AM Radio

[mightyace]

^^^

Right, and some AM stations go off the air, turn down there power and/or directionalize their signal at night to avoid interference with the "clear channel" 50,000 watt stations.  At least, they used to.

[MDRoads]

I know there are several frequencies on the AM side that over 1,000 stations using them.

Must be thinking of the 'local' channels, which are supposed to use non-directional antennas running 1000 watts or less. 
These are: 1230, 1240, 1340, 1400, 1450 and 1490.

Right, and some AM stations go off the air, turn down there power and/or directionalize their signal at night to avoid interference with the "clear channel" 50,000 watt stations.  At least, they used to.

Lots of restricted stations out there which must avoid interference with the clears.  Some have pre-sunrise authority to go on the air at 6 a.m. local time with reduced power in their daytime pattern, in the event local sunrise is later (with DST, that's the case except the longest days from May to July).

Even some 50kW stations use directional patterns at night, to protect the other clears.  The FCC provides each station a list of switch-over times, averaged for each calendar month, rounded to the nearest 15 minutes.  One station near me actually has the day and night transmitter sites on opposite sides of town. 

The problem arises today when a metro area sprawls beyond the towers, and into the null behind it.  The service areas were determined using 1930s-1950s population patterns, and no provision was made for suburbanization.  It's the reason some places with extensive sprawl, DC for example, are poor markets for AM.

[Tom]

When I still lived in Ohio, I traveled I-80 across PA several times per year.

There are not a lot of stations along that route and topography makes things harder.

But, I was able to get a number of "clear channel superstations"

660    WFAN    New York, New York* (formerly WNBC)
670    WSCR    Chicago, Illinois*
710    WOR      New York, New York
760    WJR       Detroit, Michigan
770    WABC    New York, New York
860    CJBC      Toronto, Ontario
880    WCBS    New York, New York
1010    CFRB     Toronto, Ontario
1020    KDKA     Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
1030    WBZ      Boston, Massachusetts
1060    KYW      Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1090    WBAL    Baltimore, Maryland
1100    WTAM    Cleveland, Ohio (formerly WWWE)
1210    WPHT    Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (formerly WCAU)
1530    WCKY    Cincinnati, Ohio

Used to be clear channel until 1998 - or was when I was doing this:
1190    WOWO    Fort Wayne, Indiana

* One year I was heading home for Christmas on a Monday night and was listening to Monday Night Football.  I had to keep adjusting my analog dial to keep a signal.  It look me awhile for me to realize that I was switching between these two stations.  (Of course, with modern digital tuners, it would be much easier to figure this out.)

By any chance, do you remember picking up the following:

800 CKLW the Big 8 Windsor, Ontario
740 CBL (later CHWO and now CFZM) Toronto, Ontario

[rickmastfan67]

740 CBL (later CHWO and now CFZM) Toronto, Ontario

I still remember sometimes getting 740 down in the North Hills of Pittsburgh when it was still run by the CBC.  But it all depended on the night as sometimes it would make it, sometimes it wouldn't.

[apeman33]

Picking up AM signals is somewhat of a hobby of mine. Usually, the stations I can pick up on a regular basis:

WWL New Orleans
WSB Atlanta
WSM & WLAC Nashville
KMOX St. Louis
WBBM & WGN Chicago
WBAP Dallas
WOAI San Antonio
KOA Denver
WLW and WCKY Cincinnati
KOOJ Iowa (an AM hot AC)

At times, I can also get WJR Detroit and WTAM Cleveland.

If that's on 1630, it's actually KCJJ in Iowa City. I've picked it up too. It's a defacto clear-channel station because so few stations are on that frequency. I pick it up here in Kansas at night better than I can pick up WHB in Kansas City.

KCJJ is also currently the only over-the-air outlet for the Mike O'Meara Show, which is otherwise available only as a podcast.

[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.

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.

Nothing like answering a question a year after it was asked, but in case you still read this, I use radiostationworld.com.

[Tom]

740 CBL (later CHWO and now CFZM) Toronto, Ontario

I still remember sometimes getting 740 down in the North Hills of Pittsburgh when it was still run by the CBC.  But it all depended on the night as sometimes it would make it, sometimes it wouldn't.

The Rock Radio Scrapbook website has an aircheck of CHWO's first day broadcasting on the 740 AM frequency.

http://rockradioscrapbook.ca/cka-jan2.html  

[ftballfan]

Back at home, I can usually get at night:
620 WTMJ Milwaukee
670 WSCR Chicago
700 WLW Cincinnati
720 WGN Chicago
740 CFZM Toronto
760 WJR Detroit
770 WABC New York
780 WBBM Chicago
800 CKLW Windsor
810 WGY Schenectady
820 WBAP Fort Worth
830 WCCO Minneapolis
840 WHAS Louisville
850 KOA Denver
860 CJBC Toronto
870 WWL New Orleans
880 WCBS New York
890 WLS Chicago
910 WFDF Farmington Hills
950 WWJ Detroit
1000 WMVP Chicago
1020 KDKA Pittsburgh
1030 WBZ Boston
1040 WHO Des Moines
1060 KYW Philadelphia
1100 WTAM Cleveland
1120 KMOX St. Louis
1160 WYLL Chicago
1180 WHAM Rochester
1530 WCKY Cincinnati
1540 KXEL Waterloo

[Dr Frankenstein]

Montreal's Sports radio, CKAC 730, was recently replaced by a station that broadcasts traffic reports 24/7, funded by the MTQ. As much as I am a roadgeek... lame.

[hm insulators]

Montreal's Sports radio, CKAC 730, was recently replaced by a station that broadcasts traffic reports 24/7, funded by the MTQ. As much as I am a roadgeek... lame.

Something like that would be useful in Los Angeles.

[rickmastfan67]

Montreal's Sports radio, CKAC 730, was recently replaced by a station that broadcasts traffic reports 24/7, funded by the MTQ. As much as I am a roadgeek... lame.

Something like that would be useful in Los Angeles.

Have an XM radio?  They have a station that's dedicated to LA traffic.

[MDOTFanFB]

During the day, I can receive AM stations as far as CFCO 630 in Chatham-Kent, Ontario, Canada, WVFN 730 in East Lansing, MI and WSPD 1370 in Toledo, OH.

At night, I am able to recieve the following stations:

WTVN 610 in Columbus, OH
CFTR 680 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
WLW 700 in Cincinnati, OH
Plus some station broadcasting from Louisville, Kentucky on the 840 dial

[Tom]

That Louisville, Kentucky station is WHAS 840 AM.  I remember picking it up in northern Michigan in the mid-1980's when it had a 1950's-1960's oldies music format on Friday nights.