WING Dayton

[jon]

There was a time when Radio meant AM, and Top 40 was THE format. It was also the days when transmitters needed weekly preventative maintenance. Although there were a few exceptions -- those stations with alternate transmitters and a few who picked Saturday night -- the vast majority of stations signed off soon after midnight Sunday night.

The few that stayed on the air could be heard far and wide. WING-1410 in Dayton, Ohio, was a 5000 watt station that may well have been the only station on the 1410 frequency during that weekly period. I even heard kids in my Vancouver area high school talk about listening to WING and KCPX-1320 Salt Lake City after CKLG, CFUN and CHQM signed off Sunday night.

This all came up as reelradio debuted their first WING aircheck yesterday morning. The discussion in the comment thread -- divided between the DX'ers and non-DX'ers -- is almost as interesting as the aircheck itself.

WING Comments

[Glen Livingstone]

Interesting story jonedmonton.

I can't remember if I ever picked up WING back in my DXing days or not - my memory's not what it once was.

I wish now that I hadn't ( sometime in the early 70's ) chucked all my QSL cards; it would sure be fun to look back at them now, representing as they do a slice of history that will never return.

Thanks for the link.

[radiofan]

I think I only picked up WING once or twice during C-FUN's Sunday night silent periods. I did manage to pick up KMYC in Marysville, CA a few times when C-FUN was off.
KCPX was a regular on 1320 when QM was off and on 730, it was usually CKDM in Dauphin or KBOY in Medford, OR when LG was off.

[tuned]

I just remember being annoyed when Senile went on at 650 and I could no longer listen to LA's KFI.

[jon]

Yes, as far back as I can remember (early '60s), 650 was considered a future frequency for Vancouver. 1-A Clear Channel WSM owned the frequency most winter evenings. They were Nashville's Grand Ole Opry broadcaster.

But Dave McCormick says that, in the very early '60s, he would listen to KORL-650 from Hawaii, while he drove home from CFUN late each evening. In those days, Ron Jacobs was running KORL and that is how they got to know each other. Ron hired Dave away from CFUN in 1962 and they both worked together first at K-MAKe in Fresno, then both crossed the street to join Bill Drake at KYNO, from whence Boss Radio ("the Drake format") was developed, and then moved to KHJ Los Angeles. Ron went as PD to KHJ, but Dave stayed behind at KYNO before doing AM Drive then PD at KOL Seattle.

650 was such a natural for Vancouver that CYVR (UBC Radio) used it as their carrier current frequency, until carrier current was regulated by the CRTC around 1974.

[johnsykes]

I know, time marches on....sadly the days of hearing far-off stations are now a mere memory for many.

Living and working in the Montreal area in the 50's and 60's enabled me to pick up some great stations....WWVA in West Virginia.....Dick Biondi in Buffalo....Wolfman Jack in Chicago......even got into the mid-west once in a while, getting a station in Iowa. The so-called golden studios of WPTR in Albany, N.Y. I took a trip down there...not so golden were those studios.

Thankfully, many stations are on the www.....but it's not the same...waiting for buffering etc.

[jon]

Distant AM reception is still possible, though much more difficult in urban areas because of:

• 24/7 operation of stations;
• so many 50KW stations with transmitters south of the urban area, with a tight pattern shooting North, effectively giving a 100-150KW signal in the urban area;
• much less regulation enforced on electrical noise, from cars with no RF ignition suppressors to old defective power transformers emitting strong RF

And the few stations that you do hear just aren't that interesting. For example, although I treasure these last days I'll be able to get WOAI-1200 in San Antonio on a regular basis, thanks to the new 25KW transmitter on 1200 in Surrey, WOAI News/Talk just doesn't do that much for me.

Now that KXOL-1660 in Utah dumped Scott Shannon's syndicated 24/7 Oldies, the Oldies station in Montana (1180?) is the only station outside of the Edmonton local area that is even mildly interesting on AM.

But distant reception is still possible. There is an annual DXpedition to the Hoquiam/Aberdeen area of Washington every autumn, and they always turn in amazing reception reports. The Pacific Ocean is an amazing body of water. This past season, CFPR Prince Rupert was the loudest station on the dial. And I would believe that, as a 1979 trip through Coos Bay, Oregon, at high noon had a strong signal from the 40 watt LPRT in Uclulet on the West Coast of Vancouver Island.

The DXpedition always turns in lots of Trans- and mid-Pacific reception. Some years, they even get Trans-Atlantic reception!!!