FM Radio Station That Can Be Heard From The Most States/Provinces

[The Nature Boy]

Inspired by some research I'm doing (out of idle boredom):

I'll start by nominating WMZQ in DC: https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WMZQ&service=FM
According to Radio Locator, it can be heard in: DC, Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Five state level jurisdictions.

At one point, I thought that the stations with towers on Mount Washington, NH could reach NY and MA but a quick survey of those stations reveal that to no longer be the case.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Can any of those NYC FMs get NJ, PA, CT, and MA?

There's probably a station in La Crosse that reaches MN, WI, IA, and IL. I tried finding one on R-L but got datawalled for too many searches.

[Road Hog]

Texarkana stations hit TX, AR, LA and OK.

[jp the roadgeek]

Can any of those NYC FMs get NJ, PA, CT, and MA?

I live in Central CT and every NYC FM signal peters out once you pass the New Haven area or the Southbury, CT area on I-84 (I do get city grade signals of WFAN and WCBS's AM feeds).  No signal would ever hit near Sheffield, MA.  I did find WRKI (i95) in Danbury, CT does reach through most of CT; southern Berkshire County, MA (I've picked up strands of it on my car radio in the Springfield area); most of the Hudson Valley of NY (as far west as Middletown, which is about 20 miles from Matamoras, PA, so it may be possible to hit PA if atmospheric conditions and topography are right); and some of northwestern Bergen County, NJ. 

Most Philly FM stations hit Southeastern PA, northern DE, southern NJ, and into Cecil County, MD.  Frederick, MD stations would hit MD, PA, VA, and WV.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

Wait for some tropospheric ducting and/or e-skip to happen . Then you'll get radio stations into states/provinces you'll never thought of.

[Flint1979]

You can hear 97.1 The Drive in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin.

[Ben114]

I know Boston radio stations can be heard from MA, CT, RI, NH, and ME.

[jp the roadgeek]

Wait for some tropospheric ducting and/or e-skip to happen . Then you'll get radio stations into states/provinces you'll never thought of.

I remember one in 2004.  In CT, I was picking up stations in from many of the Sun Belt states and MO.  I was trying to listen to WEEI on the Westerly, RI repeater (103.7) on the way home from work, and I  picked up a 103.7 in Lebanon, MO.

[SP Cook]

As far as under normal conditions, I would say an ideal place is the Tri-Cities, VA-TN region.  In addition to VA and TN, the stations reach parts of NC, KY, and small parts of WV, and can have marginal reception even into SC and GA.

[Rothman]

Isn't KMOX legendary for its range?  I know little about FM technicalities, but remember reading articles about the size of its transmitter and whatnot.

[SP Cook]

Isn't KMOX legendary for its range?  I know little about FM technicalities, but remember reading articles about the size of its transmitter and whatnot.

KMOX is a "clear channel" AM station.  Clear channel, or Class A, AM stations operate at extremely high power and on channels that have no other stations on the same channel for 1000s of miles.  They thus can cover HUGE areas, especially at night. 

The OP was asking about FM.  There is no FM equivalent to clear channel status in the USA for FM, and FM signals are not affected by the time of day. 

Thus while getting an AM station, at night, to cover half the country is common, and mostly a discussion for radio hobbyists, an FM station's range covering multiple states is more a question of weird state borders.

[Rothman]

Well...oops.

[TravelingBethelite]

Wait for some tropospheric ducting and/or e-skip to happen . Then you'll get radio stations into states/provinces you'll never thought of.

I remember one in 2004.  In CT, I was picking up stations in from many of the Sun Belt states and MO.  I was trying to listen to WEEI on the Westerly, RI repeater (103.7) on the way home from work, and I  picked up a 103.7 in Lebanon, MO.

That's KJEL. I get fringe reception of it in Columbia. As an aside, I love me some FM DX, so I love that tropo and e-skip. Come to think of it, I enjoy tropo more.

[Flint1979]

Isn't KMOX legendary for its range?  I know little about FM technicalities, but remember reading articles about the size of its transmitter and whatnot.

WJR is pretty legendary for their range on the AM side too, I've heard reports of WJR being heard in England.

[cwf1701]

Back when i was in Detroit (Macomb County), i could pick up a number of FM stations from Toledo Ohio (and a couple from Cleveland). I can assume they could be picked up in SW Ontario (Windsor).

