The Remaining Class A AMs In The 48 Contiguous United States

[Schroedingers Cat]

640 KFI
650 WSM
660 WFAN
670 WSCR
680 KNBR
700 WLW
710 WOR
710 KIRO
720 WGN
750 WSB
760 WJR
770 WABC
780 WBBM
810 WGY
810 KGO
820 WBAP
830 WCCO
840 WHAS
850 KOA
870 WWL
880 WCBS
890 WLS
1000 WMVP
1000 KOMO
1020 KDKA
1030 WBZ
1040 WHO
1060 KYW
1070 KNX
1080 WTIC
1080 KRLD
1090 WBAL
1090 KAAY
1100 WTAM
1110 WBT
1110 KFAB
1120 KMOX
1130 WBBR
1130 KWKH
1140 WRVA
1160 KSL
1170 WWVA
1170 KFAQ
1180 WHAM
1190 KEX
1200 WOAI
1210 WPHT
1500 WFED
1500 KSTP
1510 WLAC
1520 WWKB
1520 KOKC
1530 WCKY
1530 KFBK
1540 KXEL
1560 WFME
1560 KNZR

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

I didn't know that Alaska was considered to be part of the Continental United States. There's a bunch of Class As in Alaska that were Class I-N.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

No longer Class A.

1190 WOWO
1510 KGA

Off air and future Class A status questionable. Sold transmitter site.

1560 WFME

Several other 50000 watt Daytime Class Bs on I-A and I-B Clear Channels have downgraded.

 

[gr8oldies]

Is "Class A" something the FCC is even still using?

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

Yes, this list was generated from AMQuery on the FCC website by selecting Class A, and by selecting US stations by using K and W wildcards from the Region II (Western Hemisphere) International Database.

 

[DXBob]

I have logged all but (14) of these stations at my location in Overland Park, KS. A number of them are quite rare in my (15) years at this location. The greatest regular "over performer" at my location is WSB in Atlanta. For some reason, they are surprisingly strong and listenable most every night at 676 miles. WJR, WGY, WRVA and KSL are covered up by low power local signals at night but have still been logged on occasion, when conditions are right.

Bob

 

[fybush]

I've been to all of them except KAAY, KWKH and WRVA, and have been inside the transmitters of all of them except those three, KIRO, WWL, KOMO, KRLD, WTAM, WWVA, KFAQ, WOAI, KOKC and KNZR.

Travel goals!

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

*waves hi from the far arctic north.. you forgot about us.. it's ok, we're used to it by now

you forgot a few

650 KENI Anchorage 50kw non directional 24/7
750 KFQD Anchorage 50kw non directional 24/7


660 KFAR Fairbanks is only 10kw non directional 24/7 but it's a Class A

KJNP 1170 North Pole is a Class A with 50kw day/21kw night, non directional 24/7

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

Over the years, I've heard all but KIRO, KOMO, KEX, and KFBK.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

*waves hi from the far arctic north.. you forgot about us.. it's ok, we're used to it by now

you forgot a few

650 KENI Anchorage 50kw non directional 24/7
750 KFQD Anchorage 50kw non directional 24/7


660 KFAR Fairbanks is only 10kw non directional 24/7 but it's a Class A

KJNP 1170 North Pole is a Class A with 50kw day/21kw night, non directional 24/7

That's why I qualified it as "The Contiguous 48 States", after discovering that Alaska was now considered part of the Continental United States, which it always has been, defining Continental strictly. There are plenty of the I-N type allotments in the Western Hemisphere, and many that are considered Class A Internationally but Class B domestically. Daytimers in Canada and the US are often considered Class B internationally. I believe that CKOT 1510 was the last Daytimer in Canada. And there were few anyway in Canada, and most of the others, like CHYR 710/730, found a way around it.

