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Coast to Coast AM Moves to 1090 WBAL

G

Gregg.

Overnight talk shows are changing in Baltimore. 680 WCBM gave up "Coast to Coast AM with George Noory" to begin running "The Other Side of Midnight with Frank Morano" from WABC New York. WABC is syndicating a number of its local shows, making them national. Not just Morano but also Rita Cosby in the evening and WABC owner John Catsimatidis' one hour show at 5pm as well as his Sunday morning show.

With it no longer carried by WCBM, 1090 WBAL is picking up Coast to Coast AM. WBAL had been running repeats of its weekday shows in that overnight time slot. That also gives Washington an almost-local station to hear Coast to Coast AM. WBAL's 50,000 watt signal covers most of Market #7 (D.C.) as well as #22 (Baltimore). Neither of Washington's two talk stations is owned by iHeart. So Cumulus-owned WMAL-FM runs "Red Eye Radio" and Salem-owned WWRC reruns daytime shows from the Salem Radio Network.
 
Hello Gregg-

WBAL is a fine facility that a radio person would be proud to be associated with.

At night WBAL is directional and heading northeastward the 2 millivolt (50-10) skywave signal is predicted to exist between central Philadelphia and to mid-way between Portland and Bangor Maine. Heading east and southward WBAL 2 millivolt (50-10) skywave signal is predicted to begin to appear approximately 40 miles west of the Atlantic shore and extend to Cape Hatteras, and nearly 500 miles out to sea going eastward.

Indeed, WBAL has a fabulous skywave signal footprint.

WBAL night local groundwave interference-free signal is predicted to extend southward to nearly Laurel and Odenton Maryland and northeastward to approximately Havre De Grace Maryland.

A directional night pattern gives a Class A station a significant improvement in signal strength of skywave coverage, in the direction of pattern maxima. This is why stations like WBT and WBZ do so well at night in the pattern maxima.

Note, at night Class A stations are subject to interference from local first-adjacent stations.
 
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btw- Although one person's feature is another person's bug, skywave propagation is an amazing cost-effective low-tech communication method. At night cost-effective AM broadcast makes a mockery of the billion-dollar cost of cellphone and Internet infrastructure. At night ten acres, a five-hundred-foot piece of steel and something 102 inches wide can provide information to millions of people.

At night the Class A AM stations could provide robust emergency information to much of rural America. C.Crane could make an AM emergency radio model that during emergency mode automatically frequency hops between Class A AM stations based on quality of incoming signal.
 
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Living on Maryland's Eastern Shore, I can drive to WBAL in around 90 minutes. They show up fairly well during the day but the signal has always been dreadful at night. Greg mentions WBT & WBZ, and both are very strong here at night. One some lesser radios, if they won't pick up anything else in the evening, I can count on WBT!
 
Gregg. said:
With it no longer carried by WCBM, 1090 WBAL is picking up Coast to Coast AM. WBAL had been running repeats of its weekday shows in that overnight time slot. That also gives Washington an almost-local station to hear Coast to Coast AM. WBAL's 50,000 watt signal covers most of Market #7 (D.C.) as well as #22 (Baltimore). Neither of Washington's two talk stations is owned by iHeart. So Cumulus-owned WMAL-FM runs "Red Eye Radio" and Salem-owned WWRC reruns daytime shows from the Salem Radio Network.
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WBAL’s nighttime signal has a null toward DC. WBAL cannot be picked up in DC at night.
 
RoddyFreeman said:
WBAL’s nighttime signal has a null toward DC. WBAL cannot be picked up in DC at night.
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And its daytime 10 MV/m does not hit any part of the Washington DC Metro Survey Area, and it does not appear in the DC book.
 
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