AM Radio Stations

[superdeez]

Originally Posted by NowhereMan 1966

Hey guys!!!! I found a little gem out there in radioland. WABC out of New York City on 770 kc every Saturday Night, plays music! Right now, I'm listening to it over my grandfather's, 5 tube, 1953 Philco, 2 band radio. My other radio in here, my Sanyo RP-8700 is too close to the computer so I had to resort to the older model.

It sounds great and I'm glad to hear a little sanity return to the world. I feel like I'm in a time warp or something. It's nice to suspend the real world a bit with terrorism, war, political hate from all corners and to ease back into the world of my childhood back in the 1970's when you can just chill and listen to some tunes and everything will be alright. Yeah, I got to come back to the real world, but it is nice to have these few hours of bliss.

I haven't had this much fun with music on AM since WNBC's Time Machine back in the 1980's. I should tape some of these shows on my ghetto blaster or my Panasonic Cassette receiver component stereo.

There is some fading but I still get signal, just have to adjust the volume on this 5 tube radio from time to time.

What kind of music?

Here in Orlando we have three "good" music stations on AM...a satellite rebroadcast oldies station, radio Disney (OCCATIONALLY they play something I like or can stand) and a good spanish station that plays a lot of salsa.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by superdeez

What kind of music?

Here in Orlando we have three "good" music stations on AM...a satellite rebroadcast oldies station, radio Disney (OCCATIONALLY they play something I like or can stand) and a good spanish station that plays a lot of salsa.

I live about 35 miles from Cleveland. Most stations in the area are talk these days, but there are a couple of music stations. One is an oldies station that is programmed almost entirely from satellite feeds (The True Oldies Channel), one is Radio Disney in Cleveland, and two others are standards/big band from about 80 miles away; I also get three 50kW music stations from Canada most of the time (I am about a mile from the south shore of Lake Erie, so I hear quite a few stations from Canada, Detroit, and other cities along the lakeshore, although the two 50kW stations I hear from Detroit, WJR and CKLW, are talk). All are AM stations. Haven't heard any Spanish-language stations around here yet, though, although there is a low-power Spanish FM about 50 miles west of here.

I get a much better variety of AM music stations at night when the band opens up. WSM in Nashville, WABC New York's oldies program (which I have yet to hear), and several others I can't recall at the moment. I am only sorry I did not tape the last few days or hours of WNBC-AM oldies radio in New York before that station was sold to Emmis Communications in 1986 and its callsign changed to WFAN (has it really been twenty years ago since that happened?); I used to listen to their nighttime hosts such as Cousin Brucie, aka Bruce Morrow (now on Sirius satellite) when WNBC would boom in to the Cleveland area at night.

I used to enjoy listening to WKBW-1520 in Buffalo at night before they switched to talk a few months ago; one of the reasons I liked that station so much was that they had a former Cleveland radio personality on in nighttime. I often wondered what had happened to him after he left 50kW WKYC-AM (now WTAM) in Cleveland in 1970 or so. Was a real kick to hear him on again in Buffalo. I wonder what's become of him since KB let him go. I had heard he was on at least one station somewhere in the Carolinas several years ago.

I've said this here before. AM music radio in this country is not dead; there are a few stations out there that still specialize in older music (many of them are in Canada, though). There was a really good live oldies station about 40 miles south of here (just 1kW but it came in here very well) that went broke and off the air about three years or so ago; it hasn't been heard from since. Another 0.5kW (500 watt) oldies station near where I grew up went to satellite programming (all talk) about two years ago. I think it was because the 500-watt oldies station changed formats that the oldies FM in Cleveland now plays more 1950s oldies than it used to (mainly on weekends; most of it is live, although there are a couple of satellite programs on as well), though most of their music during the week is from the 1960s and seventies.

[NowhereMan 1966]

Originally Posted by superdeez

What kind of music?

