AM Frequency of the week: 1600

Let's take it from the top. Or at least what used to be the top before the X-band came along. 1600. What are you guys hearing there.

Here in the far northwest suburbs of Chicago, daytime, not much of anything. Semi-local 500-watt ND WMCW in Harvard, Illinois was bought and taken dark by an ethnic broadcaster on 1590 in order to boost power to 10kw. The top-of-the dial clearing operation also required buying a 250-watt cofeepot on 1580 and taking that dark as well.

The whole thing was sort of unfortunate because WMCW did a nice job of serving it's little area on the Illinois-Wisconsin state line, more than an hour away from any large city. At any rate, WMCW's signal where I am, 18 miles away, was fair to good. As for the ethnic on 1590 (WCGO), the signal is fair at best. Splatter is not an issue. But it's a moot point because there's nothing to splatter on.

Night: Typical mess. KGYM, Cedar Rapids, IA most likely to surface on top. Sometimes WAAM from Ann Arbor, MI.

In Southeastern MI, WAAM usually. Used to get WTRU Muskegon, and WCGO 1600 more recently. KCRG Cedar Rapids and WCWC Ripon were common in the 1960s and 1970s. WWRL is frequently heard, both during Critical Hours and at night.

1600 is usually nothing days, sometimes a threshold.
Sunsets bring along a variety of regional stations. KTUB UT (Regional Mexican), KOPB OR (NPR), KOHI OR (News/Talk), KVRI WA (Indian/Punjabi) are some of the common ones.
Nights is usually a mix of KVRI, KGST Fresno (ESPN), KTUB and sometimes KOPB. Rarely, KEPN Denver (NBC Sports) will show up.
I've also had KUBA Yuba City, CA from time to time with their oldies format.

Wanted suspects on 1600: quite a few. KTAP CA, KIVA NM, KATZ MO, and KGYM IA.

-crainbebo

Schroedingers Cat said:

.....Used to get WTRU Muskegon, and WCGO 1600 more recently.

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Forgot about WTRU. Used to hear that one quite a bit....especially sunrise/sunset. I believe they're long gone.

Just remembered two more. KATZ 1600 and what was then WHLL 1600 Wheeling, WV.

1600 was a new Regional Channel in 1941. It became more filled with stations than other Regionals because more daytimers could pack the channel. Now of course those have PSSAs so it sounds like a Local Channel especially during those HS Football "STAs". I didn't believe there actually were Football STAs, and I doubt that most have authorization today, but if you look at the history cards on line, sure as shootin', they were there way back.

Most of the DX here has been done after I first moved in in 1993. So I hope this dog-eared list us useful.

Well, okay. Daytimes it's *still* WPDC Elizabethtown PA from downstate with their sports, along with an occasional smidge from WHOL Allentown. I wonder if Allen and Elizabeth ever met.

Nighttimes have brought WNEV from WV. They were Big Band/MoR in 1993 when I taped them. That facility must've had more format changes than Radio Belgrade.

WWRL comes in well sometimes at night, although they're not supposed to.

Sunsets have provided taped IDs from WINX from MD (Aug 1994) and WKEN from Ken Delaware in July 1996.

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From the days back near JFK Aiprort in Queens, word was that if you drove North along the shore of the Bronx and Westchester, WLNG 1600 would come water-skiing down Long Island Sound and blow away WWRL. The WWRL signal was pulled in that way, to protect Waterbury's 1590 and Boston's 1600.

From those days, like so many other NYC regional frequencies were, 1600 was a generous frequency when the Big 'RL was silent on some overnights. It took like fifty stations to be off, but loggings included two 'K' calls -- KCRG Iowa and KATZ St. Louis.
I was the lousiest DXer of our bunch, but I count 16 stations 'heard' on 1600 during those years. Things could be great when one of the locals was found missing.

Daytime in S.A. brings in Puro Norteño KOKE from Pflugerville (near Austin) with a moderate signal that fades occasionally.

At sunset, Korean-language KRVA in Cockrell Hill (near Dallas) comes to the fore, and KOGT, Orange, TX, starts coming in as well. During one sunset this past December, I also logged KEPN.

Nighttime, once KRVA and KOKE reduce power, it's like a graveyard frequency N/S, with those two stations sometimes poking through very weakly and briefly. E/W is less of a jumble with KOGT coming up more than anything else, but it sometimes gets overtaken by gospel station WMQM in Lakeland, TN.

Around sunrise I can sometimes get talk station KIVA in Albuquerque, and I once snagged Tejano 1600 KXEW in South Tuscon, AZ, as it faded up, IDed, and then disappeared.

In St. Louis, KATZ is the dominant daytime signal. Growing up in the 1970's, their 5 kW signal was reliable where I lived 24 hours a day. Since the 1990's, that has changed to the point where the station cannot be heard well at night, or at all after sunset. There is a Regional Mexican station that is heard here (I don't have an ID for it) at night instead. The station has run HD, which put hash on the sidebands, but they have not been running it for a while now (note: the HD signal was in stereo).

