STATIONS THAT SERVE OTHER MARKETS WITHOUT ATTEMPTING TO

[K-Billy]

In Salina, KS you can get 97.5 KJCK and 102.5 KBLS from the Manhattan/Junction City, KS market plus KNCK 94.9 from the town of Concordia, KS

 

[boombox]

KGO San Francisco used to make the bottom of the night time ratings in the Puget Sound area, according to what I used to read in the DX press back in the early 1980's.

My grandparents (who lived in Washington state) used to listen to them all the time, and I knew of other people who knew about the station, as it had a powerful signal up the coast.

Whether the station cared about 'serving' outside their target area, I don't know. I know when I used to listen to them in the 80's and 90's their shows would sometimes get calls from Oregon and Washington.

 

[FredLeonard]

When they operated at 500kw, WLW served much of the middle-west. At 50kw, they were a local presence and considered the NBC affiliate for Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus, and Indianapolis. When TV came in, Crosley applied for and received TV licenses for each of those markets to duplicate its radio coverage (WLWT, WLWD, WLWC, WLWI).

WJR was consistently rated in the top 3 in Flint, Lansing, Toledo and other outlying markets into the 70s, as their detailed weather reports for three states and Ontario indicated.

WOR drew strong numbers in the Philly market in the 50s, 60s and 70s, and many car radios included a pre-set for WOR.

Clear channel (small c) stations were intended to provide service over an entire region, including multiple cities and the rural areas in between.

 

[Buckeyes2001]

WKNR 850/Cleveland serves Columbus, Detroit, and Toledo during the day. WTAM 1100 does pretty much the same day (except when too close to WCAR 1090 near Detroit) and of course serves much more at night.
Any of the 50 kW clears serve many other markets at night.

As for FM: CIDR 93.9/Windsor serves the Sandusky, OH and lakeshore north-central Ohio areas like a local.
WQIO 93.7 serves parts of Columbus even though they are really a Mansfield/Mt. Vernon area station.

 

[Cincinnati Kid]

Even through the 1950's, WLW continued to be the station of choice for people in much of central and southern Indiana. Probably thanks to the Reds & unique shows like the 50/50 Club. Probable also true for Northern/Eastern Kentucky and West Virginia.

I'm sure it was, however,to be accurate, WLW did not start carrying Reds' games until 1969 and Ruth Lyons 50-50 Club didn't get onto WLW until 1959 or so.

 

[Buckeyes2001]

Also, for FM, CIMX 88.7 ('89X') from Windsor, ON also serves the Sandusky region that CIDR 93.9 serves.

 

[rfry]

When they operated at 500kw, WLW served much of the middle-west.

Here from the appropriate FCC chart are the distances to several daytime groundwave field contours for 700 kHz, 8 mS/m earth conductivity, and a ~190 degree monopole driven against 120 x 1/4-wave buried radials.

Field Intensity, Distance to Contour (miles) Increased Radius
mV/m 50 kW 500 kW (X)
25 31 56 1.8
5 69 111 1.6
0.5 170 242 1.4

The lower the received field, the less the relative effect of radiating more power.

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

The Italian-American communities of Long Island plus Brooklyn-Queens books (respectively 'Nassau-Suffolk' and two counties in the 'New York' book) were served well on weekends by WLIX 540 in the Sixties.

Beautiful Music WLIX had a wee *250* watts at the time. But they got OUT. I once heard them on the Delaware Memorial Bridge midday.
And acceptable signal-wise, on normal radios, WLIX got out well enough even as far west as Brooklyn (Bensonhurst/Sheepshead Bay), loud enough for the 'Italian Hours with Joe Rotolo' to be heard quite well in homes and shops.
In fact, a singer from Brooklyn (Lou Dean), a friend of the family, asked if I could get a new song of his played on WLIX, through Joe Rotolo. I could, Rotolo could, and Lou Dean did, for a few weeks. Such was the pull of WLIX and those specialty shows they did on weekends.
Forty-plus exits west .... far from their tower in the Pine Barrens.

During those weekend specialty-show hours, WLIX -- 40 miles east of those Brooklyn hot spots -- probably got more bang per watt than anything on the air at the time.