Here in Orlando we have three "good" music stations on AM...a satellite rebroadcast oldies station, radio Disney (OCCATIONALLY they play something I like or can stand) and a good spanish station that plays a lot of salsa.

Well, the one here in Pittsburgh on 770 kc usually plays 60's and 70's music, sometimes delves into the early 1980's and late 1950's although there are segments that play 1950's and early 1960's music too. WABC on Saturday nights plays mainly 60's and 70's, creeping into the late 50's from time to time. If you remember a typical music AM station from the 1970's, that's basically what WABC plays.

[NowhereMan 1966]

BTW, one quick note, I think WABC's Musicradio might be shortened next Saturday night because I think they carry baseball (or some other sports) on their station so it could be hit and miss.

[wa2ise]

WABC will have a game on after about 6:30, so there will only be a half hour of oldies show this Saturday night.

Pretty kitty you have. =<^.,.^>=

[wa2ise]

WABC will have a game on after about 6:30, so there will only be a half hour of oldies show this Saturday night.

Pretty kitty =<^.,.^>=

[Scorpion8]

I listen to AM radio all the time. With all the mountains in my area, it actually propagates a lot better than FM. All the FM stations need translators over in the next fjord/valley so their signal can reach more people. Besides, AM has the better PBS stations and local news. The best station plays big band and polka early in the morning, and then contemporary pop for most of the afternoon although they are heavily rooted in oldies.

[NowhereMan 1966]

Originally Posted by wa2ise

WABC will have a game on after about 6:30, so there will only be a half hour of oldies show this Saturday night.

Pretty kitty you have. =<^.,.^>=

I tuned around yesterday with my 1953 Philco and it sounded like there was a game on WABC so no oldies yesterday. Maybe next Saturday night. I remember there were comments made that a lot of music from the 1950's to even the 1970's might have been more optimized for AM radio and when you fire up a 1950's to 1970's vintage transistor radio, it sounds really good over them. Ihave t concur when I use my "Maggie" (Magnavox) 8 transistor radio from 1965 on the local music station on 770 kc (same freq as WABC, when they shout down or go to low power, WABC comes in) but to far, I've only used my 1953 Philco for WABC oldies and it has a nice sound to it as well.

As to the kitty, her name is/was Pansy, we lost her a week ago today, she just turned 19 a week before that. Right now I have my now oldest kitty looing up at me, Corky, she turned 17 in May. Pansy was a tough loss to take.

[NowhereMan 1966]

Originally Posted by Scorpion8

I listen to AM radio all the time. With all the mountains in my area, it actually propagates a lot better than FM. All the FM stations need translators over in the next fjord/valley so their signal can reach more people. Besides, AM has the better PBS stations and local news. The best station plays big band and polka early in the morning, and then contemporary pop for most of the afternoon although they are heavily rooted in oldies.

I'm an AM junky too although when I go to work, it is FM only since AM cannot get through the building. At least we do have a local FM talker here, I always loved talk radio but lately, I listen to music more since I'm burned out on politics although I still listen to Glenn Beck during the days and Savage at night, I still like to know what's going on. I also like Chuck Harder on shortwave but oly when I go into and come home from work early. Rush is too trite and ingrained and Hannity, he's generally OK, but he's a little too repetitious for me, both are a little too mainstream, I admit I'm a little complicated politically. So music it is.

KDKA-AM is the other big talker here, even though the FM'er is running them into the ground, they have local hosts usually, although they used to carry Rush until the FM'er took him away. They used to have Bill O'Reilly, I listened to him more than Rush, but they bumped him up to nighttime and they have that loudmouth Kramer guy on. That station, every since it went from Westinghouse, locally owned to CBS owned, it really has gone down the toilet although not as fast up until 2003 when the FM talker, WPGB 104.7 Mc came online. Another local talker here is WPTT 1360 kc, some of the hosts one national and one local lean to the left but one host I like, Doug Hoerth tends to be more middle of the road and somewhat apolitical, talking about movies and general everyday stuff, I like to listen to that too.

