Old Fairbanks/WIBC question

[destinationradio]

I know Fairbanks owned other stations, but did the holdings include 550 KFYR in Bismarck, ND? I ask because there are some great airchecks of KFYR from 1975 on youtube (which I highly recommend) and there seem to be some connections between KFYR and WIBC. Orly Knutson is the morning host, and the brochure shown during the clip mentions he worked in Indy. Also, his extended jingle sounds a lot like some of the funny long jingles WIBC was known for back in the day. In addition to that, the top of the hour ID sounds exactly like the "Radio Indiana" ID once used on WIBC.

 

[radio_radio]

I don't think so. Orly might have taken his Heller jingle with him Dakota. Fairbanks owned WVBF, KVIL, WIBG, WIBC, WNAP, WRMF and I think one other. It does sound like WIBC from the 70's however. The bong on the ID sounds like the same one, but it is not Chuck Riley doing the voice. John Kesler Emmis lifer

 

[cspotrun]

i believe KFYR was owned locally by Meyer Broadcasting. from what i understand Orly had ties to Bismarck, he was from there, he bounced back and forth from KFYR to WIBC then back again, from what i heard going back to KFYR was due to family matters. KFYR was a GREAT T-40 station in its day and sounded better than it needed to in a market of less than 100K. 5000 watts at 550, with a better reach than many 50,000 watt am's, including WIBC.

 

[BobOnTheJob]

5000 watts at 550, with a better reach than many 50,000 watt am's, including WIBC.

KFYR's signal is nothing shy of amazing...only thing I know of that beats it is 50KW CBK 540 near Regina.

 

[cspotrun]

and you know i'm NOT talking about night time skip either, the DAYTIME non directional reach is 7 states and 2 canadian provinces. KFYR has always billed itself as having the largest daytime coverage of any radio station in America.

 

[BobOnTheJob]

and you know i'm NOT talking about night time skip either, the DAYTIME non directional reach is 7 states and 2 canadian provinces. KFYR has always billed itself as having the largest daytime coverage of any radio station in America.

I drove through ND (in mid day) a few years ago listening to KFYR and when I went under an overpass a few miles from Minnesota and it didn't even fade at 195 air miles, I knew I was picking up the very definition of a blowtorch! Of course, CBK is audible at Mt Rushmore during the day at 475 (!) air miles. For a midwest boy, that's coverage that I had to witness first hand to believe it!

 

[radio_radio]

It's all about ground conductivity. North Dakota has the highest ground conductivity of any state in the US. Most of the state has an m3 score of 30. Indiana has an 8. Seawater is 5000. Here is a link to the m3 map at fcc site: http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/m3-...d-states-wall-sized-map-am-broadcast-stations

 

[jimbo700]

This has nothing to do with Fairbanks Broadcasting, but since you are talking about great AM signals.... There is a class B in Pine Hills Florida (Orlando suburb) on 540KHz (with really crappy soil conductivity, a 2 on the 1-30 scale) but they are 50KW 24/7 highly directional.
Their transmitter site is about 25 miles west of Orlando and like WIBC (the old AM WIBC) at night, if you are a couple of miles west of the tx site, within view of their 6 towers you can't hear them. But to the east... they are the holy grail of radio stations. They squirt those 50,000 watts like a flashlight beam due east to the coast and they come in in Cocoa Beach, Titusville and Melbourne like a local. Not to mention that they are the strongest station in the Southern Atlantic ocean, north of the Bahamas. They regularly get reports from cruise ships crossing the Atlantic thousands of miles from the US East Coast.
50KW, sent in one direction on 540KHz would be a killer signal.
They used to call themselves the most powerful station in American (50KW on 540KHz) ... don't know if they still do.

 

[cspotrun]

i worked at wxlw in the t-40 days 5000 watts @ 950 daytimer back then- highly directional to the south- a few miles north of the transmitter you couldn't get it, BUT it blew into louisville like a local, also cincy and beyond. for a 50K i always thought wibc was kind of wimpy. wowo seemed to have a bigger reach with their 50k than wibc.

 

[radio_radio]

i worked at wxlw in the t-40 days 5000 watts @ 950 daytimer back then- highly directional to the south- a few miles north of the transmitter you couldn't get it, BUT it blew into louisville like a local, also cincy and beyond. for a 50K i always thought wibc was kind of wimpy. wowo seemed to have a bigger reach with their 50k than wibc.

WOWO is non directional during the day, using a 1/2 wave antenna. This puts a lot more signal toward the ground than 1070's 1/4 wave antennas.. Further complicating things for 1070, it is directional during the day, with nulls going in a variety of directions to protect other stations on 1070 (Hannibal MO), 1080 (Louisville and Chicago) 1090 (Ft. Wayne).

Back in the "day" WIBC's processing was not as tweaked as 950, 1260, 1430 or 1310 as the engineering staff balanced fidelity vs distortion. When I got to WIBC in the late 80's we were running CRL's as the processing and our modulation levels were less than the other AM stations on the dial. We had a 15 share 12+...we didn't care John Kesler

 

[ChiefEngineer]

Is 1070 doing anything that keeps the massive land from becoming a new factory location these days? I heard the billing dove into a deep pit when the call letters changed and the new format came about. I rarely hear anything about it now, like the red headed step child.

