Pre 1980 AMs that deserved better signals.

[epmarkr]

WAIT, Chicago 5,000 watt daytimer at 820. 'World's Most Beautiful Music" with great announcers like Dick Buckley,
John Doremus, Ken A. Alexander. Very popular for a daytimer.

WAIT was mimiced by a similar callsign daytimer in Indianapolis, "WATI - 810 on Every AM Dial". WATI (probably like WAIT) got demolished when "beautiful music" went mainstream in Indy on WXTZ; "you've got ectasy, stereo 103.3".

 

[Bongwater]

I've always thought that it was odd Pittsburgh's KQV stayed at 1410 @5kw with a directional daytime pattern and severely directional nighttime pattern, especially considering it had the heft of ABC behind it. Still, its subpar signal didn't keep it from becoming legendary...

I always felt that old KQV tower site on that hill should have been a historic landmark. But then again, comparitively few historians and preservationists see radio towers and buildings as historically valuable and more often than not, are completely outbid by developers if and when they do.

I guess it's just us and our cameras....

 

[KeithE4]

WAIT was mimiced by a similar callsign daytimer in Indianapolis, "WATI - 810 on Every AM Dial". WATI (probably like WAIT) got demolished when "beautiful music" went mainstream in Indy on WXTZ; "you've got ectasy, stereo 103.3".

Elevator Beautiful music was already mainstream in Indy going back to the 1950s and '60s, on WFBM-FM/94.7 and WISH/WIFE-FM/107.9. There may have been others, but those two were the ones my folks listened to regularly.

103.3 didn't make it to Bloomington, thanks to WFIU/103.7 and its 75 kW on a short tower on the IU campus, until it moved to the co-owned WTIU/30 500-foot tower on the SE side of the city in 1971, and ran much lower power.

 

[John1]

I'd say 610 WDAF Kansas City. As it was, its 5 kw nondirectional signal was such that it was known informally as "The Flatlands Godzilla".

Supposedly the combination of that signal and newspaper ownership (until the late 1950s) kept Kansas City from being assigned a class I signal, considering that Omaha, Des Moines, St. Louis, Tulsa, and Oklahoma City all had one, and the Kansas City metro was as much of a regional center as the others and more populous than any of those except the St. Louis metro.

61 Country was consistently #1 in KC through the 80’s so the signal didn’t stop them until the music audiences all switched to FM.

 

[John1]

Maybe because WHB’s 50,000 watts covered/covers a lot of Kansas. Also KGGF in Coffeyville is 10,000 watts in the daytime, but not sure when they signed on.

I remember driving across I-70 in Kansas in 1975 and 1070 KFDI The Radio Ranch with Ol’ Mike came in strong for miles although 90 miles or more away.

 

[AMRadioGuy]

I always felt that old KQV tower site on that hill should have been a historic landmark. But then again, comparitively few historians and preservationists see radio towers and buildings as historically valuable and more often than not, are completely outbid by developers if and when they do.

I guess it's just us and our cameras....

Yeah, I agree. It was a unique site and piece of Pittsburgh history. The old studios on the corner of walk and don't walk are long gone. Well, the building is still there, but it's seen many uses since the 70s when KQV vacated their portion of it and I doubt any remnants of its radio days there remain... With the demolition of the transmitter site, there's now nothing left of KQV.

It's still on the air, but diplexed from 810 WEDO with a single tower 24/7 and power dropping to flea power at night.

 

[secondchoice]

I remember driving across I-70 in Kansas in 1975 and 1070 KFDI The Radio Ranch with Ol’ Mike came in strong for miles although 90 miles or more away.

Ground conductivity was really good in Kansas when I worked at KIUL. It would stop a scan on my car radio at least 40 miles daytime. On paper daytime signal goes a farther than their FM translator.

 

[ted chittenden]

One radio station that I thought should have had a better shot from the FCC back in the day was KVWM licensed at 970 kHz to Show Low, AZ, with 5Kw days only. From what I've been able to find out, neither Utah nor New Mexico ever had stations on that frequency and the stations in Pueblo, CO, Las Vegas, NV, and Coachella, CA were far enough away that adding, say, 500 kW at night, directional to the east/southeast should have been okay for them. While I didn't like the programming (the station was automated beautiful music and definitely sounded automated), I've often wondered if the reason KVWM was never able to get a good (it later got flea power after dark) nighttime signal was because of a possible Mexican clear channel on that frequency--but I really don't know even *that!

 

[MikeyBos]

1090 WILD was the only radio station serving Boston's black community for many decades, from the late 1950s up until 1999, on a daytime-only signal. It would've been nice had WILD been on a better signal.

 

[K.M. Richards]

From what I've been able to find out, neither Utah nor New Mexico ever had stations on that frequency and the stations in Pueblo, CO, Las Vegas, NV, and Coachella, CA were far enough away that adding, say, 500 kW at night, directional to the east/southeast should have been okay for them.

500 kilowatts? Who do you think you are ... Powel Crosley, Jr. in the 1930s with WLW?