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What I Heard Near Halifax, Nova Scotia

G

Gregg.

I was in Boutliers Point, Nova Scotia, about 30 minutes outside Halifax. I have written down what was on the AM dial at night, using my car's radio. I went up and down the dial on two different late nights in late October.

It's interesting to note that there is only one AM station on the air in Nova Scotia, at the far northern end of the province, and none in two other nearby Atlantic Canada provinces, New Brunswick or Prince Edward Island. But there are several fairly strong AM stations left in Newfoundland. All of them came in these two nights. But all AM stations are at least 100 miles away so there was no local interference.

And I can say, for the first time, I heard a station whose call letters start with a "V." Newfoundland has a few V stations, left over from before 1949, when it was not yet part of Canada and had its own V call signs. I also wonder if I caught an expanded band station from the U.S. Virgin Islands.

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540 ... CBT Grand Falls-Windsor NF - CBC - fairly clear. I thought I caught CBK Watrous-Regina, which everyone says has a very strong signal over a good chunk of North America. But since CBT is 10,000 watts day and night, from only a few hundred miles away, this is what I really heard.

550 ... Tropical music - not so clear. Is this Cuba? I don't know any nearby Spanish language stations at 550.

560 ... WGAN Portland - Coast to Coast AM. One night with country music underneath.

570 ... CFCB Corner Brook NF - 10,000 watts days, 1,000 watts nights. It simulcasts 590 VOCM at night.

580 ... Coast to Coast AM - I assume this is 5,000 watt WTAG Worcester MA.

590 ... VOCM St. John's NF - 10,000 watts fulltime. Fairly clear and playing 70s music.

600 ... Faint Tropical - Also a Cuban?

610, 620 ... hash

630 ... WPRO Providence - weak

640 ... CBN St. John's - CBC - 10,000 watts fulltime

650 ... hash

660 ... WFAN NYC - Sports - clear

670 ... Tropical music - Cuba? Even though I heard Louisville and Detroit, the Chicago stations such as WSCR were not coming in.

680 ... WRKO Boston - Talk - clear

690 ... CKGM Montreal - ESPN - fairly clear

700 ... WLW Cincinnati - weak

710 ... WOR NYC - Coast to Coast - clear

720 ... hash

730 ... CKAC Montreal - French traffic - clear

740 ... CBL Toronto - weak

750 ... CBGY Bonavista NF - CBC - 10,000 watts fulltime

760 ... WJR Detroit - weak

770 ... WABC NYC - Red Eye Radio - clear

780 ... hash

790 ... WPRV Providence - Red Eye - slightly clearer than WPRO

800 ... Coast to Coast sounded weak - CKLW Windsor?

810 ... WGY Schenectady - Coast to Coast - fairly weak

820 ... hash

830 ... WCRN Worcester-Boston - Soft AC - good

840 ... WHAS Louisville - weak

850 ... WEEI Boston - ESPN - good

860 ... CJBC Toronto - Radio Canada - good

870 ... hash

880 ... WCBS New York - News - very good

890 ... Weak tropical - Cuba again?

900 ... One night I heard Jefferson Airplane's "Somebody to Love." Who's doing oldies on AM 900? I don't think it's CHML Hamilton.

910 ... One night I heard Cheap Trick's "I Want You to Want Me." Who's doing 80s hits on AM 910?

920 ... hash

930 ... Sounded like Classic Country one night? Not sure about this. It's not Rochester NH or Buffalo.

940 ... No CHNV yet from Montreal. Considering 690 has been on the air for several years now, 940 is taking a long time.

950 ... I heard a George Michael song here one night and talk another night. Maybe it's WIBX Utica, 1,000 watts? Maybe the George Michael song was bumper music for Coast to Coast? That show does play long bumper songs from the 50s to the 80s.

960 ... hash

970 ... WZAN Portland - ESPN - fairly clear

980 ... CHRF Montreal - English and French standards - fairly clear, at 10,000 watts.

990 ... When I clearly heard the CBC on this frequency, I thought I had caught CBW Winnipeg. But just like 540 wasn't CBK, 990 isn't CBW. It's CBY from Corner Brook, NF.

1000 ... hash

1010 ... WINS NYC and CFRB Toronto battling.

1020 ... hash

1030 ... WBZ Boston, but not as strong as some other Boston stations.

1040 ... hash

1050 ... WEPN NYC and CHUM Toronto battling.

1060 ... Mother Angelica, so this has to be WQOM outside Boston. It's only supposed to be 2,500 watts at night but with no trace of KYW Philadelphia, I'm amazed how strong this was... unless they forgot to power down from the 50,000 watt daytime signal.

1070 ... Atlantic Canada's strongest station, CBA, should be here. But it switched to FM in 2008, so only silence is heard on 1070.

1080 ... WTIC Hartford - Coast to Coast - fairly clear.

1090 ... WBAL Baltimore - so-so

1100 and 1110 ... Both Coast to Coast, both audible but not great, Cleveland and Charlotte.

1120 ... Religion - fairly clear but not sure who else is on KMOX's frequency.

1130 ... WBBR NYC - very clear. Even after sunrise, this station stayed fairly strong for an hour after there was no trace of 660, 710, 770 or 880. By 7:30 a.m. there was only WBBR on the entire AM band and a surprise you'll see later.

1140 ... Another of the CBC's 10,000 watt Maritime stations on a clear channel frequency. This time it's CBI Sydney NS, loud and clear from 150 miles to the north, displacing WRVA Richmond.

1150 ... hash

1160 ... Talk mixed with oldies. I think the talk station is WVNJ, near NYC. 2,500 nights. I don't know what the oldies station was.

