For the first few days of KWAO, their signal was very weak in North Seattle, which made me think that's a long way to Ocean Park, so there you have it. Then it pumped up and is clearly audible most days now thru probably all of metro Seattle as far north as Everett. (Those South Sound stations have a way of reaching up Puget Sound along the coastal areas, as well as carrying over the inland terrain.)
What a waste of wattage to have everything crammed in so tight. Makes in-car listening untenable for more and more freqs. And that kind of signal interference still causes lots of flutter and sputter, even when the "other" station doesn't overtake it. Been there and lived to witness two FM signals coming in at the same time at a station I managed 15 years ago. Ours was a class A, 75 miles uphill from a same-channel class B. Remains a mess to this day.
I also hate to see AM690 disappear, since it's the only way to get any CBC news or other programming when I take a weekend drive in the country, etc. without getting within spitting distance of the border. Their signal is still overwhelmed by AM710 once you get to Lynnwood and south, depending on what they're airing (remote live games don't seem to splatter so much). And the nighttime mess from Tijuana stations still make them and 1090 a real challenge at night.
102.9 from Centralia has an audible signal all the way past the Canadian border, and it's a good use of the technology to cover a wide area. But the simulcast of a 50kw AM station seems uninspired. Stuff really gets out around here with the height and power many stations are running. But ignoring reality for "projected" field strengths to cram in more signals that don't behave so neatly in the real world just sends yet another "signal" to listeners to stick with their I-Pods, etc and give up on the mess that passes for broadcast radio. And it just keeps getting worse.
I'd rather find more first-adjacent allocations in the San Juans and Olympia than putting new stuff to sit on top of other signals from Canada. Since this area was "designed" to allow for Vancouver and Victoria stations on the second adjacents to most Seattle stations, it is hard to squeeze more in. But someone keeps getting away with it. I don't see the "free market" being any kind of solution to this mess. But it seems like the big broadcasters and NAB, and their paid-for friends in Congress, won't let the FCC do their job to regulate, reallocate, and reinvigorate Am and Fm radio in any meaningful way. Even tho' they all stand to benefit from some fresh thinking about spectrum allocation.
But jamming Canadian signals like they were from Cuba is not the answer.