AM Frequency of the week 560

40 miles northwest of downtown Chicago.....

DAY and NIGHT: All WIND with a very good signal. Their transmitter site is more than 60 miles away along I-80, several miles into Indiana. But the signal here is competitive with all of Chicago's 50kw blowtorches. In fact, it's at least the equal of WLS, as well as better than WMVP (1000) and WYLL (1160). It helps that WIND's 5 killowatts are aimed in my direction on their day pattern, and even slightly more so at night.

Retro: When WIND has been off at night, the most frequent visitor here has been KWTO. KLZ has also turned up a few times. Generally pre-dawn Monday mornings.

DAY and NIGHT: WIND. Occasionally KLZ will appear at night. Oddly, I have never heard KWTO here, though its programming could be hard to distinguish from WIND's -- in other words, I usually tune to 560 expecting to hear WIND and only really noticing something different if there is more than one signal.

Here in Columbus, Ohio, I can't remember hearing much of anything day or night on 560.
When I lived in League City, Texas, it was KLVI from about 90 miles east in Beaumont, Texas, strong 24/7. No cancellation. Some salt-water path helped, of course, but KLVI is one of those signals heard far and wide along the Gulf Coast.

In the near north Chicago suburbs it's all WIND day & night with a very good signal. A few times years ago when I was able to null the signal a bit I heard KLZ underneath. When WIND has been off for maintenance I've heard KWTO and KLZ.

Daytime - nothing

Nighttime - KSFO The signal is audible most of the time and it often sounds as strong as KNBR.

I was very nicely surprised to hear it when I first got here, as I didn't expect much of anything from only a 5 kw signal. But being directional sure helps!

Sometimes, I can hear another station way in the background but can't even begin to figure out who it is.

Another San Francisco station I didn't expect to hear was 610 KEAR but they are there most nights, though very weak.

If only they could do a retro thing by bringing back KFRC to 610 and playing the old top 40 hits.

in southern CO, day and night, all KLZ Denver. Some unid bubbling under at night.

RETRO: southern Iowa, daytime a very weak WIND Chicago, night generally KWTO Springfield...better in Des Moines than in SE Iowa.

RETRO FANTASY: Forty years ago 560 was the frequency I was going to use if I won a million dollars. Strictly with layman's questionable knowledge, from SE Iowa daytime would have required 3 or 4 towers, with the main lobe pointing NW with the pattern pulled in rather tight towards WIND and KWTO, and a minor lobe SE. probably no more than 1 kW day, and a tighter patern still for night, only 500 watts. 1 kw D/0.5 kw N on 560 would have been a potent signal. Today, I'd spend the money on a good Morse code spark transmitter.

In SE Michigan, WQTE...WRDT 560 500 watts DA-D Monroe, MI Days, and now with a 13.9 watt nondirectional PSSA, Nights from a skirted circa 1000 foot tower at a second site. Tallest AM radiator in the United States. Further West, and further North toward West Branch, and further West to near Lansing, WIND becomes the dominant groundwave. Further North still in the Lower Peninsula, CFOS Owen Sound, ON. CJKL Kirkland Lake, ON was frequently heard at Night before they moved to FM. WFIL on Day Pattern during Critical Hours before LSS. Various other 560s. Heard KLVI Beaumont, TX once in 1976.

cyberdad said:

40 miles northwest of downtown Chicago.....

DAY and NIGHT: All WIND with a very good signal. Their transmitter site is more than 60 miles away along I-80, several miles into Indiana. But the signal here is competitive with all of Chicago's 50kw blowtorches. In fact, it's at least the equal of WLS, as well as better than WMVP (1000) and WYLL (1160). It helps that WIND's 5 killowatts are aimed in my direction on their day pattern, and even slightly more so at night.

Retro: When WIND has been off at night, the most frequent visitor here has been KWTO. KLZ has also turned up a few times. Generally pre-dawn Monday mornings.

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WIND is neck and neck with WLS in Park Ridge in my experience. Also rivals WMAQ...WSCR at Night North of Milwaukee along Lake Michigan, near Cedar Grove. Along with WGES...WGRB, WIND booms into the Upper Peninsula at Night.

WIND 24/7 in Manistee, MI. Not as strong as 670/720/780/890/1000 day, but usually there.

