRMG and KVOO (I refuse to call that station by the new letters) came into the Texas panhandle like locals at 3:00 in the afternoon....

101.3 out of McAlester is another blowtorch...
 
I've heard the Saturday morning gardener guy on KRMG taking calls from FAR western Oklahoma... it's absolutely crazy how far they cover, if only you're in the path...

Seems like I heard somebody say KELI-AM 1430 got a request for a DX card (what are those things called?) from Australia... obviously skip at work there.

Didn't KVOO-AM have a WORLD map in their studios with push-pins indicating where they had gotten reports of being heard... and wasn't it pretty well covered?

My Uncle used to claim he knew guys in 'nam who would listen to KVOO to get a taste of home... as I remember his story, I think he said they were listening during the day which was the middle of the night here... I guess you just have to get the first couple of good bounces?

Funny side story: years ago I was out at a ranch whose name I've promptly forgotten, near the towers (around 11th & 145th East Ave). Near one of the stables, they had a pop machine.

As I walk towards the pop machine, I realize I'm hearing music. Could it be?... Nah, it couldn't... could it?

Sure enough, they ID as Big Country, KVOO. I'm flipping out at this point and striding towards the pop machine. I've heard of them coming through telephones, televisions, bleeding into turntable preamps... now a soda machine?

As I reach the machine and begin seeing if I can feel what part of the refrigirator-sized box is radiating the sound, I come to the back...

...where a small radio is turned on & tucked in a back crevice of the machine.

DARN THEM! ;D
 
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