[golden eagle]

WXLO Worcester can reach six states: MA, CT, NH, RI, VT, and just gets a finger into Maine.

https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WXLO&service=FM

[jmd41280]

WDVE Pittsburgh can be heard in parts of 4 states (PA, WV, OH, MD)

https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WDVE&service=FM

[ftballfan]

99.9 WKSF Old Fort (Asheville), NC can be heard in six states (KY, VA, TN, NC, GA, SC) and might be heard in parts of a seventh (WV) depending on elevation and conditions: https://fccdata.org/?lang=en&facid=2947&appid=1643883&i=2 - The red line is similar to the outermost line on Radio-Locator

94.9 WHOM Mount Washington, NH can be heard in four states (NH, ME, VT, and a small sliver of NY) and Quebec: https://fccdata.org/?lang=en&facid=49687&appid=1152885&i=2

96.3 KHLS Blytheville, AR can be heard in five states (AR, MO, KY, TN, MS): https://fccdata.org/?lang=en&facid=63607&appid=606976&i=2

92.9 WEZF and 107.9 WVPS Burlington, VT can both be heard in four states (VT, NY, NH, ME) and two Canadian provinces (ON, QC): https://fccdata.org/?lang=en&facid=35232&appid=1773996&i=2 and https://fccdata.org/?lang=en&facid=69952&appid=1155506&i=2

104.5 WAXX Eau Claire, WI only enters three states according to FCCdata (MN, WI, and IA), but it can be heard in parts of MI.

[jp the roadgeek]

I found a station that meets the NY/CT/MA/NJ/PA criteria:  WPDH (101.5) in Poughkeepsie.  The "distant"  ring clips SW MA; Matamoras, PA; the Bergen/Sussex County, NJ area, and into the Waterbury, CT area.  The "fringe"  ring reaches near Paterson, NJ; just northeast of East Stroudsburg, up to Albany, out to Pittsfield, MA; and into the Hartford area (though I've never pulled it in east of Waterbury).

[bandit957]

FM radio is "line of sight." The same is true of TV. FM stations generally cover the areas visible from the tower. I guess other factors can extend the signal a little bit.

AM stations can go further because signals bounce off the skywave.

[ethanhopkin14]

Not exactly what you were looking for because the size of Texas doesn't allow FM stations to reach very far, but when I read the title I thought of 1200 WOAI in San Antonio.  It is known as the blowtorch of the southwest, but being situated in central Texas, it doesn't reach that many states.  At night I know you can get it in the furthest reaches of West Texas and I think people in the panhandle have said they can pick it up meaning you can hear it in Oklahoma.  According to the coverage map you can hear it in Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon and Coahuila.   

Inversely, I have several nights picked up KOA out of Denver here in Austin, meaning it came from central Colorado, through Kansas, Oklahoma and New Mexico and a long way through Texas for me to get it. 

Also, growing up a Cubs fan, when I was a kid and I visited my grandparents in northeast Texas I could barely pick up WGN and listen to Cubs games, and hear Harry Carrey do his radio time from the 4th-6th innings, but again only for night games.  That means it came all the way through all of Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas to Texas, which most likely it clipped Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi on it's way down. 

[CNGL-Leudimin]

FM radio is "line of sight." The same is true of TV. FM stations generally cover the areas visible from the tower. I guess other factors can extend the signal a little bit.

There is always a slight atmospheric bending which allows FM stations to reach a bit beyond the horizon as seen from the transmitter. This exactly happens with most, if not all, of the non-local transmitters with permanent reception in my area.

[Henry]

Not exactly what you were looking for because the size of Texas doesn't allow FM stations to reach very far, but when I read the title I thought of 1200 WOAI in San Antonio.  It is known as the blowtorch of the southwest, but being situated in central Texas, it doesn't reach that many states.  At night I know you can get it in the furthest reaches of West Texas and I think people in the panhandle have said they can pick it up meaning you can hear it in Oklahoma.  According to the coverage map you can hear it in Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon and Coahuila.   

Inversely, I have several nights picked up KOA out of Denver here in Austin, meaning it came from central Colorado, through Kansas, Oklahoma and New Mexico and a long way through Texas for me to get it. 

Also, growing up a Cubs fan, when I was a kid and I visited my grandparents in northeast Texas I could barely pick up WGN and listen to Cubs games, and hear Harry Carrey do his radio time from the 4th-6th innings, but again only for night games.  That means it came all the way through all of Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas to Texas, which most likely it clipped Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi on it's way down. 

I imagine CA is the same way in that it's too large for any of its FM stations to reach other states.

But back to the subject at hand: I know Las Vegas stations fit into this category, as they can be picked up in NV, CA, AZ and UT.

[bandit957]

Wattage would be a factor too, but apparently it can also affect a station's maximum volume, at least on AM. Someone posted on a local radio board that the owner of WCLU couldn't understand why his station wasn't as loud as WLW, and that was because it had only 500 watts versus 50,000.

[Flint1979]

Wattage would be a factor too, but apparently it can also affect a station's maximum volume, at least on AM. Someone posted on a local radio board that the owner of WCLU couldn't understand why his station wasn't as loud as WLW, and that was because it had only 500 watts versus 50,000.

Those 50,000 watt blowtorches can't be beat on the AM side. There are some FM stations in Michigan that have very high wattage output, WUPS 98.5, WHNN 96.1, WKQI 95.5, WBCT 93.7 which is the the station with the highest power of any North American radio station with 320,000 watts of power covering an area of about 25,000 square miles and being heard in over 20 Michigan counties.