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WONX Doubles Power - Flips Call Letters to WCGO

K

knowsthings123

Very quietly, after 7 years of work and millions of dollars spent, Kovas Communications doubled the power of AM 1590, licensed to Evanston, IL, to 7,000 watts. The result is a station that covers Chicago and reaches over 6 million people.

The power increase occurred yesterday, Sunday, April 12, which would have been Kovas' patriarch Frank Kovas' 87th birthday - had he lived to see his dream come true (Frank passed away a few years ago while working on this project.)

Many people, including radio engineers, didn't think that this power increase would ever happen.

Breaking News: This morning, Kovas dropped the CALL LETTERS of WONX, which were in place for 30 years, and flipped the station to WCGO-AM 1590. They will keep the current format for the time being.
 
For being about 30 miles away on the eastern side of Crystal Lake, the new WCGO-1590 does not have that good of a signal for a 7KW omnidirectional near the top end of the AM band. Tower tuning needed? (Tried with 4 radios - the only radio that sounded decent was on a communications receiver with a long wire, but then I can receive 1500 from Zion better than 1590 and they are only 250 watts and 27 miles away)
 
What a mistake the whole upgrade was for them.

Also they should fix the sound of the station. Its almost as bad as JJG. They have no reason to sound that bad during the day with a single tower.
 
What a mistake the whole upgrade was for them.

Also they should fix the sound of the station. Its almost as bad as JJG. They have no reason to sound that bad during the day with a single tower.
Click to expand...

Their audio has always been lousy.
 
Yes, AM can sound awful, and most of the stations on the high end of the Chicago dial prove this every day!

As for range, 7 kW isn't much louder than 3.5 to most people's ears. Like a dollar bill, a kW doesn't go as far as it used to; especially in the face of so much interference and noise caused by putting too many stations in too little spectrum, not to mention IBOC interference. Grrr!

Kudos to WGN for bringing back great sounding audio and showing everyone else how it's done...

Radioman, I suspect WONX doesn't have many listeners in Glencoe! No matter how strong the signal is! :)
 
audioguy said:
Yes, AM can sound awful, and most of the stations on the high end of the Chicago dial prove this every day!

As for range, 7 kW isn't much louder than 3.5 to most people's ears. Like a dollar bill, a kW doesn't go as far as it used to; especially in the face of so much interference and noise caused by putting too many stations in too little spectrum, not to mention IBOC interference. Grrr!

Kudos to WGN for bringing back great sounding audio and showing everyone else how it's done...

Radioman, I suspect WONX doesn't have many listeners in Glencoe! No matter how strong the signal is! :)
Click to expand...

Does anybody know about how much extra range this power boost gives to 1590?
 
Re: WONX Doubles Power -

Without getting too technical...to double the "signal strength" of a radio signal you have to quadruple (4X) the transmitted power....

So for WCGO (WONX)...having doubled their transmitted power only gives them an additional 41% signal strength...or in other words their signal is 1.414 times stronger than it was before. It's a square root of the power increase type of thing.

The additional power will likely clear up fuzzy reception inside buildings on Chicago's north side.

But when all is said and done, it's the programming that attracts listeners. I hope they work on that next.
 
Is the new omni on a new tower somewhere? Radio Locator stills shows the old location.
I'm about 3 miles due south of the exisiting 4-tower array.
I'm not noticing the bleed-over onto my 1620 pt 15 being that much worse, if any.
But I did notice a weird spur off 1590, 30khz off, in the middle of 1620, creating an annoying 2-3 khz intermod whistle.
This would have to be some kind of unsupressed parasitic oscillation in their new transmitter, stealing power
and wasting it 30 khz off channel, I wonder if they want to know about it?
 
Tom Wells said:
Is the new omni on a new tower somewhere? Radio Locator stills shows the old location.
I'm about 3 miles due south of the exisiting 4-tower array.
I'm not noticing the bleed-over onto my 1620 pt 15 being that much worse, if any.
But I did notice a weird spur off 1590, 30khz off, in the middle of 1620, creating an annoying 2-3 khz intermod whistle.
This would have to be some kind of unsupressed parasitic oscillation in their new transmitter, stealing power
and wasting it 30 khz off channel, I wonder if they want to know about it?
Click to expand...

