FM Frequency od the Week - 93.9 MHz

What do you all get on 93.9 FM?

Here in Vermilion, OH I get CIDR/WIndsor, ON with an AAA format with a local-sounding signal. I caught them off the air a few years ago one morning and was getting a scratchy WBKS/Columbus Grove, OH (near Lima) with a Top-40 format.

Sorry, here goes one of those "back when I was..." posts.

Back when I was a college freshman in the late 70s in rural southern Iowa, the local FM stations weren't very good. And the good top-40 AMs like KIOA, WLS and KAAY were beginning to decline. Then one fall afternoon, I was messing with the radio in my Datsun, and there was a silent stereo carrier on 93.9 . I thought it was going to be a local station because it seemed quite strong and not very hissy. Turned out it was Iowa City's KRNA. A bunch of twenty-somethings with a little money behind them put KRNA on the air in 1975 at 93.5, a class A channel. They continued to pursue the class C channel of 93.9 for several years. And this was in the days before they considered mutual exclusivity. If you had a station at 93.5, and wanted to move to the more powerful 2nd adjacent 93.9, you'd be subject to competing applications. So KRNA was taking a big gamble pursuing 93.9. They had a good track record in their previous years on 93.5, and so they got the nod to move to 93.9. By the early 90s, they floated up to 94.1, in a Docket 80-90-fueled two station frequency swap. Anyway, what a breath of fresh air they were. A lot of really good talent got started on 93.9 KRNA back then as a top 40 station.

Today in southern Colorado, 93.9 is a translator for one of the Pueblo Radio Group stations. It was sports last week, it's oldies this week. Business as usual for them, it seems.

93.9 is WLIT in all of Chicagoland

In southern MO, 93.9 is KSPQ West Plains. For many years, the station's calls were KWPM-FM, and in the early 1980's had an automated Adult Contemporary format with a deep playlist. From 1986-88, they ran an early version of voice-tracking through the company Concept Productions. After 1988, the station switched calls to KSPQ, and was mostly AOR/Classic Rock until its change to the "Jack" format in recent years. Its class C1 signal blankets the Ozarks.

Far northwest suburbs of Chicago, it's WLIT. Where I am, 40-odd miles from the downtown skyscrapers, the signal is fair-good. Similar to most of the other full signal Chicago FMs.

(As for KRNA, I remember when it came on. They may have started on a shoestring, but they were well-attuned to what their target audience wanted, and subsequently became an incredibly strong powerful local brand. It was the "go to" for my two kids during their years at the University of Iowa.)

cyberdad said:

Far northwest suburbs of Chicago, it's WLIT. Where I am, 40-odd miles from the downtown skyscrapers, the signal is fair-good. Similar to most of the other full signal Chicago FMs.

(As for KRNA, I remember when it came on. They may have started on a shoestring, but they were well-attuned to what their target audience wanted, and subsequently became an incredibly strong powerful local brand. It was the "go to" for my two kids during their years at the University of Iowa.)

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Random question: Are the Willis Tower broadcasters heard well throughout the Chicago area? The HAAT is golden, but it still seems like coverage is a bit spotty.

Here in Warminster PA(Philadelphia area), it's usually splatter from local 94.1 WIP(sports station). In tropo occasions, I would hear either WNYC-FM from
New York or WKYS from DC.

fordranger797 said:

Random question: Are the Willis Tower broadcasters heard well throughout the Chicago area? The HAAT is golden, but it still seems like coverage is a bit spotty.

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Beyond 35 miles, the Willis Tower signals get a little flaky in my opinion, which puts the far suburbs of Chicagoland just beyond their reliable reach.

joebtsflk1 said:

Beyond 35 miles, the Willis Tower signals get a little flaky in my opinion, which puts the far suburbs of Chicagoland just beyond their reliable reach.

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Thats interesting. Out here in the pacific northwest, we have FM's running 70kw ERP from 3,000 feet, and it works extremely well. Those Willis stations just look underpowered and useless (if you are outside of Chicago proper).

joebtsflk1 said:

Beyond 35 miles, the Willis Tower signals get a little flaky in my opinion, which puts the far suburbs of Chicagoland just beyond their reliable reach.

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I think that's a pretty fair and accurate assessment. I'm 43 miles northwest of Willis. Where I am, the Chicago full-signal FMs are audible but very much prone to hiss on walkman-type radios and cheap clock radios. You usually need to either have a good radio or an external antenna of some sort for decent at-home listening. In a car radio, around town, you're usually OK, but you will get some minor to occasionally moderate "picket fencing". There are slight, but sometimes noticable, variances among the signals. WOJO (105.1) and WCFS (105.9...relay of WBBM-AM) are especially vulnerable with a second-adjacent local on 105.5 about two miles from my house.

Traveling away from the city, the problems described above are significantly more noticeable in the next town to my northwest...about eight miles away. But the Chicago signals are still pretty much listenable until about the Wisconsin state line, another dozen or so miles farther out.

Mostly WDOR Sturgeon Bay, WI with a full service oldies/classic hits format. This station was a country station for years, then flipped to AC, and recently segued toward oldies/classic hits. This Class C1 station reads the obituaries on air

Springfield, IL: WQQL (Oldies, "Cool 93.9"; COL Sherman). This format was formerly on Capitol Radio Group sister station 101.9 before they flipped to country as "The Wolf" last fall.

Seattle area - KMPS HD hash. Once caught KZRD Dodge City, KS during E-skip with local ads (this was 6/29/2010).
Yakima - Nothing, maybe a little bit of K229AD "U-Rock" 93.7 splatter, but doesn't really effect it. KTAC Ephrata WA and KPDQ Portland OR (both religion) float in from time to time.
I've added one E skip log since arriving here on 93.9: KSWN McCook, NE. Heard 6/23/14 with "The Zone" ID. Also heard was a tentative KSOU or KIAI in July with a contest promotion for tickets to the Iowa State Fair and a waterpark near Sioux Falls. Never got the ID on that one. Same opening had KMXC-SD 97.3 and KJIA-IA 88.9.

-crainbebo