Townsquare seems to be fixing their stations up, possibly KOLM bought a new transmitter. A few years ago, you could hardly hear KOLM a few miles away in the Daytime.
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Your closest unheard AM station
- Thread starter CADXER
- Start date
I got KOLM just once... but that one time it came in strongly. WKVI can often be slightly heard where I am during the daytime, coming directly across the lake. It took me a while to figure out what it was. I remember straining to listen through the static and finally getting the ID.
I picked up WKVI in Dayton, Ohio early one winter afternoon. Those high frequencies can skip around everywhere
Last time I heard them was about a year ago on the car radio driving near the University of Chicago in Hyde Park at high noon, so they should be possible during daytime in Chicago. Closer proximity to the lake might enhance the possibility of hearing them.
I'll have to research this a little further, but for now the "winner" by a nose is WZTI, 1290, Milwaukee at 48 miles. A very directional 5kw aimed away from me. Runner up at 49 miles is WRHL from Rochelle, IL. 250 watts on 1060. Very directional away from me.
Can I include WSQR with their mighty one watt of non-directional night power on 1180. 30 miles to my southeast. WHAM overtakes them at a distance of about five miles.
Can I include WSQR with their mighty one watt of non-directional night power on 1180. 30 miles to my southeast. WHAM overtakes them at a distance of about five miles.
KOLM used to be a semi-regular for me during my college location in southeast Iowa. Top 40 in those days with a favorable 10kw pattern. It was easy to confuse it with KOMA when you first heard it, until the "actual" KOMA showed up and blew it out!
There are about four here in the San Diego market.
KURS/1040 (San Diego) - 360 watts day/61 watts night - only heard in the downtown area and South Bay
KNSN/1240 - (San Diego) - 550 watts - can be heard weakly in central San Diego and South Bay, barely audible in East County and North.
KKSM/1320 (Oceanside) - 500 watts - can barely be heard anywhere except north Coastal San Diego County (Encinitas, Carlsbad, Oceanside)
KKFSD/1450 (Escondido) - 1000 watts. By day can be heard a little bit in Central and Eastern San Diego County but most listening is confined to North County
KURS/1040 (San Diego) - 360 watts day/61 watts night - only heard in the downtown area and South Bay
KNSN/1240 - (San Diego) - 550 watts - can be heard weakly in central San Diego and South Bay, barely audible in East County and North.
KKSM/1320 (Oceanside) - 500 watts - can barely be heard anywhere except north Coastal San Diego County (Encinitas, Carlsbad, Oceanside)
KKFSD/1450 (Escondido) - 1000 watts. By day can be heard a little bit in Central and Eastern San Diego County but most listening is confined to North County
From Boise ID 940 KDIL Jerome ID. A "move-in" from Dillon MT! Supposed to be a kilowatt/250w but many have reported it's hard to hear them more than a few miles from their site.
Partly because of that, as well as having been a Spanish-language religious station for decades, there's no need to have much coverage to the east. They also have a translator on Shaw Butte (north Phoenix) on 106.7 that, at least in theory, covers the city much better than 1540. I believe they also simulcast with KCKY 1150 Coolidge, that covers the East Valley very well, at least they did a few years back.
WZTI 1290 is on the order of 250 watts IDF toward Crystal Lake, IL. Seems like it used to be 1000 watts nondirectional when it was WMIL. Looks like they moved South and had to maintain or decrease overlap with WTAQ/WRDZ 1300 LaGrange, IL.
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I tried to get WZTI in various locations in Chicago the last few days. There really isn't any trace of them. Even WNIL in Niles, Michigan can be heard in a few choice places, despite being only 500 watts. WZTI seems to be quite good at avoiding the Chicago area.
I seem to remember being able to see the tower for WMIL along I-43 when I travelled through there in the 1970s. The History Card describes the location as 520 W. Capitol Dr., near Glendale, WI. So they moved further South to go full-time, with the NIF serving Greenfield, WI.
WMIL used to be a daily regular here in Crystal Lake, albeit with a weak signal. The closest I;ve come with the 5kw directional setup was one day last summer in the back yard with the Superadio-2. Two very weak oldies signals mixing. One turned iut to be WIRL, I couldn't ID the other one, but WZTI would be my best guess.
Do you remember when WZTI was WMVP? I lived in Milwaukee from 1989-2005. As I recall, AM 1000 in Chicago paid the station in Milwaukee a fee to obtain the WMVP call sign. For many years, this station was owned by the late Green Bay Packers hall of famer, Willie Davis. I knew him socially, he was a warm and friendly man who served on a number of company and organizational boards.
Bob
Various sources confirm that 1290 Greenfield was WMVP from late 1985 to early 1993, also that the owner was paid by the owners of WLUP to change to WMVP 1000.
"Do you remember when WZTI was WMVP?"
WMVP then became WMCS, Milwaukee's Community Station". I used to listen to it when it was WZUU, which was simulcast on 95.7. It was briefly WLZZ, back to WZUU, then WMVP-WMCS-WZTI. When they went to their 4-tower array in Franklin (a southwest suburb) they became basically unlistenable in Kenosha; I'm only about 25 miles away. I am not surprised that you Chicago area DXers can't get a whiff of it.
WMVP then became WMCS, Milwaukee's Community Station". I used to listen to it when it was WZUU, which was simulcast on 95.7. It was briefly WLZZ, back to WZUU, then WMVP-WMCS-WZTI. When they went to their 4-tower array in Franklin (a southwest suburb) they became basically unlistenable in Kenosha; I'm only about 25 miles away. I am not surprised that you Chicago area DXers can't get a whiff of it.
Here we have another spinoff of "If a tree falls in the forest but no one's around, does it make a sound?" So theoretically yes, but we wouldn't have a way to prove it. Oh wait a second...SDRs with those graphs!
I remember all of these. And the question has been raised: "Does (the Milwaukee 1290) get out?
My first radio job was at what's now WKLJ. 5kw non-directional (then) daytimer on 1290 in the western part of the state. An area with lousy gound conductivity. I signed on the station and hosted the first two hours of the morning, had a two hour break, then sold time and also did production. I got calls from listeners and advertisers alike in the area to our sooutheast basically saying that WMIL was intruding on us. As a 1kw non-directional signal. I checked it out for myself in the company car, and it discovered that it was true. So I picked up the phone and called them. The guy who answered said, "Wow, we're really getting out".
I don't know if my phone call did it or not. But by the following week the problem was gone. I never did find out what exactly had been going on or whether or not it was intentional.
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