Saturday 11/24 Log Houston, Texas

[ChuckTiller]

While sitting in my car between 12:30AM-3AM CST, outside at a police station waiting to pick up a friend who had been arrested, I heard the following AM stations (omitting the local Houston stations)

530 Jazz-Unknown
540 Spanish
550 KTSA San Antonio
560 KLVI Beaumomt
650 WSM Nashville
660 KSKY Dallas poor but audible
670 WSCR Chicago
680 KKYX San Antonio
720 WGN Chicago
750 WSB Atlanta (this was exceptionally rare due to 740 KTRH. must be a a null near the Mykawa Road police station on Houston' south side)
770 Spanish
780 WBBM Chicago
820 WBAP Ft Worth (like a local, but that's nothing new at night)
830 WCCO Minneapolis
840 WHAS Louisville
870 WWL New Orleans
890 Spanish (I was hoping to catch WLS but no cigar)
900 XEW Mexico City
1020 KMOX St. Louis
1040 WHO Des Moines
1050 XEG Monterrey, Mexico
1080 KRLD Dallas (Side interference from 1070 KNTH)
1200 WOAI San Antonio
1510 WLAC Nashville

The rest of the frequencies were a mess. I was hoping to get 1130 KWKH Shreveport, nothing but stations trampling over one another.

1610 This was the biggest surprise. It was a very good signal with some fade. I listened to this thing for 45 minutes. It was rock from the 1960s through the early 1980s. I only heard one thing that could be associated with any form of a station legal ID, which there were none. It was a jingle that separated two songs and it sang: "By request, Eighty-Nine W-L-S." By this time the now released jail bird made it to my car and the DXing was over. When i got to Houston's west side, I turned it back on and there was nothing.

The car is a 2007 Chevrolet Impala with the standard stock Delco radio.

 

[crainbebo]

530 is likely Radio Enciclopedia in Cuba. They air easy listening, and I heard them once on a Global Tuners node in California late at night.

1610 was likely a part 15 100mw station.

-crainbebo

 

[Tincap]

I'm probably in the majority, saying that it's usually not jail birds, but rather my wife which curbs my in car DXing, lol!

I'd venture that your jazz find on 530, may be Cuba's Radio Enciclopedia (usually no jazz in the mix) or Costa Rica's Radio Sinfonola. I can't find a full program schedule, for Sinfonola, but they'd be the type to play jazz, at that time of the night. Other possible stations on that frequency (Radio Rebelde or Turks & Caicos' based 'Radio Visión Cristiana') don't appear to be running jazz at that time. Sinfonola does stream, so perhaps during that same time slot in the future, you can check them out for any jazz ~> http://www.radiosinfonola.com/sinfo.html

~BG

 

[cd637299]

Radio Vision Cristiana is on flea power, ever since Hurricane Ike in 2008. And as I recall, jazz wouldn't be in the repertoire.

Radio Enciclopedia plays all kinda instrumentals, including smooth jazz. I just heard Kenny G the other night. Likely it was them.

cd

 

[Cincinnati Kid]

Chevrolets seem to have had Delco radios for decades.

Thought you might have picked up Cincinnati's WLW 700-AM or WCKY 1530-AM as you moved along the dial.

Thanks for the listening report.

 

[cd637299]

Oh yeah.....looking again, I see SS on 770 & 890----likely 770 is Cuba's Radio Rebelde, and 890 Radio Progreso.

cd

 

[tomservo]

OK, show of hands: who's more interested in how the OP's friend wound up in jail than the DX report? ;D

 

[ChuckTiller]

Chevrolets seem to have had Delco radios for decades.

Thought you might have picked up Cincinnati's WLW 700-AM or WCKY 1530-AM as you moved along the dial.

Thanks for the listening report.

Locally, KSEV AM 700 prevents WLW from coming in. However, on the east side of Houston you can hear both. On the west side where I live, KSEV dominates because I am closer to the transmitter. I have not been able to hear WCKY in many years. 1520 KOKC is another I have not heard in a long time.

 

[ChuckTiller]

OK, show of hands: who's more interested in how the OP's friend wound up in jail than the DX report? ;D

Oh that's easy. If you fail to pay a ticket, eventually they will find you. When they do, they take you away until the fine is paid or time served. In this case it was the latter.

 

[boiseengineer]

530 is likely Radio Enciclopedia in Cuba. They air easy listening, and I heard them once on a Global Tuners node in California late at night.
...-crainbebo

Cuba on 530 (and 1180) were pounding into Boise last night. Solid.

 

[crainbebo]

I got Cuba on 670 one time, back in February. But not now. I always hear Sea-Tac (KNCL518) on 530, but that may change with the box loop.

-crainbebo

 

[cd637299]

I got Cuba on 670 one time, back in February. But not now. I always hear Sea-Tac (KNCL518) on 530, but that may change with the box loop.

-crainbebo

I woulda predicted AM extinct by 2010, back around 1995. Guess I was wrong.....

