This goes back to the mid-to-late 1990's, but it is to show the KWKH's power (at least at that time) in west central Ohio. It was a day or so after Christmas and I was with Stan Coning, then the owner of WCTM, 1130-AM, in Eaton, Ohio. Eaton is west of Dayton, just a short distance from the Indiana line. The WCTM studios, transmitter and towers (plural) were then located in a small suburb called "Glenwood" just east of Eaton. After Stan signed the station off - about 4:30 P.M. Eastern Time - he and I went out to eat. Upon returning to a house he owned right near the station, I heard a radio playing that was tuned to 1130 K.C. and had been used to hear the output of WCTM when it was on the air. I noted through a station I.D. that the station I was hearing was KWKH and it was coming in loud and clear. At what must have been 6:30 P.M. or so, the signal suddenly stopped and you could hear WNEW out of New York City coming in. Apparently, at sundown or close to sundown in Shreveport, KWKH went directional and could no longer be heard were we were. Until then, the station was blaring in and much louder than the signal of WNEW that followed it.
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KWKH
- Thread starter romer979fm
- Start date
Down here in Phoenix, I was just able to pick-up CKWX. Definitely not booming in on my little Sony Liv Radio, but was definitely able to pick it up. I turned my radio to the east and thought I heard some country music coming in, but just for a few seconds. Could this have been KWKH? Not sure what other stations are around me on the 1130 dial.
The consistent and most impressive DX catch down here in the desert has got to be KOMO 1000. Sometimes that station comes booming in on my Sony Liv radio, especially during these winter months. It is definitely a well-protected station around here because there is almost never anything else coming in on AM 1000 except for the occasional DX catch from Mexico, which I think is XEOY from Mexico City.
The consistent and most impressive DX catch down here in the desert has got to be KOMO 1000. Sometimes that station comes booming in on my Sony Liv radio, especially during these winter months. It is definitely a well-protected station around here because there is almost never anything else coming in on AM 1000 except for the occasional DX catch from Mexico, which I think is XEOY from Mexico City.
asugeorge1 said:
KOMO is definitely the strongest AM station out of Seattle, bar none.
Sadly, I never caught a Phoenix station in Puget Sound. Mostly because most Phoenix AM frequencies are also shared by Oregon stations that boom in much louder signals.
KOMO and WMVP out of Chicago are the two big league stations on 1000 kHz. The rest power down and severely directionalize (or sign off) after their local sunsets.....
Bongwater said:
The other sad thing too is that most Phoenix AM stations are too weak to be picked up outside of AZ. One exception is AM 1580 KMIK, which I have read on this board has been picked up as far away as Australia. Their transmitter site sits atop the edge of the mesa in beautiful Mesa, AZ. 620 KTAR is another powerful AM station here in Phoenix, but they’re only 5000 watts and are constantly overpowered outside of Phoenix by a station from Mexico. Phoenix may be the 5th largest city now but, unfortunately, when powerful AM radio stations were being assigned, Phoenix missed the bus. As a result, we have no powerful 50,000 watt stations here in Phoenix, save for KMIK and their directionalized pattern that, apparently, favors Australia!
I can also confirm that I have picked up KWKH here in Phoenix. I was driving in my car a little while ago and browsing the dial when I heard a station ID from KWKH followed by a commercial that mentioned Louisiana. Definitely a great DX catch for a car radio! Funny enough, a few minutes later, CKWX started to come in as I heard something about the Rogers Arena and a sports report. 1130 is a very interesting signal here in Phoenix as it again seems to be a frequency well-protected with little interference like AM 1000. The closest AM stations from Phoenix are far away on 1100 AM and 1160 AM.
The most powerful AM station out of Arizona is definitely 660 KTNN. Are you able to pick that up in the Great Northwest? Their pattern definitely favors the Western states, but I have heard that they have been picked up as far away as Chicago to the east. Wonder if they have been picked up in Australia as well! ;D
I remember driving on I-81 in the early AM near Roanoke Va and hearing KWKH and WBBR battling it out( like the Hatfields and the Mc Coys) on more than 1 occasion. And yes it's that time of year where funny stuff happens. From Central Mass we usually get a weak WHO out of Des Moines but the last 2 nites it's been ESPN 1040 Tampa (it's definitely not a bleedover of ESPN NYC on 1050).
And KXEL 1540 Waterooo IA in and out instead of the religious station from the Albany NY area.
But no KWKH here in Mass.
And KXEL 1540 Waterooo IA in and out instead of the religious station from the Albany NY area.
But no KWKH here in Mass.
asugeorge1 said:
Up here, CFFR, Calgary rules 660 kHz by night (by day, KAPS, Mount Vernon, WA appears....barely.) For 10,000 watts, it has one CRAPPY signal. Should reach Seattle a lot louder than it does. Maybe because the ground conductivity in Mount Vernon is so lousy or something.
jd said:
Pretty much same here I first came across "Radio Mil" in the late '60s in college in Iowa...blowing out my attempts to listen to WCFL. XEOY was almost always audible and frequently on top. I still hear it at home under local WMVP. At the condo near Pensacola where we spend some time every year, XEOY owns the channel every night.
Back to the original topic, KWKH also has a strong and very reliable nighttime signal at our beach condo location.
asugeorge1 said:
Two important observations:
When the decent facilites were assigned, pretty much from the late 20's into the early to mid 30's (other than the channel shuffling of NARBA, etc.), Phoenix was a backwater and nobody thought to apply for anything other than a regional or local channel.
Second, Phoenix the City may be the fifth largest in the US, but radio does not deal with cities but with marketing areas. The Phoenix market for radio is all of Maricopa County, and that is ranked 15th in population nationally. Neither advertisers nor Arbitron care about how big any city is... they care about the market which is generally made up of many cities and even many counties.
AZ has no 50 kw metro area station on a decent channel (although 1100 daytime comes close). 50 kw on 1580 covers less than KOY's 5 kw on 550 or KTAR's 5 kw on 620.
KTNN is the only exception, and it came as part of the breakdown of the clears that started in 1970 following the final appeals of the clear channel 1-A's to increase to 500 to 750 kw. By that time, the PHX dial was so congested that none of the new stations on those 25 frequencies may have fit, while at the same time meeting the gray area service requirements for such new stations.
If 250 watt stations on the old Class IV channels were well heard by DXers in NZ and Australia, of course 1580 should make it... and easily. Remember, Australia does not use the same frequencies as the US because it uses the 9 kHz separations used outside the Western Hemisphere so most US channels are clear of domestic on-channel interference.
Update....I'm spending three days at a resort about 50 miles north of Milwaukee accompanying Mrs. Cyberdad for an event involving her business.
Last two nights on 1130....WISN fair-strong. Definitely a listenable signal both in the hotel on the SRF 37 walkman and also in the car. Also definitely stuff underneath clearly audible at all times. Most notably KWKH. While KWKH and what sounds like WBBR are absolutely apparent, neither of them (or anything else on the channel) are strong enough to overtake WISN or create enough "annoyance" to render WISN unlistenable. According the Radio Locator, I'm about 72 miles north of WISN's stick.
Last two nights on 1130....WISN fair-strong. Definitely a listenable signal both in the hotel on the SRF 37 walkman and also in the car. Also definitely stuff underneath clearly audible at all times. Most notably KWKH. While KWKH and what sounds like WBBR are absolutely apparent, neither of them (or anything else on the channel) are strong enough to overtake WISN or create enough "annoyance" to render WISN unlistenable. According the Radio Locator, I'm about 72 miles north of WISN's stick.
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