WCKY

[radiotower40]

I had a question about WCKY I am in Chicago and I was wondering about what time they switch to their nighttime signal I was
told it was 2 hours after sunset just wondering if anyone knows, they really come in strong here starting about an hour or so
before Chicago sunset and completely bleed out our suburban station here on 1530 by the time they shut off at sunset,and WCKY
has a strong signal here all night so I really cannot tell what time they change.

 

[skippertthomas]

Go to www.fcc.gov/mb/audio and search AM Query and see what their local sunset time and restrictions are on their allocation... 8)

 

[Arbitorn]

WCKY's pattern change happens at Sunset/Sunrise Sacramento time.

 

[nmoore6676]

I had a question about WCKY I am in Chicago and I was wondering about what time they switch to their nighttime signal I was
told it was 2 hours after sunset just wondering if anyone knows, they really come in strong here starting about an hour or so
before Chicago sunset and completely bleed out our suburban station here on 1530 by the time they shut off at sunset,and WCKY
has a strong signal here all night so I really cannot tell what time they change.

Your local station is a class D daytime only and the principal stations (Class A) on 1530 are WCKY and KFBK, Sacramento, CA. The class D station is obligated to accept the interference from the dominant class A's. As stated by Arbitron:

WCKY's pattern change happens at Sunset/Sunrise Sacramento time.

 

[DanStrassberg]

WCKY's pattern change happens at Sunset/Sunrise Sacramento time.

You are correct about the evening pattern change, but I'm pretty sure that the AM change is (or is supposed to be) at Cincinnati sunrise. Other Class A AMs with similar eccentric pattern-change times are WTIC (Hartford AM, Dallas PM), WQEW (New York AM, Bakersfield PM), and KFAB (Charlotte AM, Omaha PM). On 1560 at least--and maybe some of the others--this leads to multiple operating modes for some of the Class Bs located between the co-channel US Class As. For example, I believe the Louisville station on 1560 is DA-4 (D, CH, N--after Bakersfield sunset, and an unnamed mode used between Louisville sunset and Bakersfield sunset).

 

[Cincinnati Kid]

This goes back, but I can remember in approximately the first quarter of Cincinnati Royals basketball broadcasts on WCKY in 1965-66-67-68, play-by-play announcer Ed Kennedy would pause and announce over the aiir: "This is WCKY, Cincinnati...We now pause five seconds for antenna switch". Based on the time this would take place in the games, which usually tipped-off at 8:05 P.M. local time, this would have been somewhere near 8:30 P.M. Of course, based on the continuing change of sunset, the time could have fluctuated.

 

[nmoore6676]

This goes back, but I can remember in approximately the first quarter of Cincinnati Royals basketball broadcasts on WCKY in 1965-66-67-68, play-by-play announcer Ed Kennedy would pause and announce over the aiir: "This is WCKY, Cincinnati...We now pause five seconds for antenna switch". Based on the time this would take place in the games, which usually tipped-off at 8:05 P.M. local time, this would have been somewhere near 8:30 P.M. Of course, based on the continuing change of sunset, the time could have fluctuated.

That would be, depending on the month, sunset in Sacramento which according to other sources is the time that WCKY changes to directional. KFBK also changes directional pattern at the same time. I just checked and KFBK did not go to 50KW until 1948 so WCKY got the right to stay non-directional until California sunset. There are some other of these weird timings, WOSU-AM, Columbus used to sign off at Texas sunset when they were daytime only, protecting the class A (WBAP, Fort Worth). I assume their site swich to directional at lower power still occurs at that same time.

 

[BobOnTheJob]

WCKY's pattern change happens at Sunset/Sunrise Sacramento time.

You are correct about the evening pattern change, but I'm pretty sure that the AM change is (or is supposed to be) at Cincinnati sunrise. Other Class A AMs with similar eccentric pattern-change times are WTIC (Hartford AM, Dallas PM), WQEW (New York AM, Bakersfield PM), and KFAB (Charlotte AM, Omaha PM). On 1560 at least--and maybe some of the others--this leads to multiple operating modes for some of the Class Bs located between the co-channel US Class As. For example, I believe the Louisville station on 1560 is DA-4 (D, CH, N--after Bakersfield sunset, and an unnamed mode used between Louisville sunset and Bakersfield sunset).

I can assure you that there is no station in Louisville on 1560. Nearest is WSEZ Paoli,IN at 50 miles or so with 250 watts ND from sunrise in NYC to local sunset.

 

[skippertthomas]

...He might be refering to 1570 on the Indiana side of Kentuckiana in New Albany/Jeffersonville....

