FM Frequency of the Week 2018-19: 92.9

[gr8oldies]

What do or did you get on 92.9.

Today as we continue with the Class B/C frequencies, let's check out 92.9

In East Tennessee, since it moved from 92.7 to 92.9, "Super Talk" WFHG, Bluff City (Johnson City/Bristol market is in more often than not. WLXX Lexington drifts in now and then. It should be possible to pick up WJXA, Nashville and WZGC, Atlanta on this relatively clear frequency bit I haven't done so yet. I have received WGTZ, Eaton (Dayton), Ohio, my former local. On Es, I actually got my first Florida stations on ESkip, 92.9 WIKX, Charlotte Harbor, FL, Kicks Country 92.9 being one.


Retro/other: I once worked at a 92.9, all 100,000 watts of KGRC, Hannibal MO/Quincy IL. I could usually get it to about Jacksonville IL. Once got it mixed in Jacksonville with WSEI, Olney.

Dayton, Ohio area. WGTZ all the way unless it was off the air. When that happened, Lexington would sometimes be strong enough to prompt phone calls to WGTZ asking what was up with the format change, and where the heck was Man O' War Parkway in the traffic report?

Lafayette IN area: WSKL, Veedersburg IN has come on the air since I lived there in the 80s and 90s, but when I was there it was a tossup between WSEI, Olney IL (FM voice of the St. Louis Cardinals for a big swath of southern Illinois and southwest Indiana), and (at the time) WNDU-FM (U93).

DX audio clip of the week via Bob Hawkins: The Beautiful Music sounds of WZEZ, 92.9, Nashville from 1980. http://46124.info/FM/Tennessee/TN Nashville 92.9 1980 WZEZ .mp3 .

 

[charlestondxman]

92.9 here in Charleston is usually WEGX Dillon, SC with a country format, Eagle 92.9. We had a translator there, but it hasn’t been on the air a lot over the last few months. Eagle has a huge signal. It decently serves 3 radio markets (Florence, Myrtle Beach, and Fayetteville), and is the NASCAR affiliate for all 3. Helps when you have a pretty wide open frequency all the way to Valdosta, GA.

When there is a skip outbreak toward FL, sometimes I get WAAC from Valdosta on 92.9. I’ve also heard 92.9 the Game a couple times.

 

[Mr Tony]

If anything its KKJM Spirit 92.9 out of St Cloud, MN

otherwise nothing....closer I get to Mankato then I get bleedover of KATO 93.1 MN 93 Country

 

[ftballfan]

99% of the time it's WJZQ Cadillac, MI (100kW from 61 miles away).

However, I have also received the following:
KATF Dubuque, IA
KROM San Antonio, TX (only Es to date on current log on 92.9)
KTGL Beatrice, NE
WKZY Chilton, WI
WSCD Duluth, MN

 

[gr8oldies]

I caught Cadillac once in Ohio in 1979. Forget the calls at the time but they were carrying a Tigers game.

 

[schmave]

It's a busy frequency here in central Ohio nowadays.
Time was not so long ago that the only thing you'd hear on 92.9 was WGTZ, sometimes with a quite decent signal (especially the farther west you get) but usually scratchy to weak.
About 2 1/2 years ago, WDLR-AM (1550) from Delaware put a translator on at 92.9 that had great reach across pretty much the entire Columbus metro. Some would say, probably correctly, that it had better reach than it should. Nonetheless, it was an easy catch even here in Reynoldsburg, about 35 miles from their transmitter, to the point that I could get it on my home stereo.
I use the past tense because in August 2017, WVKO-AM (1580) plopped a translator onto 92.9 as well. It transmits from downtown Columbus and is directional to avoid sending much signal at Delaware as well as toward Dayton, and the pattern does work (especially to the west), but it still wreaks havoc to a greater or lesser degree with WDLR across much of Franklin County. It makes both stations sound pretty bad where otherwise they would be heard just fine.