 

[schmave]

WKNR 850/Cleveland serves Columbus, Detroit, and Toledo during the day. WTAM 1100 does pretty much the same day (except when too close to WCAR 1090 near Detroit) and of course serves much more at night.
Any of the 50 kW clears serve many other markets at night.

As for FM: CIDR 93.9/Windsor serves the Sandusky, OH and lakeshore north-central Ohio areas like a local.
WQIO 93.7 serves parts of Columbus even though they are really a Mansfield/Mt. Vernon area station.

You can get WKNR and WTAM here daytime, and WTAM at night of course, but it's probably a stretch to say either station serves Columbus. WKNR does have some listeners down here, but WTAM is a tough pickup even on the best car radio. It's certainly no WLW around here.
WQIO has a lot of listeners here, too, and they're a good alternative to some of our local FMs. I have noticed a weaker signal from 93.7 the past month or two, however.

 

[charlestondxman]

104.3 and 105.7 out of Augusta, GA have always been signals in the Columbia market. WBBQ often got a 1 or higher as top 40, and has listeners even now as an AC.

105.7 serves the Columbia area well, and is very listenable in Orangeburg, SC too. Any DX brings them into the Charleston area.

Back when 99.7 from Beaufort County was a smooth jazz station targeting Charleston about 10 years ago or so, they had a lot of Savannah listeners. They also carried a talk show out of Columbia, Andy Thomas. His show had listeners as far S as Fernandina Beach, FL because of 99.7's signal.

 

[Icangelp]

Even through the 1950's, WLW continued to be the station of choice for people in much of central and southern Indiana. Probably thanks to the Reds & unique shows like the 50/50 Club. Probable also true for Northern/Eastern Kentucky and West Virginia.

I'm sure it was, however,to be accurate, WLW did not start carrying Reds' games until 1969 and Ruth Lyons 50-50 Club didn't get onto WLW until 1959 or so.

You learn something every day.

What station broadcast the Redlegs back in the 1950's? I lived in Evansville Indiana from 1950 to 1954, and I swear my dad listened to them on a Cincinnati station, and I assumed the station was WLW.

Also in Evansville, a couple of friends and I would listen to Big John & Sparky on Saturdays. I have listened to a couple of the shows recently, and the program was actually pretty bad. I was a single digit kid, what did I know?

 

[cyberdad]

The Chicago 50kw stations all put a city grade (or close) into Milwaukee and frequently show up in Milwaukee ratings. WIND at 5kw on 560 has shown up as well...but not recently. Conversely, WTMJ from Milwaukee has been known to crack the bottom of Chicago book. This would seem to be most likely during Packers or University of Wisconsin football seasons.

Chicago stations also show up...or have shown up...in ratings in places like Peoria and the Quad Cities (Davenport, Rock Island, Moline, East Moline).

I'm just back from a couple of days in Toronto. Hamilton stations....CKOC, CHAM, and CHML...have city grade signals in much of the Toronto metro, so I presume they show up there in the BBM books as well. And, indeed WGR and WBEN have good signals into Toronto....while CFZM's monster signal sounds like a local in Buffalo. (In fact, I drove by their stick just this morning!)

 

[ftballfan]

106.9 WXXC (Marion, IN) also reaches Muncie, Kokomo, Fort Wayne, and even the northern suburbs of Indianapolis.

98.5 WUPS (Harrison, MI) targets Mount Pleasant, but also reaches the Tri-Cities, Cadillac, Big Rapids, and Traverse City.

107.3 WBBL (Greenville, MI) targets Grand Rapids, but also puts a decent signal into Lansing.

96.1 WHNN and 102.5 WIOG (Bay City, MI) both put good signals into Flint and Mount Pleasant, with a slightly weaker signal in Lansing and the northern Detroit suburbs.

99.7 WUGN (Midland, MI) puts a good signal into Lansing, Flint, Big Rapids, and Cadillac, and a somewhat weaker one into Grand Rapids.

Speaking of 50kW AM stations, WTMJ is the strongest AM 24/7 in the Ludington and Manistee area.

 

[dave73]

I'm not sure if WTTS Bloomington, IN is trying to market to the Indianapolis market, but they have a grandfathered Class B signal that has Grade A coverage over Indianapolis. Their signal (37kw @ 332m., or 1089 ft.) covers both the Bloomington & Indianapolis markets.