1170 ... WWVA Wheeling - Coast to Coast - so-so

1180 ... WHAM Rochester - Coast to Coast - so-so

1190 ... This was religious. It sounded more Christian Contemporary than Black Gospel. But I suppose it was WLIB NYC.

1200 ... WXKS Boston - Talk. Fairly clear

1210 ... WPHT Philadelphia - Coast to Coast - Quite good.

1220 ... WHKW Cleveland - faint

Then some catches on regional frequencies...

1260 ... Country music, identifying itself as FM 103.5. Not sure who this is.

1280 ... WADO NYC - Spanish Sports - faint - 50,000 watt day - 7,200 watt night. Were they on their day pattern?

1290 ... John Batchelor one night, Coast to Coast one night. Not sure who this is.

1300 ... Red Eye Radio. Not sure who this is.

1310 ... Red Eye Radio. This is likely WLOB Portland ME, 5,000 watts.

1330 ... Bloomberg Radio Boston. (25,000 watts days - 17,000 night)

1360 ... Red Eye Radio again. I think it's WDRC Hartford, 5,000 watts.

1370 ... Classic Country. Not sure who it is.

1390 ... One night Catholic Religion, one night Bill Withers "Lean on Me"

1440 ... Sports. I think it's 5,000 watt WRED Portland.

Then some clear channel frequencies and expanded band stations....

1500 ... WFED Washington - faint

1520 ... WWKB Buffalo - ESPN - good

1540 ... Spanish language. Who could this be? Albany is off the air, it's not Waterloo or the Bahamas. Would Cuba have a strong station on 1540 with ZNS also on the frequency?

1560 ... WFME New York - Family Radio - good

1580 ... Talk show ... Who could this be? CKDO Oshawa is Oldies.

1590 ... Religion ... Who could this be? WSMN Nashua NH? Wikipedia says WSMN is on a 200 watt STA. But maybe the station is back to full power at 5,000 watts?

1600 ... Tropical music ... This is WUNR Brookline-Boston. It's 20,000 watts day and night. Not only does it boom in at night in Nova Scotia, it even is heard well in the early morning when all the other stations are no longer coming in. I hit the scan button on my car radio at 8 a.m. The scan stopped only here and sometimes on 1130 WBBR New York. But by 9 a.m., there were no AM stations audible in the Halifax area.

1620 ... Faint Country Music ... Could this be WDHP in the U.S. Virgin Islands? Wikipedia says the station sometimes plays country. 10,000 watts days and 1,000 watts nights.

1650 ... French music ... CKZW Montreal, 1,000 watts. Not great but audible.

1660 ... Korean ... WWRU Jersey City-New York ... 10,000 watts days and 1,000 watts nights. Fairly clear.
 
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Really cool bandscan and interesting info. Thanks for posting!
Not too many surprises here as far as reception. That is pretty far east so not surprised to see stations that would be much stronger only a few hundred miles west show up as weak there (such as WLW and the Chicago stations even if they made it through the hash).
WBZ being weak seems correct, too, considering it doesn't send much power east unlike the other big Boston AMs.
 
1260 sounds like CKHJ Fredericton NB which uses a 103.5 rebroadcaster at Oromocto. I'd lean the 1590 towards WARV in RI which is 5000 watts fulltime.
1390 with Catholic Rel is WEGP Presque Isle, ME. The other, maybe WPLM Plymouth MA? 1300 WGDJ near Albany airs Red Eye Radio. WLOB does not air Red Eye Radio, not sure what you had on 1310.
 
The oldies on 1160 is likely WOBM Lakewood Township, NJ. 1540 could be CHIN Toronto (which airs programs in many different languages), but according to its schedule, 1540 doesn't air any Spanish programming (while its sister FM does). The 910 is likely WABK Bangor, ME. There are two oldies stations on 900 in New England, but they both drop their power way down at night.
 
Good stuff. Thanks for posting.

A number of these stations are....or at leased used to be....fairly common on the Northern Ireland SDR. That goes for the two that caught my eye, the two sister5 stations from Portland, ME. WGAN and WZAN.
 
At AM 800, since the other NF stations were coming in so well, I am surprised that I didn't pick up VOCR St. John's. Unless they sign off overnight?

At 1540, I probably misheard Italian for Spanish, and was picking up CHIN after all. I can tell the difference between Mandarin and Cantonese. So you'd think I could recognize Italian. But since I was getting Spanish from Cuba in so many spots, I guess I assumed this was Spanish as well.

Same for AM 1310. Maybe I thought it was Red Eye and it was Free Talk Live instead, which WLOB runs overnight. I suppose I misidentified one late night conservative talk show for another. I just assume if it's a talk show and it isn't George Noory, it's Red Eye.

At 910, yes, I would guess Cheap Trick was coming from WABK Bangor. I've heard WABK-FM Gardiner plenty of times and an 80s hit like "I Want You to Want Me" is logical for this simulcast.

At 1160, I didn't realize WOBM turns up the power at night, to 8,900 watts from the daytime 5,000. I remember when this was a daytimer. So hearing oldies under the talk programming was probably a result of WOBM fighting with WVNJ, both within 40 miles of NYC. I wonder how the FCC allows two 1160 stations in NJ, both in the suburbs of NYC?

At 1260, I'm sure CKHJ Fredericton is right, a country station identifying itself as FM 103.5. I was wrong that there are no AM stations left in New Brunswick. Is this the last one? And 1140 CBI Sydney is the last AM in Nova Scotia?

At 1390, I assume now that this was WEGP Presque Isle, ME. Wikipedia says it is owned by a Catholic organization. Wikipedia also says it's currently silent. But maybe that needs to be updated. 25,000 watts days and 10,000 watts nights.
 
I can hear CJBC (French on 860) nightly here in Atlanta. And I've heard CHIN (1540) with their "Go With The Flow" format, here too.
 
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