AM Frequency of the week: 930

40 or so miles northwest of downtown Chicago....

Days: WKBM from Sandwich, IL. The station is 2.5kw directional with a Catholic radio format, and primarily serves the west and southwest suburbs of Chicago. The signal here is fair at best from a distance of about 45 miles. It seems to me that the signal has been somewhat degraded over the past year or so, but I don't know with any degree of certainty if that's actually true.

Night: WKBM increases to 4.2kw and a pattern more favorable to me. The result is a better signal and a "perch" comfortably on top of the channel. I can usually hear one or two other weak, unidentifiable signals underneath.

Retro: Before WKBM came on (as country-formatted WBYG) in the 1980s, I could frequently hear a faint WBCK from Battle Creek, MI during daytime. At night, WLBJ from Bowling Green, KY was most likely to rise to the top. I also occasionally heard WBCK. Less frequently WTAD (Quincy, IL) and/or WKY.

Other Location: When we're at our usual beach getaway spot on the Gulf of Mexico east of Pensacola, WLSS, 5kw from Sarasota, is a fairly reliable daytime saltwater path visitor making the hop across the Gulf.

In the near north Chicago suburbs WKBM is fair/decent day & night. There's not much I can hear underneath it.

Retro: Before WKBM, WBCK was in with a fair signal days. At night WBCK was weaker & usually fighting it out with a number of stations. I remember WKY sneaking in at night especially during their Rock & Roll years.

In Canada's capital, if you have a very good radio, and a loop you can hear WBEN with a very weak but intelligible signal, otherwise the dial is blank during the day.
At night WBEN is mixed with CFBC St. John, New Brunswick, among others I haven't bothered to identify.

mimo said:

In Canada's capital, if you have a very good radio, and a loop you can hear WBEN with a very weak but intelligible signal, otherwise the dial is blank during the day.
At night WBEN is mixed with CFBC St. John, New Brunswick, among others I haven't bothered to identify.

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WBEN is solid 24/7 in and around Toronto (as you may already know).

@gr8oldies.....WTAD. My most annoying daytime pest during my college days in southeast Iowa. WTAD splattered on KIOA (940), and I couldn't do much about it because nulling it also nulled KIOA. Much less of a problem at night. WTAD went to 1kw, while KIOA threw a narrow secondary lobe in my direction. Enough to overcome the splatter as well as whatever was left of CBM.

Warminster PA(Philly 'burbs):

Daytime: WPAT Paterson NJ/New York(weak with Spanish music).
Night: also WPAT, but a little stronger with WBEN(not to be confused with our 95.7 Ben-FM) sometimes overtaking it.

930 in Charleston is a steady WFXJ Jacksonville with a sports format. It is a Fox Sports format with a local show in afternoon drive. At night it is usually a jumble. I have heard Jackson, MS there.

charlestondxman said:

930 in Charleston is a steady WFXJ Jacksonville with a sports format. It is a Fox Sports format with a local show in afternoon drive. At night it is usually a jumble. I have heard Jackson, MS there.

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The Jackson, MS 930 was off when I came through there earlier this year. They're now listed at 3.7kw day/60 watts at night.

Day/night - Local KYAK Yakima, WA; a religious station and part of the 'American Christian Network' ran out of KSPO-FM in Dishman, WA (and also aired on 50KW daytimer KTBI/810 Ephrata among a few others). They are 10KW days and 127w nights.
In their null at night, I can hear a mix of stuff. KSEI Pocatello is the most common, with Oldies. KBAI Bellingham (Classic Hits) is surprisingly common on their very directional 500W. CJCA Edmonton (Religion) doesn't come in as often as it used to in Seattle, obviously due to the KYAK null being SE. Sometimes the northwest path opens up and KTKN Ketchikan AK (Hot AC) shows up on a kilowatt.
Also heard rarely: KHJ Los Angeles (Immaculate Heart Radio), KAGI Grants Pass, OR (Jefferson Public Radio) and a couple times, KMPT Missoula (Talk).

ON MY WANTED LIST...
KROE Sheridan WY (News/Talk, very tough as I'm pointing outside the KYAK null, but maybe underneath before sunrise. 5KW days, flea power night)
KAFF Flagstaff AZ (Country, possible at sunrise. Also 5KW days, flea power night)
KRKY Granby CO (Country, up in the mountains west of Denver. 4.5KW days, 121w night)
KKXX Paradise CA (Religion, 1KW days. Maybe at sunrise before KYAK goes full-blown 10KW.)