[Jeffhs]

There are no more AM music stations in Cleveland (all are talk these days), but I can get several music stations from out of town--CHWO 740 Toronto, WKTX 830 Cortland, Ohio (Youngstown, OH, near Pittsburgh), WNIO 1390 Niles, Ohio (80 miles from Cleveland, closer to Youngstown) and WWOW 1360 Conneaut, Ohio (80+ miles from Cleveland). All but WWOW-1360 are standards stations and all but WKTX run 24 hours a day (WKTX is daytime only). WWOW-1360 is an oldies station programmed almost exclusively from The True Oldies Channel satellite network. The Cleveland talk stations are WTAM 1100 (formerly top-40 WKYC-1100, NBC owned and operated, in the '60s-'70s), which carries Rush Limbaugh, et al., WERE 1300 which carries what it calls "black" talk, WELW 1330 in Willoughby, Ohio (east suburban Cleveland) which was switched to syndicated talk from oldies about three years ago, WARF 1350 Akron, Ohio (30 miles from Cleveland), and WWMK 1260 (Radio Disney--used to be top-40 WIXY 1260 in the '60s-'70s). Living near the southern shore of Lake Erie, I also hear WJR 760 Detroit and CKLW 800 in Windsor, Canada, both talk stations (but CKLW was a powerhouse top-40 station in the '60s-'70s, with a very listenable signal all along the south shore of the lake from Detroit east to Buffalo). I also hear most other 50kW Toronto AM stations here fairly well, due to my being so close to the lake.

The music stations are all on FM now in this area (northeastern Ohio), although that's how it is in almost every major metropolitan area these days. Thank goodness for XM satellite radio, which is commercial free (and now also available on AOL Radio, ever since they decided to practically give away most of their services; about 30 XM satellite channels, all music [no talk or sports], are available with all recent versions of Winamp, as they are bundled with both the free and paid versions of the player).

[NowhereMan 1966]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

There are no more AM music stations in Cleveland (all are talk these days), but I can get several music stations from out of town--CHWO 740 Toronto, WKTX 830 Cortland, Ohio (Youngstown, OH, near Pittsburgh), WNIO 1390 Niles, Ohio (80 miles from Cleveland, closer to Youngstown) and WWOW 1360 Conneaut, Ohio (80+ miles from Cleveland). All but WWOW-1360 are standards stations and all but WKTX run 24 hours a day (WKTX is daytime only). WWOW-1360 is an oldies station programmed almost exclusively from The True Oldies Channel satellite network. The Cleveland talk stations are WTAM 1100 (formerly top-40 WKYC-1100, NBC owned and operated, in the '60s-'70s), which carries Rush Limbaugh, et al., WERE 1300 which carries what it calls "black" talk, WELW 1330 in Willoughby, Ohio (east suburban Cleveland) which was switched to syndicated talk from oldies about three years ago, WARF 1350 Akron, Ohio (30 miles from Cleveland), and WWMK 1260 (Radio Disney--used to be top-40 WIXY 1260 in the '60s-'70s). Living near the southern shore of Lake Erie, I also hear WJR 760 Detroit and CKLW 800 in Windsor, Canada, both talk stations (but CKLW was a powerhouse top-40 station in the '60s-'70s, with a very listenable signal all along the south shore of the lake from Detroit east to Buffalo). I also hear most other 50kW Toronto AM stations here fairly well, due to my being so close to the lake.

The music stations are all on FM now in this area (northeastern Ohio), although that's how it is in almost every major metropolitan area these days. Thank goodness for XM satellite radio, which is commercial free (and now also available on AOL Radio, ever since they decided to practically give away most of their services; about 30 XM satellite channels, all music [no talk or sports], are available with all recent versions of Winamp, as they are bundled with both the free and paid versions of the player).

