• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

WCEV AM 1450 to close down

@ Gregg and others:

I didn't see a mention of the *other* share time frequency in the NYC area.

From separate xmtr sites, WBNX and WAWZ shared the frequencies. Both stations were directional, each with 5000 watts day and night.

WBNX had the superior signal our way, since WAWZ's towers were in New Jersey (as were WBNX's, but WAWZ was nowhere near as potent).
WAWZ, a religious station, often was delinquent in signing on for their turn -- sometimes for a loooong interval. Somehow, despite two NYC-licensed 5000-watt stations, I managed to hear 19 other stations from the same spot (WLCY St Pete, KUDL Kansas City, two Canadian stations, one from each of the Carolinas, others, and -- the cherry on top -- KRKO Everett Washington.
And of course, frequencies like 1370 and 1390 became good fishing holes, esp3cially on Sunday mornings.

So you Chicago-land folks ought to be poised and cadge some neat stuff .... not only on 1450 proper, but from adjacents 1440 and 1460, for a while. Jump on it. With the situation still uncertain, you never know when some interfering so-and-so is gonna start testing.

Bon chance!
 
Last edited:
At one point, I saw WAWZ listed in a Rand McNally Road Atlas and Radio Guide as 2500 watts in the 1960s. They had that in the Atlas, but over the years, they cut out some of the Daytimers and lower power stations from the nearly complete listing of AMs. Then they went to just a few leading stations before cutting the Radio Guide out completely. I think the FM is still on the campus, or was in the process of moving.
 
Equally surprised that frequency time-sharing still exists amongst AMs this day in age. Couldn't imagine it'd be financially viable, tough for many local/regional stations to stay afloat even with exclusive use of a frequency. Although it hasn't really gone away altogether-- DTV stations now routinely share spectrum/TX facilities, aliased to their former analog allocations. Yet operate under separate licenses.
 
The Chess Brothers are long gone, but definitely not forgotten. The strongest living connection to WVON's glory days may be Purvis Spann's daughter, Melody Spann, who's running things at WVON. Which is now on the X-bamd at 1690. I don't think Melody would want to trade the 10kw she has now (at least during daytime) for a homecoming to a graveyard channel with an inferior signal.
 
cyberdad said:
The Chess Brothers are long gone, but definitely not forgotten. The strongest living connection to WVON's glory days may be Purvis Spann's daughter, Melody Spann, who's running things at WVON. Which is now on the X-bamd at 1690. I don't think Melody would want to trade the 10kw she has now (at least during daytime) for a homecoming to a graveyard channel with an inferior signal.
Click to expand...
Their 10KW daytime is good. At night with the 1KW signal you have a better chance of DXing it 500 miles away than hearing it in the northern suburbs.
 
radioman148 said:
Their 10KW daytime is good. At night with the 1KW signal you have a better chance of DXing it 500 miles away than hearing it in the northern suburbs.
Click to expand...
The 1690 signal here is better than 1450, which isn't saying much. In fact, the only difference here at night is that 1690 is audible. As opposed to listenable. 1450 is totally buried in the graveyard mush.
 
At my location at night WVON 1690 is easily nulled opening the reception of other stations. Usually the Greek station from Toronto is the one heard. If I remember right they used to run HD (IBOC), but thankfully they turned it off.
 
The thing about 1690 and the other high band stations is they have better skywave then groundwave. When 1690 first signed on as WRLL in 2003 with the oldies format they would read letters from listeners as far away as Australia. Larry Lujack commented that before sunrise they could be heard better in Australia than most Chicago suburbs.
 
Steve Green NEPA said:
So you Chicago-land folks ought to be poised and cadge some neat stuff .... not only on 1450 proper, but from adjacents 1440 and 1460, for a while. Jump on it. With the situation still uncertain, you never know when some interfering so-and-so is gonna start testing.

Bon chance!
Click to expand...
When the Chicago area 1450 is off, at my location the most likely daytime catches are KFIZ, Fon Du Lac, WI, WKEI, Kewanee, IL, and WHTC, Holland, MI. In no particular order. and sort of dependent on which direction your radio is oriented. Actually, at one time or another I've heard each one underneath semi-local 1450.

As for the first adjacents, WROK on 1440 from Rockford, IL has a better signal than the Chicago area 1450. Not by all that much, however. WROK day power is 5kw with a shallow null in my direction. On 1460 is WJTI, a Milwaukee rimshot. 1kw directional with a pattern that doesn't favor me. The resultant day signal here is weaker than the Chicago area 1450. (Both WROK and WJTI are invisible here when they power down at night.)
 
Midway Broadcasting (WRLL AM 1450) has announced that Monday 10/25 it will expand their Spanish language programming on the 1450 kHz frequency to 24 hours a day. This is a result of them getting the frequency full time after WCEV closed shop. Looks like we have couple more days to DX the frequency here in Chicago area before it is blocked full time.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom