• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Mancow comes to WJJG AM

illinimatt81 said:
Maybe Q101 is coming to WJJG

Matt Dubiel bought the rights to Q101 and is the GM at WJJG.

Hmmmm
Click to expand...

Oh, Prunella.

You ever hear of Pandora and Sirius XM--and stations like WLUW and WNUR that play *real* alternative music, not Godsmack and Slayer?
 
The worst part of WJJG's signal is that they are clobbered by WCKY's skywave during critical hours, this is especially bad in the winter months.

WJJG is hit until 9AM and starts getting hit about 2:30.

WCKY is allowed to stay on daytime pattern until sunset in Bakersfield CA. Which is 2 hours or more after Chicago sunset which is 4:30 in November, 4:15 in December.

I think this is a great idea for a small daytime station, Mancow left WLS with strong numbers, people may put up with some interference in their cars, yet some days the skywave is so strong you don't even know WJJG is still on a few miles south of the towers, somedays by 3:00 PM.

I hope they can get Savage for mid day. I think there is a chance this could work.

The big "if" here is how loyal The Cows listeners will be and how much interference they are willing to put up with.

WJJG a few years back had increased their power to about 1,500 watts, they only used it for a short time, and went back to the current 760 watts.

Perhaps at the time Joe didn't think the extra power was worth the money, now it would be.

The signal was much stronger with less interference from power lines and such, it also kept the signal much more bearable during critical hours.

Perhaps they could look into raising the power back.

The ground system at the transmitter site is not good either. Fixing that and or upgrading the power would do wonders for the signal strength.

There is absolutely no way this station can get any pre or post sunset/night power. They are way to close to Cinni.

If they could make a go of it and make some money with Mancow and Savage, this small daytime signal has a chance.

I give Joe credit for bringing Matt in to run the station, they might actually get this station noticed in Chicago.

I hope Joe will open his wallet and let Matt get the transmitter in better shape.

At least someone is trying to do something different on a small AM, that is more than we can say about the "local" Newsweb and a couple others.
 
WJJG really gets hammered by Cincinnati during the winter months. More than a few times when I worked out of an office in Arlington Heights, I'd drive by Joe's car dealership in Barrington and find it ironic that his own station was getting blown out by the big stick a couple hundred miles away.

It wasn't all bad, however. You could tune to 1530 in the morning and hear Joe holding court and good tunes (as WSAI) all at the same time! ;D

Seriously, the 1700 watts or whatever it was did seem to help matters a little for a while, but as was pointed out, the plug got pulled on that in a hurry.
 
cyberdad said:
WJJG really gets hammered by Cincinnati during the winter months. More than a few times when I worked out of an office in Arlington Heights, I'd drive by Joe's car dealership in Barrington and find it ironic that his own station was getting blown out by the big stick a couple hundred miles away.

It wasn't all bad, however. You could tune to 1530 in the morning and hear Joe holding court and good tunes (as WSAI) all at the same time! ;D

Seriously, the 1700 watts or whatever it was did seem to help matters a little for a while, but as was pointed out, the plug got pulled on that in a hurry.
Click to expand...
Thanks cyberdad, your correct, it was 1700 watts, not 1500 like I said.

That did help, I wonder if they could get that again, I forgot the new 1550 wants to move to Northbrook. If that is built do you think it would stop WJJG from using more power?
 
Heard a quick "Good-Time Oldies" jingle yesterday morning on JJG.
 
I personally would be astonished if the 1550 in Northbrook ever gets built. I stand to be corrected by someone who knows more about this stuff than me, but I think the sole purpose of that CP was/is to thwart any new or upgraded brokered stations that could compete in that arena with the existing WCGO/1590.

WJJG would fit into that scenario, because....even at a power level more than 1700 watts (or whatever it was...I'm not quite sure)....they'd still be a small signal at the top end of the dial, and hence a prime candidate to go brokered.
 