 

[secondchoice]

and you know i'm NOT talking about night time skip either, the DAYTIME non directional reach is 7 states and 2 canadian provinces. KFYR has always billed itself as having the largest daytime coverage of any radio station in America.

I drove through ND (in mid day) a few years ago listening to KFYR and when I went under an overpass a few miles from Minnesota and it didn't even fade at 195 air miles, I knew I was picking up the very definition of a blowtorch! Of course, CBK is audible at Mt Rushmore during the day at 475 (!) air miles. For a midwest boy, that's coverage that I had to witness first hand to believe it!

I use to to work at KIUL Garden City KS. They use to have amazing coverage eastward considering they were on 1240 with a couple of 100 other stations. Radio-locator's coverage map is a little conservative. In the 1990's KIUL would stop almost any "scan" (on AM of course) in a car radio in Dodge City KS. IMHO if KFH was not also on 1240 they could have had even better coverage "Eastward". Also at that time they were using a form of a "folded bi pole" antenna* so the transmitter power was around 800 watts at the time.

*it has been almost 20 years so I am sure I forgot the correct name sorry.

http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=KIUL&service=AM&status=L&hours=U

 

[BobOnTheJob]

This has nothing to do with Fairbanks Broadcasting, but since you are talking about great AM signals.... There is a class B in Pine Hills Florida (Orlando suburb) on 540KHz (with really crappy soil conductivity, a 2 on the 1-30 scale) but they are 50KW 24/7 highly directional.
Their transmitter site is about 25 miles west of Orlando and like WIBC (the old AM WIBC) at night, if you are a couple of miles west of the tx site, within view of their 6 towers you can't hear them. But to the east... they are the holy grail of radio stations. They squirt those 50,000 watts like a flashlight beam due east to the coast and they come in in Cocoa Beach, Titusville and Melbourne like a local. Not to mention that they are the strongest station in the Southern Atlantic ocean, north of the Bahamas. They regularly get reports from cruise ships crossing the Atlantic thousands of miles from the US East Coast.
50KW, sent in one direction on 540KHz would be a killer signal.
They used to call themselves the most powerful station in American (50KW on 540KHz) ... don't know if they still do.

Long ago, their calls were WGTO...which stood for Gulf To Ocean. Their studios were on the grounds of Cypress Gardens. Now they probably have more listeners in 15 minutes than they did in a week back then.

 

[jimbo700]

BOTJ: I worked in Florida when 540 was WGTO, during their Top 40 days.
They used the PAMS Solid Rock jingle package (of which I have a copy) and kicked butt (from a programming standpoint). At the time they were only a 50KW daytimer. When Jacor/Clear Channel purchased them, they got 10 KW nights with a 4 tower array, and a year or two later got 50 KW DA2 (with 6 towers at night... a very weird pattern).
I always wondered how a radio station managed to get their city of license to be Cypress Gardens, a tourist attraction without even a post office or unincorporated town.

 

[jimbo700]

i worked at wxlw in the t-40 days 5000 watts @ 950 daytimer back then- highly directional to the south- a few miles north of the transmitter you couldn't get it, BUT it blew into louisville like a local, also cincy and beyond. for a 50K i always thought wibc was kind of wimpy. wowo seemed to have a bigger reach with their 50k than wibc.

WXLW has always kicked butt in Columbus. The most powerful AM on my signal meter. Thanks goodness, since during the Shirk Top 40 days it was great to have their signal when WIFE, WNDE and WIBC all had marginal (at best) signals.
I never really thought WOWO had a good signal during the daytime. You could barely pick them up in South Central Indiana yet WLS, WGN and WCFL all came in much better than WOWO. Considering WOWO was 50KW omni they should have covered the state.
As for WLW, I believe they have the best day signal in America. There are others which out perform WLW at night (excluding their 500KW years) but their groundwave was (and remains) killer. Last I heard they were the #1 station in Portsmouth, OH, 200 miles away.
Meanwhile "WhoDat!"... Thanks for the progression of thought that led to WOWO... the greatest single tragedy in the history of the FCC/Radio (sniff sniff)!

 

[BobOnTheJob]

i worked at wxlw in the t-40 days 5000 watts @ 950 daytimer back then- highly directional to the south- a few miles north of the transmitter you couldn't get it, BUT it blew into louisville like a local, also cincy and beyond. for a 50K i always thought wibc was kind of wimpy. wowo seemed to have a bigger reach with their 50k than wibc.

WXLW has always kicked butt in Columbus. The most powerful AM on my signal meter. Thanks goodness, since during the Shirk Top 40 days it was great to have their signal when WIFE, WNDE and WIBC all had marginal (at best) signals.
I never really thought WOWO had a good signal during the daytime. You could barely pick them up in South Central Indiana yet WLS, WGN and WCFL all came in much better than WOWO. Considering WOWO was 50KW omni they should have covered the state.
As for WLW, I believe they have the best day signal in America. There are others which out perform WLW at night (excluding their 500KW years) but their groundwave was (and remains) killer. Last I heard they were the #1 station in Portsmouth, OH, 200 miles away.
Meanwhile "WhoDat!"... Thanks for the progression of thought that led to WOWO... the greatest single tragedy in the history of the FCC/Radio (sniff sniff)!

Can't agree that WLW beats 5KW KFYR 550 in Bismark,ND. At 200 air miles, WLW isn't great, but KFYR is still stopping on scan in Minnesota!