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Has Any A.M. Station Been Heard In All The Lower 48?

During my many years living in North and South Florida KAAY 1090 in Little Rock
was a very strong and consistent nightime signal from Jacksonville to Miami.
Listened often when it was a rock and roll legend, lost interest when it went
"all God all the time"

Pulling out my NRC nightime pattern book shows their 3 tower night pattern looks like a figure 8 the major lobes are NNW and SSE with an ENE null to WBAL
making their signal quite strong over Florida

Never heard WBAL at all in Florida

The only English mainland station I was able to hear in Puerto Rico was 1050
WHN loud and clear when they were a country format
I suspect WAQI 710 and WQBA 1140 were also there.
 
Growing up on Bostons North Shore WHO at 1040 could be received even very close to WBZ if you nulled 1030 and KMOX was a regular every night until WADN
now WBNW 1120 was built in Concord, Mass with 5 KW Day and 1 KW night DA-2

Both WHO and KMOX were very strong in Maine, NH, and Vermont during the 50's
through the 70's
 
I've gotten WHO and KMOX here in Mass pre and (much rarer) post IBOC on a Bose Wave radio which may not have a great tuner but rejects adjacent frequencies real well. In 2006 I got WCCO Minneapolis between Worc, MA and Hartford Ct and in Clinton Ct. And I pulled in WSM Nashville on the Tappan Zee and in Northern NJ one night no more than 30 mi from WFAN.
I always thought KMOX or WHO were the only 2 possibilites.
 
I'm sure most major clear-channel have been heard in all 48 states at one time or another. In fact, I would be willing to say that most stations 1 kW and up can easily be heard by serious AM DX'ers in 48 states over some period of time. Not only that, but it's not unusual for a "clear channel" (or even a less powerful) station to be heard internationally. For example, from a DXpedition to Coorong, Australia (link):

"There was pleasantly surprising uncharacteristic appearance of X-Band North Americans and over the next 3 hours the following were noted Marti 1180; XEB 1220; KOKC 1520; XERF 1570; KLIV 1590; KFOX 1650; KTIQ 1660; KHPY 1670; KAVT 1680; KFSG 1690; KDDZ 1690 & WCNZ 1660."
 
Back in the 1970s, I lived in Essex, England. I was able to hear WOWO from Indiana a couple times. They were one of
the few USA stations to send their power east.
 
Its been at least 25 years, but stations I've picked up in both California and Florida include WLW, WGN, WBBM, WBAP, WWL, WLS, WHO, & KMOX. It wasn't all that difficult before the original 1-A clears were broken up.
 
kc0ltv said:
I'm sure most major clear-channel have been heard in all 48 states at one time or another.
Click to expand...

In fact, in the 40's a number of 1 A clears advertised in Broadcasting showing their mail count from each state. Not only were they heard nationally, the sold advertising based on that coverage..
 
Flying-Dutchman said:
Back in the 1970s, I lived in Essex, England. I was able to hear WOWO from Indiana a couple times. They were one of
the few USA stations to send their power east.
Click to expand...

I didn't know they nulled to the west until one night driving up 65 from Indianapolis to Chicago, WOWO came in and out horribly. It was barely listenable in Chicago in those days.
WMVP follows much the same pattern. I've read reports that Boston stations can be heard in Great Britain and Ireland, but are those really feasible or just an exaggeration?
 
In 1977 I picked up WCBS AM in downtown London with a good radio, but no special antenna.
This was just before London sunrise and a little after midnight eastern time.
If I could pick up NYC in London I'm sure the Boston directionals could be heard as well. I also heard that WLS could be heard in the UK as well as Germany.
Today with all the interference probably very unlikely.
 
Re: Has Any AM Station Been Heard In All The Lower 48?

BRNout said:
With regard to the "biggest" AM signal these days, my vote would go to KOA or WWL. With regard to KOA, I've heard it from coast to coast and it can be picked up reliably in areas just east of the Mississippi River.
Click to expand...