1550 is the last open freq around here. I hope it never gets built.
I had my pt 15 AM on 1550 for a while, and have considered returning there.
 
I agree cyberdad, that is a joint effort with Nelson Multimedia being 50% of that.

They were probably working in cooperation with Kovas when they moved WSQR to 1180, assuring that anyone who would want to get 1560 in the De Kalb area, which could probably not get done as it was originally a daytimer, and was allowed 17 watts at night(23 until sunset in Bakersfield, CA. ironocaly the same as WCKY, small world, isn't it :-] ) and the feds don't license daytimers anymore.

If a station were to be built on 1560, it would probably take years and lots of money to accomplish. Not to mention it would probably have to have a rather tight directional array at night to protect the mouse in New York as well as CA.

Even though 1180 is a far superior day signal, I wonder if they still wish that they had that 23 watts until 6:30 in the winter. It was much better than the 1 watt on 1180.

In the summer and in the middle of the night it probably doesn't concern them much, at 4:30 in December I think that has hurt them somewhat.
 
cyberdad said:
I personally would be astonished if the 1550 in Northbrook ever gets built. I stand to be corrected by someone who knows more about this stuff than me, but I think the sole purpose of that CP was/is to thwart any new or upgraded brokered stations that could compete in that arena with the existing WCGO/1590.
Click to expand...

Cyberdad...as you expected...here is the correction to the above...WCGO 1590-AM has nothing to do with the CP for 1550 in Northbrook, ( I do engineering work for WCGO so I kinda know about these things ). It's Nelson Multimedia and someone else up in Wisconsin that are holding the CP. My thought was that the CP was being held with hopes that someone would offer to buy it from the Nelson & Whoever holders.

The clock is ticking and ground hasn't been broken...if I'm not mistaken the CP runs out next year.


Dave Dybas
;)
 
Thanks, guys. 

As I said, there are others who know more about this stuff with me.  I also may have connected or confused this with the 1580 in Aurora that wound up going to a CP for Silvis, IL (Quad Cities area).  I'm not sure what the status of that one is, but my guess is it hasn't...and probably won't be....built.  That CP has a bit more plausibility given that there used to be a 1580 in the Quad Cities (KWNT....500 watt daytimer IIRC).

As for 1550 in Wisconsin, that would be Lake Geneva.  1kw directional (basically east-west) day. 2watts or something equally ridiculous at night...same pattern.  It is...or was...relevant radio, then adult standards.  Again, I don't know the status.  I do, however, know a little of the history.  I worked there for a few months in 1976.  Not exactly a great gig, so I split.  Then it was WMIR...and deserving of the locals referring to it as World's Most Ignored Radio!
 
Look for most of the programs on WJJG to be gone by the end of next week. A new sound begins Oct 1 with Mancow and Savage.
 
Turned on WJJG today and the music was Rock. I guess they are getting ready for the Mancow and his listeners. No more Sinatra....
 
They still have an 8000-ish hertz parasitic oscillation. It's been there a few weeks.
Do the new people not notice it?

Can I go over there with some caps, chokes and ferrite toroids and help them out for free?
 
TheGeekJedi said:
Thanks for your kind offer, but I'm on it...
Click to expand...
Thanks.
My ears and internal af/rf - rf/if/af mental calculator discriminator analysis circuits can rest easy knowing it's being looked at.
Sure would appreciate hearing where the bug is eventually found.
 
Tom Wells said:
TheGeekJedi said:
Thanks for your kind offer, but I'm on it...
Click to expand...
Thanks.
My ears and internal af/rf - rf/if/af mental calculator discriminator analysis circuits can rest easy knowing it's being looked at.
Sure would appreciate hearing where the bug is eventually found.
Click to expand...

I'll let you know once I get to it - I have a few ideas about where the problem lies, but unfortunately it's pretty low on my to-do list at the moment. Just got the audio processing fixed and the transmitter back to full power, though "full-power" and "completely fixed" are two separate animals! One thing at a time... :)
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom