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Your closest unheard AM station

From DFW, Texas. I've logged a few of my nearby unheard stations since last post:

1220 KZEE Weatherford - 44 miles - 1600/200 - This should be semi-local, appears to be off the air.
1250 KZHN Paris - 101 miles - 500/95
1290 KWFS Wichita Falls - 105 miles - 5000/73 - Pattern map shows I am in fringe coverage, but not a trace heard.
1330 KGLD Tyler - 116 miles - 1000/77
1330 KSWA Graham - 86 miles - 500/51
1410 KNTX Bowie - 56 miles - 500/150
1420 KFYN Bonham - 66 miles - 250/148
1420 KPIR Granbury - 56 miles - 500/500
1510 KWJB Canton - 80 miles - 500/---
1550 KMAD Madill, OK - 76 miles 250/---
 
1220 WATX Hamden, CT, is inaudible here in Meriden, only 17 miles away, but special circumstances are in play. The station is authorized for 1,000 watts day, 300 watts night, but has been operating at much lower power while owner Clark Smidt looks for an antenna site. This station is the former WQUN, which Quinnipiac University shut down in 2019. It has no FM translator and is now broadcasting automated oldies in low-quality, muffled audio to an audience which -- if it exists at all -- is within no more than five miles of whatever is being used for an antenna.
 
CTListener said:
1220 WATX Hamden, CT, is inaudible here in Meriden, only 17 miles away, but special circumstances are in play. The station is authorized for 1,000 watts day, 300 watts night, but has been operating at much lower power while owner Clark Smidt looks for an antenna site. This station is the former WQUN, which Quinnipiac University shut down in 2019. It has no FM translator and is now broadcasting automated oldies in low-quality, muffled audio to an audience which -- if it exists at all -- is within no more than five miles of whatever is being used for an antenna.
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Can you get closer.... record an aircheck and post it on google drive or box.com and share the link here?
 
tvnut said:
Looks like it's WKVI 1520 Knox, Ind., about 70 miles away. 1800 watt daytimer with 350 watts during critical hours. I'll have to see if it can overpower WWKB Buffalo some morning.
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I wrote the above on Oct. 31, 2021. Now I can call WKVI a tentative – very – reception. Just before 4 p.m., a snippet matched the female voice on the WKVI stream. I have no idea how far behind the stream is, but the voice matched perfectly with some community college news. No ID so not counting it, but we're closing in on this most difficult to hear station.

I'm thinking this was enhanced groundwave, as WKVI should be on critical hours (and 350 watts, down from 1,800) by this time. Minutes later, something else (WWKB?) began to override it.
 
tvnut said:
I wrote the above on Oct. 31, 2021. Now I can call WKVI a tentative – very – reception. Just before 4 p.m., a snippet matched the female voice on the WKVI stream. I have no idea how far behind the stream is, but the voice matched perfectly with some community college news. No ID so not counting it, but we're closing in on this most difficult to hear station.

I'm thinking this was enhanced groundwave, as WKVI should be on critical hours (and 350 watts, down from 1,800) by this time. Minutes later, something else (WWKB?) began to override it.
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Where did you hear it?
 
tvnut said:
Southwest suburbs of Chicago. Not confirmed yet. It wasn't on the nearest SDR some 15 minutes later, but I wasn't checking that when I got the potential match. The chase goes on.
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I've received WKVI in Dayton, Ohio. DXing those frequencies in the winter is something else
 
Thanks to Friday night high school football I finally heard my closest unheard AM station. Tonight at 9:15 pm CDT I heard a play by play of a HS football game on 1060 kHz under KYW, which turned out to be a game between Rochelle and Johnsburg. Quick check with WRHL web stream confirmed that I was hearing WRHL Rochelle, Illinois, which at 56 miles was my closes unheard AM station. This now makes WSPL Streator, Illinois my closest unheard at 71 miles.
 
Congrats on WRHL. You heard my pal Jeff Leon, morning man and sports director there. Guessing they were running 250 watts rather than their usual 5 nighttime watts. Ye olde “football hours” strike again!
 
tvnut said:
Congrats on WRHL. You heard my pal Jeff Leon, morning man and sports director there. Guessing they were running 250 watts rather than their usual 5 nighttime watts. Ye olde “football hours” strike again!
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My guess exactly.

A year or two back, WHFB in Benton Harbor, MI was apparently running on day power all night on 1060, Trashing KYW at my home location, so why not WRHL? I still have yet to hear them here in Crystal Lake. WRHL still qualifies as "closest station to me that I can't hear that once offered me a job". (Early 70s.):ROFLMAO:
 
boiseengineer said:
Several that are supposed to be on the air... But have NEVER run more than a few watts. Their translators are on tho.
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And that is a mistake. Most translators picket fence and fade out well before the AM signal does. Translators are not the answer to replacement of AM BCB stations, except in the smallest towns or target audience areas.
 
CADXER said:
Thanks to Friday night high school football I finally heard my closest unheard AM station.
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Personally, I understand and sympathize with a station having a technical problem. However, if the condition is clearly not caused by a technical malfunction, I wonder about the thought process behind the decision to violate a rule. A daytime station staying on after dark, collecting advertising revenue and creating interference to a clear channel station is not a minor infraction. Especially if there is a clear reason for doing so, and thus little doubt that it was intentional. Perhaps the licensee considers football game revenue, audience generation and goodwill an existential matter of survival.
 
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I still have yet to hear 930 KTKN, due to KNSA only 200 miles away
I've yet to hear KJNO 630, due to KIAM 630 250 miles away.

I've heard every single other AM in this state, all 35 of them.. including 1450 KLAM Cordov,a only 250 watts but very very regular.
 
Greg Strickland said:
Personally, I understand and sympathize with a station having a technical problem. However, if the condition is clearly not caused by a technical malfunction, I wonder about the thought process behind the decision to violate a rule. A daytime station staying on after dark, collecting advertising revenue and creating interference to a clear channel station is not a minor infraction. Especially if there is a clear reason for doing so, and thus little doubt that it was intentional. Perhaps the licensee considers football game revenue, audience generation and goodwill an existential matter of survival.
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And it happens so often, football season after football season. Wonder what the incident-to-fine ratio is.
 
Today, I was listening to the translator of 27000 watt nondirectional Daytime WMKT 1270 on 103.3 and it sounded over modulated and had a lot of picket fencing. I switched over to the AM. At Night though, there is too much interference, as most AM stations have after a few miles or so. Translators are useful to extend listening beyond a high NIF signal and in null areas since the FCC allowed 60 dBu service to 25 miles even in null areas.
 
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