KRHW 1520 Sikeson, MO caught in the Quad Cities USA (4/17/2010)

[QCA USA 1]

This evening at 8:10 PM Central Daylight Time, I was surfing through the AM dial and landed on 1520 kHz. Hoping for either WWKB Buffalo, NY or KOKC Oklahoma City, OK (the dominant I-B clears of this channel), I instead was able to hear and id KRHW Sikeston, Missouri. Located in the southeastern part of the show-me-state and fairly close to the southern tip of Illinois, westernmost Kentucky (not far from Paducah), and not far from western Tennessee and northeast Arkansas either, this is a pretty good catch for me in East Moline, Illinois (northwestern Illinois in the Quad Cities metro area), especially for a station that's only 5 kW 2 towers daytime, 5 kW 4 towers critical hours, and 1.6 kW 6 towers nighttime. I wonder which of the three afforementioned antenna patterns they were on at the time I caught their signal? I'm surprised KRHW even has nighttime operation being only a couple hundred or so miles from KOKC Oklahoma City. Then again, KOKC probably has a good null to the east to protect WWKB at nighttime. KRHW definitely was on top at the time I heard them. Distance= probably somewhere between 300 and 400 air miles.

Once again, KRHW 1520 Sikeston, Missouri was heard in East Moline, Illinois (Quad Cities USA) on Saturday April 17, 2010, at 8:10 PM Central Daylight Time (skies were clear and it was dusk/twilight approaching nighttime. Local Sunset was 7:45 PM Central Daylight Time)

 

[jd]

I wonder which of the three afforementioned antenna patterns they were on at the time I caught their signal? I'm surprised KRHW even has nighttime operation being only a couple hundred or so miles from KOKC Oklahoma City. Then again, KOKC probably has a good null to the east to protect WWKB at nighttime. KRHW definitely was on top at the time I heard them. Distance= probably somewhere between 300 and 400 air miles.

Well, that's not a bad catch at all. It's hard to tell which pattern KRHW was using since they all have at least some the power going in a northerly direction. But I'm assuming that it was the night pattern, which has a very narrow basically north-south orientation, from about 325 miles south of your location. The station in Sikeston signed on as KMPL back in 1966 and the distance from there to the KOKC towers near Moore OK is about 450 miles. The nulls in the KOKC pattern are more prominent in somewhat of an east-southeast direction so the protection toward WWKB isn't all that obvious: www.fcc.gov/ftp/Bureaus/MB/Databases/AM_DA_patterns/97821-67083.pdf

Conversely WWKB's nighttime protection toward KOKC is much more noticeable (they have the pattern day and night): www.fcc.gov/ftp/Bureaus/MB/Databases/AM_DA_patterns/314204-22784.pdf

Incidentally both KOKC and WWKB are Class A stations; I-B was their old designation before the breakup of the "clear channels." Here's a link that might come in handy, as it provides a description of all the AM station classes, listed by frequency: www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/amclasses.html

 

[KR4BD]

KRHW has a very tight North-South pattern at night. When living near New Orleans a few years ago, it was dominate on 1520 at night. Here's their pattern info:

http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=KRHW&service=AM&status=L&hours=N

For some reason, I have been hearing KRHW regularly at night here in Central KY, too. Also lately, WWKB is very strong here late at night. While Oklahoma City has been heard here, I usually can only hear it just after my local sunset before they go to their night pattern that shoots their signal westbound after dark.

 

[audioguy]

KRHW is heard regularly in the Chicago area; sometimes at night and sometimes early morning.

 

[jd]

I don't know how this would affect things, but here's an item I didn't notice earlier. KRHW is currently operating under an STA, which has been extended twice: https://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/w...xt=25&appn=101357263&formid=911&fac_num=16550

They've been operating with 1,250 watts non-directional during daytime and critical hours while the nighttime operation, according to the original request, in not affected.

 

[cyberdad]

KRHW is heard regularly in the Chicago area; sometimes at night and sometimes early morning.

This has been true since it's origin as KMPL when they signed on in '66.

I went to college in Iowa during the late '60s not far from the Quad Cities, and remember KMPL as an occasional pest during my many nights of listening to KOMA.

 

[gr8oldies]

I received the old KMPL regularly in Western Ohio in the 70s and 80s.

 

[oldiesfan6479]

Night pattern for KRHW during April starts at 7:30 PM CDT:

http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/srsstime?dlat=36&mlat=49&slat=25.00&dlon=89&mlon=35&slon=45.00&tzone=B

 

[jd]

I received the old KMPL regularly in Western Ohio in the 70s and 80s.

I also received them in the Dallas area once or twice around sunset, underneath Oklahoma City (then KOMA).

 

[Icangelp]

KRHW is heard regularly in the Chicago area; sometimes at night and sometimes early morning.

This has been true since it's origin as KMPL when they signed on in '66.

