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Largest FM Signal (U.S)

schmave said:
One of my regrets about my time living in the Houston area, in a radio sense that is, is I never listened closely enough on work or family trips to Austin and Dallas to see where the Houston FM giants gave out. KKRW vs KLBJ probably would have been most noticeable to me since I listened to Houston's 93.7 in its Arrow incarnation.
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KLTR/KKRW and KLBJ-FM never really had any overlap. As 93.7 Houston petered out, KLBJ would begin its own journey up from the doldrums. The same, of course, held true in reverse. The changeover would begin between Giddings and Carmine, as you worked your way up US 290.
schmave said:
Years ago, a poster claimed that Houston's 106.9 has been heard well enough in the Metroplex to be listenable. I tend to doubt that one given the distance alone. Too much for even the strongest FM to cover.
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I have heard KHPT up here in Tyler, with full RDS and HD during good tropospheric conditions. It depends, I guess, on how many years ago that was, @schmave. When it was a Z-Rock affiliate in the early 90's, it had less power and height. Heck, it struggled handily, in and around Houston. I have a hard time believing it made it all the way to the Metroplex at all, let alone regularly. There was no 106.9 at Corsicana or Royse City then, so I'm sure KHPT made appearances in DFW, just not regularly.
 
The New Chico said:
I don't think this is a glaring omission at all. KNOR is a class C0, not even a full class C. It is limited to 43,000 watts due to indeed being on a rather tall tower. But there's no way it will cover more ground than a class C. I am sure it is a very nice big signal.
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KNOR didn't make the list because the list, from what I viewed, was from 1998. KNOR didn't move from Pauls Valley, Oklahoma to Era, Texas until 2003

I am aware of KNOR being classified as a C0 facility, Chico. That 43k C0 is on par with the land coverage distance of several in-market full C's, including KZZA and KVDT. Seeing that you are in the PNW, you aren't familiar with the real world application of what Liberman constructed out there. Not much was done right by Lenard Liberman, but the Era tower is one feather that he can certainly claim in his hat.
 
schmave said:
I never listened closely enough on work or family trips to Austin and Dallas to see where the Houston FM giants gave out.
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In normal conditions, the Houston FMs give out around Huntsville on I-45, but you can still get them in and out past Madisonville.
Between Madisonville and Buffalo, there are places you can catch some of the Senior Road signals on the Houston-facing sides of hills, then go over the crest and catch some of the DFW/Cedar Hill signals on the Dallas-facing side of the hill.
 
Huff said:
In normal conditions, the Houston FMs give out around Huntsville on I-45, but you can still get them in and out past Madisonville.
Between Madisonville and Buffalo, there are places you can catch some of the Senior Road signals on the Houston-facing sides of hills, then go over the crest and catch some of the DFW/Cedar Hill signals on the Dallas-facing side of the hill.
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I'm veering us off into a ditch, but schmave's remarks got me to thinking. Do y'all remember the sudden and abrupt change between 92.1 Seabrook and 92.1 College Station? Now THAT was a change. At the time, 92.1 Seabrook-Houston was Classical KRTS. 92.1 was KSTR, and regardless of the similar calls that would work for a simulcast, they were anything but. KTSR played rock, a fairly hard version of it for the time. It was quite a jolt, I'm sure, to be enjoying a beautiful piece from, say, Bach or Tchaikovsky, when suddenly a little Quiet Riot finds its way to the speakers.
 
Huff said:
In normal conditions, the Houston FMs give out around Huntsville on I-45, but you can still get them in and out past Madisonville.
Between Madisonville and Buffalo, there are places you can catch some of the Senior Road signals on the Houston-facing sides of hills, then go over the crest and catch some of the DFW/Cedar Hill signals on the Dallas-facing side of the hill.
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Very cool. Thanks!
I guess I do remember driving from Dallas to Houston in the summer of 2007, a few months before I moved there, and hearing the Houston FMs strong by the time you hit that stretch on 45 from Huntsville coming into The Woodlands. I wasn't alone in the car so I couldn't do the DXing/reception checks I would have if it were just me.

rosecitymedia said:
KLTR/KKRW and KLBJ-FM never really had any overlap. As 93.7 Houston petered out, KLBJ would begin its own journey up from the doldrums. The same, of course, held true in reverse. The changeover would begin between Giddings and Carmine, as you worked your way up US 290.
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A lot of my trips to Austin involved a stop in San Marcos to see some friends and relatives at Texas State. When that was the case, I would take 10 out to Luling and then head northwest. I figure the Austin FMs would have been solid by that point. If I ever gauged Houston FM distance on those drives, I have long since forgotten the results.
 
Schroedingers Cat said:
Why does KILO insist on calling itself "kee lo" instead of "kill o"? Yes, I've heard it on Sporadic E Skip in Michigan. I recorded it. Female DJ. I also heard and taped KIIQ.
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I first heard it on a trip to New Mexico in 1982 where I took the long way around and went through Colorado Springs and Pueblo. The station was then at 93.9, having originally been a class A at 94.3; the signal kicked in at Limon, where US 50 splits off from Interstate 70. Notably, KILO is back on 94.3, though a full class C. The signal makes it into Denver, enough to interfere with the KOA translator at 94.1 from Lookout Mountain in the southern and eastern parts of the metro.

davideduardo said:
The original licensee of the radio station called his service "Key-lo-land". "Kill-lo-land" sounds like a battlefield.
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Are you sure you're not thinking of KELO in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, whose TV station to this day refers to itself as "Kelo-Land"?