 

[WCJ]

Orange County, TX - KHLA Jennings, LA Classic Hits

 

[CADXER]

Here in Wood Dale, Ilinois, the frequency is open when tropo is in. Nothing heard under normal conditions. My 5 catches on this frequency are WNDV (South bend, IN), KATF (Dubuque, IA), WECL (Elk Mound, WI), WSEI (Olney, IL) and WRPW (Colfax, IL)

 

[Sammi Brie]

92.9 is actually one of the more interesting frequencies here. KMIY in Tucson is one of the last Tucson stations not walled off by a local translator. KDWR-LP ("Desert Word Radio", with a format that is literally the Bible) can be received if I go a bit north, and in the right places I can nab KAFF from Flagstaff.

 

[kf4rca]

92.9 is local WZGC sports talk here. It started out as the FM sister station of a classical music formatted AM station. Sometime in the late 70's the owner decided that this FM was never going to do much and sold it off. By the 80's it had become the number 1 rocker in the market Z93.

 

[gr8oldies]

I do remember the top 40 Z-93 from driving through the area. I caught an episode of American Top 40 where they spliced "on Z93" to Casey's intros and it sounded seamless. "At number 32, up 3 notches it's Blondie on Z93".

92.9 is local WZGC sports talk here. It started out as the FM sister station of a classical music formatted AM station. Sometime in the late 70's the owner decided that this FM was never going to do much and sold it off. By the 80's it had become the number 1 rocker in the market Z93.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

In the early days, WWTV-FM Cadillac dominated the channel in much of Michigan, except Southwest Michigan where WNDU-FM was heard. With the Radio TV divestiture, it became WKJF-FM. Until WCER-FM and WDZZ came on the air on 92.7, you could count on WKJF-FM being their during morning tropospheric conditions from the geographic midpoint of Michigan and highest point in the Lower Peninsula. Until the late 1980s, WDRQ 93.1 was just 20 kW from 500 feet under the old Section 73.213 Short Spacing Zones, and you could hear it in most of Southeast Michigan with a good antenna and tuner. Then, a bunch of translators and move ins changed that. The first was CFCO-FM1 with just 50 watts. WKJF-FM moved North, and what was WCER-FM moved to 92.9 and to the old Olds Tower in Lansing, a Grand Ledge allotment.

 

[wildthangjim]

Here in Houston, it's the New 93Q KKBQ. It was the Q-Zoo CHR powerhouse with John Lander in the morning (later Z100 NYC) in the 80's but has been country for 25+ years. They've been "the New 93Q" since they flipped to CHR in the early 80's!

Orange County, TX - KHLA Jennings, LA Classic Hits

WCJ, does KKBQ ever make it over to your location? I would think it would during tropo conditions.

 

[WCJ]

Here in Houston, it's the New 93Q KKBQ. It was the Q-Zoo CHR powerhouse with John Lander in the morning (later Z100 NYC) in the 80's but has been country for 25+ years. They've been "the New 93Q" since they flipped to CHR in the early 80's!



WCJ, does KKBQ ever make it over to your location? I would think it would during tropo conditions.

Wildthangjim - KKBQ does make it here during tropo but very infrequently. Most of the "Houston" FM's received at my QTH are KTHT and wannabe's that migrated from the triangle and are on the Devers tower.

 

[crainbebo]

Local KDBL Toppenish (Country, 92.9 the Bull). Used to be KQSN 'Sunny 92.9', prior to that was Kicks 93 KXXS.
Rarely do they go off the air, but I have heard it happen. I have heard,
KZZU Spokane (Top 40)
KISM Bellingham (Classic Rock)
KRXF Redmond OR (Adult Album Alternative)
KAFF Flagstaff AZ (Country - on 6/3/2014 when KDBL was off and during a weak Es opening to Arizona...probably won't hear again!)

 

[tomservo]

In central Baldwin County, Alabama, it's (very) local 100 kW WBLX all day and all night. I'm only about 14 miles from the stick, so… unless they stay off the air for an extended time, I'll never hear anything else here.

Much like the "Eagle 92.9" mentioned several posts earlier in South Carolina, BLX has several markets covered: Mobile, Pensacola and Fort Walton Beach. It also makes it over into Pascagoula and Ocean Springs fairly well if I remember correctly.

The entire swath of 92 MHz is a trouble zone for me when it comes to DX. 100 kW WBLX on 92.9, I'm literally across the street from a 250 watt translator on 92.5 MHz, and WZEW in Mobile which is now running high power HD on 92.1 blocks out the entire sector of the band.