The phenomena you mention for KATZ seems to apply to nearly all the former Class III-A and III-B stations. In SE Michigan, on another 1600 mentioned, WAAM, the groundwave used to be heard clearly beyond its NIF contour, often to the 0.5 mV/m predicted contour, in a listenable way at night. As soon as they authorized PSSAs, there was a very noticeable increase in cochannel interference. But it used to stop when they were required to sign off the PSSAs 2 hours after sunset. WAAM was considered a III-A, and its present day NIF is supposed to be 4 mV/m. The same applies to many other of the formerly protected III-As and III-Bs in the region. It's not just the PSSAs, it's widespread operation of SOME stations with daytime facilities, DAs in bad shape, Canadian stations reportedly reacting to prevalent IBOC interference, etc. And it's not just WAAM and KATZ having reduced service areas at night compared with the past. And during critical hours, stations operating with 10000 watts or more daytime legally, often nondirectional and with under 50 watts authorized at night to avoid being directional, shrink the daytime service area of these older stations and the Class D daytimers themselves.

KATZ has been an elusive target for as long as I can remember. I'm pretty sure I've heard it here at my home QTH somewhere along the line, although probably not recently, and I've never been able to positively ID it. Surprising because from my travels I clearly remember the strong signal in the St. Louis metro, and I've heard it nighttime at various other locations around the Midwest. Of course, the now-reduced night power and throwing a nighttime null in my direction doesn't help matters.

I'm not sure if there was an actual reduction in the RMS of the night power of KATZ.. A lot of stations used SLRs and continue to use reduced input while continuing to be licensed as 5000 watts. The RMS Theoretical an Standard for KATZ meet the minimum for Class B with 5000 watts. If it was relocated, it had to be relicensed with the actual input power. Being in the more Central US, I strongly suspect that this was the case. A lot of this happened when stations upgraded from 1000 to 5000 watts nighttime. If they couldn't fit it with full input, they did the minimum for the Class. Since there was no in between power between 1000 and 5000, that was done often. But there's also a bunch of 1000 watt stations licensed that are only 700-800 watts input also.

Warminster PA(Philly 'burbs):

Daytime: WHOL Allentown PA(weak)
Night: mess of stations, including WWRL and WINX

cyberdad said:

KATZ has been an elusive target for as long as I can remember. I'm pretty sure I've heard it here at my home QTH somewhere along the line, although probably not recently, and I've never been able to positively ID it. Surprising because from my travels I clearly remember the strong signal in the St. Louis metro, and I've heard it nighttime at various other locations around the Midwest. Of course, the now-reduced night power and throwing a nighttime null in my direction doesn't help matters.

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For years I've tried for KATZ, but my efforts availed me nothing. Didn't they used to be an R & B powerhouse?

Don't give up hope. Nights, they do send a tiny signal your way. Mornings, after the switch to daytime parameters, much more power, sunset also.

On the other hand, some things just aren't meant to be.

Icangelp said:

For years I've tried for KATZ, but my efforts availed me nothing. Didn't they used to be an R & B powerhouse?

Don't give up hope. Nights, they do send a tiny signal your way. Mornings, after the switch to daytime parameters, much more power, sunset also.

On the other hand, some things just aren't meant to be.

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Yes, KATZ spent a good portion of its life as an R&B icon. "Soul Sixteen" IIRC. I think the problem for me in snagging them where I live is that the stations that do come in at night tend to have pretty good signals. So you wind up with a "mess" that's a little louder and more crowded than usual, if that makes any sense. I'm aware of KATZ's small "bump" in my direction. But to this point, that hasn't been enough to lift it above the pack....at least not in identifiable form.

I seem to remember that there was some confusion as to whether you were hearing KATZ or WWRL, and even more when WAAM ran R & B (The Electrifying Mojo) in the evening. WWRL did and until recently and perhaps still IDed very frequently in some way (The Big RL as I recall).

In past years I heard WWRL many times in the Chicago area, but never KATZ and I'm much closer to St Louis. Go figure!

In the 1969 WRTH, KATZ shows up as 5/1 U2. I suspect that we only heard KATZ when it was 5 kW nondirectional days around sunrise and sunset. It is 6 kW daytime now, and only slightly directional. With the 8 tower night pattern, we would not be likely to hear it, as it goes primarily West toward St. Louis from its Illinois transmitter site. In between, it was licensed as 5 U2 and now 6/3.5 U4 in WRTH notation.

In Port Alexander, AK, at night 1600 is KVRI Blaine...an Indian? music/talk station. One of the strongest nighttime signals here too. Kinda creepy and surreal listening to that in the dark!