AM Radio

[corco]

When I'm driving, I can't stand that. These days, a ton of smaller local stations use syndicated feeds that broadcast generic content to a ton of other small local stations. When I drove through Texas in February, I was scanning the band and got a station that was exactly the same feed as the one that broadcasts in McCall, Idaho- the only difference being a different station identifier.

That's annoying.

I enjoy some talk radio- the Bob Rivers show in Seattle is always a ton of fun to listen to on long morning Puget Sound-area drives. Louis and Floorwax in Denver aren't that great- I'd rather listen to music.

One of the things I really enjoy doing when I'm in the Great Plains/Midwest and I'm on a long drive on a Sunday morning is finding a station that's broadcasting a local church sermon- you can almost always find one. I'm not a religious person, but it's fun to listen to what is important in a given community.

On that note, that's the best part about listening to true local radio- no matter the format it is fun to listen to local commercials and local commentary. If I'm driving through a new area, I want to glean as much information as possible about what it's like to live there without inconveniencing myself so much as to get out of the car (except when necessary), and the local radio station is probably the best way to do it.

If I'm really in the middle of nowhere I'll turn on the iPod (see rural Wyoming), and satellite radio is good if I'm on the road and don't want to miss a sporting event, but 90% of the time I'm surfing the dial while I drive.

[agentsteel53]

the disadvantage of the ipod is that it's music you already know.  (well, unless it's someone else's ipod!)  radio, ideally, lets you discover music that is new to you that you like. 

but I just can't deal with the talking.  3 or 4 seconds of it and you've lost me. 

[PAHighways]

I bought an iPod because I was getting rid of XM, and figured I'd just put all of my CDs on it and cycle through the same music for free instead of paying $12.95/month for SiriusXM to cycle through the same music.

As for clear channel stations, I can usually get:

WFAN, WABC, and WCBS New York City
KYW Philadelphia
WJR Detroit
WLW Cincinnati (once came in strongly enough for the HD carrier to lock)
WBBM Chicago

[allniter89]

When I'm driving, I can't stand that. These days, a ton of smaller local stations use syndicated feeds that broadcast generic content to a ton of other small local stations. When I drove through Texas in February, I was scanning the band and got a station that was exactly the same feed as the one that broadcasts in McCall, Idaho- the only difference being a different station identifier.

That's annoying.

I enjoy some talk radio- the Bob Rivers show in Seattle is always a ton of fun to listen to on long morning Puget Sound-area drives. Louis and Floorwax in Denver aren't that great- I'd rather listen to music.

One of the things I really enjoy doing when I'm in the Great Plains/Midwest and I'm on a long drive on a Sunday morning is finding a station that's broadcasting a local church sermon- you can almost always find one. I'm not a religious person, but it's fun to listen to what is important in a given community.

On that note, that's the best part about listening to true local radio- no matter the format it is fun to listen to local commercials and local commentary. If I'm driving through a new area, I want to glean as much information as possible about what it's like to live there without inconveniencing myself so much as to get out of the car (except when necessary), and the local radio station is probably the best way to do it.

If I'm really in the middle of nowhere I'll turn on the iPod (see rural Wyoming), and satellite radio is good if I'm on the road and don't want to miss a sporting event, but 90% of the time I'm surfing the dial while I drive.

Yep, and if you listen to am and even some fm long enough in a day, you'll find they have the same song list also, that drives me nutz!! You can hear the same 12 songs in the same order from coast to coast, different stations of course.

[tchafe1978]

There is a classic rock station out of Dubuque, Iowa that must be run by the same company as a station in Indiana somewhere. Every once in a while, they must forget to hit the right button at the main control system, and pretty soon, you're listening to the broadcast from the Indiana station, even though you know you've got the Dubuque station tuned in. THe funny thing is, the music format is exactly the same. The only time I could tell that something was up was when the commercials came on, and were advertising places in Indiana. It's like what the hell is going on? Makes me love being able to listen to a nearby college station. It may be amatuerish, but at least you know what you're getting and it isn't over-commercialized. I just love it when the college station has a screw up, and then they'll play a bit that says "This mistake was brought to you by the dumbass running the board."

