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wkdi, wyre

O

oasisrulz

Guest
I remember in the 80's vacationing in Wildwood NJ and hearing a new oldies station I think it was 840 WKDI if my memory serves me correctly they played off the wall oh wow type oldies and were a good catch in Wildwood. They would always talk about either their transmitter or studios under some bypass in Denton...Also a fantastic Country Classics station WYRE 810 that came in clear in Wildwood great stations on AM in the 80's...are these stations still around and playing the same music or are they gone...thanks again...
 
Back in 1965, I started listening to the little 250 watt WYRE while on my uncle's fishing boat down on the Bay. "Never more than two minutes from music" was the slogan for the then Top 40 station. DJ's worked 6-hour shifts in the summer, with probably a part-timer for the extra hours til sunset sign-off.

News and commercial stop-sets were, as advertised, no more than 2-minutes in length. Time-chimes (think Big Ben) on the quarter hours. Loved listening to that station. I could even hear it at home in Newark Delaware, although it was faint.

Haven't heard it for some time and they no longer have a web site. I have seen conflicting reports of it again being Top 40 (CHR) or Spanish. I will try to check it out some afternoon to see if I can still hear the signal. Many of the smaller Eastern-Shore stations have gone dark as ad revenue has vanished.
 
WYRE's signal was so much better up thru the 80's then it is now. They've been a bunch of formats lately including Spanish to the KHZ thing they're doing now (again). WKDI-840 was Top 40/oldies when they started and are now religious, good signal East but awful to the west
 
Tried again last night to listen to 810 on my Grundig radio. There is something there, but can't quite pull it out. Even in the 70's, WYRE would have a signal I could actually hear.

Is it due to a ground system that has disintergrated, or just an overall transmission problem? I was even on top of a hill and couldn't pull them through.
 
WYRE is daytime only - you were not hearing them after dark. 250 watt signal isn't much but it covers a bunch of people.
 
I remember in the early to middle 80's, both signals were very strong in Wildwood NJ when I would stay there for the summer...yre with fantastic country classics and kdi with oh wow classic oldies...great times...
 
BTW, when I say night time, I mean 5pm as I am pulling up to my house.

And that 250 watts "Voise of the Bay" used to carry quite a distance.
 
It sure did - WNAV 1430 ran 5K and didn't seem to get much more coverage than WYRE
 
1. New/newer equipment--xmtr, ground system, etc.
2. Fewer stations on 810/800/820 to interfere with & limit coverage
3. Population in the Balto-DC megalopolis has doubled, bringing with it tons of electrical interference, concrete and steel
4. AM receivers were generally much better (your Grundig notwithstanding) 30 to 40 years ago
5. We, as listeners, were generally much more willing to put up with AM noise/static/fading than we are today--we've been spoiled by FM & digital audio

FWIW, your memories are not that far off the mark. WYRE was an excellent little Top 40, and the signal boomed all through the Chesapeake region. Slipping into the foggy, distant past... ring, ring!
 
WYRE also had some kick-a$$ audio processing and they had wide banded their RF transmission system to put out great sound fir those 60's and 70's dashboard speakers.
 
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