What is the most distant FM station you can hear regularly?

[gr8oldies]

I could get KRES easily when I lived in Quincy, IL and worked at KGRC, Hannibal, MO. KWIX and KREs were quite the sales-oriented stations (as in programming the sales as opposed to selling the programming). They had a big telemarketing department and even did seminars for other stations on how to sell features like the soil temperature report.
For that brief time I was there, pre 80-90, furthest regular reception was KBEQ in Kansas City

Moberly's KRES was always a small market monster. Jerrell Shepherd had money to burn on FM, and it helped that AM radio serving mid Missouri was feeble. The AM sister to KRES, KWIX was a graveyarder on 1230. Mexico MO had a class IV on 1340, Kirksville a class IV on 1450. And that was the extent of fulltime AM in northern MO.

KILJ 105.5 Mount Pleasant started around 1970, I think. Back then I didn't know they were a lowly 3 kW A, but they'd show up on any radio with FM in Hedrick, some 45 miles away. With the band full and surrounded by adjacents, I doubt KILJ would do well in Hedrick even with their current 25 kW.

 

[icybluelake]

Speaking of Quincy, IL, I remembered the little game I played for a few minutes while driving just outside town last year -- on 99.5 I was hearing a mixture of KSJN from the Twin Cities and the country station from Quincy on 99.5. One is about 150 miles from me, the other about 225. While moving up one hill and then down, up and down, I would hear one and then the other. I'm sure everyone on this board has had this experience, nothing remarkable there. But the distances were the thing -- and the seesaw action of hearing a classical station that I absolutely love, and country music, which I don't care for at all. Now, neither of these stations is a regular catch around here, although I'm surprised how often I can pick up a trace of KSJN.

 

[jim-satx]

FM reception is related to the moire pattern of nodes and nulls created by multiple bays. It is possible for somebody who happens to be in a node to get a station their next door neighbor can't.

This was very enlightening for me since I'm still learning about propagation/reception. It explains why I can regularly hear a couple of Austin FM stations at work, but just three miles away at my home there are no Austin stations I can hear on a 100% constant basis. (We're talking portable radios in both locations.)

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

Back home on high ground in southern IA KRES 104.7 a 100 kW C at 1000 ft Moberly MO was about 120 miles south and was relatively reliable on a Technics receiver and FM rabbit ears...

Was another central Missouri 100kw Class C, KWWR Mexico, MO (95.7--"Country 96") also a southern Iowa regular during your time there? Here in Springfield, IL you can always guarantee a country battle on a good car radio on 95.7 between KWWR and WCRC Effingham, IL (50 kw, 146m).

 

[Groove1670]

Growing up in the Florida Keys in the 70's we had TWO FM stations, and none of the mainland stations would reach us without an out door antenna. With good directional antenna, we would pick up Miami Ft. Lauderdale, Fort Meyers and even some Tampa stations.

Since our cable system has a MATV system to pick up Miami TV stations, we could also hook up a cable line to our FM receivers, and got most of the Miami Fort Lauderdale Stations. In the Late 80's they filtered everything out, and you could only pick up, MTV, VH1, and WFMT Chicago on your receiver, and of course WCIX Channel 6 at 87.75 FM.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

That line of towers in Hollywood, FL, is very interesting. They have five sets of guy wires on each tower, probably for protection from hurricane winds. A wise precaution, because the whole line of them are in the middle of housing developments. I don't think the towers themselves are tall enough to reach houses if they went down, but they could probably splatter debris in the direction of houses. I think they are all about 1500 feet high - high enough to cover Miami and Ft. Lauderdale, but West Palm has its own stations. When I was in Palm Bay, FL, I was able to hear all the major Miami / Ft. Lauderdale stations with a yagi aimed south, but I aimed it South for WAYF in West Palm. Still, the Miami stations were pretty strong for 200 miles away. I have done further FM reception, but not in Florida.

 

[davideduardo]

That line of towers in Hollywood, FL, is very interesting. They have five sets of guy wires on each tower, probably for protection from hurricane winds. A wise precaution, because the whole line of them are in the middle of housing developments. I don't think the towers themselves are tall enough to reach houses if they went down, but they could probably splatter debris in the direction of houses. I think they are all about 1500 feet high - high enough to cover Miami and Ft. Lauderdale, but West Palm has its own stations. When I was in Palm Bay, FL, I was able to hear all the major Miami / Ft. Lauderdale stations with a yagi aimed south, but I aimed it South for WAYF in West Palm. Still, the Miami stations were pretty strong for 200 miles away. I have done further FM reception, but not in Florida.

The TV towers and the Gannett master FM facitility are actually south side of Hollywood centered on Miramar and extending across the county line into Miami-Dade to the south. The candelabra, aka "the Crider Tower" sits in a trailer park. It is short guyed.