[Darkchylde]

I remember one time as I was driving into Canon City, CO - night was falling and I was hitting "seek" on the AM side... and I picked up WWL as they were broadcasting the big Monday Night Saints game - the first one back in the Dome after Katrina hit. I held onto that signal all the way to Lamar, when I stopped. It made the drive a lot more bearable, though.

[realjd]

The best part of AM radio? Coast to Coast! I spent many long night-time drives listening to Art Bell's craziness, and still listen to George Noory every once in a while. Keep in mind I don't believe any of the crazy crap they talk about, but it's definitely AM radio at its finest!

[allniter89]

The best part of AM radio? Coast to Coast! I spent many long night-time drives listening to Art Bell's craziness, and still listen to George Noory every once in a while. Keep in mind I don't believe any of the crazy crap they talk about, but it's definitely AM radio at its finest!

Yep, and they're on so many radio stations I think you can pick them up anywhere!!

[huskeroadgeek]

I may run against the grain here, but I like having a live DJ playing songs on the radio when I drive at night. It makes my trip feel less isolated and alone.  Problem is that so many stations "voicetrack" their evening and night DJs now -- basically, they prerecord the talking bits and let the computer play them back at the right time.

I worked in radio as a disk jockey for 9 years, so I may have a biased opinion about live, local radio.

jim

I prefer live DJs on a local station too when I'm travelling. I always look up online on a website that lists radio stations by market and write down all of the stations in the area I am traveling in that play the kind of music I like. I prefer that to satellite radio or recorded music for the same reason-it makes me feel less isolated and alone. I also like it because I feel like it gives me some connection to the area I am travelling through and it's nice to have in case of severe weather.

[hbelkins]

Two of my favorite hosts are on XM satellite radio, which is a plus for me. The third is mostly on AM, and unfortunately AM reception is crappy in some of the areas where I travel. Sometimes I can pick up his show via some of the audio apps for iPhone and iPod, but often I'm forced to download the podcast and play it later.

But I always visit the host's Web site and copy down the stations on which he appears in areas where I'll be traveling. That way I know what stations to try to tune in between noon and 3 pm Eastern time.

[6a]

WLW Cincinnati (once came in strongly enough for the HD carrier to lock)

I wish I had been around when WLW was tossing out 500,000 watts.  It was said that it could be heard in Hawaii in the daytime. 

I love AM surfing, I rolled 300 feet of wire around a garden hose reel and parked it next to the house just for that radio.  From Ohio I can usually grab WHO pretty easily, although once I nailed KOA in Denver.  From South Carolina I could usually get WOAI in San Antonio.  They had a couple ladies from the local WNBA team on the air and were trying to impress them by saying they were being heard in 36 states so I called in to chat.

Kinda off topic but years ago I sent a note to Radio China (shortwave) and about once a year they still send me an email saying hi.

[Bickendan]

I remember a family trip coming back from Utah, and coming down Emigrant Hill into Pendleton, picking up a San Francisco AM station. My dad mentioned on a previous trip picking up a Los Angeles station from the same area.

Those of you who do scanning, have you picked up Canadian or Mexican stations?

[Michael in Philly]

I may run against the grain here, but I like having a live DJ playing songs on the radio when I drive at night. It makes my trip feel less isolated and alone.  Problem is that so many stations "voicetrack" their evening and night DJs now -- basically, they prerecord the talking bits and let the computer play them back at the right time.

I worked in radio as a disk jockey for 9 years, so I may have a biased opinion about live, local radio.

jim

I prefer live DJs on a local station too when I'm travelling. I always look up online on a website that lists radio stations by market and write down all of the stations in the area I am traveling in that play the kind of music I like. I prefer that to satellite radio or recorded music for the same reason-it makes me feel less isolated and alone. I also like it because I feel like it gives me some connection to the area I am travelling through and it's nice to have in case of severe weather.

