AM Frequency of the Week: 970

Far northwest suburbs of Chicago.....

Days: WHA 5kw ND from Madison, WI. 80 miles away. Fair-weak signal.

Nights: WHA drops to 51 watts and completely disappears. The channel becomes a mix of signals, none of which is dominant. In recent years, KQAQ from Austin, MN is the most likely to rise to the top, although it's far from being a regular. On top of that, the KQAQ pattern doesn't favor my location even remotely. I also hear WMAY (Springfield, IL) once in a while. Both KQAQ and WMAY are listed as 500 watts at night, but at least WMAY's pattern favors me.

Other Location: At our beach getaway spot on the Gulf, west of Pensacola, WFLA is one of the Tampa-St. Pete signals that makes the daytime saltwater path hop on a reliable basis. Signal is weak and gets splatter from the Pensacola 980 (WRNE), but it's there every day. WFLA disappears at night, however.

In the near north Chicago suburbs WHA has a weak, but readable signal. At night it's a mix. Sometimes WMAY rises to the top.

Retro: Years ago I used to hear WWSW Pittsburgh, Pa sometimes at night.

Reynoldsburg, Ohio ...
* Daytime: A very weak WATH from Athens, Ohio, 65 miles southeast. But even that signal has to be dug out of the mud. 1,000 watts in an area with middling to bad ground conductivity.
* Nighttime: Nothing.

Bay Area, CA: KNEW-960 splatter, though it's much less now that they ix-nayed the IBOC. 970 and 950 used to be impossible. At night, dueling sports stations KESP Modesto and KHTY Bakersfield, with a little KUFO/Portland thrown in.

Yakima WA
Day - Splatter from KBBO-980 (ESPN Deportes)
Night - Lately it's been a zoo of RFI. But if I can get around it, I usually hear KUFO Portland (Conservative Talk) and not too much else. KBUL Billings (News/Talk) comes in here and there, KTTO Spokane (Catholic) as well. KESP Modesto (CBS Sports) is often heard during aurora. KFTA Rupert ID (Spanish) is heard when they cheat at night.

Wanted on 970...
WDAY Fargo (News/Talk), should be heard during one of these sunrise sessions. I heard them last night on an Edmonton SDR but that's way closer. They were having technical difficulties running non-stop smooth jazz music // stream under KBUL, when they should have been on Red Eye Radio. I think they made an automation error after NFL yesterday.
*Apparently the SJ music came from the 'Test Channel' on the Premiere Radio Networks transponder.
KHTY Bakersfield (Fox Sports) - have tried every aurora and only KESP heard. Can't seem to get around that 1KW signal from Modesto.
KNIH Paradise, NV (Catholic) maybe at sunrise?

970 here is one of the only music stations left on AM radio, WWRK from Florence, SC. For a good while (at least 1-2 years), it was a rare AM rap station. Just recently, they flipped to classic rock, feeding two FM translators in the Florence area. 10kw from 100 miles away. Down by the coast, you can hear Jacksonville (I believe they are Spanish now).

At night, 970 is a mix of stations. WFLA is the most often heard.

970 has been a stew for me for many years. An unlistenable melange (ratatouille?). In the mix at night are KQAQ Austin, MN, and WGTK Louisville. Most of the time, there's nothing listenable.

WHA doesn't really make it this far during the daytime (though sometimes it does about 25 miles outside my city). It has shown up at night, remarkably, with 51 watts, though so seldom and so weakly that I don't think they're doing anything shady. I guess I trust Wisconsin Public Radio.

Daytime: A weak to moderate KIXL, Relevant Radio, in Del Valle, near Austin, TX.

Night: It's a bit like a sparsely-populated graveyard channel. Aiming N/S, KIXL, XERFR "Grupo Formula" in Mexico City, XEO "Notigape" in Matamaros, and urban gospel station KHVN in Ft. Worth can be heard swapping in/out. XEO is probably heard the most and KIXL the least. Aiming E/W, XEJ in Ciudad Juárez is dominant, with XESW in Ciudad Madera popping up occasionally.

Sunrise: I've heard news talker KSYL in Alexandria, LA, briefly a few times.

The Valley of the Jolly Green Giant (Le Sueur, MN)

daytime-weak KQAQ Austin, MN
nightime-KQAQ is there but garbled under some other stuff