How far did/does 77 WABC go?

[cd637299]

Just an aside....I was at the NC Outer Banks in 1997 to do some AM DXn....

Local WGAI 560 at this time was running its FM's programming, due to an issue with the FM. I believe WGAI was a Rush Limbaugh affiliate at this time.

Because WGAI was running other programming, checking my radio, of all the Rush affiliates, the easiest one to hear at that time from the Banks was---you guessed it---WABC.

cd

 

[blester76]

As a teenager in the mid 60's, we could easily listen to WABC in New York's Capital District north of NYC. We had a preset on the car radio and most decent portables could get it too. Keep in mind that radios were better and there was much less electrical interference back then. Also I remember in 1968, taking a trip to Norfolk, Va. We listened to WABC all the way down through Delmarva and could still get it in Norfolk.

 

[Bob E. Nelson]

I've heard it solidly (during the daytime) driving from NJ down Rt. 13 in DelMarVa and over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. Getting into VA it gets overwhelmed with noise.

In the mid-1960s, WABC was audible on a cheap Magnavox portable radio on the beach at Virginia Beach during the day. Once closer inland (London Bridge and environs), not a peep from WABC. The one station that came in astonishingly well at the beach was 1,000-watt WMID from Atlantic City.

I may have been one of the handful of people tuning to either WABC or WMID at Virginia Beach. During that era, radios on beach were blaring either WNOR from Norfolk or WGH up in Newport News.

 

[Ai4i]

Just an aside....I was at the NC Outer Banks in 1997 to do some AM DXn....of all the Rush affiliates, the easiest one to hear at that time from the Banks was---you guessed it---WABC.

(not to mention your DXpedition to Bermuda)
NaCl+H2O work well together.
I will never stop calling them WABeatleC!

 

[badjef]

Just an aside....I was at the NC Outer Banks in 1997 to do some AM DXn....of all the Rush affiliates, the easiest one to hear at that time from the Banks was---you guessed it---WABC.

(not to mention your DXpedition to Bermuda)
NaCl+H2O work well together.
I will never stop calling them WABeatleC!

If you had brought that mixture with that label to school, yesterday, in Pinellas County, the authorities would have had the school on lockdown - as they did for a mercury thermometer.

No kids, you can't make this up!

(We are sooo skrewd!)

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

Since moving here 20 years ago (near Hazleton and Pottsville) and having sampled the local AM dial, I was always curious as to which stations people listened to here when they were teens in the Sixties, especially at night. There were no big-signalled AMers in the region at the time. I still ask people my age that question.

The now-silent WMBT was a daytimer that got clobbered by WCKY as close to Shenandoah as Fountain Springs before sunset even on their newer 2500 omni watts (when they first came on, WMBT ran 1000 watts omni).

The legendary WARM 590 did not come in well, day or night. They sent their signal in another direction.

The great WAEB 790 Allentown was also a no-show at night. Still is, in fact (or isn't :- ) Besides, in the Sixties their daytime signal wouldn't have reached here the way it does now.

Two of those stations would have had some listenership into New Jersey (WARM and WAEB). But that's the other direction from here.

Shamokin's WISL 1480 (now dark) had some pretty good listenership in that Route 61 corridor between Mount Carmel and Sunbury, especially on Friday nights, I'm told, when they did their sock-hop format. But their four-tower signal didn't reach Ashland, Frackville, Saint Clair, Pottsville or Cressona at night. That's the most heavily populated stretch of our unrated Schuykill County.

So which stations did the kids tune in?

I've heard (most often) WKBW, and WABC second.
Green Research Enterprises (Limited :- ) has CKLW third, and WLS fourth.

(Btw, Matt Smith : Great stories!)

 

[YtownGuy]

When I was growing up in the Seventies, WABC used to come in pretty strong in eastern Ohio at night all the time.

 

[Bob E. Nelson]

So which stations did the kids tune in?

In my part of Pittsburgh, KQV's narrow directional pattern made it very iffy at night. KDKA was top 40 (but shying away from the harder stuff) and went talk at 10 PM with Ed and Wendy King's "Party Line".

So kids and teens had no choice but to turn to skywave for the popular music of the 60's. By far, the first choice was WABC with CKLW, WCFL and WKBW vying for second. All of my peers old enough to drive had a car radio button set to 770. None of them were radio geeks -- they just wanted to hear the music at night.

Of course WLS came in well but it wasn't much listened to because it was seemed as a bit stodgy in its music compared to WABC. There were some KQV jocks (Todd Chase and Fred Winston come to mind) who later moved up to WLS.

 

[radioguy39nj]

Seattle was lost to WABC because of KVI. But WCBS and (at the time) WNBC were an easy catch from across the Sound in Bremerton in 1976.

I suspect, WCBS is probably gone because of KRVN.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!

I never thought the 50 kW New York blasters (except for WABC on 770) made it all the way to Seattle.

 

[badjef]

Seattle was lost to WABC because of KXA. But WCBS and (at the time) WNBC were an easy catch from across the Sound in Bremerton in 1976.

I suspect, WCBS is probably gone because of KRVN.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!

I never thought the 50 kW New York blasters (except for WABC on 770) made it all the way to Seattle.

