AM BANDSCAN State-By-State: Great Lakes

M BANDSCAN THE WORLD OF DOMESTIC BROADCASTING Doug Smith, W9WI A [email protected] State-by-State: Great Lakes e have two easy states this month til Sacramento sunset, it may allow some good at night, too – directional to protect a Portland, and two tough ones. They’re also early-evening DX possibilities out West.) Oregon, station. But a few years back, New W the last four mainland states we’ll The state’s third 50,000-watt station is York City’s WLIB, also on 1190, arranged for do. In October we’ll move on to Canada. Cleveland’s WTAM-1100. Like WLW and WOWO to reduce nighttime power to 9,800 WCKY, this is a news/talk station. It’s also non- watts and change their antenna pattern to null Michigan: directional and audible over most of the East in the direction of New York. The move allowed If 760 is open in your area, then the Mo- and Midwest. WHKW is Cleveland’s 2nd and the NYC station to increase power and operate tor City’s WJR is your Michigan target. The Ohio’s 4th 50,000-watter. It’s a religious station at night. (It had been a daytime-only outlet.) 50,000-watt “Voice of the Great Lakes” is just and uses a directional antenna that beams all its For listeners to the south of Fort Wayne, the that. The format is news/talk. power north and south. change hasn’t had much effect, and WOWO is If 760 is not open, don’t despair. Two ex- Should four 50,000-watt targets prove in- still the easiest way to bag Indiana. If you’re panded-band stations grace the other side of the sufficient... Columbus offers two more DXable east of Fort Wayne, WOWO has become a lot state. WDSS-1680 in the Grand Rapids suburb stations. WOSU-820 is 5,000 watts daytime, tougher than it used to be. If you’re west of Fort of Ada is a Radio Disney outlet. WQSN-1660 but as an NPR affiliate they’ll stand out on the Wayne, WOWO’s always been tough! in nearby Kalamazoo seems to “get out” even AM dial. Also commonly DXable is WRFD, a The other 50,000-watter is Indianapolis’ better; they’re ESPN Radio with frequent local religious daytime-only operation. They run the WIBC-1070. This station is directional all the ads. rather unusual figure of 23,000 watts. time, and favors the southeast. If you aren’t on Four other 50,000-watt stations operate a line from Indianapolis to Charleston, S.C., in Detroit, but their patterns all aim straight West Virginia: you’re probably going to find WIBC tough. north. If you’re in northern Ontario, try for Now, we get into the tough ones. West Give them a try anyway... WWJ-950, WDFN-1130, WXYZ-1270, and/or Virginia almost became much tougher when South Bend is home to the Hoosier State’s WLQV-1500. Anywhere else (except Detroit) the state’s only 50,000-watt station applied to expanded-band station. WWLV-1620 is widely these will be tough catches. move to a suburb of Akron, Ohio. WWVA- heard. They’re one of the few AM stations still 1170’s application has since been withdrawn; running music, in their case, “Love Songs.” Ohio: the powerhouse station will remain in Wheel- The Buckeye State is even easier. Cincin- ing. WWVA is directional at night, favoring the ❖ IBOC (and other digital nati’s WLW-700 was North America’s most east. powerful station at 500,000 watts in the late Other decent West Virginia DX targets radio) news 1930s. At the time, they called themselves “The are few and far between. Huntington’s WRVC- Girard Westerburg has done it again... You Nation’s Station.” To some degree they still are. 930 is the most-heard one here. WCHS-580 may remember Girard was the first to log a The fairly open 700 channel and the excellent Charleston may be another good one to try. digital TV station by E-skip when he received Midwestern ground conductivity make for a big WCAW-680 is surprisingly rare at sunrise/sun- PSIP data (a “text ID”) from Rapid City, SD, signal. set, given their 10,000-watt daytime signal. station KOTA-DT channel 2 at his location in Also DXable from Cincinnati is WCKY- Lexington, Kentucky. 1530. The station was once licensed to Cov- Indiana: Girard has now also become the first DXer ington, Kentucky, across the river; hence the Indiana has two 50,000-watters to choose to log an IBOC digital radio station via Es. Dur- “CKY” call letters. The transmitter is still in from. Fort Wayne’s WOWO-1190 is probably ing an intense opening on May 26th, he decoded the Bluegrass State, but since most DXers count the easier of the pair, due to their non-direc- both the “text ID” and digital audio of KBCO’s states by city-of-license, we’ll still call WCKY tional daytime signal. They used to be 50,000 (Boulder, Colorado) IBOC signal. Two days an Ohio station. WCKY protects Sacramento’s KFBK at night, so Western DXers may have to look elsewhere for Ohio. (Although, since WCKY is allowed to remain non-directional un- BEST BETS For logging the Great Lakes States Indiana: WOWO-1190, WIBC-1070, WWLV- 1620 Ohio: WLW-700, WCKY-1530, WTAM-1100, WHKW-1220 Michigan: WJR-760, WDSS-1680, WQSN-1660 West Virginia: WWVA-1170, WRVC-930, WCHS-580, The ‘text ID’forWOWO’s IBOC AM digital signal, as received near Nashville by the author; and WCAW-680 for FM stations KBCO and KAJA, as received in Lexington, Kentucky, by Girard Westerburg. 54 MONITORING TIMES August 2006.

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