 

[hipporadio]

Might DanS be recalling 1560 WPAD—Paducah, Kentucky? They have nighttime authority and some creative “in-betweens”. They are 1kw after local sunset to sunset in Bakersfield, CA – THEN, back up to 5kw AFTER sunset in Bakersfield. BTW, I can CLEARLY hear their harmonic at 3.120MHz on my I-Com R-71 receiver most evenings—and the Paducah 1560 signal is nowhere to be found!

 

[FRR]

What would California time have to do with a Cincinnati radio station?

 

[DanStrassberg]

Might DanS be recalling 1560 WPAD—Paducah, Kentucky? They have nighttime authority and some creative “in-betweens”. They are 1kw after local sunset to sunset in Bakersfield, CA – THEN, back up to 5kw AFTER sunset in Bakersfield. BTW, I can CLEARLY hear their harmonic at 3.120MHz on my I-Com R-71 receiver most evenings—and the Paducah 1560 signal is nowhere to be found!

RIGHT YOU ARE! My bad. I did mean Paducah. Sorry.

 

[DanStrassberg]

What would California time have to do with a Cincinnati radio station?

There are two US Class A AMs on 1530, of which WCKY is one--the older one. The other is KFBK, Sacramento CA. Before the reclassification of most North American AMs that followed the implementation of the Rio (deJaneiro) Treaty (in the mid '80s, I believe), both of these stations were Class IBs, Class I stations (and now Class As) are the only stations in the Western Hemisphere whose nighttime skywave service is protected from interference from other stations. Protection extends to the 0.5 mV/m 50% skywave contour. This is the contour that receives a (relatively weak) 0.5 mV/m skywave signal at least 50% of the time between sunset and sunrise. Besides WCKY and KFBK, the other US stations that operate full time on 1530 are Class Bs. They must restrict radiation toward the Class As' protected contours so that the RSS (root-sum-squared or square root of the sum of the squares) of their combined 10% skywave radiation does not exceed 1/20 of 0.5 mV/m (in other words, 25 uV/m--microvolts/meter--a very, very weak signal). In addition, once the sun sets in Sacramento, WCKY must deliver no more than 25 uV/m no more than 10% of the time to KFBK's protected 0.5 mV/m 50% skywave contour. Even though it is directional to protect WCKY, KFBK's protected contour lies hundreds of miles east of Sacramento. If WCKY were to continue using its daytime facilities after Sacramento sunset, WCKY's 25 uV/m 10% skywave contour would encroach upon KFBK's protected contour. So that's why WCKY can continue to use its daytime facilities for several hours past Cincinnati sunset but has to change patterns at Sacramento sunset.

 

[nmoore6676]

What would California time have to do with a Cincinnati radio station?

There are two US Class A AMs on 1530, of which WCKY is one--the older one. The other is KFBK, Sacramento CA. Before the reclassification of most North American AMs that followed the implementation of the Rio (deJaneiro) Treaty (in the mid '80s, I believe), both of these stations were Class IBs, Class I stations (and now Class As) are the only stations in the Western Hemisphere whose nighttime skywave service is protected from interference from other stations. Protection extends to the 0.5 mV/m 50% skywave contour. This is the contour that receives a (relatively weak) 0.5 mV/m skywave signal at least 50% of the time between sunset and sunrise. Besides WCKY and KFBK, the other US stations that operate full time on 1530 are Class Bs. They must restrict radiation toward the Class As' protected contours so that the RSS (root-sum-squared or square root of the sum of the squares) of their combined 10% skywave radiation does not exceed 1/20 of 0.5 mV/m (in other words, 25 uV/m--microvolts/meter--a very, very weak signal). In addition, once the sun sets in Sacramento, WCKY must deliver no more than 25 uV/m no more than 10% of the time to KFBK's protected 0.5 mV/m 50% skywave contour. Even though it is directional to protect WCKY, KFBK's protected contour lies hundreds of miles east of Sacramento. If WCKY were to continue using its daytime facilities after Sacramento sunset, WCKY's 25 uV/m 10% skywave contour would encroach upon KFBK's protected contour. So that's why WCKY can continue to use its daytime facilities for several hours past Cincinnati sunset but has to change patterns at Sacramento sunset.

An excellent explanation, thank you for the specific engineering info.

 

[skippertthomas]

Yep... Probably WPAD (Old WDXR frequencey before the swap, years back with 1450)... They do have a nice little skywave north up I-55 between Litchfield and Springfield, Illinois.... 8)

 

[FRR]

That's what I love about these Boards, you ask a question, and one of you folks know the answer. I'm not sure I understand everything that I just read in Dan's answer, but that's because I'm just a novice. Thanks again.