Mystery Country Station on 950 AM

[asugeorge1]

Hello everyone! I'm trying to figure out this station I'm picking up down here in Phoenix, AZ on AM 950. It plays country music and has the moniker the "Voice of the North." I've haven't been able to positively identify the station, but the call letters from what I could gather are along the lines of "KCDE." I've never heard this station before down here in Phoenix so I'm wondering if it's some station on special construction authorization or if it's a station not powering down fully at night. Usually here in Phoenix, you pick-up KRWZ from Denver and a faint Spanish-language station from south of the border. Those are still in the mix, but this country station has come out of nowhere and is sometimes powerful enough to fully overtake KRWZ. I've tried to do an online search for this station, but I've found nothing nicknamed "The Voice of the North" or anything country remotely close to AZ (nearest being KOEL from Iowa, and they're only country part-time).

Any ideas on what this mystery country station is? Has anyone else heard it? ???

 

[Steve_Green]

Radio Locator lists a KDCE 950, NNE of Albuquerque. The page says 4200 watts omni day, and 80 watts omni at night. It's also listed with a 'Que Dice' slogan.

Format change, but not a power change, perhaps? Do they have a C&W FM?

Those letters ending with an 'eee' sound can really drive a DXer crazy ; always have, hi.

 

[kilokat7]

My money's on KDCE, however my favorite AM "lookup page" also lists KOEL (Iowa) & WAKM (Tennessee) as having c/w formats. That lookup page would be:

http://topazdesigns.com/ambc/aminfo.html

Pick a frequency and then use the "format" drop down to filter stations by a particular format to help narrow down your search. This site is usually fairly accurate and is maintained and updated by a fellow AM DXer.

 

[jd]

Yes, but...what's really throwing me is the "Voice of the North" nickname. None of the stations mentioned so far are really way up north, but I was able to locate a station that, according to a Google search, uses "Voice in the North" (like in the "North Woods," so to speak). It's WERL Eagle River WI, 1000/51 ND, but it has a talk format. So we're back to square one, I guess.

 

[radioman148]

Yes, but...what's really throwing me is the "Voice of the North" nickname. None of the stations mentioned so far are really way up north, but I was able to locate a station that, according to a Google search, uses "Voice in the North" (like in the "North Woods," so to speak). It's WERL Eagle River WI, 1000/51 ND, but it has a talk format. So we're back to square one, I guess.

"Voice of the north" could mean a lot of things. For example, it could mean the northern part of a state, not necessarily the northern US.

 

[jd]

Well, yes, that's a good point. The mystery continues!

 

[cd637299]

Yeah, ZNS-3 AM 810 in Freeport, Bahamas, claims to serve "the north." Northern Bahamas, that is...we certainly wouldn't think of igloos in the Bahamas.

cd

 

[cyberdad]

CFAM? 950 from just outside of Winnipeg? You can encounter everything from country to classical with their variety format. Doesn't sound like KDCE however.

 

[fybush]

I was in Espanola in April, and while I didn't hear them use the "Voice of the North" slogan, they're definitely country and most certainly in an area considered to be the "north" of New Mexico...anything much beyond that and you're in Colorado. The edition of the the Albuquerque Journal there is designated "Journal North," for instance.

 

[asugeorge1]

Thanks for the help everyone! After reading all these posts, it looks like the culprit is KDCE if they in fact switched formats to country. I ruled them out as the possible source since everything I've found on-line points to them still being a Spanish-language station (and there's still a Spanish language station fighting it out with KRWZ and the rogue country station on 950 AM).

So if KDCE is the mystery country station I'm hearing, are they not powering down at night? With just 80 watts, KDCE shouldn't be coming in as strong as they have been down here in Phoenix. Also, as a side note, I was traveling through southern New Mexico on Interstate 10 one night back in March and the only station coming in then on 950 AM was a very clear KRWZ from Denver. Back then, there was no sign at all of KDCE, Spanish or country. Seems like something fishy is going on here if I'm in fact hearing KDCE from Espanola.

 

[radioman148]

Looks like another one of the endless stations that doesn't power down at night. Does the FCC even care about these violations anymore?

 

[vibe]

I've gotten a real low power station on 690 from west Va-approx 400-500 air miles from central mass on several occasions; radio can be sometimes unpredictable.
That's why it has 5 letters like "women".

 

[cyberdad]

Looks like another one of the endless stations that doesn't power down at night. Does the FCC even care about these violations anymore?

If KDCE just flipped formats, it might be logical that they're "forgetting" to power down for a while as part of an effort to get listeners to sample the product.

 

[radioman148]

Looks like another one of the endless stations that doesn't power down at night. Does the FCC even care about these violations anymore?

If KDCE just flipped formats, it might be logical that they're "forgetting" to power down for a while as part of an effort to get listeners to sample the product.

Again, I guess the FCC doesn't care about this. Years ago they were much more strict about it.

 

[davideduardo]

If KDCE just flipped formats, it might be logical that they're "forgetting" to power down for a while as part of an effort to get listeners to sample the product.

Listen to http://www.kdceradio.com and you hear classic country at night.

 

[jd]

Listen to http://www.kdceradio.com and you hear classic country at night.

Well, you're right. I was hearing "Harper Valley PTA" just a couple of minutes ago. (Until I immediately killed the stream, that is. Arrrrggh!)