During my late '60s college years in southeast Iowa, the Houston 790 was an easy catch with a nice nighttime signal. In those days, it waw KTHT ("Demand Radio 79"). The slogan reflected an all-request format. I'm not sure if they really were all request, since they were jockless and sounded like they were automated whenever I tuned in. But they still had a pretty good "chicken rock" music mix.
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- Thread starter CADXER
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There seems to be a strong favoritism for Northern stations tonight. I'm hearing country music on 920 AM, 1050AM (confirmed legal ID of CJNB), and 1140 AM, potentially Canadians. My checkpoint stations, 680 CJOB, 960 CFAC, and Comedy 1060 were all in as well.
Added bonus, 1580 KFCS Colorado Springs is on day power right now (They are a Regional Mexican format).
Finally, I got 1470 KKTY Douglas in the clear. That sounded like a pretty common occurrence for my area, but it is usually too weak, and then blocked by 1480 KRAE. However, tonight was in the clear long enough for a weather forecast and "Classics 1470" liner.
Added bonus, 1580 KFCS Colorado Springs is on day power right now (They are a Regional Mexican format).
Finally, I got 1470 KKTY Douglas in the clear. That sounded like a pretty common occurrence for my area, but it is usually too weak, and then blocked by 1480 KRAE. However, tonight was in the clear long enough for a weather forecast and "Classics 1470" liner.
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1470 KKTY was easy pickins at sunrise and sunset in Laramie.
Your 920 is CFRY and your 1140 is CHRB. 1140 was massively easy pickins, regularly in Laramie.. 920 wasnt but it showed up now and then
Thanks! 1140 CHRB is a constant visitor to me as well. However, I checked my logs, and 1050 CJNB was a new one!
Yep! As Paul said, CFRY was undoubtedly your 920. For the last year or two it's been common here in the Chicago area. Usually with a pretty decent signal. Routinely blowing out WOKY, the 920 from Milwaukee
Had a new trans-gulf logging last night: 1600 WPOM in Riviera, FL, at 1,140 miles.
I was testing my new tunable RFA200 ferrite rod AM antenna with it inductively coupled to my little Sangean DT-120; both were pointed E/W. At 11:16 p.m. CT, there was a fadeup with Christian preaching in a creole language. The broadcast matched the WPOM webstream, and the signal was pretty good for about two minutes. Then it faded and never came back.
WPOM transmits at 4.7 kW nighttime and sends its signal into the Atlantic, so this was a surprising catch.
Here's a link to info about the antenna on the SWling Post website: RFA200 Antenna – The SWLing Post. I bought it on eBay from a seller in Greece. In my testing so far, it doesn't perform quite as well as a Terk loop and the tuning is touchier; however, it will be much easier to travel with. I also bought the LW version.
I was testing my new tunable RFA200 ferrite rod AM antenna with it inductively coupled to my little Sangean DT-120; both were pointed E/W. At 11:16 p.m. CT, there was a fadeup with Christian preaching in a creole language. The broadcast matched the WPOM webstream, and the signal was pretty good for about two minutes. Then it faded and never came back.
WPOM transmits at 4.7 kW nighttime and sends its signal into the Atlantic, so this was a surprising catch.
Here's a link to info about the antenna on the SWling Post website: RFA200 Antenna – The SWLing Post. I bought it on eBay from a seller in Greece. In my testing so far, it doesn't perform quite as well as a Terk loop and the tuning is touchier; however, it will be much easier to travel with. I also bought the LW version.
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I've heard CFRY 920 in Northern Michigan near Pellston, probably right at Sunrise in Manitoba. WOKY 920 doesn't go that well in my direction in the Daytime, so it's probably between Sunrises.
Interesting term! What kind of music is considered "chicken rock" ?
At least in the 70s and 80s. what we would call hot A/C, all the top hits except harder rock.
Some DX from last night. There must've been a pretty sight over Flagstaff because I got a near 20 second MS burst that spanned throughout my SDR bandwidth (Monitoring 89-95 MHz at the time). Probably a good sized fireball too. It sucks a bit cause I was looking away from my screen for a sec and I saw the waterfall light up. Only after the first few seconds, I immediately hit record for an IQ file. But anyhow, looks like the ABQ finally showed up here on FM, and I was stoked to get more NM stations.
Here's what I was able to confirm so far.
91.5 - KFLQ [Albuquerque, NM] / (Confirmed via song playlist match)
93.3 - KOBQ [Albuquerque, NM] / (Confirmed via song playlist match)
94.1 - KZRR [Albuquerque, NM] / (Confirmed via song playlist match)
There's at least a few more that I can't seem to match with ABQ's market. One of which was a Christian talk on 90.5, but that can be anything really. What's stranger is that these were near solid sig bursts, and yet no RDS decodes whatsoever on any of them. I assumed that if the RDS was there and the burst was strong, the data should have bounced along with the sig. This was an intriguing event to say the least. The Lyrids may be a good time to DX tonight after all.
I'll update these as I get to them.
Here's what I was able to confirm so far.