What's the website you use?  I've gotten into the habit of printing out Wikipedia's "lists of radio stations by state" when I'm planning to be in an area I don't know.  It's sortable by format, which is nice.  But this may be a work in progress - I know the New York list, as of three months ago, didn't have formats for most stations.

[Michael in Philly]

I remember a family trip coming back from Utah, and coming down Emigrant Hill into Pendleton, picking up a San Francisco AM station. My dad mentioned on a previous trip picking up a Los Angeles station from the same area.

Those of you who do scanning, have you picked up Canadian or Mexican stations?

I majored in French and like to keep up.  Besides listening to and watching French and Belgian stations on line, I sometimes listen, when I'm out at night, to CJBC 860 in Toronto (on Radio-Canada, the French-language counterpart to the CBC).  One of the few AM stations that the CBC and Radio-Canada didn't unload a few years back.  On a road trip to the Cleveland area last year and to the Erie area this year, I was able to get Radio-Canada on 860 or a variety of FM signals (that Wikipedia list for Ontario helps....) from across the lake much of the time.

In English, I've picked up CFRB 1010, an all-news station (I think) in Toronto.  Can't get it close to New York City because of WINS.  There's a station in Hamilton, Ont., on 910 if memory serves.

[MDRoads]

Radio, particularly AM DXing and amateur, is one of my consuming hobbies besides the roads.  My father told me a story of being spooked out by listening to a station in Chicago playing the "is Paul McCartney dead" show, while driving down the old two-lane US 340 south on a Baltimore to Roanoke trip.  You don't get that kind of weirdness except on Coast to Coast AM nowadays.  Haven't listened to Coast regularly since Art Bell left, which was about the time it was briefly put on FM talk locally.  Also about the same time I began to give up the very long, late road trips lasting into the wee hours.

These days, I 'settled' for listening to WBZ, interviewing survivors of the USS Pueblo and their upcoming reunion that weekend.  The ship and crew were captured by the North Koreans in 1968. Very informative about a little-mentioned historical event, all while traversing US 50 toward Ocean City on a foggy night in 2008.

Most times now, I have the ipod and CDs, even FM has become unlistenable.  I can see soon, there won't be any radios in cars, any programming we want can be piped in from our ipods/cellphones, hooked in via USB or Bluetooth.

Near the Big Bend of MD's I-695 on the east side is a local 860 tower, so directional toward Baltimore City that at night, in Essex on MD 150, though you could see the towers, you'd hear it fade out, replaced by the French of CJBC.  Propagation favors one region at a time... the Northeast, the Midwest, or the South and Cuban/Caribbean clears, but can change in the course of a night.

@KillerTux Here's the top for DX so far.  WBAL in Baltimore heard from Ireland.  This guy has some other videos, including a local band scan.  They still have music on AM over there; such a scan in the US would reveal mostly syndicated fare.

[xcellntbuy]

"WBAL in Baltimore heard from Ireland."

If Gugliemo Marconi were alive today, he would be mighty proud of that cross-Atlantic transmission.

[Alps]

In English, I've picked up CFRB 1010, an all-news station (I think) in Toronto.  Can't get it close to New York City because of WINS.  There's a station in Hamilton, Ont., on 910 if memory serves.

You'd be surprised.  I'm 30 miles out and I get so much interference in my parking lot that, for example, this morning I heard the other station clearer than WINS.  Was it CFRB?  I couldn't stand listening to two feeds long enough to catch a call signal.

[Michael in Philly]

Near the Big Bend of MD's I-695 on the east side is a local 860 tower, so directional toward Baltimore City that at night, in Essex on MD 150, though you could see the towers, you'd hear it fade out, replaced by the French of CJBC.  Propagation favors one region at a time... the Northeast, the Midwest, or the South and Cuban/Caribbean clears, but can change in the course of a night.

