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Night Reception Of Distant Non 50KW AM Stations

B

briancraig

The thread about 710 and discussion of listening to WHB far from Kansas City made me wonder about what non 50KW AM stations come in at night in your market.

In Memphis, I’ve always picked up 740 from Tulsa as well as any of the 1-A clear channels. Before we got a 640, the old KXOK 630 from St. Louis came in very clear.

When I was a kid and we’d vacation in Pensacola, I could always get 680 from here in Memphis perfectly. But that ended when Atlanta’s 680 got nighttime authorization.

Any other Class II or Regional frequency stations that you could regularly receive from far away at night?
 
Here in Michigan, the strongest were WING 1410 and WAKR 1590, before all the PSSAs and Shoehorned Class Bs came on the air, like WRMN 1410 and WCGO 1590. WKRC 550 and KVIS/KGLC 910 are two of the strongest 1000 watt skywaves you hear in Michigan. WFDF 910 at 25000 watts Night and WOOD 1300 at 20000 watts Night are two high powers not at 50000 watts Night that boom into the Straits Area at Night. WLCM 1390 and WGRB 1390 now fight it out in much of Michigan at Night now. WIND 560 still booms into the UP at Night. 13.9 watt WRDT PSSA doesn't bother it except GW.
 
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When my family took vacations to Fremont, Michigan in the late 60s, one of the stations I listened to was WGRD-1410,Grand Rapids. As soon as they signed off, WING barreled in.
 
From west Houston these days, with all the clutter, not that many out of market sub-50kw stations consistently come in here. The strongest I can think of at the moment beyond 200 miles or so are KTSA-550 San Antonio, which dominates that frequency, and WJBO-1150 in Baton Rouge. WJBO is directional this way and bests KZNE in College Station, only 75 miles from here. KFLC-1270 in Ft. Worth is often strong enough to register in HD on the car radio.
 
Around Columbus, not all that much. Stations from nearby cities such as Cincinnati, Dayton and Cleveland generally do not have nighttime patterns that favor this direction. One non-50K that is there almost every night is WFIR (960) out of Roanoke, Virginia. 5,000 watts at night with two towers. Although its night pattern has a decent northbound lobe, Columbus is hardly in the center; in fact, we'd appear to be on the western edge of that lobe. Still, while WFIR is never really strong here, it's almost always there at night.
 
Good topic!

If we're talking about 5kw skywave signals, here at my location, "the prize" goes to WMBD, Peoria, IL. Kicks butt on 1470 every night.

Off the top of my head, other reliable 5kw skywaves include KCSP from Kansas City, WONE from Dayton, OH, and WSDZ from Belleville, IL (Ex-WIBV).
 
I interned at a 1470 once ... WLQR in Toledo. Was all-sports when I was in college in the late 90s and I interned there in the fall of '99. Peoria was one reason WLQR had a very directional signal; had to tuck it in big-time at night to the west-southwest so we had very little signal in the south suburbs after dark.
WLQR since has left the air. Went dark in September 2016 and the license was turned in.
 
schmave said:
I interned at a 1470 once ... WLQR in Toledo. Was all-sports when I was in college in the late 90s and I interned there in the fall of '99. Peoria was one reason WLQR had a very directional signal; had to tuck it in big-time at night to the west-southwest so we had very little signal in the south suburbs after dark.
WLQR since has left the air. Went dark in September 2016 and the license was turned in.
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According to Art Vuolo, the fish in Lake Erie loved WOHO/WLQR, especially at Night. Actually there were stations in many directions, limiting it to 1 kW, like many newer interior stations. Ever notice that the powerful 5 kW interior stations were almost all in by March 29, 1941? Even some of those had patterns like WING.

WMBD is a perennial in many directions because of the tall tower making the higher elevation pattern stronger than in the Horizontal. Also labelled a pest by DXers in Scandinavia.
 
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Schroedingers Cat said:
WMBD is a perennial in many directions because of the tall tower making the higher elevation pattern stronger than in the Horizontal. Also labelled a pest by DXers in Scandinavia.
Click to expand...

I grew up in Peoria and I was not aware of these technical facts. Thank you! When I lived in Madison, WI, WMBD was a nighttime regular there...

Bob
 
When I lived in Ohio, I had regular reception (not neccesarily "sit down and listen" quality from a few statikons that I probably shouldn't have been able to hear. In their top 40 days, my only Florida reception was WLCY-1380. WMEE, Fort Wayne's directional pattern excluded areas to the southeast, and it was often a contest between WLCY and WAOK (Atlanta). There's virtually no way I should have heard WCSC, Charleston SC but it was a regular on 1390. Other times, WVON (or WGCI) came in on 1390. WTAR-790 was a regular visitor, and I remember them having an oldies show on Saturday nights.

WKRC's 1kW made it easily to the Celina, Ohio area.
 
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