 

[MichaelTheZ]

I was pretty surprised how many of these I've heard either at my current location in Chicago or in my old listening location in the SF Bay Area. The only one I'm sure I haven't heard is KRLD Dallas. KWKH Shreveport is a maybe... a few days ago I heard something on 1130 that kept identifying themselves as "Fox Sports Radio" around sunset before the mix of stations arrived. Other than that I have heard them all at least once, though I heard KNZR as KPMC back in the day.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

Chicago is about 700 miles from the East Coast, so it is somewhat Central. I assume that you haven't heard KRLD is because of WNWI 1080 Oak Lawn, IL, formerly Valparaiso, IN. I have heard KRLD in Michigan, usually in the time between Sunset in Hartford and Sunset in Dallas. Until fairly recently, WTIC operated with Day facilities until Sunset at KRLD, but the FCC decided they had to change at Sunset in Hartford. But during this in between time, KRLD is/was nondirectional. In my area at the time, WOAP 1080 Owosso, MI signed off usually 15 miuntes earlier than WNWI before they went full-time, so there was sometimes a 15 to 30 minute interval to hear KRLD under certain conditions.

 

[radioman148]

Before the 1080 in Oak Lawn came on I used to hear WTIC if I turned the radio one way and KRLD if I aimed it the other way.

 

[tvnut]

Radioman had a better antenna than me. With a portable, it was pretty hard to null WTIC or KRLD to get the other in the Chicago area, given we're just off the straight-line between them. But KRLD was there a lot of late Sunday afternoons in the fall for Dallas Cowboys fans to listen. And there was many a night where WTIC was in well enough to listen to Whalers hockey. And before KRLD arrived in the afternoon, WTIC packed a punch on sunset-skip, maybe 40-45 minutes where it was an easy pickup.

Then WNWI moved from Valparaiso to the Riverdale transmitter site, and that was that.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

WNWI had a pretty good 250 watt signal from Valparaiso across Lake Michigan. I remember hearing WNWI playng the long version of "Disco Inferno" by The Trammps sitting in a car near ORD back in 1978. Also heard MSU Baseball PBP on WKAR 870 East Lansing, MI at that receiving location.

 

[MichaelTheZ]

This all makes me think maybe I can log KRLD the way I logged WOAI and WBAP here despite there being local stations on their frequencies. On both frequencies I could tell there was another station in the background, so I kept checking on the hour, hoping to hear a station ID. WBAP was the easier of the two, but WOAI took forever. I knew it had to be WOAI (lots of discussion of the San Antonio Spurs for example) but the announcer for WRTO was always talking whenever there was an ID. I did finally get the ID though. And of course a few days later I was going down the dial and on 1200 WRTO was silent (they were broadcasting but there was no audio) so I got to hear a full news and weather report with numerous station IDs.

 

[boiseengineer]

KICY 850 Nome AK. is also a Class A. 50,000 watts Non-directional day/night except what's licensed as "Critical Hours" is a 3-tower array that points right at Siberia.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

KICY 850 Nome AK. is also a Class A. 50,000 watts Non-directional day/night except what's licensed as "Critical Hours" is a 3-tower array that points right at Siberia. View attachment 1713

I couldn't figure out how to isolate the former II-As except perhaps one by one. And then they duplicated most of them anyway, which took away most of their de facto Secondary Skywave service. KBOI is of course one of those. But in my limited visit to California, most of the II-As would roll in before Sunset before they were duplicated.

It would be easy enough to come up with the Class As in the Alaska by using the AK abbreviation in the AMQuery search.

We now have many Class Bs that were formerly Class III-As and III-Bs which have usable secondary service areas. Only KMJ, KJR, WWJ, and WXYT managed to get 50000 watts full-time under the new rules though.

 

[asugeorge1]

KICY 850 Nome AK. is also a Class A. 50,000 watts Non-directional day/night except what's licensed as "Critical Hours" is a 3-tower array that points right at Siberia. View attachment 1713

That is a massive signal being beamed into a whole lot of nothing in Siberia. I wonder if anyone in Russia has had any level of success DXing American or Canadian stations? It seems like it would be possible!

 

[radioman148]

That is a massive signal being beamed into a whole lot of nothing in Siberia. I wonder if anyone in Russia has had any level of success DXing American or Canadian stations? It seems like it would be possible!

It probably would be possible in the winter. Lots of US stations beam their signal over the north pole.