AM Frequency of the Week: 880

40-ish miles northwest of downtown Chicago....

Days: Moderate splatter from WLS (890). Their stick is about 60 miles south-southeast of me.

Nights: WLS is easy to null, and doing so usually produces a good signal from WCBS. Clearly the easiest NYC signal here.
Usually, WCBS is all alone, but from time to time CKLQ from Brandon, Manitoba is underneath. (Despite what's supposed to be a deep null in my direction).

Sunrise/Sunset: KRVN from Lexington, Nebraska is fairly regular when on their 50kw non-directional day pattern. CKLQ somewhat less so.

Other Location: On my business trips to the west coast, KRVN usually booms in just about everywhere at night. Except around Seattle and nearby areas where KIXI takes over.

In the near north Chicago suburbs it's nothing during the daytime except very light WLS splatter.
At night all WCBS which is and has always been in my memory the best NYC signal in this area.
During sunrise/sunset WRFD makes occasional appearances. I've heard KRVN a few times pre sunset.
When traveling in the southwest US KRVN dominates.

Until the early 80s when KRVN signed off at midnight CST, WCBS could still sometimes be heard on the west coast.

daytime-WMEQ Menominee, WI
nightime-WCBS

Warminster PA(Philly 'burbs):

WCBS both day and night.

Reynoldsburg, Ohio ...
* Daytime: Local WRFD with 23,000 watts. Daytimer only because ...
* Nighttime: WCBS usually comes in booming in with a decent skywave signal as soon as WRFD leaves the air. I'm close enough to WRFD's tower that I never hear WCBS creeping in under it at dusk, but I have heard that in Newark, Ohio, just 30 miles east of here. I have never heard KRVN here.
Those who want to hear WRFD's programming 24/7 can do so on their translator W283CL (104.5 FM) that signed on last November.

Daytime - KHZM Honolulu barely audible

Nighttime - KHZM too but a good signal

There are times I can null out KHZM to where KRVN dominates.

I've heard something else in the background but far too weak to ID.

Still hoping for WCBS but with the station in Honolulu, it's much more of a challenge than it was getting WABC.

Daytime: nothing.

Nighttime: Usually WCBS. However, KRVN is sometimes present the last year or so. Sometimes WCBS with KRVN underneath, and very occasionally just KRVN. I have caught CKLQ Brandon, MB a few times in the past, probably under conditions that favored catches from up north.

I can catch WMEQ from Menomonie, WI around sunset or maybe early morning.

Retro: WCBS owned 880, and there was no KRVN. WLS rarely or never interfered with WCBS that I can recall, and is even less of a factor that it used to be. It's just not the signal that it used to be.

icybluelake said:

I can catch WMEQ from Menomonie, WI around sunset or maybe early morning.
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I've never heard WMEQ here, which is surprising. They have a good daytime signal in an area with generally poor ground conductivity. I'd expect them to be in once in a while sunset and/or sunrise. Probably they have been, and I've just missed them.

The ground conductivity in much of western Wisconsin is just astonishingly awful, much to my disappointment. It's surprisingly terrible in far northeastern Iowa, too.

Daytime: Just splatter from local KONO 860.

Sunset: KJOZ "La Calle" in Houston, TX.

Night: KRVN fairly strong with KJOZ underneath/mixing and occasionally taking over. KRVN can be nulled to hear just KJOZ, and sometimes I'll hear a weak XEAAA "Radio Esne" in Zapopan underneath it. If I aim more NW/SE, I sometimes get a weak/fair KHAC in Tse Bonito, NM, and/or a weak Radio Progreso. There's also a bit of splatter from both KONO and KVOZ 890.

Sunrise: KHAC is usually stronger, and XEAAA comes up pretty strong when it goes to 20 kW for the day. KJOZ takes over when it goes to day power.

Retro: A couple of years ago I used to hear XEEM "La M Mexicana" in Rio Verde. I assume it's migrated to FM. Also, I used to hear urban gospel station KLRG in Sheridan, AR, but I haven't heard it in quite some time, either.

Houston: KJOZ "La Calle".

Retro - Nighttime Lubbock and Midland, TX, prior to KRVN - WCBS was an easy catch.

icybluelake said:

The ground conductivity in much of western Wisconsin is just astonishingly awful, much to my disappointment. It's surprisingly terrible in far northeastern Iowa, too.

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It's called the "Driftless Area". To my understanding that portion of west central and southwest Wisconsin, along with far northeast Iowa and extreme southeast Minnesota is an area missed by the glaciers during the last ice age. Those glaciers scoured the landscape to flat or gently rolling and deposited topsoil. Meanwhile the areas the glaciers missed possesses rugged terrain, thin (and very rocky) topsoil, along with lousy ground conductivity. Very beautiful, however. Especially where the Mississippi cuts through it.

Northeast Iowa has sometimes been called Little Switzerland right along the Mississippi river in the far northeast portion of the state. It's some of the most beautiful country I've driven through...and this is coming from someone who used to travel through the Canadian Rockies several times a year.