Can they run omni from those sticks off of McCormack street?
 
Prais said:
Might be a good spot for "Timeless Classics" or Music of Your Life.
Click to expand...

YESSSSS!!!! Or anything like the old WNMP or WLTD... Standards and "Those Were The Days" with Chuck Schaden...
now those were great stations back in the day!!!
 
radioman148 said:
Tom Wells said:
Is the new omni on a new tower somewhere? Radio Locator stills shows the old location.
I'm about 3 miles due south of the exisiting 4-tower array.
I'm not noticing the bleed-over onto my 1620 pt 15 being that much worse, if any.
But I did notice a weird spur off 1590, 30khz off, in the middle of 1620, creating an annoying 2-3 khz intermod whistle.
This would have to be some kind of unsupressed parasitic oscillation in their new transmitter, stealing power
and wasting it 30 khz off channel, I wonder if they want to know about it?
Click to expand...
Can they run omni from those sticks off of McCormack street?
Click to expand...

The FCC database shows all WCGO's listings as 42° 01' 20.00" N Latitude 87° 42' 43.00" W Longitude, so yes, that's where WCGO
is running their 7kW daytime omnidirectional, right next door to the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago plant just north of Howard Street and McCormick Boulevard, just barely inside Skokie. Evanston, the COL, is right across the North Shore Channel [Canal] to the east of McCormick Boulevard.
 
stormy01 said:
Prais said:
Might be a good spot for "Timeless Classics" or Music of Your Life.
Click to expand...

YESSSSS!!!! Or anything like the old WNMP or WLTD... Standards and "Those Were The Days" with Chuck Schaden...
now those were great stations back in the day!!!
Click to expand...

Ahhh, WNMP now that brings back memories.
 
I'm blanking on the guy who owned WNMP. He was a "state representative" or a state senator. He had an odd name, but I can't remember it now.

WNMP must have only had a hundred albums -including "Griff Wiliams Society Orchestra" and "That's why the Lady is a Tramp." Thanks. I haven't thoughht of that - or the 1pm News always sponsored by "National Food Stores" in a long time.
 
radioman148 said:
Ahhh, WNMP now that brings back memories.
Click to expand...

And does anyone remember when the WNMP transmitter was at 2100 Lee Street and, before that, the studio, transmitter and tower was on Oakton Street (near Hartrey Ave*) across from James Park (and Mount "Trashmore", the Tobogganing hill) and one of the announcers at WNMP was John Roberts?

*http://www.archive.org/stream/thisisevanston00leag/thisisevanston00leag_djvu.txt

So in it's approximately 60 year history (I think original air date/sign on is 1948), for the 1590 frequency all 3 of their transmitter locations have been within a 2 mile radius of each other.
 
Prais said:
I'm blanking on the guy who owned WNMP. He was a "state representative" or a state senator. He had an odd name, but I can't remember it now.

WNMP must have only had a hundred albums -including "Griff Wiliams Society Orchestra" and "That's why the Lady is a Tramp." Thanks. I haven't thoughht of that - or the 1pm News always sponsored by "National Food Stores" in a long time.
Click to expand...

I remember John Roberts saying during a station ID at one time that WNMP was owned by "Nice Metal Products Company" of Des Plaines. I don't think the Nice Metal Products Company exists any longer. I also seem to remember that John Roberts may have also been an announcer at WKFM 103.5 That's really weird - didn't Kovas start WKFM? What goes around comes around. Funny you should mention National Food Stores...I grew up in Evanston a block away from a National Food Store at Main St. and Dodge Aves.
 
Yes, Kovas started wkfm - located in the 188 W. Randolph Tower - a DUMP of a building. I remember Ned Jaus on WNMP - later on WKFM.

WKFM sold to General Tire for a million dollars who changed the format to Drake-Chenault automated oldies. At that time it was a record high price to pay for an fm station.
 
Prais said:
Yes, Kovas started wkfm - located in the 188 W. Randolph Tower - a DUMP of a building. I remember Ned Jaus on WNMP - later on WKFM.

WKFM sold to General Tire for a million dollars who changed the format to Drake-Chenault automated oldies. At that time it was a record high price to pay for an fm station.
Click to expand...

Yes--1973 I think RKO took over 103.5 and changed the calls to WFYR "Fire Radio".
 
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