AM Frequency of the week - 880

Here in Tampa -

Daytime - The Cuban station with a weak but listenable signal.

Nighttime - WCBS and the Cuban most of the time. About half that time, WCBS is stronger and half the time, the Cuban station is the stronger one and sometimes one almost completely buries the other.

But then there are nights where WZAB Sweetwater (near Miami) dominates for a time.

That's what made me start this thread because it's been all WZAB tonight and there's hardly a trace of WCBS.

Around sunset, it's usually WZAB but there are times too when it's all WCBS.

So what do you get where you are on 880?

Here in Vermilion, OH I get daytimer WRFD/Columbus, OH during the day with a religious format. Near sunset, WCBS starts interfering and sometimes overtakes WRFD before they sign off for the night. I have also heard CKLQ/Brandon, MB with country around sunrise. Also heard the Cuban when aurora is active at night otherwise it's all WCBS.

Far northwest suburbs of Chicago....

Days: Splatter from WLS

Nights: Usually WCBS with a signal strong enough to easily break through the WLS splatter. Occasionally CKLQ sneaks in....especially around sunrise. KRVN is also not uncommon just after my local sunset before they go to their night pattern.

If you're even 30 miles outside Columbus around critical hours, you can hear WCBS starting to creep in under WRFD before signoff. Where I live now, I am too close for that to happen. But I heard that many times out near Newark, Ohio, when I used to work there. I could hear a very faint John Sterling if the Yankees were playing, and then once WRFD left it was (and is) all WCBS.

There are two 50,000 watt 880 stations west of the Mississippi, and one 10,000 watt station...

KRVN Lexington Nebraska, about 200 miles west of Omaha, is dedicated to the farming communities of Nebraska. It has a Talk format with plenty of Farm News.

CHQT Edmonton, like WCBS, is an All-News station. Edmonton Alberta is the smallest market in North America to have a 24/7 All-News station.

CKLQ runs 10,000 watts from Brandon Manitoba, about 125 miles west of Manitoba, with a Classic Country format.

Near North Chicago suburbs,, like Cyberdad I hear daytime splatter from WLS. At night WCBS is strong and has always been the best NYC signal in this area.
Before sunset I've heard WRFD & KRVN.

In Yakima, WA days it's a battle between KIXI Bellevue WA (Adult Standards) and KWIP Dallas OR (Regional Mexican).
Nights it's KWIP mixing with KCMX Medford OR (News/Talk) mixing with KRVN Lexington NE (Country, sometimes LOUD!), mixing with a little KIXI. I also hear KJJR Whitefish, MT sometimes towards sunset.

Now, in my dreams, I have logged WCBS New York loud and clear...won't happen in real life this far west.

-crainbebo

crainbebo said:

In Yakima, WA days it's a battle between KIXI Bellevue WA (Adult Standards) and KWIP Dallas OR (Regional Mexican).
Nights it's KWIP mixing with KCMX Medford OR (News/Talk) mixing with KRVN Lexington NE (Country, sometimes LOUD!), mixing with a little KIXI. I also hear KJJR Whitefish, MT sometimes towards sunset.

Now, in my dreams, I have logged WCBS New York loud and clear...won't happen in real life this far west.

-crainbebo

Click to expand...

In 1963 I heard WCBS in Seattle and until the early 80s it was still possible in Southern California. Of course now you'd need KIXI off the air to even have a shot at it.

Daytime:: Nothing

Night:::I finally picked up KRVN out of Lexington, Nebraska. It was fading in and out pretty bad. I clearly heard the call letters and location, but it was not stable enough to listen to among the noise. A catch is a catch..

formula72 said:

Daytime:: Nothing

Night:::I finally picked up KRVN out of Lexington, Nebraska. It was fading in and out pretty bad. I clearly heard the call letters and location, but it was not stable enough to listen to among the noise. A catch is a catch..

Click to expand...

Congratulations on KRVN. I think you'll eventually find it to be a RELATIVELY easy catch at your location. On my trips to California, it's been pretty much a "regular" but not quite an "automatic".

Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: too much splatter from WLS to hear anything
Nightime: WLS spaltter easily nulled with WCBS dominating the frequency

DX/RETRO: not much heard on this frequency: KRVN (Lexington, NE), CKLQ (Brandon, MB), Radio Progreso, Cuba, and my most recent (2017) catch WMDB (Nashville, TN)

I see one of my old threads from when I lived in Florida was bumped up.

So now from my location in Mountain View, Hawaii ...

Daytime - KHCM Honolulu very weak and only audible on my PR-D5 if I'm outside and far enough away from the electrical noise of the house.

Nighttime - KHCM strong much of the time but I can often get a very good signal from KRVN in the null.

Still haven't heard WCBS, though there are sometimes one or two stations very weak in the background.

880 hasn't been really all that nice to me, n either here in my downbeat DX career nor back in the JFK Airport days.

Here in PA : Day and night it's WCBS. Sometimes at sunset WRFD (outside Columbus OH) blasts in at sunset our time. I've heard them in the car radio back when they sounded as though they were mostly all-news.

Retro in the Metro JFK Airport days : It was WCBS day and night, when they were on. Their stick was the closest omni tower to the den. I do have logged a 'CMAF' from Cuba, // to 690, and BBC 881. Just a wild guess; that WCBS 880 was off on those nights.

Mid-winter Anomaly tip; When you hear the tower-sharing WFAN 660 getting overwhelmed by something -- or not even being present at all in these parts -- try 880. The same propagation is likely affecting WCBS as well.