WCKY signal

[BLewis]

Hi all! I made my first visit to Cincy last week. I really enjoyed the area! I did spend a fair amount of time listening to AAR on WCKY. Yes...I am a little twisted, but I sort of enjoyed AAR (especially Morning Sedition and Randi Rhodes). All that being said...for a 50KW AM that I can hear in North Carolina at nihgt, their daytime signal in Cincy (actually Springdale) was quite poor. A Christian station (I think on 1560) was putting some noise on the frequency (now this was the el cheapo radio in the room). I really had to move the radio all around the room to find a somewhat decent signal. Is this normal or are they on low power or was their something going on with the weather causing interference?

 

[MikeFromIndiana]

> Hi all! I made my first visit to Cincy last week. I really
> enjoyed the area! I did spend a fair amount of time
> listening to AAR on WCKY. Yes...I am a little twisted, but
> I sort of enjoyed AAR (especially Morning Sedition and Randi
> Rhodes). All that being said...for a 50KW AM that I can
> hear in North Carolina at nihgt, their daytime signal in
> Cincy (actually Springdale) was quite poor. A Christian
> station (I think on 1560) was putting some noise on the
> frequency (now this was the el cheapo radio in the room). I
> really had to move the radio all around the room to find a
> somewhat decent signal. Is this normal or are they on low
> power or was their something going on with the weather
> causing interference?
>
During the summer the WCKY transmitter site had a small fire which has resulted them in being on lower power for a while now.

 

[keys2]

> During the summer the WCKY transmitter site had a small fire
> which has resulted them in being on lower power for a while
> now.


I'm not sure if WCKY is still operating at 20,000 watts versus their usual 50,000, but if you are in Springdale, you're only two or three miles from the 1560 towers just north in Fairfield. Their directional 5,000 watts do tend to complicate reception of 1530 in certain areas.

 

[BLewis]

I thought I must be pretty close to the 1560 transmitter. I can hear 'CKY very well in North Carolina after sunset (most nights). However, sometimes I get heavy cross-talk from KB in Buffalo.

I really though Clear Channel was using their AAR affiliates as 'throw away' AM's. Oddly enough, I was impressed with their smooth transitions into and out of local breaks, local news, weather, and traffic inserts in the morning. I am sure they are probably using voices from WLW, but the CKY operation SEEMS quite smooth.

I was also quite impressed with the Country FM on 105.1 (B 105). Eventhough, I am not a big Country listener, I thought the station was pretty good. It would seem to me (I actually do not know much about the Cincy market, demos, etc), that a standards AM would do OK there. I would have thought CC would have moved the standards OR the 'real oldies' format to one of their other frequencies. I think for AM to have a chance, it's got to be unique.

> > During the summer the WCKY transmitter site had a small
> fire
> > which has resulted them in being on lower power for a
> while
> > now.
>
>
> I'm not sure if WCKY is still operating at 20,000 watts
> versus their usual 50,000, but if you are in Springdale,
> you're only two or three miles from the 1560 towers just
> north in Fairfield. Their directional 5,000 watts do tend to
> complicate reception of 1530 in certain areas.
>

 

[RadioBill]

> I thought I must be pretty close to the 1560 transmitter. I
> can hear 'CKY very well in North Carolina after sunset (most
> nights). However, sometimes I get heavy cross-talk from KB
> in Buffalo.

Also, WCKY's transmitter is on the south side of Cincinnati in Kentucky,
and Springdale is on the north side of the metro area.

 

[RadioBill]

> I can hear 'CKY very well in North Carolina after sunset (most nights)

WCKY use to have such a powerful signal to the south at night that during the Cuban Missile Crisis (early 1960's) WCKY was "commandeered" by JFK to transmit Spanish programming into Cuba. Eventually the Voice of America put up some transmitters in the Keys which got WCKY off the hook. Here's an interesting article on that era:
http://www.cincypost.com/2002/11/14/wecker111402.html

 

[rzeis]

> > I can hear 'CKY very well in North Carolina after sunset
> (most nights)
>
> WCKY use to have such a powerful signal to the south at
> night that during the Cuban Missile Crisis (early 1960's)
> WCKY was "commandeered" by JFK to transmit Spanish
> programming into Cuba. Eventually the Voice of America put
> up some transmitters in the Keys which got WCKY off the
> hook. Here's an interesting article on that era:
> http://www.cincypost.com/2002/11/14/wecker111402.html
>
Anyone have an idea of who the other nine stations could have been?

 

[RadioBill]

> > > I can hear 'CKY very well in North Carolina after sunset
>
> > (most nights)
> >
> > WCKY use to have such a powerful signal to the south at
> > night that during the Cuban Missile Crisis (early 1960's)
> > WCKY was "commandeered" by JFK to transmit Spanish
> > programming into Cuba. Eventually the Voice of America put
>
> > up some transmitters in the Keys which got WCKY off the
> > hook. Here's an interesting article on that era:
> > http://www.cincypost.com/2002/11/14/wecker111402.html
> >
> Anyone have an idea of who the other nine stations could
> have been?

The only other one that I recall hearing was 870 WWL New Orleans.

 

[ajhenderson]

Who was "the guy" that refused payment?

 

[k9ez]

> Hi all! I made my first visit to Cincy last week. I really
> enjoyed the area! I did spend a fair amount of time
> listening to AAR on WCKY. Yes...I am a little twisted, but
> I sort of enjoyed AAR (especially Morning Sedition and Randi
> Rhodes). All that being said...for a 50KW AM that I can
> hear in North Carolina at nihgt, their daytime signal in
> Cincy (actually Springdale) was quite poor. A Christian
> station (I think on 1560) was putting some noise on the
> frequency (now this was the el cheapo radio in the room). I
> really had to move the radio all around the room to find a
> somewhat decent signal. Is this normal or are they on low
> power or was their something going on with the weather
> causing interference?
>


WCKY is on a higher frequency, therefore the ground coverage is not as good as say a WLW which is lower in frequency. On the other hand, the higher you go, the better the nighttime coverage is, which is called Skywave. So WCKY will have better skywave than WLW (theoretically)