560 in Charleston daytime is WVOC Columbia, with usually WQAM Miami under it. WVOC has been a heritage news-talk station for most of the last 30 years, except for a couple of years when they flipped to sports and moved the news-talk to FM. They cover most of SC with that 5kw daytime signal. Before the mid 1980s, they were WIS.

WQAM can be heard on the beach with a signal, especially the south-facing beaches. Nighttime is usually a bunch of mumbo jumbo.

When I was in Manasquan, NJ last summer, during the day I heard WFIL from Philly decently, but I could null that to hear WGAI from NC with gospel and a weak WHYN from Springfield, MA.

ftballfan said:

WIND 24/7 in Manistee, MI. Not as strong as 670/720/780/890/1000 day, but usually there.

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The reason it isn't better along the Eastern Lake Shore is that the DA pattern goes NW much better than NE.

Just discovered that in 2015 WIND was granted an AUX facility with 1/0.58 U1 at the WYLL Day site on Ballard Rd. in Des Plaines.

charlestondxman said:

560 in Charleston daytime is WVOC Columbia, with usually WQAM Miami under it. WVOC has been a heritage news-talk station for most of the last 30 years, except for a couple of years when they flipped to sports and moved the news-talk to FM. They cover most of SC with that 5kw daytime signal. Before the mid 1980s, they were WIS.

WQAM can be heard on the beach with a signal, especially the south-facing beaches. Nighttime is usually a bunch of mumbo jumbo.

When I was in Manasquan, NJ last summer, during the day I heard WFIL from Philly decently, but I could null that to hear WGAI from NC with gospel and a weak WHYN from Springfield, MA.

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Interesting.

On my last visit to New Jersey, I took the PR-D5 to the shore on a cold windy fall day for some daytime AM DXing on Long Beach Island.

Of course, my hope of hearing WQAM turned out to be only wishful thinking.

I remember hearing a couple stations in the null of WFIL but with no official IDs but figured one had to be WGAI.

The other station had Rush Limbaugh on at the time but I never imagined it could be the one from Springfield, Mass because that's quite a ways inland so I didn't consider that as a possibility.

Now after more than three years, I finally know what I was hearing. I just went to their site and his show is on their schedule.

Thanks!

Here at the den/attic in J-Bip PA :

DAY: WFIL.

NIGHT: WFIL (although I do have a log of CJKL)

RETRO: Two things:
1) I've been waiting some time for a 560 quorum like this one here, to help me out with an unID -- an unID from Monday morning 2-14-1977! Actually opening up a DX reel/cassette is a 5AM identifier that goes 'This is KAZL News'.
At least that's what it sounds like to me. I don't know how to post a sound clip on here so you folks could adjudge.
2) Wife and I were driving along the south shore of Long Island one weekend circa 1991, tuned to WFIL. At the time they were Beautiful music. Some guy comes on between songs with a station liner/separator. Linda says, 'Huh. That sounded like YOU there for a second.'
I had to guffaw and fill her in. Yes, that indeed was me. When I worked at Eazy 101 the owners requested -- no, make that 'required' -- that we all kick through with liners for the new AM Beautiful Music station on 560 that broadcast all their programming from a long, narrow closet across the hall from 'EZ'

Almost forgot: That's some interesting DX there, Charleston and Gar !
560 was rendered to be forever a real .... a real female canine in Queend NY, with WMCA seemingly off only one day MM's every five years or so.

A tip of the earphones to youse!

Daytime. nothing. Nights, its usually WQAM.

North of Atlanta

Schroedingers Cat said:

WIND is neck and neck with WLS in Park Ridge in my experience. Also rivals WMAQ...WSCR at Night North of Milwaukee along Lake Michigan, near Cedar Grove. Along with WGES...WGRB, WIND booms into the Upper Peninsula at Night.

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And then there's Winnipeg. I've been there at least a dozen times, and WIND is usually on top at night. Sometimes mixing with WEBC, but alone as often as not.

I wonder how much power the former JBC, Kingston on 560 runs.
They are not very receivable just about anywhere, even in Jamaica.

Yep, it was either that or WGAN Portland, which might have been too far away from the New Jersey coast. This is talking about the WHYN probable reception. I did that on a cloudy June day.

WVOC covers most of SC during the daytime. The farther inland you get, the better the signal gets. By the time you get to I-95, it is usually in pretty well. You can also hear it up to Charlotte daytime.

Houston - pretty much KLVI Beaumont day and night, although at night if you null it you can hear the usual mush underneath. It is a regional monster, and pretty much masquerades as a Houston station.