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Simulcasting AM & FM

M

MarioMania

Remember the day's we could hear Top 40 on AM via there FM station??

At Night in the 80's I used to listen to Q106 San Diego on AM 600 & KIIS-FM on AM 1150

I miss those day's
 
WCPO Radio at 1230 on the AM dial in Cincinnati certainly was able to use their FM station at 105.1 m.c. to really assist their coverage in the late 1950's into the 1960's. The AM station programmed rock & roll, but was 250 watts at night (1,000 during the day beginning in 1962) and was difficult to receive in various places outside of the city limits - much less in the far suburbs. However, in simulcasting the output on FM, the station could be heard for close to 100 miles. The only time the AM & FM stations had different shows was for some sports play-by-play programming in the 1960-1963 period.
 
MarioMania said:
Remember the day's we could hear Top 40 on AM via there FM station??
Click to expand...

In the Milwaukee area where I grew up we had two Top-40 AM/FM simulcasts at times -- WRKR 100.7 & 1460, and WZUU 95.7 & 1290. In both cases the AMs were daytimers. (and back then, daytimers *did* sign off at night. Today, both AMs have night power - but neither simulcasts FM)

I don't recall any top-40 AM/FM simulcasts from out of town. There were top-40 AMs but they were standalone. IIRC WLS was the last survivor in that region.

Upper Midwest cities didn't have many "spare" AM facilities with useful nighttime coverage. By the time AM/FM simulcasting became legal in cities again, any AM with a useful signal was too valuable to be a simulcaster.

I do fondly remember Chicago's 1160 briefly simulcasting WXRT-FM 93.1 a couple of years back. KCJJ-1630 out of Iowa still brings back a bit of that nostalgia as well.
 
WPLO/590 in Atlanta simulcasted it's Top 40 programming on 103.3FM for short time in the '60s. Its crystal-clear signal lost a lot of its "punch" when compared to its heavily-processed AM signal. ;)
 
WJML AM & FM in Petoskey, Michigan. From what I had read, however, that the announcer would say something like WJML FM/AM Petoskey. Someone here would recall this Top 40 station from the late 1970's and early 1980's.
 
There is a bit of humor associated with the programming of WKRC AM & FM in Cincinnati in the mid-1960's. However, there is the need to provide some background about it.

At that time, WKRC-AM had personality DJ's with middlie-of-the-road music while WKRC-FM featured semi-classical & classical music. The AM had news on the hour from its newsroom. The FM would simulcast that same news, but only on selected hours. One of those was at 2 P.M. Personality Jerry Thomas who had the 10 A.M. to 2 P.M. shift on AM would do the voices of various characters (Granny, Usual Lee Wong, etc.) as a part of his show. Thomas began his radio career at a station in rural Kentucky and heard his share of country preachers and the like from that time. There were times that Thomas portrayed those type of individuals into his bits - including commercials.

At 2 P.M. during the week, the AM & FM stations would join and the person on the air would do a combined station I.D. that went over each station - "This is WKRC AM & FM - Cincinnati". Every once in a while, after the FM joined the AM for the news, Thomas would do the combined I.D. in the ranting rural voice. Listeners on AM who had just listened to four hours of Thomas' jokes and antics considered it just a part of his usual act. However, those on FM who had been listening to long hours of instrumental classical music must have been somewhat shocked by this loud twanging voice coming over their radios. There were some small business who played this station in their stores and shops as background music. One also wonders what they and/or ther customers must have thought.
 
WYSL AM and FM in Buffalo simulcasted their Top 40 format for awhile in the '70's and probably before that in the '60's before the FM became WPHD.
 
w9wi said:
MarioMania said:
Remember the day's we could hear Top 40 on AM via there FM station??
Click to expand...

In the Milwaukee area where I grew up we had two Top-40 AM/FM simulcasts at times -- WRKR 100.7 & 1460, and WZUU 95.7 & 1290. In both cases the AMs were daytimers. (and back then, daytimers *did* sign off at night. Today, both AMs have night power - but neither simulcasts FM)

I don't recall any top-40 AM/FM simulcasts from out of town. There were top-40 AMs but they were standalone. IIRC WLS was the last survivor in that region.

Upper Midwest cities didn't have many "spare" AM facilities with useful nighttime coverage. By the time AM/FM simulcasting became legal in cities again, any AM with a useful signal was too valuable to be a simulcaster.

I do fondly remember Chicago's 1160 briefly simulcasting WXRT-FM 93.1 a couple of years back. KCJJ-1630 out of Iowa still brings back a bit of that nostalgia as well.
Click to expand...
Way back yonder in the 1960's WRIT simulcast Top 40...
 
WCOL in Columbus, OH. back in the 60's.
AM 1230 was the big rocker at the time despite its 1000 watts day/250 watts night. They had a half wave stick at the south end of town that covered well out into the state. But at night, just the metro area. Their FM had a big signal but a placeholder format in the late 60's as did many stations. When I worked there it was Gospel! But then at 12 midnight they would simulcast the AM signal till 6am.
 
What about WPGC Morningside (Washington market)? The AM was daytime only, so the FM simulcast picked up the slack all night long. I recall them doing this during the late 60s and early 70s.
 
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