AM Frequency of the Week: 610

Far northwest suburban Chicago area.....

Days: Splatter from WTMJ and their iboc machine. I know WTVN has turned up daytime in the Chicago area, but I personally have not heard it. Just yesterday, however, I heard something that was barely audible, and which I couldn't identify. It was about two hours before sunset, so my guess was WTVN with the very beginnings skywave settig in. c

Nights: KCSP from Kansas City owns the channel. Fair signal with unidentifiable stuff underneath.

Retro: The Kansas City 610 during its run as WDAF, put in a very good signal here. One of the best out of town skywave signals on the former "regional" channels. It's still better than what's on most of those channels, but certainly not what it used to be.

Just the Other day: Totally unexpected nighttime catch. I think it was Tuesday morning (5/16) that KDAL came booming in from Duluth, Minnesota. Very good signal with minimal fading and positive ID, I listened for about fifteen minutes, then left the channel. When I came back about 15 minutes later, it was gone and never came back. KDAL is 5kw, directional nights with a null to the south. As a reusult, they're invisible here during hours of darkness, and I never heard them. At least until last week!

The obvious guess is that I happened to catch them being on day pattern for some reason. (KDAL does have a good day signal despite being in an area with poor ground conductivity.)

Near north Chicago burbs I hear mostly WTMJ splatter during the day. I have heard WTVN a few times in the past weak during the day in the winter.
At night KCSP is almost always there.

retro: many years ago 610 in Philadelphia when it was WIP used to make occasional nighttime appearances.

Daytime - nothing

Nighttime - KEAR weak signal but strong enough to ID.

I sometimes hear another station or two in the background mix but no ID is possible.

But I wonder what stations they could be.

Here, 610 is a weak WIOD during the daytime. That signal travels a long way from Miami with whatever STA power they have (I think 10kw). It is audible anywhere within 10 miles of the ocean. There's a lot of splatter from 600 in Jacksonville though. Sometimes, a weak Charlotte comes in under WIOD. Charlotte is the usual 610 during critical hours.

I've also heard WTVN here during critical hours.

10 miles northwest of NYC.. WTEL 610 Philadelphia under heavy local WSNR 620 splatter

Really nothing useful in Pittsburgh. We are in a near-perfect null between
Philadelphia and Columbus. Sometimes you can catch WTVN during the daytime,
but usually 620 WKHB is too strong and just stomps all over it.

24/7 KILT Houston........no longer the big Top40 king is was in the 70s.....now a shell of its former self

As CW noted, nothing of interest in Houston. But a retro report from Lubbock in the 70's: Daytime, mixture of KILT and what is now KNML Albuquerque. Both pretty weak. But I suspect the pattern for KILT was once different, prior to the 620 move-in to Dallas.

Daytime: nothing listenable, the frequency obscured by local WMT on 600.

Nighttime: KCSP Kansas City. KDAL Duluth shows up once in a blue moon. Can't recall if I have ever picked up WTVN here, but I know I've heard it on the car radio in nearby parts of the Midwest.

Retro: I can't really ever recall hearing KCSP/WDAF, again probably because of WMT. I thought I remembered that WDAF had a hard time making it very far northeast into my part of Iowa, but I may have been thinking of its daytime signal. However, I wouldn't be surprised if it is a stronger signal around here than it was 30-40 years ago.

From Reynoldsburg, Ohio, all local WTVN all the time. Tower is roughly 10 miles west/southwest of me. I am just north of one of its deep nulls toward Philadelphia at night, and the signal is noticeably worse even this close after nightfall. 610 is markedly stronger as little as four miles west of me, once you get "in front" of the nighttime pattern.
I have personally heard WTVN as far away as Remington, Indiana, during the day. I am sure it can be heard a little farther north before it fades completely and WTMJ slop takes over. Given the ground conductivity between here and Pittsburgh, I am not surprised WTVN (which is directional only at night) is gone by then. I've lost it around Washington, Pa., before, only about 150 miles east of here. Remington, by comparison, is well over 200 miles west-northwest of here.
When I attended college in Toledo, WTVN actually got stronger when it went to night pattern. Back in the summer of 2004, it went non-directional at all hours for several weeks because of tower work. I am sure it caused a lot of interference to Philly and Kansas City among other co-channel signals.

Daytime: WPLO, at night I often hear WIOD just North of Atlanta GA

No doubt about that, gr8. Their engineers do a great job maintaining the night pattern.
I haven't been in London much for as close it is, but one time I was there was the day after the election last November. Listened to 610 as I drove that way and heard the pattern change. I was southwest of Grove City but still in Franklin County at that moment, and WTVN nearly fell off the table (talking from 10 to maybe 3 in signal strength, and there were points along 665 before crossing out of the county that the phasing made 610 nearly unintelligible). I did not listen all the way to London but I figure the signal was almost gone by then.
I know it is gone at night to the east as close as Zanesville, which is a little farther from Columbus than Springfield.

Here in Cincinnati on the AM 610 dial.
Daytime : 610 WTVN (Weak)
Nighttime : Mixed and Scrambled stations.
So there You have it!

Schlep82 said:

So there You have it!

Click to expand...

You sound like Fred Winston who used to make that statement after a bit he did on Chicago radio called "News You can't use".

Day: A weak/moderate KILT

Night: XEGS "La GS" in Guasuave with a moderate signal. KCSP can be heard, a little weaker, in its null, with KILT mixing/underneath.

Retro: XEBX in Sabinas is another one I haven't heard in at least a year and suspect has migrated.

Zip code 33701- downtown St. Petersburg, day (2 hours before sunset today) - a very very weak unidentifiable signal - assuming it was WIOD, night time WIOD-610- Miami - listenable - but weak.

drt said:

Zip code 33701- downtown St. Petersburg, day (2 hours before sunset today) - a very very weak unidentifiable signal - assuming it was WIOD, night time WIOD-610- Miami - listenable - but weak.

Click to expand...

I'm almost certain the 610 you heard was WIOD. In the four consecutive January multi-week visits I spent on Treasure Island (St. Pete Beach). WIOD was very weak, but still clearly audible days, slightly...but noticeably...better at night.

WPLO Lawrenceville GA. day & night

I think I am maybe 15 to 20 miles from their transmitter. I think they were the first Hispanic broadcaster and the last CQUAM station in the market.