The original calls for what's now KILO were KLST, then KPIK-FM, an adjunct to KPIK(AM) at 1580. The calls changed to KILO and the format from country to rock in January 1978, a few months before new owners of KPIK spun off the FM.
 
CTListener said:
"Key-lo" is also how "kilo" is pronounced when used as a short form of "kilogram," even though the "i" in "kilogram" is short.
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That's the way my high school physics teacher taught me how to pronounce the prefix. To this day, I pronounce the word kilometer as "key-low-meter".
 
Schroedingers Cat said:
You probably had some major tropospheric effects going on over Lake Michigan to get WXSS in Pentwater that strong. It isn't that far outside of their predicted fringe area contours. It's changed call letters several times, so I had to look it up. I remember it as WEZW way back. WTCM 103.5 Traverse City has quite a footprint as a Class C0 (formerly Class C before they squeezed in 103.9 Big Rapids). The other closest full power station on 103.7 is a Class A in Hubbardston. And there's 103.7 in South Haven, another Class A. So next to Lake Michigan, there's probably no substantial interference to WXSS. Some of the MIlwaukee area station Class B frequencies are duplicated in Western Michigan under old short spacing rules. So 103.7 may be more interference free there than other frequencies. Stations inland are almost always shadowed near the shoreline. Could you get WIXX 101.1? That gets out well with 100000 watts from Green Bay. Back 50 years ago, a Class B could be heard all over Michigan. Class As could easily get out 100 miles on a good radio, unless their frequency was duplicated or there were stong first adjacents, like WJFM, once 500000 watts on 93.7, and WOOD-FM 265000 watts on 105.7.
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There's also the 103.7 in Menominee, MI (Class C3).

107.9 WBCV and 104.5 WAXX can be heard across most of Wisconsin and into both peninsulas of Michigan!
 
K.M. Richards said:
That's the way my high school physics teacher taught me how to pronounce the prefix. To this day, I pronounce the word kilometer as "key-low-meter".
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Have any Brit or Canadian friends? Ask them. I'll bet they say "kee-lo" and "Kuh-lohm-it-er.

The Canadian will probably say, "kee-lo, eh?"
 
CTListener said:
"Kilo" is also pronounced "key-lo" when used as the phonetic for the letter "K" in two-way radio communications. Some radio amateurs use "kilowatt,"(kill-o) but the proper phonetic is "kilo." "Key-lo" is also how "kilo" is pronounced when used as a short form of "kilogram," even though the "i" in "kilogram" is short.
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Oh I hate that. My mind wants to say the letters K W. It's definitely only kilo
 
davideduardo said:
Have any Brit or Canadian friends? Ask them. I'll bet they say "kee-lo" and "Kuh-lohm-it-er.

The Canadian will probably say, "kee-lo, eh?"
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It's "kee-lo" (which refers to kilograms, not kilometers) and "kill-om-iter" in British English, at least the dialect I speak. The name of the famous power meter "Kill-A-Watt" is pretty accurate for how we say "kilowatt".

When talking about distances (usually when travelling in the likes of Ireland, as we use miles in the UK), it's often shortened to just K, because kilometer is a mouthful. "It's still 45K to Dublin and the ferry is in ten minutes!". "Kilo" always refers to weight - "can you get a 2 kilo bag of potatoes?"
 
Schroedingers Cat said:
You probably had some major tropospheric effects going on over Lake Michigan to get WXSS in Pentwater that strong. It isn't that far outside of their predicted fringe area contours. It's changed call letters several times, so I had to look it up. I remember it as WEZW way back. WTCM 103.5 Traverse City has quite a footprint as a Class C0 (formerly Class C before they squeezed in 103.9 Big Rapids). The other closest full power station on 103.7 is a Class A in Hubbardston. And there's 103.7 in South Haven, another Class A. So next to Lake Michigan, there's probably no substantial interference to WXSS. Some of the MIlwaukee area station Class B frequencies are duplicated in Western Michigan under old short spacing rules. So 103.7 may be more interference free there than other frequencies. Stations inland are almost always shadowed near the shoreline. Could you get WIXX 101.1? That gets out well with 100000 watts from Green Bay. Back 50 years ago, a Class B could be heard all over Michigan. Class As could easily get out 100 miles on a good radio, unless their frequency was duplicated or there were stong first adjacents, like WJFM, once 500000 watts on 93.7, and WOOD-FM 265000 watts on 105.7.
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I should’ve said better. WXSS was nothing without an antenna on my radio indoors , even with antenna all the way up you could hear hiss. Outdoors, it was favorable, just bad under rooftops and near trees. I didn’t try WIXX , but I bet I would’ve considering I got WKSZ which is close to WIXX but with way less power. Near toward Grand Rapids , I could get some hit music station on 97.5 from Rockford, IL (idk the branding or anything) clear. Lake Michigan with maybe a mix of tropo.
 
MarioMania said:
How about KQED 88.5 at 110,000 watts (1,270 ft)?

Have anyone heard it around Northern California?
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When I lived in Monterey, you could hear KQED but not very well and not most of the time. I think it had signal issues around Sacramento as well, which is probably why they have KQEI over there rebroadcasting it. I definitely remember hearing KQED in the hills between Sacramento and Tahoe, but up there I think most of the SF stations carry well.
 
In the Southeast WFBC B93.7 Greenville, SC is one of the strongest since it covers multiple states - GA, SC, NC and TN. Another one is 97.3 WKBC from North Wilkesboro, NC due to it covering 4 states as well - NC, SC, TN and VA.
 


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