How good is Houston AM reception?

[jras20]

At night mostly, how good is it? Its crap up here at my place near Austin, its just about useless as can be. I was trying to find the NBA finals the other night, and had 0 luck. I only caught a secound or 2 of it on KRZI in Waco. I was driving back from Lavaca county. AM is just about useless now. I just cant see how they can get by with nighttime patterns. I wonder if that will ever change? I would of been happy if I could of at least got some updates of the game somewere.

 

[-juan-]

I don't know what you are talking about, but in most nights, I can catch KTRH all the way in central Mexico. I guess it's because of its directional pattern. Back five years ago, I used to catch KILT-AM just as good as KTRH but now for some misterious reason, I can't. I know for sure you can at least catch WOAI in Lavaca county. Can You?

 

[jras20]

I don't know what you are talking about, but in most nights, I can catch KTRH all the way in central Mexico. I guess it's because of its directional pattern. Back five years ago, I used to catch KILT-AM just as good as KTRH but now for some misterious reason, I can't. I know for sure you can at least catch WOAI in Lavaca county. Can You?

I can get WOAI ok, it does fade every so often though same with KTRH.

 

[stevenNOLA]

I frequently listened to WOAI when I lived in Lafayette, LA and New Orleans. I even listened to the Spurs vs. Hornets while driving from New Orleans to Lafayette because the Hornets' flagship station, WODT-1280 reaches about 15 miles outside of New Orleans after the sun sets. Also, while living in Lafayette, I listened to Hannity on WSB-750 Atlanta (after dark, of course) before he made it big...the show was actually interesting back then. I have never been able to catch KTRH in Louisiana. The best 24/7 signal IMO is KLVI-560 Beaumont.

 

[jras20]

You would think with all the trafic that goes on 77 and on up, that there would be at least 1 sports station around to pick up at night. KTKR was almost like a blowtorch for a while, untill they moved the tower towards the southeast side of San antonio. I always thought I could pick up 610 out there but recently I cant. It just was bugging me trying to find the game or at least updates of it. I almost thought about getting XM after that.

 

[Mike O]

For the most part Houston AM reception sucks, day or night. Even if you live in the city you lose half the stations at sunset pattern/power change. Daytime 610, 700, 740, 790, 950, 1320 do pretty good covering metro Houston. Nighttime there isn't a station that covers the northern suburbs very well, including 740. KTRH 740 may be heard fine 1000 miles into Mexico but don't venture much past Conroe heading north at night. Actually every station has signal issues day and night and I don't know why none of the companies that own the stations have addressed the problems. The D/FW area stations have been upgrading to 50000 watts leaving the Houston stations little room for growth to the north on many co-channel stations.Obviously it cost big bucks to build new towers and find land further outside of the city to the north where a station will have enough room to build a decent array for day and night. But if it is being done in Dallas and San Antonio, I don't understand why it can't be done here?It could be that the AM audience in Houston is a small one as Houston has a young population and many don't even know that AM exists. The other could be that the signals for most stations are so pitiful that not many listen if they know about the station. KSEV 700 is a good example; excellent daytime coverage, but come sunset and they drop power to 1000 watts which doesn't give them a fighting chance against WLW for more than about ten miles from the antenna north of Tomball. There is no reason except LBI not wanting to spend the money to boost the nighttime power to 15000 watts that they use daytime or even higher and cover Houston metro with a good signal.I have studied every station in the metro area and there is not a one that could not have better coverage of the metro area if they really wanted to be a fulltime player in the market. It may take two sites like Univision's KLAT 1010 and KRTX 980, but it is doable. I'll admit once you get about 100 miles from Houston, it doesn't matter what station you have on, even KTRH in it's major lobe, which sends about 250,000 watts ERP and you are going to have interference from stations south of the boarder and not just Mexico.I spent a year in Bay City on a project and KTRH was torn to pieces by about three other stations. Surprisingly KYST 920 from Texas City had one of the best signals along with 610 KILT. KPRC 950 was fair at best and KXYZ 1320 was there if you listened for the station, other than that Houston was a no show.I only live eight miles from KMIC 1590 and do not get a signal from that station at night. I know they are on 24/7, but I sure can't tell.Then again there isn't anything on Houston AM outside of KCOH 1430 that is worth listening to anymore. KCOH with it's 1000 watts at night does a fair job, but being a former daytimer and not protected from many stations the interference level is extremely high, so there 1000 watts does not cover much territory.The interference level on AM also keeps getting worse. KLVI 560 from Beaumont was better than many of the Houston stations day and night, but now KLVI has been getting more and more interference at night in the Galleria area from Spanish language stations.I'm not ready to pronounce radio as dead, although it is in very critical shape, AM radio may die or be left for stations that carry various languages for those that are wish to hear progams in their native language. English and Spanish is leaving the AM band as fast as they can.

 

[jras20]

Try it out there in Lavaca county, I know there isnt much people out there, but you'd be surpirsed of the traffic that runs through there. Its decent signals out there durring the day, but at night time everything craps out to piss poor reception. Same thing here at my place just south of Austin. AM just dies out at night. Only channels I can get here is 550, 590, 1200 that is half way listenable. I use to could get 1530 really well, but they changed their patterns to more northern areas at night. My superradio doesnt do very well at night either, I'm kind of screwed all the way around I gues.

 

[Spacecat]

How's 1070KNTH doing in Day pattern?

 

[Smittian]

Anywhere South or West of Houston, they get beat up by KOPY

 

[jd]

About the same thing that happens with KLAT 1010 west and northwest of Houston, only worse. 10,000 watts from Waco wreaks havoc on their signal. Similarly the 1000 watt non-directional station in Corpus starts to get into KWWJ 1360's signal when you head down 59 in Fort Bend County.

 

[CW]

I don't know what you are talking about, but in most nights, I can catch KTRH all the way in central Mexico. I guess it's because of its directional pattern. Back five years ago, I used to catch KILT-AM just as good as KTRH but now for some misterious reason, I can't. I know for sure you can at least catch WOAI in Lavaca county. Can You?

KTRH at night is 50KW directional from the Dayton site to the SW with over 250KW ERP (effective radiated power which would be the same as running 250,000 watts into a single 1/4wave omni tower..but of course they have nulls in most other directions)...which is WHY you can hear in south of the border..ALL Houston stations talk TO the Gulf (except for 1560s new site) KILT AMs site is on West Road west of I45....with all the build up around it, that could be affecting it..KILT is only 5KW into its 4 tower array or about 25KW ERP south and basically NOTHING off the sides or back...