In fact, I was in Bremerton, which is west of Seattle. Some of those frequencies were nice and clean so as to allow the signals to fly right in.

The rules have changed since then, but 50kw went along way back then.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!

 

[cd637299]

I spent a night in Tacoma WA in 1979, and WWL made it there faintly. Also I heard WWL from Alaska (once in 2 years).

But indeed, the playing field is totally different from 30 years ago.

cd

 

[richllewis]

When I was living in Philly, there was a Christian Camp a little northwest of Stroudsburg, Pa that I use to go up to every summer. Since NYC was about 75-100 miles from the camp, WABC was the dominant top 40 on AM in those parts of the Poconos. We could also pick up our share of FM stations out of NY too. In fact in the late 60's-early 70's on FM we got to also sample WOR-FM. The last thing I heard from WABC when we moved to Oklahoma from suburban Philadelphia in 1976 was the sound of George Micheal doing his 6-10 PM show (when WFIL and Wibbage was out of range) in Central PA (a little past Harrisburg on the PA turnpike if I remember) on WABC. The next time I heard WABC was in Stillwater, Oklahoma at night after they filpped to News-Talk radio.

 

[Ai4i]

I would like to throw this negative comment in about the station:
They had gr8 jocks and a tight, clean presentation, but their audio quality was not the best. They had too much reverb (unsure if it was only on the mic channel) and they tended to be bassyer than many other stations. I lived in Miami where the two big top forty sky wave giants were WABC and WLS.
I tuned to WABC for the jocks but WLS for their crisp, clean audio, "Eighty Nine, Double You EEEEL ESS, Chicaaaago".

 

[Bob1370]

During the day WABC made it strongly all the way northwest to Utica and was audible all the way to Syracuse on a car radio before fading out. At night it sounded like a local statewide, and blanketed the whole Northeast and Great Lakes.

Of all the stations in the northeastern part of the country, only WKBW had a comparable impact outside its home market.

 

[cd637299]

I would like to throw this negative comment in about the station:
They had gr8 jocks and a tight, clean presentation, but their audio quality was not the best. They had too much reverb (unsure if it was only on the mic channel) and they tended to be bassyer than many other stations. I lived in Miami where the two big top forty sky wave giants were WABC and WLS.
I tuned to WABC for the jocks but WLS for their crisp, clean audio, "Eighty Nine, Double You EEEEL ESS, Chicaaaago".

It was possible that the reverb was by design. After all, WLNG ( www.wlng.com ) in 2012 sounds like WABC did. It was the "boss" thing to do!

cd

 

[TimeIsTight]

It was possible that the reverb was by design.

That reverb was definitely by design.

It was done with a bed size metal plate at the Lodi transmitter site.

http://mixonline.com/TECnology-Hall-of-Fame/EMT-140-reverb-090106/

For more on the story, check "The Big Sound. How it was done." on Jim Hawkins' page.

http://hawkins.pair.com/wabc.shtml

It should also be noted that on those occasions when WABC simulcast, there was NO reverb on FM.

That's because the reverb unit was in Lodi, NJ at the AM transmitter site, and the audio for WABC-FM went directly from
the studio at 1330 Avenue of the Americas to the Empire State Building.

 

[Ai4i]

I know it was intentional, I just didn't like it.
WQAM in Miami also used a mechanical reverb device.
Some other stations ran the mic channel through something like that, but not the music.

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

Around 1969, I was vacationing on Cape Cod with my parents, and one day, I was on a beach in Hyannis (along the south shore of he Cape), and notice several people had AM radios tuned to WABC-770 and it sounded like a "local", thanks to the fact that most of the signal path between Lodi, New Jersey and the southern shoreline of the Cape was over salt water.

That day, I also heard a couple of radios (from older adults) tuned into WNEW-1130 and even one to the all-news format of WCBS-880.

With a very good AM radio, you can get WCBS (and WFAN-660) during the day in Boston. The closer you get to the south coast of Rhode Island, Southeastern Massachusetts and Cape Cod, you can get more Big Apple AM stations during the day.

 

[badjef]

Around 1969, I was vacationing on Cape Cod with my parents, and one day, I was on a beach in Hyannis (along the south shore of he Cape), and notice several people had AM radios tuned to WABC-770 and it sounded like a "local", thanks to the fact that most of the signal path between Lodi, New Jersey and the southern shoreline of the Cape was over salt water.

That day, I also heard a couple of radios (from older adults) tuned into WNEW-1130 and even one to the all-news format of WCBS-880.

With a very good AM radio, you can get WCBS (and WFAN-660) during the day in Boston. The closer you get to the south coast of Rhode Island, Southeastern Massachusetts and Cape Cod, you can get more Big Apple AM stations during the day.

Conversely, you can pick up WBZ and WRKO in New Jersey.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!

 

[mcmannors]

I spent a night in Tacoma WA in 1979, and WWL made it there faintly. Also I heard WWL from Alaska (once in 2 years).

But indeed, the playing field is totally different from 30 years ago.

cd

WWL was the only station I have been able to hear on both the east coast and the west coast. I heard it the two times I visited San Francisco, and it came in most nights in Brooklyn where I lived...