Daytime: a weak WTAD Quincy, IL, sometimes.
Nighttime: Usually WTAD or WKY Oklahoma City, or both. I've also caught KKIN Aitkin, MN, KSDN Aberdeen, SD. I don't recall hearing WKBM Sandwich, IL, and I'm not sure why. I have heard that station while traveling in western Wisconsin.

It was NBC Sports Radio when I heard it. So basically just off the bird. Now it is a classic country format simulcast with an FM translator on 93.5.

charlestondxman said:

It was NBC Sports Radio when I heard it. So basically just off the bird. Now it is a classic country format simulcast with an FM translator on 93.5.

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I remembers WSFZ as sports, but forget exactly when that was. I also recall horrible audio, which I don't think had anything to do with the bird. Going through Jackson a few times in the 70s when they were WSLI, and basically a WJDX wannabe, the audio on 930 was also pretty bad then.

Also, the 93.5 is not a translator. It's 12kw, sort of a rimshot, with a tx about 12 miles northwest of town. But, according to R-L, they DO have an actual translator on 107.1 located nearer to the center of the city.

south of the MN river (suburban Minneapolis)
daytime-nothing
nightime-while driving into work at 4:30am I was picking up apparently WTAD Quincy, IL. Never heard an ID but heard Quincy commercials

Daytime: It's local 5 kW news/talker KLUP "The Answer."

Night: KLUP goes directional and drops to 1 kW. That enables a small N/S null where I can usually hear a weak WKY. A couple of years back I also used to get a weak XEQS in Fresnillo occasionally; it must've migrated to FM.

Sunrise: This is a more interesting listening time. Besides WKY, I can usually hear a weak to moderate KDET in Center, TX, for a bit. I've also heard a very weak KWOC in Poplar Bluff, MO, a few times, and I've heard WGAD in Rainbow City, AL, once.

Retro: When I was a little kid in the late '60s / early '70s, my parents always listened to local easy listening station KITE, "The Golden Sound." That station was my first exposure to radio. Anyone ever hear it while passing through S.A. or via DX?

Those are some good catches, Cyberdad, and others. 930 is one of those frequencies that seems to present a provincial collection of stations but little else for each major region/market in the country. Even back to my kid days in the 60's some of those regional frequencies were resolute in what they offered .... a sort of 'take it or leave it', hi.

Here in Northeast PA:
Daytime is WHLM Bloomsburg. They used to be WCNR, when the WHLM calls were on 550. The 550 is long gone. WHLM is a fine station, with some pretty good Oldies programming. I had thought so even before realizing that a message-board pal of mine worked there using t he name Bobby Gale. WHLM is now car-button preset #2.

Nighttimes here proffered the usual WBEN (the Northeast US seems to be their money vault) and two oddities -- WSEV from Tennessee and KWOC from Missouri, the latter on a DX test.

I haven't logged WPAT here yet. Can't say why not.

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In the Olde Retro Days near JFK Airport, I got to put a big dot next to eleven stations on 930. One of them, in fact, was that same 'WCNR' Bloomsburg, nearing sunset, via a numbing null of WPAT. Another was WWNH from Rochester NH. WWNH came in around the same time, nearing that SSS propagation period. I dunno if it was just me, or if directional locals were easier to get rid of back then. The AM daytime dial was so much quieter.
WKY was another log. Everything east of the Mississippi must've been off that night.
I'm supposing that 93-KHJ would've been 'do-able' on the East Coast, too. They sent some pretty good wattage East.
But I never heard them.

Steve Green NEPA said:

.
I'm supposing that 93-KHJ would've been 'do-able' on the East Coast, too. They sent some pretty good wattage East.
But I never heard them.

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I'm not sure how "do-able" KHJ would've been in the east. They were tough to hear in the California desert at night. They didn't send much night signal to the east.

gr8oldies said:

93 KHJ: A 5kW regional on 930, though nothing is impossible, it would have been highly unlikely. I had never heard long distance reports of them.

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I never have either, at least to the eastern half of North America. I suppose if conditions were perfect and there were no other stations on the frequency it would be possible.