Here's a Baltimore-area weirdness for you:  found a somewhat-alternative-rock station (what I most like to listen to lately) in York, Pa., on 105.7.  At least it's licensed to York and identified as York-Harrisburg-Lancaster.  Comes in well far north of Harrisburg in the mountains, but barely reaches south of York because of 105.7 in Baltimore.  I don't know what are the rules about how far apart two radio stations on the same frequency have to be, but I'm surprised they'd assign the same FM frequency to Baltimore and York.  With analog TV, it was generally 175 to 200 miles, with some exceptions on the East Coast.

Too much quoted

[Michael in Philly]

In English, I've picked up CFRB 1010, an all-news station (I think) in Toronto.  Can't get it close to New York City because of WINS.  There's a station in Hamilton, Ont., on 910 if memory serves.

You'd be surprised.  I'm 30 miles out and I get so much interference in my parking lot that, for example, this morning I heard the other station clearer than WINS.  Was it CFRB?  I couldn't stand listening to two feeds long enough to catch a call signal.

I don't know what I was thinking when I wrote that post, because I'd certainly had, by then, the experience of picking up CFRB on, say, 202 in Branchburg at night when I wanted north Jersey traffic.  But within 30 miles of New York (farther out during the day), I count on getting WINS.  WCBS comes in pretty well down here (Center City Philadelphia) no matter what time of day; I once got WBZ Boston on a summer afternoon in Monmouth County, and once picked up WTAM in Cleveland (carrying a Bengals game, oddly) late afternoon but still before sunset in Scotch Plains.

[MDRoads]

Here's a Baltimore-area weirdness for you:  found a somewhat-alternative-rock station (what I most like to listen to lately) in York, Pa., on 105.7.  At least it's licensed to York and identified as York-Harrisburg-Lancaster.  Comes in well far north of Harrisburg in the mountains, but barely reaches south of York because of 105.7 in Baltimore.  I don't know what are the rules about how far apart two radio stations on the same frequency have to be, but I'm surprised they'd assign the same FM frequency to Baltimore and York.  With analog TV, it was generally 175 to 200 miles, with some exceptions on the East Coast.

Always seemed to me very close spacing for commercial stations (they both share 88.1, but York's is a lower power campus station).  The 105.7 in Baltimore has its tower on Moravia Rd just north of I-895.  Don't know about now, but when it was an oldies format, the city of license was Catonsville, across town.  Would identify as "WQSR, Catonsville, Baltimore."  York's 105.7 is probably on that ridge north of US 30. It's only ~70 highway miles between, less straight-line.  There was a fuss in northern Baltimore County where they interfere, when WQSR's parent company had rights to the Ravens for a year or two.  They moved the games to co-owned 102.7, not just because of co-channel interference from the north, but also a 105.9 adjacent channel down in the Washington area.

[PAHighways]

Here's a Baltimore-area weirdness for you:  found a somewhat-alternative-rock station (what I most like to listen to lately) in York, Pa., on 105.7.  At least it's licensed to York and identified as York-Harrisburg-Lancaster.  Comes in well far north of Harrisburg in the mountains, but barely reaches south of York because of 105.7 in Baltimore.  I don't know what are the rules about how far apart two radio stations on the same frequency have to be, but I'm surprised they'd assign the same FM frequency to Baltimore and York.  With analog TV, it was generally 175 to 200 miles, with some exceptions on the East Coast.

According to the polar plot of the signal on the FCC's website, the signal is directional with it attenuated to the south.

[hm insulators]

Not to hijack the thread, but is anybody else having trouble clicking onto links? The last time or two I've been on this webpage, every time I click a link, the computer just completely freezes up and refuses to do anything! I have a hell of a time even shutting it off and rebooting.

Back to the subject: In southern California, there are two stations at 96.7FM, one in San Bernardino, the other in Orange County, so they are quite close to each other geographically.

[golden eagle]

Aren't there two 103.1's in Orange and Los Angeles counties?

[Zmapper]

How close can two stations with the same frequency be?

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

How close can two stations with the same frequency be?

Depends on their signal strength and direction.
I know there are several frequencies on the AM side that over 1,000 stations using them.