All the towers are in the 1000 foot range, with the only higher tower being the Channel 6 stick (roughly 1,700 feet) down near Redlands in South Dade. The major TV stations' centers of radiation are all at between 974' and 1024' above average terrain. The master FM tower is 1007'. I believe the tallest structure is 1043 feet, definitely not 1500 feet as you say. They are also not in a "line" but, rather, clustered in a near proximity somewhat at random.

http://www.fybush.com/site-20150918/

Towers do not generally fall like trees unless in a controlled situation. They generally crumple in accordion-like fashion, leaving a relatively small debris field right at the base of the tower. If you look at the Senior Road collapse in 1982 in Houston, you see that the debris field did not even fill half of the tower height. Debris is not "splattered" as even things like TV and FM antennas tend to remain attached to the tower sections they were mounted on.

 

[AKDXer]

For me, in Port Alexander, AK it would be K216AA 91.1, a translator of Petersburg, AK's KFSK-FM 100.9, whose COL is Point Baker but it's located...somewhere...forget where...but it's on a mountain somewhere and for 140w it (albeit marginally) covers much of central southeast Alaska.

It's signal here is weak but listenable, on a good antenna it's clear but susceptible to interference from stuff like switching mode power supplies, those make it unlistenable.

 

[joebtsflk1]

Was another central Missouri 100kw Class C, KWWR Mexico, MO (95.7--"Country 96") also a southern Iowa regular during your time there? Here in Springfield, IL you can always guarantee a country battle on a good car radio on 95.7 between KWWR and WCRC Effingham, IL (50 kw, 146m).

It seemed like in the early 80s 104.7 KRES was a more reliable visitor in southern Iowa than KWWR, but I wanted to back up that assertion with hard data, so off to the 1980 FM Atlas courtesy AmericanRadioHistory.com to find in 1980, KRES had already built a 1000 ft tower with 100 kW. Yes indeed, it was a sales driven organization. KWWR on the other hand was only at 300 ft with 100 kW.

Today KWWR is the behemoth of mid-MO FM at 1200 ft, which had that tower built for them as the result of a St. Louis upgrade.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

The TV towers and the Gannett master FM facitility are actually south side of Hollywood centered on Miramar and extending across the county line into Miami-Dade to the south. The candelabra, aka "the Crider Tower" sits in a trailer park. It is short guyed.

All the towers are in the 1000 foot range, with the only higher tower being the Channel 6 stick (roughly 1,700 feet) down near Redlands in South Dade. The major TV stations' centers of radiation are all at between 974' and 1024' above average terrain. The master FM tower is 1007'. I believe the tallest structure is 1043 feet, definitely not 1500 feet as you say. They are also not in a "line" but, rather, clustered in a near proximity somewhat at random.

http://www.fybush.com/site-20150918/

Towers do not generally fall like trees unless in a controlled situation. They generally crumple in accordion-like fashion, leaving a relatively small debris field right at the base of the tower. If you look at the Senior Road collapse in 1982 in Houston, you see that the debris field did not even fill half of the tower height. Debris is not "splattered" as even things like TV and FM antennas tend to remain attached to the tower sections they were mounted on.

Wow - GONE - on Google Earth! They must have moved them, because I remember in the early 90's driving down a main street of Hollywood - every couple of miles there was another tower all in line. Maybe 5 or 6 in all. I do see some earth moving work in what looks like used to be a tower site. Could have been in Miramar, its only a mile or two away from Hollywood. I guess the land got too valuable and they made an antenna farm as you describe. I tried counting the paint bands to get the height - must have counted wrong. Been away from Florida too long ----

 

[charlestondxman]

Talking about those huge towers with big FM signals, the Orlando FM stations on the Orange City tower (1,682 feet) have enormous signals. 105.9, 105.1, 107.7 can be heard as far N as St. Augustine very well, and can be heard almost every day in the Jacksonville area. I've also heard them in Tampa several times.

I probably get those signals 3 times a week here in Charleston in the summer. 105.1 used to blast in especially before they put a religious translator there a few years ago.

The farthest south I can get in FL that is a regular is the Orlando stations. WPCV would come in sometimes before our local 97.5 translator signed on. West Palm Beach sometimes comes in during the summer. I've heard several of them (even 92.7 and 102.3), but most of them are on 1st adjacents of Charleston signals.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

Talking about those huge towers with big FM signals, the Orlando FM stations on the Orange City tower (1,682 feet) have enormous signals. 105.9, 105.1, 107.7 can be heard as far N as St. Augustine very well, and can be heard almost every day in the Jacksonville area. I've also heard them in Tampa several times.

I probably get those signals 3 times a week here in Charleston in the summer. 105.1 used to blast in especially before they put a religious translator there a few years ago.