91.5 - KFLQ [Albuquerque, NM] / (Confirmed via song playlist match)
93.3 - KOBQ [Albuquerque, NM] / (Confirmed via song playlist match)
94.1 - KZRR [Albuquerque, NM] / (Confirmed via song playlist match)
There's at least a few more that I can't seem to match with ABQ's market. One of which was a Christian talk on 90.5, but that can be anything really. What's stranger is that these were near solid sig bursts, and yet no RDS decodes whatsoever on any of them. I assumed that if the RDS was there and the burst was strong, the data should have bounced along with the sig. This was an intriguing event to say the least. The Lyrids may be a good time to DX tonight after all.
I'll update these as I get to them.
Today's term might be "Adult Contemporary. In the '60s when the term was coined, it referred to top 40 minus the harder rock songs. In other words, you could have Neil Diamond on your playlist, but not The Doors. Or with the Beatles, you could have "Penny Lane", but not "Revolution". In the Chicago market, WMAQ from the mid 60s to early 70s was a good example.
Some people also referred to WIND as "Chicken Rock". This may have been somewhat true in the 60s. In the 70s they were more gold based hits.
Checked out the London, Ontario SDR tonight. Excellent conditions from the east. The NYC blowtorches were strong including WOR and WBBR off the back. WBZ very strong. Again the Chicago powerhouses were mostly missing. Only WMVP was in well. WYLL was fair with fading and WBBM quite weak. The others were a no show. This was between 10:30 and 11:00PM CDT.
To me...and just my own take on this....Chicken Rock was a basic top 40 playlist with the "harder stuff" removed. "Middle of the Road" was Sinatra, Peggy Lee, etc mixed with softer current hits mixed. The latter was how I remember WIND in the 60s. In my own experience my first gig was at an automated station (IGM) where the format was two "currents" per half hour. My second gig was 100% live, and we two dime store wire record racks that reflected the Billboard AC top 40. One for even numbered chard positions, the other for odd. Rotating. Each rack had a few positions rhat were empty. Tunes that management deemed "too hot to handle". MOR and Chicken Rock respectively, by the 60s and 70s definitions.
It actually worked fairly wel at the latter station (Chicken Rock)l. The station was a cash cow with a pretty full spot load of 18 minutes per hour. 21 Minutes on Fridays. Of course, curmudgeon thst I am, even then, I to the Jason Jennings rule of broadcast advertising....."If you're always sold out, then your rates are too low".
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When I took over the programming of WERC AM and FM in Birmingham in 1972, we moved the AM programming from MOR because WAPI also did that format. Instead, we did what was still called "chicken rock" at the time and featured songs like "Ben" and "The Morning After" and other non-MOR but not hard songs. Rotations were less intense than a Top 40 and there was more gold.
We did not call the format Adult Contemporary yet, and the trades lumped us in with a variety of formats, including very gold based WGAR under John Lund and traditional stations like KMPC.
The FM moved to Top 40 (it would not be called "CHR" for nearly a decade) but with a very southern rock content (Think "Capricorn"). We thought of it as "rock 40" and it competed with WSGN, a traditonal top 40 with Rick Dees in the morning... Dees soon left Birmingham to jump to Memphis from where he rode his duck to LA.
I agree. In the late 50s and 1960 before WLS entered the Top 40 market WJJD was the main Top 40, but as you know their hours were limited. When WJJD was off we had to wade through WIND's MOR playlist in order to hear that occasional Rock & Roll record.
I didn't know Rick Dees worked in Birmingham. I remember hearing Dees for the first time in Memphis at WMPS.
Yesterday driving down from Ryegrass summit E of Ellensburg, I finally was able to pick up K284BW Moscow ID on 104.7 (Hits 104.7, with a rather broad 1980s-1990s hits format). KHTR-104.3 was 4 bars and RDS, and 104.7 was not the usual weak KKRV. Also heard this morning but slightly weaker. Can't count this as new as it is over 15 miles from my QTH, but this was a station I listened to at times on my road trip in Idaho a few weeks ago! 100 watts at approx. 157 miles.
KEYG-98.5 (and all translators) Sunny FM Grand Coulee/Wenatchee airs a segment with Rick Dees weekday mornings at 11:45AM. I believe it's called the 'Daily Rewind' and it covers birthdays, major TV and major music anniversaries that occurred on that calendar day.
Noted a very weak (threshold) signal from the Moses Lake 103.7 'The Base' pirate a while back in the Quincy Valley. I have heard them as far as the top of the hill climb from Crescent Bar on Hwy 28. Was still on as of April 9th.
KEYG-98.5 (and all translators) Sunny FM Grand Coulee/Wenatchee airs a segment with Rick Dees weekday mornings at 11:45AM. I believe it's called the 'Daily Rewind' and it covers birthdays, major TV and major music anniversaries that occurred on that calendar day.
Noted a very weak (threshold) signal from the Moses Lake 103.7 'The Base' pirate a while back in the Quincy Valley. I have heard them as far as the top of the hill climb from Crescent Bar on Hwy 28. Was still on as of April 9th.
New one for me
KCMY-AM 1300 kHz Carson City, NV
Walking home from Walmart around 7:30pm, I was looking for My 97.5, But landed on 1300
KCMY-AM 1300 kHz Carson City, NV
Walking home from Walmart around 7:30pm, I was looking for My 97.5, But landed on 1300