According to today's (5/5/2010) FCC Daily Digest, WCPT 820 (now licensed to Willow Springs) has been granted a license to cover its new six-tower night site and 1.5-kW DA-N operation. Anyone have any reception reports? I'm almost 1000 miles away; no chance of any reception reports from me. Is the WCPT night signal actually listenable within the Chicago city limits, or does WBAP clobber it into oblivion? OTOH, I note that the night transmitter site is a fairly long way south of the CoL, Willow Springs, so parts of Chicago probably lie within WCPT's NIF contour.
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WCPT 820 granted license to cover new night site
- Thread starter DanStrassberg
- Start date
Now waht they need to do is bring back WAIT,"The World Most Beautiful Music" Try a little Tenderness.
Great idea, I'd love it, but (David E is correct) it would flop because there would be few (national) advertisers intereted in the very aged demographics that format would attract. Unlike the original station, You'd have to rely on local business (need a skilled crackerjack sales force). Expensive!
Also, "Try a Little Tenderness" would likely be an expensive NIGHTMARE to license (as it was used hourly before).
John Doremus is deceased.
Also, "Try a Little Tenderness" would likely be an expensive NIGHTMARE to license (as it was used hourly before).
John Doremus is deceased.
It's pretty clear on the far SW side of the city(Oak Lawn area), although WPAP is very noticeable at times
underneath. It's not bad for 1.5Kw. I would have to say that 830 AM WCCO's hiss causes them more problems
in my area than WBAP does.
underneath. It's not bad for 1.5Kw. I would have to say that 830 AM WCCO's hiss causes them more problems
in my area than WBAP does.
Tonight the WCPT signal is listenable in SE McHenry County, with WBAP under WCPT in WBAP's null, however, the signal is noisy and this appears to be an evening where WBAP and CHAM's skywave are not as strong as usual...getting into the latter part of the spring and summer months skywave interference should not be as strong, so listening to WCPT shouldn't be a problem in Cook, DuPage, Northern Will and Southern Lake County (IL), provided that local electrical interference levels are low. In McHenry County, reception should be ok at night in Algonquin and Crystal Lake, which are anyway the largest population centers in McHenry County...
Unusual occurence this morning (Friday, 8/13). At 6 a.m. when WCPT's daytime transmitter came on, the nighttime transmitter did not turn off. The result...at least here in McHenry county....was that you could hear both. The nighttime stick audible with about a half second delay. CHAM and WBAP still underneath when nulled. (CHAM has been stronger than usual here lately...leading me to wonder if they're "relaxing" their nighttime pattern in the wake of their flip back to country. Hmmm...)
Anyway, also, WCPT- FM was off all day earlier this week...Wednesday IIRC. My office is in Arlington Heights, near their stick, so there was a rather unique DX opportunity, which unfortunately I didn't have the time to investigate.
Anyway, also, WCPT- FM was off all day earlier this week...Wednesday IIRC. My office is in Arlington Heights, near their stick, so there was a rather unique DX opportunity, which unfortunately I didn't have the time to investigate.
Right now would be an interesting time to check out WCPT AM, as of 9:30 this evening,
they are on their daytime stick. When the storms hit the Joliet area earlier they went off
the air shortly after their switch to the nightime signal. They popped back on about 8:20
from the daytime site.
On a somewhat related topic, WCPT used to stay on until sunset in Grapevine, TX.
This would be anywhere from 15 mins. up to over an hour after Chicago sunset.
Did their license change since they received nightime authority. In Nov. and Dec.
they were allowed to stay at 5kW until 5:30PM. Will they now have to go with the
4:15 and 4:30 times during December and November? That extra hour of full power
during winter drivetime, surely was a great quality for them as a daytimer.
they are on their daytime stick. When the storms hit the Joliet area earlier they went off
the air shortly after their switch to the nightime signal. They popped back on about 8:20
from the daytime site.
On a somewhat related topic, WCPT used to stay on until sunset in Grapevine, TX.
This would be anywhere from 15 mins. up to over an hour after Chicago sunset.
Did their license change since they received nightime authority. In Nov. and Dec.
they were allowed to stay at 5kW until 5:30PM. Will they now have to go with the
4:15 and 4:30 times during December and November? That extra hour of full power
during winter drivetime, surely was a great quality for them as a daytimer.
cyberdad said:
It seems that more and more stations are ignoring what is suppose to be their nighttime patterns and staying with their day power.
There is a great temptation for AM's to ignore nighttime patterns and power levels... for the most part, they result in coverage that is vastly inferior to daytime. They probably don't think the FCC is going to bother looking. This is one of AM's biggest problems: listeners have a hard time accepting that their favorite station is weak or nonexistent at night. That's just not acceptable in this day and age. That said, the rules are the rules and if someone ignores them and causes interference, I wouldn't have a problem ratting them out (to the FCC).
audioguy said:
One case in point around here is KJOC in Davenport, IA. 1KW on 1170 with a very tight nighttime pattern (at least theoretically)....aimed north. As top-40 KSTT when I was in college in the late '60s, it was one of my favorite stations. When I came home to the Chicago area on breaks, I tried for it repeatedly on many a night. Only once or twice was I able to snag even a whiff of a signal from it....even though 1170 was (and still is) a relatively clear nighttie channel in these parts.
Now, however, it's a regular....and with a pretty decent signal, at that. Despite what the pattern is supposed to be.
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