The farthest south I can get in FL that is a regular is the Orlando stations. WPCV would come in sometimes before our local 97.5 translator signed on. West Palm Beach sometimes comes in during the summer. I've heard several of them (even 92.7 and 102.3), but most of them are on 1st adjacents of Charleston signals.

101.9 can be heard along I-10 East of Tallahassee very reliably.

 

[crainbebo]

A couple of other spots:
At Moclips, WA (near Ocean Shores), a few Lincoln City, OR stations come in reliably. 96.7 KCRF, 100.7 KPPT and 102.7 KYTE come in well at times. I hear KNCU 92.7, but it's weak, also have heard the 88.1 KQAC relayer and 97.5 KSHL (but it was hammered by KOMO). Everything's changed down there now. More translators, LPs, IBOC on a couple of Aberdeen stations and stations moving to other frequencies and cities. This was in 2011.
While up in Quincy, WA last April, I was able to reliably get several Spokane stations at 120 miles...this included KZZU, KDRK and KIIX. Farthest log was a brief burst of KNRQ-103.7 Eugene (260 miles).

 

[davideduardo]

Wow - GONE - on Google Earth! They must have moved them, because I remember in the early 90's driving down a main street of Hollywood - every couple of miles there was another tower all in line. Maybe 5 or 6 in all. I do see some earth moving work in what looks like used to be a tower site. Could have been in Miramar, its only a mile or two away from Hollywood. I guess the land got too valuable and they made an antenna farm as you describe. I tried counting the paint bands to get the height - must have counted wrong. Been away from Florida too long ----

The TV antenna farm has been where it currently is for 5 decades or so. A few have been added, maybe one has come down and been replaced, but that's where they have always been

 

[Ai4i]

Ch 7's tower, the second of three in a line, is gone and has not been replaced. Channels 7 and 10 and WLYF are all on the northern one and channels 2 and 17 and maybe 23 are on the southern one, but I think that when 23 went digital, they might have moved elsewhere. The "farm" is up to eight or nine sticks, I don't remember whether WLRN's old FM stick is still at half their original height or gone horizontal.

 

[davideduardo]

Ch 7's tower, the second of three in a line, is gone and has not been replaced. Channels 7 and 10 and WLYF are all on the northern one and channels 2 and 17 and maybe 23 are on the southern one, but I think that when 23 went digital, they might have moved elsewhere. The "farm" is up to eight or nine sticks, I don't remember whether WLRN's old FM stick is still at half their original height or gone horizontal.

When I was a manager with Metroplex, and Y-100 was on the Crider tower there was always amazement mixed with hurricane zone fear about the short guyed candelabra. Looked at from near the base, it was an exercise in mental physics to understand how it stayed vertical. Those short spaced guys obviously put a lot of vertical "weight" on the structure and the base.

 

[Ai4i]

If I remember correctly, the stations on that tower were
SHE-103 half way up, WWOG, Y-100, Glow/Joy/Studio-107, and W33AA further up on the north side,
WAXY-106, WFCB, and WKID/WSMS on top.

 

[RMarino]

Most distant from Knoxville TN that could be regularly listened to (at least in the car) would be WMIT, 106.9, Black Mountain NC on top of Mt. Mitchell (even though they now have a sister local station on 106.7). Second most reliable (but not really listenable) is WBUL, 98.1, Lexington (often it's WHZT, Williamson SC instead). Supertalk 99.7 out of Nashville used to be regular before the WJBE translator signed on.

I remember hearing those NC/SC stations well when I lived in Sevier Co. but once you get near Knox Co. they die quickly.

One station that used to come in every morning in Knoxville (before the LPFM came on 97.9) was WSIX Nashville. I used to listen to Gerry House on the way to work,

 

[ftballfan]

I can get quite a few 100+ mile receptions with regularity in Manistee, MI, mostly to the north and west, but several Milwaukees are usually in (93.3, 95.7, 96.5, 99.1, 107.7 mostly). I'm surprised how often 99.9 from Benton Harbor shows up when nothing else from that area is in.

In Grand Rapids, the farthest reliable has to be 98.5 from Coldwater, especially out by the airport. 94.1 and 106.1 Jackson are also common, but there's a CP for a translator on 94.1

 

[charlestondxman]

I remember hearing those NC/SC stations well when I lived in Sevier Co. but once you get near Knox Co. they die quickly.

One station that used to come in every morning in Knoxville (before the LPFM came on 97.9) was WSIX Nashville. I used to listen to Gerry House on the way to work,

Nashville stations do have good signals throughout much of the state. I remember being in a Gatlinburg high rise in 2005 and getting almost all of the stations from there. I even got 97.1 (then an oldies station).

WSPA 98.9 is probably the most powerful FM from the Upstate of SC. You can hear it over the mountains into TN, east of Charlotte (I've heard it as far as Salisbury, NC), just NE of Athens, GA, and south of Columbia. In the Charleston area, it comes in frequently over our ESPN on the same frequency.