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AM High power broadcasting stations in the USA. Which do you listen to?

Eldorado828

8-2-8 in the Lonestar state
Feb 21, 2016
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The Lonestar State
The history of Am broadcasting in the USA is fascinating.

Below was copy and pasted from an article I found online.

The maximum radio power for AM in America is 50,000 watts and several operate with that power. In 1934 the 50,000 clear channel station WLW in Cincinnati went on the air for five years with 500,000 watts. The FCC felt one station that could reach every radio in the country was advisable . The huge specially built transmitter had tubes as tall as a human that generated so much heat they had to be cooled with water from WLW's own lake. The experiment ended in 1939 but the transmitter is still there at the WLW transmitting location ready to fire up a half million watts (enough power to service a city of 100,000 persons).

Left me wondering what Am stations you listen to or once listened to.

I can't remember what station but years ago when I was driving strictly nights I never missed Coast to Coast Am with George Noory.
 

back in the mid 1970s when trucking and cb was the thing,, i listened to wbap out of dallas/fortworth, gave national weather reports and even been known to give out a emergency call for a trucker to call home(pre cell phone days) still turn there late nights just to see what is going on with my old short wave radio,,,,
 
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I used to listen to KOMO, 1000 Kilocycles, from Las Vegas. