AM Frequency of the Week: 780

Another easy one where I am northwest of Chicago....

Day/Night: All local WBBM. Transmitter just down the road a mile from WGN and maybe five miles from co-owned WSCR.

Other Location: I used to occasionally have to drive U.S. 30 across Iowa. Radio-Locator maps notwithstanding, WBBM was almost always audible daytime on a good radio well beyond the middle part of the state. Then finally, a little east of the town of Caroll, Iowa, it began mixing with WJAG. WJAG is a 1kw non-directional daytimer from Norfolk, Nebraska, with an impressive signal. I could go a west for about 20 miles beyond Caroll before WJAG would take over completely.

I don't know the specific details of how WJAG come to be (where it is now), but it had to do with when KFAB was on 780 and finally got to move to 1110 around 75 or more years ago.

(FWIW, I've spent several nights in Norfolk on my biz trips to Nebraska in what used to be the Holiday Inn there. Nice town, nice people_.

In the near north Chicago suburbs it's always WBBM all day and all night. I am less than 20 miles from their tower.

Retro/other: In my travels throughout the US over the years WBBM has one of the best two skywave signals of all the Chicago sticks (WLS was the other one).
Back in the clear channel days WBBM was always heard whenever I was on the west coast before KKOH signed on. In Hawaii in November 1978 I heard WBBM there.
I think Gar has mentioned that he has heard it too.
On the Northern Ireland receiver WBBM is often heard during our winter months.

In My home city of the dial 780. I normally get nothing in the daytime. But in the nighttime... I get WBBM pretty good. I think all of the Chicago's 50KW clear stations can be heard pretty good in My area.
Other radio stations that is on the Chicago dials like 670, and 720 for example. I've heard Cuba mixing into WSCR's signal at night. But with 720. I've heard another radio station in the late afternoon sunset on the balcony. I've heard WGCR from Pisgah Forest, NC at first WGCR owning the channel, and then WGN showed up and taking WGCR under WGN. After that WGN ruled the dial. Minutes after that. WGCR gave up and went into nighttime wattage.

Daytime - nothing

Nighttime - KKOH with WBBM sometimes in the background strong enough to ID


When I was in Florida, WBBM easily had the strongest nighttime signal of all the Chicago stations.

But way back when I first moved there in the mid 80's and had my AM Stereo Walkman, WLS was the big blowtorch from Chicago.

Warminster PA(Philly 'burbs):

Daytime: zippo.
Night: WBBM.

Houston daytime - Spanish language, weak. I suspect XEMDA - but at only 1kW, they are awfully far away. Still, throwing a null that direction stops them. The other possibility is XESFT, but the direction is wrong.

Night - WBBM with other stuff underneath.

radioman148 said:

Retro/other: In my travels throughout the US over the years WBBM has one of the best two skywave signals of all the Chicago sticks (WLS was the other one).
Back in the clear channel days WBBM was always heard whenever I was on the west coast before KKOH signed on. In Hawaii in November 1978 I heard WBBM there.
I think Gar has mentioned that he has heard it too.
On the Northern Ireland receiver WBBM is often heard during our winter months.

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Prety much exactly my experience. WBBM is typically the best Chicago skywave signal in my travels. Not 100% of the time, for whatever reason, but pretty close. As often as not on the west coast I can hear it under KKOH, and I've also heard it on the Northern Ireland receiver. I have not heard it in Hawaii, but Gar has also confirmed that WBBM is definitely doable there. When I was living in Honolulu for a year of high school, splatter from KGU (760) made it mission impossible, and when I was on Maui in 1994 it was all KKOH.

cyberdad said:

Prety much exactly my experience. WBBM is typically the best Chicago skywave signal in my travels. Not 100% of the time, for whatever reason, but pretty close. As often as not on the west coast I can hear it under KKOH, and I've also heard it on the Northern Ireland receiver. I have not heard it in Hawaii, but Gar has also confirmed that WBBM is definitely doable there. When I was living in Honolulu for a year of high school, splatter from KGU (760) made it mission impossible, and when I was on Maui in 1994 it was all KKOH.

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Back in the day WLS and WBBM had the best Chicago sky wave signals especially to the south and west. In recent years WLS has been degraded for various reasons. WBBM still gets out very well on 780. As I previously mentioned WBBM can still be heard sometimes amazingly well on the Northern Ireland receiver.

