AM Frequency of the Week: 920

At my location 40 miles northwest of Downtown Cubsville....

Day: Weak WOKY from Milwaukee. WBAA can usually be heard faintly underneath, especially in a car radio where there are holes in WOKY's signal. (Which is nulled to the south).

Nights: WOKY powers down from 5kw to 1kw, but actually still sends more signal in my direction. It still gets swallowed up in the mess, and CFRY from Manitoba is now more likely to emerge on top. Before sunrise this morning, CFRY was actually blasting. I've also heard KARN and WBAA from time to time.

Retro: In the 1960s, WOKY was a regular listen for me. Strategically placed between WLS and WCFL. With a good, well-placed, well-oriented radio, it was very listenable during the daytime. Even more so on 1kw with their spike that went southwest. The now-defunct CFCY from Sault Sainte Marie Ontario was an occasional pest, however. WOKY was an excellent top-40 station with a tighter, and higher-energy presentation than the two Chicago top-40 powerhouses.

Reynoldsburg, Ohio ...
Local but very directional WMNI at all hours. From four towers at the corner of I-71 and I-270 in Grove City, they shoot 1,000 watts daytime north-northeast straight over Columbus and a little less signal over the suburbs. Very little signal goes to the southeast or southwest. The drop in signal is noticeable at all hours even within sight of the towers.
At night, they drop to 500 watts and have an even tighter northbound pattern.
Where I live about 15 miles east-northeast of the tower, I get a crappy signal during the day and almost nothing at night.
They are now simulcast on a translator at 95.1 FM, giving a lot of previously unserved areas a decent signal.

In the near north Chicago suburbs daytime it's a fairly weak, but steady WBAA at my location. WOKY has always been very tough here. During it's Top 40 years I heard it on rare occasions, but WBAA usually is on top day & night.

South of the Minnesota River suburbs (Minneapolis, MN)

Daytime-KDHL Faribault
Night-KDHL

and since its Sunday that means the POLKAS are on all day

Warminster PA(Philly 'burbs):

WPHY Trenton NJ(ESPN Radio), both day and night.

Daytime: nothing. Nighttime: usually CFRY, sometimes KBHL. WBAA Lafayette, IN, has come in several times in the last year. However, I have never heard KYFR Shenandoah, IA, and don't recall hearing WOKY. I've tried for WOKY for some time.

Yakima WA
Daytime - major splatter from 10KW KYAK-930, just six miles away
Night - usually KXLY Spokane dominates (news/talk), with KSHO Lebanon OR (Standards) towards the south. CFRY Portage La Prairie MB also shows up often (Country), and they have been coming in with these good east-west conditions. KVEL Vernal, UT (News/Talk) shows up very occasionally.
During aurora, 920 is usually a weak mix, mainly KIHM Reno (Catholic), but I've also heard KVEC San Luis Obispo, CA (News/Talk) and KVIN Ceres, CA (Oldies).
KBAD Las Vegas (NBC Sports) is extremely rare. Used to hear KGTK Olympia (Talk) on the westside, and maybe once here in Yakima.

WANTED ON 920
KWYS West Yellowstone, MT - Maybe sometime at sunrise. They are 1KW day with oldies.
KKGX Palm Springs CA - Conservative talk 'KGX'
KKLS Rapid City SD - 'Smash Hits KKLS' 80s music, should stick out like a sore thumb at sunrise but not heard yet!

920 daytime is empty. At night I have CKNX as the dominant station. I have never heard CFRY outside of Manitoba. I think I'm the only one.

Among the meagre totals of my second AM DX 'career' here in NE PA:

Daytime is the faint WKVA from Lewistown PA.

Sunsets have brung in WSTK from MD, WKRT Cortland NY, WBBB from NC, and WIRD* Lake Placid.
And a nice surprise (taped, too!) : WGHQ Kingston NY. I'd jocked in Kingston way, way back.
(* WIRD was quite the sunset regular on 920 back near JFK Airport in Queens)

*******

I wish the dial were quieter nowadays.

Courtesy of the New York Radio message board:
http://www.musicradio77.com/wwwboard/messages/438163.html

and Neil Weiser's response (I'll get him for that crack at the end, hi)
http://www.musicradio77.com/wwwboard/messages/438164.html

@Unclehonkey.... I've always been impressed with KDHL's signal. When I was in the Twin Cities every several weeks on business trips in the 80s and 90s, KDHL was always near-local quality 24/7.