BobOnTheJob said:
KOA Denver 850 desrves a mention. At 1000 miles, it's the farthest west signal that regularly pops up in Central Indiana. Whether it's made it to Maine at 1800 miles or not is another question.
Click to expand...

I just checked KOA's website and it looks like it's a news/talk station now. If KOA was an oldies station about 3 or 4 years ago, then I'm sure I picked it up crossing the Walt Whitman Bridge from NJ into Philadelphia one morning just before sunrise.

One morning in the late '80s I listened to 1210 (WCAU or WPHT) Philadelphia in Freeport, the Bahamas. But the strangest for me was getting an FM from Florida (WAIA?) here in New Jersey right after a thunderstorm in the '70s.
 
radioman148 said:
In 1977 I picked up WCBS AM in downtown London with a good radio, but no special antenna.
This was just before London sunrise and a little after midnight eastern time.
If I could pick up NYC in London I'm sure the Boston directionals could be heard as well. I also heard that WLS could be heard in the UK as well as Germany.
Today with all the interference probably very unlikely.
Click to expand...

I'm in the UK once or twice a year on business. Lots of interesting DX there, but I've never picked up North America in Central London. Probably because most of my DXing has been done before midnight local time, which is before sunset in North America.

There used to be a website called dxturners.com, where you could tune communications receivers remotely. Multiple reciever locations were used, mostly at various points in Europe. One was located along the coast in Cornwall, in the Southwest of England. They had an Icom reciever with an outdoor antenna aimed at North America. Several East Coast stations were regularly audible in the British pre-dawn hours. I recall WBBR as having a consistently strong signal.
 
When I was in London I had tried DXing North America in the late evening with no luck whatsoever. Too many strong european stations made it impossible. Then I tried right before UK sunrise when the eastern european stations faded out and that's when I captured WCBS. I'm sure if I was in a better location out in the countryside I could've done better and captured more from the US & Canada.
 
Re: Has Any AM Station Been Heard In All The Lower 48?

BlueHen said:
I just checked KOA's website and it looks like it's a news/talk station now. If KOA was an oldies station about 3 or 4 years ago, then I'm sure I picked it up crossing the Walt Whitman Bridge from NJ into Philadelphia one morning just before sunrise.
Click to expand...

KOA has been a news/talk station for at least 20 years. And, a highly-rated one at that. Back around 1971, I seem to remember hearing it as a top 40 station - but I may have been mistaken.

Anyhow, if you heard an oldies station on 850 within the last 20+ years, it wasn't KOA.
 
non of the higher powered 850's i know of aka What is Now WKNR in Cleveland was Adult standards in 2001 as WRMR, 850 in boston has been Sports for almost 15 years now. and as previously stated KOA has been News talk for 25+ years that i know of. And WRBZ in Raliegh which ive gotten here has been all sports since 1998. so it must have been a graveyarder on 850 that either just signed on for the day or was illegally at a higher power than it should have been that was playing oldies
 
I've heard music on 850-from Clinton Ct. isn't there a station (daytimer) in western ct that plays music??
 
MikeStandardsFromIndiana said:
so it must have been a graveyarder on 850 that either just signed on for the day or was illegally at a higher power than it should have been that was playing oldies
Click to expand...

850 is not a graveyard channel in DX parlance. Only 1230, 1240, 1340, 1400, 1450 and 1490 are graveyard channels... due to the large number of potential catches burried at night on each of those 150+ station channels.
 
vibe said:
I've heard music on 850-from Clinton Ct. isn't there a station (daytimer) in western ct that plays music??
Click to expand...

I think you may be right. A quick search brought up WREF in Danbury. That's quite a letdown from thinking it was KOA. Now I'm really curious, so I'll have to see if I can get it again. Oh well, that means the farthest ones for me in NJ have been WWL, KMOX, and WHO.
 
From having driven most of the Merritt Parkway a few months back, I can personally attest that WREF doesn't have much of a signal....even using a good car radio. I also believe its a daytime-only operation.
 
The Danbury station was rather weak in Clinton Ct but I was right on the beach. Although their signal was from over the land entirely, I think there's a slight boost because of the sand/salt air.
 
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