However, maybe give it 10 more years.....and **all you will ever hear** on AM will be Cuba!

cd

 

[schmave]

While sitting in my car between 12:30AM-3AM CST, outside at a police station waiting to pick up a friend who had been arrested, I heard the following AM stations (omitting the local Houston stations)

530 Jazz-Unknown
540 Spanish
550 KTSA San Antonio
560 KLVI Beaumomt
650 WSM Nashville
660 KSKY Dallas poor but audible
670 WSCR Chicago
680 KKYX San Antonio
720 WGN Chicago
750 WSB Atlanta (this was exceptionally rare due to 740 KTRH. must be a a null near the Mykawa Road police station on Houston' south side)
770 Spanish
780 WBBM Chicago
820 WBAP Ft Worth (like a local, but that's nothing new at night)
830 WCCO Minneapolis
840 WHAS Louisville
870 WWL New Orleans
890 Spanish (I was hoping to catch WLS but no cigar)
900 XEW Mexico City
1020 KMOX St. Louis
1040 WHO Des Moines
1050 XEG Monterrey, Mexico
1080 KRLD Dallas (Side interference from 1070 KNTH)
1200 WOAI San Antonio
1510 WLAC Nashville

The rest of the frequencies were a mess. I was hoping to get 1130 KWKH Shreveport, nothing but stations trampling over one another.

1610 This was the biggest surprise. It was a very good signal with some fade. I listened to this thing for 45 minutes. It was rock from the 1960s through the early 1980s. I only heard one thing that could be associated with any form of a station legal ID, which there were none. It was a jingle that separated two songs and it sang: "By request, Eighty-Nine W-L-S." By this time the now released jail bird made it to my car and the DXing was over. When i got to Houston's west side, I turned it back on and there was nothing.

The car is a 2007 Chevrolet Impala with the standard stock Delco radio.

This list brings back memories of the nights I was able to DX when I lived in your area, first up near the old Inwood Forest Golf Club, then out on the League City/Friendswood border (my back fence was the line between the two cities).
WLW was an off-and-on catch, mostly because I lived far enough from Tomball. I remember picking up WLW loudly during a Bengals-Steelers Sunday night game when I lived on the northwest side. All I had to do was turn the radio 90 degrees. I heard it a lot during the summers and was able to listen to my fair share of Reds games. Funny thing with WLW was it always came in better earlier in the evening. Late nights, such as during Truckin' Bozo, reception was considerably worse.
The only time I ever heard WCKY was a December night in, I think, 2008. I was sitting outside Cypress Springs High School before covering a basketball game, probably around 5:30 p.m. CT. Definitely after dark and definitely before Sacramento sunset. It was pretty loud (louder, in fact, than I've ever heard it in my hometown of Columbus, Ohio). Granted this wasn't a station I tried for much, but when I came across 1530, it usually wasn't there. I'd have noticed otherwise being from Ohio originally.
I heard WSB a lot of nights, especially in League City. When I lived on the northwest side, Atlanta was basically the same direction as KTRH's tower. In League City, I heard it with a 90-degree turn of the radio despite KTRH throwing a lot of power in my direction at all hours.
Another one that popped in occasionally for me was WREC from Memphis at 600 AM. It was probably a 4-5 at best on a 1-10 scale, but it overcame KILT's slop enough for me to listen to the occasional University of Memphis basketball game.

 

[gar hi]

I got Cuba on 670 one time, back in February. But not now. I always hear Sea-Tac (KNCL518) on 530, but that may change with the box loop.

-crainbebo

I woulda predicted AM extinct by 2010, back around 1995. Guess I was wrong.....

However, maybe give it 10 more years.....and **all you will ever hear** on AM will be Cuba!

cd

I'm a little concerned how so many sports and talk stations are going over to FM all the sudden.

If they don't broadcast music, why do they have to be on FM? ???

 

[cd637299]

^ Even music on radio in general will be a dinosaur, when all music will be downloaded. All the ASCAP/RIAA/whatever fees are making music obsolete on radio, whether AM or FM, as years go by.

Trust me---AM stations in 2012 don't wanna be an AM anymore. That's why all the translators, and even full power FMs. WAXY 104.3 (//AM 790 Miami) is the latest here, and once the 104.3 transmitter moves, 790 will eventually be the answer to a trivia question.

Give it time.....

cd

 

[boombox]

I read in the newspaper the other day that teens and young people stream music instead of downloading -- using Spotify, Youtube, internet radio, etc.

I wonder how that will affect radio? Especially if the cell and data delivery companies start charging people more for data use. Will people rediscover radio because it's free?

Re: Cuba: they're still all over the shortwaves, I'm sure they'll still use Medium wave for a while, especially because of its reach beyond Cuba into other Caribbean and North and Central American countries.

 

[cd637299]

@ boombox: Cuba will have AM (and possibly even SW) for some time, but to me, it's more of a matter of economics than anything else. I think that Cuba is the one place left where FM is still a luxury.

cd

 

[kinphoenix2]

Chevrolets seem to have had Delco radios for decades.

Thought you might have picked up Cincinnati's WLW 700-AM or WCKY 1530-AM as you moved along the dial.

Thanks for the listening report.

Locally, KSEV AM 700 prevents WLW from coming in. However, on the east side of Houston you can hear both. On the west side where I live, KSEV dominates because I am closer to the transmitter. I have not been able to hear WCKY in many years. 1520 KOKC is another I have not heard in a long time.

I am in Phoenix AZ and receive KOKC faintly but listenable. Using random coax as antenna and Ten-Tec 320D receiver. I made a modification to the radio to vastly improve LF reception. MW comes ALIVE now- as good, better than car radio reception, indoors.