I was there in the summer so AM reception was very limited. I'll sure in the winter it's great.
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WGN Reception
- Thread starter Cincinnati Kid
- Start date
I did not know that KDWN has decreased power so greatly from 50,000 watts at night to just 7,500 watts. That might explain why recently I have been able to pick-up WGN more consistently here in Phoenix, AZ with less interference from KDWN!
Yes, that would explain it. On the Hawaii SDR I've heard WGN several times, but have not yet heard KDWN this year.
I am on vacation in Central Florida and am able to pick up WGN fairly well during the night.
Oh....Could pick up WLS also but it was co-mingled with a Spanish speaking station. Assuming it's something out of Mexico.
Remember, Mexico has eliminated about 75% or more of its AM stations; they have moved to FM except a few on the border and in a couple of large cities where there was not enough FM capacity to handle the moves. The Mexican legislature essentially said that AM was dead.
It appears that the only 890 operating is in Guanajuato, a very distant and unlikely place for a FL reception. And even the Guanajuato station appears to have been moving to FM.
You are most likely to have heard Cuba if you are still in Central Florida; Mexican stations are not that easy a catch in that location. Or it could be another country like Venezuela or Colombia... but Cuba has fairly high power stations on nearly all the lower AM channels. They are essentially semi-locals in much of Florida.
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D'OH! Totally forgot about Cuba! Yeah, could be from there. It wasn't like one signal was dominating the other
What you're hearing is from Cuba. It can be heard in various places in the Southeast at night.
I am sure that a lot of radio stations in Mexico is hard to understand in less you understand and even speak Spanish, which most words I don't. But does radio seem like a dying breed in Mexico?
Radio is not dying in Mexico; it is prospering and growing.
But Mexico, like Canada, licensed stations much more responsibly. They intended to have the number of stations somewhat in proportion to the population and the economy.
When it was decided that the decline of AM endangered certain parts of the economy and, particularly, employment in the industry, they decided to open up more FMs so that most station owners could close the AM and move to FM.
Canada has been doing that for several decades; Mexico did in two to three years what Canada has taken various decades to do. But both nations realistically evaluated the future of AM and gave owners in many cases an exit strategy.
The US licensed too many stations. It licensed way too many daytimers, and far to many obscenely directional operations. In the top 100 US markets, there are only about 160 stations that have a usable signal over at least 80% of the market day and night. The rest are inferior, with limited coverage or daytimers.
There is always someone who thinks that they can make a station work. In more ancient history, there were people who thought they could make gold out of iron. Hope springs eternal, but the spring is usually polluted.
To me, listening to WGN is not part of my definition of "vacation"...
Wasn't "listening" listening. Was just dialing around to see if I could pick up the 50,000 watt "flamethrowers" [which nowadays are more like a sputtering Scipto BBQ grill lighter] that I can pick up with ease in Ohio. Some I could, others I couldn't due to the fact that either a local was on that frequency or an adjacent frequency that was bleeding over.
No. It is rather alive in the largest three or four cities and along the US border. AM did not die; it was given first aid by the government to save the employment opportunities of perhaps 20,000 people. And, interestingly, AM is being repurposed in some places for very rural indigenous language facilities in areas where FM can not cover rough terrain and areas with many tiny communities. Mexico has over 100 other languages and dialects, so this is a great re-purposing of the band.
Because those large cities have high radio revenue, there is still potential to make money.
However, Mexico City's biggest and most successful broadcaster shut down four of their AM stations and has sold the transmitter sites. In this case, the hemisphere's largest metro had surrounded the sites, and they were worth more dead than alive.
In some places in Latin America, AM radio is nearly gone. In San Salvador, there used to be over 30 AM stations. Now, there are less than half that and the remaining stations are two-thirds Christian, Catholic and Evangelical. Even in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where most of the AMs are 50 kw or more, several high power, low dial stations have gone off the air in bankruptcy or due to labor issues.
Brazil is the newest country that is moving nearly all AMs off the band. That means that three of the four most populous nations in our hemisphere are evacuating the AM band.
Of the 9 AM stations I owned in Ecuador in the 60's, only 3 are left on the air. It's happening everywhere.
Maybe for people over 75!
We need a term that is the equivalent of "Dead Man Walking" for most AM stations.
Survey says, but which is it, first you make it sounded it isn't but then you say maybe, don't forgot that WGN Radio now has The Sintria Hours on WGN Radio on Sunday mornings, so makes you wonder why audience are they trying to get.
WGN's PD must believe there are PPMs in Chicago's cemeteries.
For a frame of reference, Sinatra had his last top 40 hit in 1980, with "Theme from New York, New York", peaking at #32. Before that, it was 1969 for "My Way", peaking at #10. Someone who was in college in 1980 is 60 now.
It would be one thing for an oldies formatted station to play a Sinatra/crooners show on weekend mornings. But WGN is just weird.
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