Best and worst signals

[schmave]

Maybe their groundwave signal is not the best, but WTAM has a huge skywave signal into west Michigan and the Chicago area after dark. They could sell advertising in the Windy City.

Oh yeah, if you get far enough from Cleveland they sound great. I've noticed they peel paint in Chicagoland on some of my visits there. But 60 miles from Cleveland at night, if not less, they tend to sound like garbage until maybe 150 miles out.

 

[1L6E6VHF]

>Really, to some parts of NW Michigan, like Honor, the radio age had basically been skipped until the late 1970's

Our family used to vacation near Beulah in the 1960s, and although there weren't any really good local signals, you could hear WTCM 1400 and WCCW 1310 from Traverse City, and WDOR 910 and WDBC 680 from across the lake, on a decent portable. At night, you could hear many AM stations. We fully extended the antenna on the car and could get WJR 760 in the daytime.
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My own personal experience with listening to radio in the Benzie County area was mostly 1975-1987, with only the 1982-1984 years spent seriously checking out the dial and making notes on the signals on every channel.

I'm surprised you could hear WTCM 1400 from Beulah then. It was a no-show at the rented cabin on Platte Lake. Perhaps some of the other GYers on 1400 that hid WTCM came on the air between 1960 and 1975? Many times the family would be driving back to the cabin from TC along US-31. 1400's signal would be strong to just past Interlochen, and fade away from booming to nothing in less time than it took to play one song! Never did hear WJR there during the day, either.

WCCW 1310 was there, with a very weak signal. The best signal on the AM dial by day was WDBC (It's been WTMJ since their 50kW upgrade). I swear that in visits to the area 1999 and later, that WDBC is nowhere near as strong as they were, though there has not been any facility change that I'm aware of. WISN (by then on 1130) had a fair signal, but none of the other Milwaukees (not even WTMJ) had a good signal by day. WDOR and WCUB also were in there. The Chicago stations were there, with WIND, WMAQ, WGN and WBBM good by the beach, but weak inland. At night, Chicago ruled. Oh, the memories of my brother talking about the DJs on WLS and WCFL teasing each other over the air, during what would be WCFL's last T40 summer. CKLW did not come in well. WGCI, The Mighty 1390" (whose playlist most closely matched CKLW's of the stations that came in by night) actually was strong, but pestered by co-channel QRM and fading.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

WTCM had some cochannel interference, but you could hear it. I remember one of the other cabins had a radio on with Tiger Baseball on in the window, and there was no cochannel interference. The dial looked like it was on 1400, but I think it was actually tuned to WTCM-FM 103.5 and I didn't notice. It just happened to be at the same place on the dial on AM and FM on that radio. WCCW talked about being the only 5000 watt station in Traverse City, or the most powerful. The owner told the history on the air of the call letters WCCW, and that it was on a merchant marine ship that the owner served on, and that is why he chose the call letters. I may have been closer than you were to the towers, and further inland where you got less cochannel interference.

 

[ftballfan]

Did Benzie County ever have an AM station? And did WMTE, WKLA, WATT, or WWAM make it to Benzie?

Back on topic, the now-defunct WMTE (AM) had a bad signal. Being a graveyarder in an area with awful ground conductivity didn't help matters. That signal barely covered the city of Manistee. Longtime simulcast partner WKLA (AM) is still on the air and can barely be received in Scottville and Manistee.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

Back when AM was the primary radio band, stations kept their facilities in better shape, so Class IVs probably got out 60-70 miles on a car radio unless there was a cochannel or adjacent. You could get a mixture of WMBN and WMTE on the car radio as I recall. And I think WKLA came in on the car radio also, and possibly WATT. WTIQ may have come in over the lake, as I know it shows up alone during critical hours to this day. I remember hearing "Wide Trackin'" on a 1420 station near sunset near Arcadia. I assumed it was WAMM or thought I heard an ID since that was Terry Knight's hometown, and may have been a DJ briefly at WAMM, but looking at ARSA playlists and the patterns, it could have been WIMS or WHK also. Was WPLY 1420 Top 40 and do you remember hearing it in Michigan? Another possibility. We have a large contingent of people who vacationed in that area in those days. All the stations playing "Summer Songs" this weekend really brings back those memories! Rich, David, HGR1290, and others may remember some other details of what came in where.

One summer night in the late 1960s, I had no problem pulling in WKNR 1310, WILS 1320, and WTRX 1330 in that same location on a fairly sensitive transistor radio for that time.

Benzie County and Leelanau County never had any AM stations to my knowledge.

 

[ftballfan]

Back when AM was the primary radio band, stations kept their facilities in better shape, so Class IVs probably got out 60-70 miles on a car radio unless there was a cochannel or adjacent. You could get a mixture of WMBN and WMTE on the car radio as I recall. And I think WKLA came in on the car radio also, and possibly WATT. WTIQ may have come in over the lake, as I know it shows up alone during critical hours to this day. I remember hearing "Wide Trackin'" on a 1420 station near sunset near Arcadia. I assumed it was WAMM or thought I heard an ID since that was Terry Knight's hometown, and may have been a DJ briefly at WAMM, but looking at ARSA playlists and the patterns, it could have been WIMS or WHK also. Was WPLY 1420 Top 40 and do you remember hearing it in Michigan? Another possibility. We have a large contingent of people who vacationed in that area in those days. All the stations playing "Summer Songs" this weekend really brings back those memories! Rich, David, HGR1290, and others may remember some other details of what came in where.

One summer night in the late 1960s, I had no problem pulling in WKNR 1310, WILS 1320, and WTRX 1330 in that same location on a fairly sensitive transistor radio for that time.

Benzie County and Leelanau County never had any AM stations to my knowledge.

In Manistee, the last time I did a day AM bandscan, I was able to get WOMT 1240, WDUZ 1400, and WOSH 1490 with listenable signals. WAGN 1340 and WKLA 1450 came in weak. Speaking of counties without AM stations, I don't think Lake County has ever had a full-power station of any kind licensed in it.

 

[ftballfan]

Another contender for best, considering its power: WGLM Lakeview, MI. It is a 3kW Class A station on 106.3 located 40 miles northeast of Grand Rapids that manages to put a weak but steady signal over most of the Grand Rapids area, especially with Class B WVFM 35 miles away on 106.5.
Another contender for worst: WCZW Charlevoix, MI. I've never gotten them in Traverse City despite running 5kW. 107.9 up there is usually recent signon WCDY McBain. I did manage to pull in WBCV out of Wausau, WI once up there.
Best translator: W272CR Petoskey, MI. Unlike full-powered WCZW, this station makes it into Traverse City comfortably despite running only 250W.