Here are some of my choices on wasted signals:
90.5 WRTW Crown Point, IN, which signed on in the last year by the First Baptist Church of Hammond, IN, though the license has it owned by their college, Hyles Anderson College, but First Baptist Church of Hammond, IN operates the station. It's a 3.1kw Class B1 that transmits their signal from Lake Dalecarlia (south of Cedar Lake from WYIN TV's tower). Not only does it have a boring religious format, but the signal also interferes with 90.1 WMBI-FM in some areas, along with a Class B that's on 90.5 from the DeKalb area. Supposedly, WRTW's signal is going farther than it's supposed to go.
91.9 WJCH Joliet, IL is on the bird 24/7 with Family Radio. It's a 50kw signal that barely reaches Gary, IN
92.7 WCPT-FM Arlington Heights, IL, which also simulcasts on 92.5 WCPY DeKalb, IL, & 99.9 WCPQ Park Forest, IL. All three of these stations that are owned by Newsweb Corporation simulcast the AM station from 5am - 9pm daily, which is Progressive Talk (or Liberal Talk). WCPT-FM is a 3kw Class A that covers the northern suburbs of Chicagoland, WCPY is a 20kw Class B that mainly covers DeKalb & Rockford markets, but does reach the far western suburbs of Chicagoland, & WCPQ is a 50kw that serves south Chicagoland, along with the Kankakee area (original COL for this station was Kankakee, IL). From 9pm - 5am daily, they air Dance Factory Radio, which is a brokered program.
95.5 WNUA Chicago, which is doing a Regional Mexican format. There's already 3 stations doing the same format, & 105.1 has been able to overall beat 107.9 at the format, & except for a couple of months, they've outperformed 95.5 as well. Since CC dropped Smooth Jazz from the station, they've been trying to beat Univision in the ratings with a format targeted at the Hispanic community, & failed at it. They did a Spanish CHR, & now Regional Mexican, & losing steam, while dragging 107.9's rating even further down. This is a 50kw equivalent station, as all stations that broadcast from the John Hancock & Sears Tower operate on anywhere from 4 - 8kw, depending on antenna height.
102.3 WYCA Crete, IL is also a wasted signal. They have a gospel format on the station, but their targeted demos barely live in the primary contours, & barely heard on the south side of Chicago, due to the station's antenna being on a 500' tower in Beecher, IL (a farm community). At only 1.05kw, their signal overall doesn't serve the people in the contour.
On the AM side, 950 WNTD Chicago & 1270 WWCA Gary, IN both carry the Relevant Radio network 24/7, with almost nothing local.
1300 WRDZ LaGrange, IL has the Radio Disney format, so no need for explanation.
1370 WLTH Gary, IN to me is a wasted signal, just because they're using equipment that causes lots of humming, that you really can't hear what people are saying on the radio. While this station has new owners, they're barely able to get problems fixed around there. They're at new studios somewhere in Merrillville, IN, but they're still using the same day & night time sites that have been neglected for years. Since they're operating on 1 tower at 1kw during the day, I can't see why they just don't operate at the night time site on 1 of the 4 towers in Hobart, IN. Their daytime site in Gary can easily be broken into, & people could get away with it, since the shack is at street level, while the shack at the night time site is farther away from the road. They're supposed to only operate at 500 watts at night on 4 towers, but sometimes stay on daytime power at night as well.