Reynoldsburg, Ohio ..
* Daytime: Nothing, and I will get to more thoughts on that below.
* Nighttime: Always WBBM, sometimes with a great signal but other times much less than that.
As for the daytime, I have been underwhelmed by both WBBM's groundwave and skywave for at least the past two years. I first noticed back when WBBM picked up the Cubs broadcasts in 2015 that their skywave here into central Ohio wasn't nearly as good as WGN and WMVP, and most of the times I have checked ever since, that has not changed.
When I was driving to Chicago a few weeks ago, WBBM seemed far weaker heading up 65 in Indiana than WSCR, WGN and WLS. My aunt's car radio wasn't nearly the best, but it was good enough to you could easily discern which signals were the strongest. Coming from the south, WLS took those honors and the other 50K signals improved *dramatically* once we passed Lafayette. WBBM's strength noticeably lagged far behind WSCR and WGN until we closed in on Renssalaer, then they all seemed pretty much equal.
At least for me, WGN always has had the best skywave from Chicago. WMVP second (directional toward me), then WSCR and WBBM and WLS interchangeable.

South of the Minnesota River suburbs (Minneapolis, MN)
daytime-nothing or a bleedover of KUOM 770
nightime-WBBM (sometimes can even get the HD signal to lock)

Yakima WA
Day - nothing
Sunset - KKOH Reno
Night - KKOH Reno (and from September-March, WBBM Chicago at varying strength when Reno nulled. Sometimes very weak and other times it's LOUD on the box loop.)

Wanted on 780: KAZM Sedona (News Talk) / KNOM Nome, AK (Variety) / KCEG Fountain CO (Country). I've tentatively heard music on 780 under KKOH before sunrise, so maybe it was CO - but never confirmed an ID. KAZM should be possible when they are on day power. KNOM is a challenge but when the TP conditions are rocking, I keep checking 780 around sunrise to see if Nome can be heard under Reno. No dice yet.

In Charleston, 780 is a very weak WCKB Dunn, NC with a religious format during the daytime. 5kw. At night, it is a decent WBBM. It is almost always there at night. It is probably the second-best Chicago AM here behind WMVP.

720 is hamstrung by a local on 730, and 670 the Score might as well not exist. I hear it maybe 3-5 times a year with Cuba and Miami usually well atop that frequency.

When I was in Independence, OH this weekend (just S of Cleveland), I also heard WBBM daytime. I could not hear WMVP or WLS, but them, WGN, and WSCR were all in at 3-4 in the afternoon. Those Chicago stations were all over 330 miles from my location.

WSCR came in without my loop antenna on my PR-D15, and was actually weakly listenable with it. I even got WOWO with it very weakly.

charlestondxman said:

At night, it is a decent WBBM. It is almost always there at night. It is probably the second-best Chicago AM here behind WMVP.

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I've only spent time in Charleston once....which was a week in 1991. (And I really enjoyed the place.) Anyway, during my visit, I was a little surprised to also discover that what's now WMVP was arguably the best Chicago signal. But after I thought about it, I realized that I probably shouldn't have been.

cyberdad said:

I've only spent time in Charleston once....which was a week in 1991. (And I really enjoyed the place.) Anyway, during my visit, I was a little surprised to also discover that what's now WMVP was arguably the best Chicago signal. But after I thought about it, I realized that I probably shouldn't have been.

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Last year during the World Series, WMVP blasted in with the ESPN coverage, along with WTAM on the Indians network.

But WSCR was nowhere to be found. I have better luck with WYLL (1160) than I have with 670.

charlestondxman said:

Last year during the World Series, WMVP blasted in with the ESPN coverage, along with WTAM on the Indians network.

But WSCR was nowhere to be found. I have better luck with WYLL (1160) than I have with 670.

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I'm surprised that you would even hear WYLL down there. (sorry for the veer)

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WBBM absolutely blasts in to New Orleans at night as well. Here in Ottawa it's better than it was before a country station in Halifax, Nova Scotia moved to FM It's not WMVP strength, and those are the only 2 Chicago stations I've ever heard here in the daytime during the winter. WSCR is there, and lately it's been better than I can remember it being in the 12 years I've lived here. WBBM will trip the scan button on the G8 and is as strong as all other night time stations on the CC Radio plus.

gr8oldies said:

East Tennessee: VERY WEAK WWOL, Forest City,
Schmave: WLS's tower is considerably further south than the other Chicago 50kWers, so WLS is always the strongest in Lafayette-strong enough to stop the scan.

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I do know that but didn't realize I hadn't included that fact until well after I posted. My mom and aunt actually noticed it because we listened to WLS a little bit during the Sox-Cubs game that day and at that point, it was still coming in better than WSCR.
I was surprised that there was a clear gain in strength north of Lafayette. Maybe it was just the distance or maybe there's something in the soil that increases ground conductivity.