 

[boiseengineer]

KGO has show up in the Boise ratings.
But when KGO was doing talk they really were trying to serve the west coast so they don't qualify here.

 

[radioman148]

The Chicago 50kw stations all put a city grade (or close) into Milwaukee and frequently show up in Milwaukee ratings. WIND at 5kw on 560 has shown up as well...but not recently. Conversely, WTMJ from Milwaukee has been known to crack the bottom of Chicago book. This would seem to be most likely during Packers or University of Wisconsin football seasons.

Chicago stations also show up...or have shown up...in ratings in places like Peoria and the Quad Cities (Davenport, Rock Island, Moline, East Moline).

I'm just back from a couple of days in Toronto. Hamilton stations....CKOC, CHAM, and CHML...have city grade signals in much of the Toronto metro, so I presume they show up there in the BBM books as well. And, indeed WGR and WBEN have good signals into Toronto....while CFZM's monster signal sounds like a local in Buffalo. (In fact, I drove by their stick just this morning!)

Cyberdad--how is WWKB's signal in Toronto?

 

[CalebC]

KGGF-AM. They claim they serve Coffeyville/Independence, KS but I know they're heard in Joplin, MO; Wichita, KS as well as Tulsa, OK. So as to who is their primary audience, I'm not exactly sure.

 

[LKidd]

KGGF has been known to show up in the Tulsa ratings on occasion (not that we'd ever know that now with Arbitron's subscriber-only policy).

 

[Geographer]

Cyberdad--how is WWKB's signal in Toronto?

I an not Cyberdad, but I can answer the question. WWKB puts a listenable signal in Toronto while listening on a car radio, but is degraded when going under power lines and other sources of noise. Their signal falls far short of other Buffalo stations such as WGR and WBEN. WKBW is highly direction and is cheated on their daytime signal. Buffalo sits between 2 contrasting areas of ground conductivity which is fairly good to the west, but poor to the east. WWKB's signal is shunted to the west, meaning they cannot take advantage of the good conductivity. Most of their signal is directed toward the east, in the area of poor conductivity.
OTOH, their nighttime signal is legendary, and is probably one of the most reliable US signals in Europe. Although most of their signal is shunted to the west, they put a listenable signal into Chicago at night, and I heard them in Nevada in the early 80's.

 

[Cincinnati Kid]

Even through the 1950's, WLW continued to be the station of choice for people in much of central and southern Indiana. Probably thanks to the Reds & unique shows like the 50/50 Club. Probable also true for Northern/Eastern Kentucky and West Virginia.

I'm sure it was, however,to be accurate, WLW did not start carrying Reds' games until 1969 and Ruth Lyons 50-50 Club didn't get onto WLW until 1959 or so.

You learn something every day.

What station broadcast the Redlegs back in the 1950's? I lived in Evansville Indiana from 1950 to 1954, and I swear my dad listened to them on a Cincinnati station, and I assumed the station was WLW.

Also in Evansville, a couple of friends and I would listen to Big Jon & Sparky on Saturdays. I have listened to a couple of the shows recently, and the program was actually pretty bad. I was a single digit kid, what did I know?

For a time in the 1950's , the Reds were carried in Cincinnati by WCPO 1230-AM Radio which had a very poor signal even during the day which became even worse at night. In 1955 and 1956, WSAI 1360-AM was the Cincinnati station that had them. Starting in 1957 (and lasting through the 1963 season), the games were on WKRC 550-AM here. My immediate guess is, your dad may have been listening to one of the stations on the Reds radio network which for a period of time was called the Burger Beer Baseball Network after the longtime beer sponsor for the games.

Actually, many people - including Bob Costas who is pretty good in researching matters he is too young to have watched or listened to - has mentioned the Reds were on WLW when Waite Hoyt was doing the games. That was never the case.

Interestingly, "Big Jon & Sparky" was on WSAI Radio here in the 1950's and even originated its show on the ABC Radio Network from WSAI. I remember listening to it on Saturday mornings and it was titled "No School Today" with the theme song, "The Teddy Bear's Picnic". For a short time in the 1950's, Jon Arthur had a TV show in Cincinnati on Saturdays. He even returned as a DJ on WKRC Radio in 1961. He later produced syndicated radio shows with a religous theme. Arthur died in 1982.