Hmmmm, at night, I can pick up Toronto on 740 here in Pittsburgh. WNIO 1390, is listenable here as well but very weak, picked it up better I the car and used to listen to NASCAR over it when I was in the car tooling about. I also like to listen to 570, WKBN, out of Youngstown Ohio. I can pick up WJR (760) and WTAM (1100) both at night and in the day, WJR is really weak but listenable. CKLW, 800, I can get at night.

BTW, our main station, or was it seems, KDKA-AM on 1020, I think that station has really "jumped the shark." We have a huge new, well, 3 year old. FM talker on 104.7 Mc and they managed to rip Rush off of KDKA-AM in late 2003. Now the same station has managed to take the Pittsburgh Pirate baseball broadcasts away from KDKA-AM where they always have been, except for a very short stint in the 1950's, on KDKA since 1921. My mother works at a supermarket and I'm friends with a few of her co-workers, one of them, a talk show junky like me, greeted me, insteado saying "hi," he said, "what in the He** is going on a KDKA?!" I think KDKA not only "jumped the shark" but has become shark food, ever since Infinity, which is owned BY CBS (IIRC) took it over, they really boogered that station up. I hardly listen to it anymore. Sigh.... I miss the old "Group W" (Westinghouse) days.

Come to think of it, all of our sports teams here in Pittsburgh, their flagship stations are all on FM now, Pittsburgh Penguins, 105.9 Mc (can't remember the callsign), Pittsburgh Steelers, WDVE 102.5 Mc, and Pittsburgh Pirates, WPGB 104.7 Mc. About the Pirates, if my maternal grandmother was still alive, she'd have a fit even though her 1960's vintage transistor radio got FM too.

[Chad Hauris]

That's interesting that WABC has some music now. When I lived in Ohio I remember being able to pick up that station. Maybe now that more talk is moving to FM, the AM's can be experiment more with different types of programming such as more music. Does WABC have the music radio jingles when they are playing music?

[NowhereMan 1966]

Originally Posted by Chad Hauris

That's interesting that WABC has some music now. When I lived in Ohio I remember being able to pick up that station. Maybe now that more talk is moving to FM, the AM's can be experiment more with different types of programming such as more music. Does WABC have the music radio jingles when they are playing music?

Yeap, they even use the old WABC jingles and everything. Like you, I hope this starts a trend back to music on AM. It might not be exactly like it was but it would be nice to have some of it back.

DE KA3WRW

[wa2ise]

Originally Posted by Chad Hauris

That's interesting that WABC has some music now. When I lived in Ohio I remember being able to pick up that station. Does WABC have the music radio jingles when they are playing music?

I live 6 miles north of WABC's transmitter tower, so I have no problem receiving them. WABC is primarily a talk format station, and in a sense the oldies show is essentially a talk show on the topic of oldies. They play some oldies, and talk about them.

If not, pardon the intrusion! I've got 100's of hours of analog tape recorded over the past 40+ years..a lifetime of radio really. It's all at 7-1/2 and 15ips on good quality Scotch and Ampex tape..thick mil. My hope is to aquire what I need to transfer these reels and cassettes to DAT or,better, CD's so my kids and some friends will have them down the road. I'd really love listening to them myself!

Does anyone know what I'd need, and a ball park cost, to do this at home? Or, should I seek out a studio and see if they'd do it for a reasonable price? I'd really give anything to get this done..we're talking hurricane coverage from the '60's, interviews with noteables and just old jock shows...priceless to me.

Any input would certainly be appreciated!

Thanks, Johnny

BTW, I really love that Kitty, Nowhere Man! I'm a slave to 8..3 in..5 out. A right Jolly Group! I visited WABC in '66 and met Rick Sklar..believe he was the PD or GM and Cousin Brucey who was on the air at the time. What a trip. The GM at KRYS in Corpus Christi arranged the meetings when he found out I was going to NYC. Met people at the KATZ agency. Use to be a big national ad agency for 100's of stations. I'm new to these forums and just getting started posting, so please excuse if I pop in "out of context!" I'll get the hang of it!