Static on WBBM AM 780

[Markxxx]

Is it my location or what, Newsradio 78 has been horrible the last few days. In the day it's listenable but staticky and at night it's not even listenable. It's just a big static noise. Has anyone else noticed this? It is on all my radios, I am on the near NW side of Chicago.

 

[Tom Wells]

I live on the near NW side of Chicago, and have noticed no problems recently, but I have been in Mpls/St Paul this week.
WBBM is clear as a local and no noise currently here in Shakopee, MN.

 

[mario]

It's your location. The station sounds fine. AM radio is notorious for being subject to local interference.

 

[vibe]

WBBM was a semi local during the day out in IA from Des Moines and east. No static the only interference, per se, was the corn growing. We get a lot more interference on the car radio back on the east coast.

 

[kba]

Sept. 14 was the first day that the FCC allowed AM stations to transmit in digital IBOC 24 hours a day. That's created noticeable noise and static on the AM band, especially if you're trying to tune in a station from the fringes. Don't know if that's what you're hearing, since you said it started a few days before the 14th.

 

[dave73]

Sept. 14 was the first day that the FCC allowed AM stations to transmit in digital IBOC 24 hours a day. That's created noticeable noise and static on the AM band, especially if you're trying to tune in a station from the fringes. Don't know if that's what you're hearing, since you said it started a few days before the 14th.

I was out on September 15th in Chicago, and while driving through downtown, south side, and far north sides, the station kept cutting out a lot. I only had issues when I drove close to Navy Pier, but this happened even on the north & south sides, plus the south suburbs. I'm starting to believe that nighttime IBOC will make AM unlistenable. If there was one thing I noticed that some adjacent channels also had cut outs too. I will try listening to WBBM AM on my way home from work tonight. If I get the same thing on my way home, then we can expect nighttime IBOC to be headaches.

 

[brian77]

There was a lot of static on WBBM last night in Milwaukee. WGN and WSCR were crystal clear, usually WBBM is as well.

 

[mimo]

WBBM usually has a crystal clear signal in Ottawa, Canada, and last night it wasn't even there. WSCR was weak, WGN, WLS and WMVP (almost typed WLUP there..lol.) were almost perfect. 780 was getting HAMMERED by IBOC hash and a country station from Halifax.

 

[PhilJSmith67]

WBBM has had static almost every evening, since the 15th, where I live -- which is about 35 miles south of downtown Chicago. The static is most certainly IBOC/HD Radio interference, which has a distinct grating hash sound on stations that are 10kHz away from the "offender." In this case, I believe the offender is 770 WABC New York. WGN has had occasional noise where I am, too, most likely from 710 WOR.

If you are lucky enough for WBBM (Army Trail just west of I-355) to be in a direction perpendicular to New York, you might be able to null-out the noise from WABC with a ferrite-core/directional antenna, like most tabletop or pocket radios have. Fortunately, being directly south of Chicago, I can almost completely null-out WABC without also nulling out WBBM. But, if New York is directly toward or opposite the direction of WBBM, or you are using an omni-directional antenna like on your car, the only thing you can do is complain to WBBM Chicago management.