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KAAY Rebuilt?

cyberdad

cyberdad

During my just-concluded time on the Gulf Coast these past few weeks, one station stood out. KAAY. Good signal. Good audio. Just like "back in the day" so I wondered if something was up.

Sure enough I came across on Facebook today stating that Cumulus has invested more than a few dollars to restore KAAY's well-documented dilapidated physical plant. New transmitter and new ground system for openers. IIRC, for example, the ground system had been severely compromised by thieves more than a dozen or so years ago.

Have any of you guys checked out 1090 recently? What are you hearing? I've only been home for a couple of day, and I haven't had a chance to tune in yet. I know KAAY doesn't send as much signal to my home location as it does to my vacation spot. But I'm anxious to learn if KAAY around here sounds as good as it did back in its top-40 days....even without Clyde Clifford taking me on a stroll down Beaker Street.
 
I won't be back to my home location for another 10 days, but recently I heard KAAY on the Key West SDR and it was quite strong a few different times that I listened.
 
I am hearing KAAY at some level several nights a week here in southeastern Wyoming.. not usually too great but more then enough to ID that its them
 
I've never heard it here in central Ohio. If anything, a weak WBAL sneaks through. Actually sounds better here on occasion at night than it does where one of my best friends lives in Gaithersburg, Maryland thanks to the null it throws toward KAAY.
 
anotherguy said:
Is it still the same format though of dollar a holler preachers?
Click to expand...

It's been all gospel music when I've tuned in. That seems to be the current overnight programming . Sounds like it's 100% automated. Apparently no preachers on the night shift at the moment.

So I've tuned in twice at home since my OP. Once around 9:30 pm CST last night and then around 4am this morning. Moderately disappointing, although conditions were not particularly good. At 9:30 pm the signal was fair at best, but steady and alone on top. At 4am, the signal was somewhat better, but still not great. In neither case nowhere near as good as what I heard on the gulf. But it's also true that my home is a farther distance from Little Rock than the Gulf Coast, and the KAAY pattern is less favorable in my direction.

I'll keep checking 1090 to expand on this small sample size,and report whatever I find out.
 
I've listened to this frequency on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago a number of times recently. WFCV from Fort Wayne Indiana comes in the most often, not too strong but audible enough, and I have also heard WBAL one time when it came in quite well. Have not heard KAAY or any other AM stations on 1090. I tend to listen around sunset so maybe it's stronger later in the evening....
 
In my area, the skywave signal of KAAY is noticeably stronger and consistent of recent. I listened for 30 minutes last night from 6:30-7:00pm CST and the signal never faded with full quieting...

Bob
 
Here in Laramie, wyoming I heard KAAY overnight Tue 3/5 into Wed 3/6 at a pretty good level, one of the better levels for it then ive had in awhile.. but i dont remember when at night it was
 
I don't know if this will link to the image correctly. KAAY 0.5 mV/m 50% Skywave Contour, and 0.1 mV/m 50% Skywave Contour, I think. Can't read the labels.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xXlt0f017...AAAaM/e3JTJWpZ4Aw/s1600/KAAY_Coverage+Map.jpg

This image is better. It is the 50% 0.5 mV/m and 0.1 mV/m Skywave. It is the older skywave model. The new model would show it going South better than North.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uiIoap97FRY/TxYylhjf4uI/AAAAAAAABYU/kKHEBOEBgQI/s1600/KAAY+Coverage+3a.jpg
 
Last edited:
SomeRadioGuy said:
It looks like the night pattern is more or less pointed right at you

https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=KAAY&service=AM&h=N
Click to expand...

Absolutely! KAAY appears to have returned to the nighttime signal strength of years gone by. When I was in high school and growing up in Peoria, IL I could listen to their Top 40 programming any evening either in the car or in our home in my bedroom on a RCA tabletop radio. Since I was in the cancellation zone for WLS, it was great to have KAAY available at night as well as "Big Jack" Armstrong on then WKYC 1100 kHz in Cleveland: https://youtu.be/hUhtPyObf1A

Bob
 
one of these nights, ill record a short snippet if i catch them playing music and the signal is good.. and post it here
 
Last night around 11:00pm CST, KAAY was on top of the frequency here in Houston with gospel and "contemporary gospel" music with mentions of Singing News Radio. There was quite a mix of other stations underneath, but KAAY was clearly better than they were before the upgrade.
 
I will try for KAAY, as they are well-needed. I only have one other AR station on AM, and that's the 1650 in Fort Smith (ex-KYHN). Their pattern mostly goes north, and towards my way there isn't much of the 50KW sputtering out however.
 
It's still a small sample size for me, but I'm starting to wonder if the upgrade had more of an impact on the southern lobe than the nortern one. Does that even make sense? Aside from improved audio, KAAY doesn't sound all that different to me at my home QTH. Perhaps more reliable and/or perhaps more likely to be on top of the channel. but not as listenable as it was during its top 40 "glory days". And not as strong as strong as what I was hearing on the Gulf coast last month.

Of course, on the Gulf Coast, the southern lobe was aimed right at me. Here at home, I'm on the far edge of the northern lobe. Also, I'm wondering if the pattern could've been tweaked ever so slightly.

Anyway, it's a fun mystery. At least for me. I guess I'll just have to keep checking the channel!
 
I caught them right around sunset two nights ago in West TN, but last night later in the night I couldn't get them. But then I'm in the null area according to the maps. As for the format when I caught them it sounded like Southern gospel. Their idea of "contemporary gospel" is probably more modern sounding SG, and not real CCM. But at least they were music when I caught them, and no dollar a holler preachers.
 
After checking 1090 off and on during the overnight hours for the past week or so, I've come to the conclusion that the signal in the suburban Chicago area IS better than it has been during the past decade or two. But the improvement is not as dramatic as what I had been hearing last month when I was on the Gulf coast. As alluded to earlier, I attribute this partly to bathe fact that my location is on the very eastern fringe of the northern lobe. And partl
y....maybe even more so....to the fact that the channel and the band are noisier and more crowded than during KAAY's Top 40 days. Bottom line is that while the signal may have been restored to what it was in the 60s and 70s, it's still not as "listenable" than it was then.

One thing that struck me was that I've heard WBAL underneath KAAY several times during this past week. That used to almost never happen.
 
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