@Icybluelake....WOKY is (or was) weak, but audible in the Dubuque area daytime every time I came through there. In college at Mount Pleasant, as posted previously, I was able to catch it a few times pre-dawn on Monday mornings. Fighting with, but usually on top of CKCY.

Daytime: Just splatter from local 930 KLUP.

Night: Aiming NE, KARN is most dominant. KYFR can sometimes be heard underneath, and occasionally it takes over. Aiming NW/SE-ish, KYST "La 920" In Texas City (near Houston) is most common. Christian pop/talk station KYFB in Odessa, TX, can often be heard under or mixing in.

Sunrise: About a week ago, I heard KSVA "Life Talk Radio" in Albuquerque for a bit before KYST went to day power. I've also heard KLMR just once.

Retro: I've heard XEQD in Chihuahua and XERE in Salvarierra in past years but not recently.

In Northwest Arkansas -

Daytime - KARN, Little Rock, AR

Nighttime - A mix of stations - KARN, and KYFR, Shenandoah, IA

In central Texas north of Austin, tonight I heard 2 stations on 920.
One was Christian teaching. It came in the strongest. But soon I realized it was Family Radio, which imo sounds much better than it did under Harold "The World is Going to End Soon" Camping.

This could be KFLB in Odessa, TX, which airs Family Radio (according to online info) or KYFR in southwest Iowa, a once legendary station on which the Everly Bros., as children, once performed.

The other sounded like perhaps a sports program.
KYST in Houston, perhaps. However, checking online, that station airs a Spanish sports-talk format. This wasn't Spanish.

Checking KARN's website, it may not have been Little Rock as syndicated political talk was scheduled for that hour.
Or maybe KLMR, 920, Lamar, CO, in the southeast corner of the state, which is farm and news-talk.

Odd because my location is in the range of the nighttime signals of KYFR, KFLB, KARN and KYST.

KRLV Las Vegas NV (Raiders Nation 920)? That's about 1100 miles away from Austin, and that's if they were still on 5000 watts day power.

Not sure if same station, but an hour or so later tonight 920 was coming in with CBS Sports Radio, which KLMR's website lists as nighttime programming.
When I checked top of hour, the station disappeared and nothing was coming in, except pleasant music, like Family Radio (I assume).
I then heard a station ID.... KARN... Little Rock.
I don't assume KARN was the station with music, as I was moving the receiver left to right near a window.
Then, I heard CBS Sports Radio, so likely KLMR returned.

Orange County, TX Days KYST Texas City, TX, Nights mostly KARN with Spanish underneath.

Well as long as this thread has been re-started, I'll chirp in with sort of an update from my location northwest of Chicago. On 920, CFRY has replaced WOKY as the most common nighttime occupant of the channel. CFRY-721 miles, WOKY-52 miles.

Dondd said:

Not sure if same station, but an hour or so later tonight 920 was coming in with CBS Sports Radio, which KLMR's website lists as nighttime programming.
When I checked top of hour, the station disappeared and nothing was coming in, except pleasant music, like Family Radio (I assume).
I then heard a station ID.... KARN... Little Rock.
I don't assume KARN was the station with music, as I was moving the receiver left to right near a window.
Then, I heard CBS Sports Radio, so likely KLMR returned.

Click to expand...

Looking at KLMR's website, it's now a full service AM offering lots of daytime news and farm programming with a syndicated political show late afternoons and CBS sports at night.
When I last drove through that area, Eastern Colorado and western Kansas, it had flipped from classic country to all ESPN, all the time.
What a waste of signal, I thought, with all satellite sports.

From the southwest suburbs of Chicago:

Days: WBAA West Lafayette, Ind., long operated by Purdue but now part of the Indianapolis Public Radio operation.

Nights: roughly in order of appearance: WOKY Milwaukee (absent days), CKCY Sault St. Marie, WGST Atlanta, WMNI Columbus, Ohio, CBO Ottawa, KARN Little Rock and CKNX Wingham, Ont., in the middle of the night on 12/15/2018.