I went to college in Iowa during the late '60s not far from the Quad Cities, and remember KMPL as an occasional pest during my many nights of listening to KOMA.

Parsons College, in Fairfield, Iowa?

That's a question only someone your age would find humerous. I had a friend who attended Parsons, better known as "Party U" or "Flunk Out U". Let's just say the school catered to the less motivated student.

Back on topic.
I had a reception of KRHW in the last year from here in the Cincinnati area.

 

[WCJ]

I've noticed KRHW coming in faintly here, SE Texas, for about the last 4-6 weeks.

 

[DX]

Used to pick-up Sikeston - under its KMPL calls - growing up in the Chicago western suburbs (La Grange, Western Springs) nearly every night in the 1960's and '70's.

During subsequent visits to the Chicago suburbs over the past few years, have picked up KRHW from Sikeston just like 30 or more years ago. Didn't notice any real difference in reception. Usually dominant over Oklahoma or Buffalo.

However, from Memphis, Tennessee... Oklahoma typically dominated 1520.

 

[cyberdad]

Parsons College, in Fairfield, Iowa?

That's a question only someone your age would find humerous. I had a friend who attended Parsons, better known as "Party U" or "Flunk Out U". Let's just say the school catered to the less motivated student.
.

Nope....I was 25 miles away at Iowa Wesleyan, but Doc Roberts' "Flunk Out U" was going full blast at the time. Not exactly "Party U" by any means. Very few girls around, given that a high percentage of students were guys who were either too lazy or too stupid for real college, but well-heeled enough to buy their way into a school....and also a draft deferment...during the Vietnam war.

Fairfield was actually a pretty boring place. Better to keep heading west on U.S. 34 and the nursing school in Ottumwa. Here you had a place filled with young ladies who'd be bottled up all week with a 8pm curfew, but who were allowed out until after midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. That (along with "no ID, no problem") turned the nearby Red Lion Inn into party central. Woo-Hoo!

And you never ran into too many guys from Parsons. Perhaps that illustrates the "too stupid" part.

Anyway, back to the topic... KOMA put a fine nighttime signal into just about all of Iowa in the late '60s and was very popular. KMPL would occasionally "butt in" and be audible underneath, but if anything was underneath KOMA, it was more likely to be WKBW. Considering their severe null to the west, this seemed unusual. But the fact is, you'd get at least a few snatches of 'KB just about every night.

 

[QCA USA 1]

Re: KRHW 1520 Sikeston, MO caught in the Quad Cities USA (4/17/2010)

Thanks for all the replies, everyone. It sounds like KRHW 1520 has a similar nighttime pattern to KJOC (formerly KSTT) in Davenport, Iowa, which broadcasts on 1170 kHz (another former I-B clear channel frequency), and protects KFAQ (formerly KVOO) Tulsa, Oklahoma, and WWVA Wheeling West Virginia during nighttime hours. That being said, it's really not all that much of a surprise to me after all with the KRHW setup. KRHW protects KOKC and WWKB in a very similar matter with very tight nulls towards Oklahoma City and Buffalo as well.

One more thing, does anybody know what kind of format KRHW currently airs? When I caught it last Saturday night, right before I heard the station id, it sounded like country, as I heard the song "Driving My Life Away" by Eddie Rabbit; which is of course a country song. However, the radio-locator.com website indicates it as a "Gospel" station. Did they reecntly change to Country from Gospel?? Thanks in advance for any confirmation.

 

[cyberdad]

I've only known KRHW as country....like KMPL before it. That's not to say that they're not currently doing something else now....as well as at some point in the past.

As for KJOC, the nighttime pattern is basically aimed north. It's also aimed north in the daytime, but the day pattern is much less severe. Back in the day as Fred Epstein's top 40 KSTT, it was a daytime fixture on many radios where I was at school in Mount Pleasant. That's about 65 air miles from their stick, and not exactly where most of their juice was/is going. Radio-Locator indicates that we should have been just about out of range. But the fact of the matter is they actually put in a pretty nice daytime signal. Clean with good audio. Whoever was doing the engineering was getting a lot out of just 1kw.

Night was a different matter. Shortly before sunset, KVOO would start overriding KSTT, then KSTT would totally disappear when the night pattern went in. But then, as now, KSTT/KJOC puts a fine nighttime skywave signal into Northern Wisconsin and a good chunk of Minnesota. Here in far northwestern Chicago suburbs, it's become a regular just about every night....albeit fairly weak. I say "it's become" because in my college days it was a very rare catch....even though the channel is relatively open here. I attribute the fact that you can hear it now to Cloud company not doing as good a job as Fred's engineers did in maintaining the nightime pattern.

 

[QCA USA 1]

For what it's worth, KRHW finally has a wikipedia entry now. Previously, there was no wikipedia article on KRHW. Here it is.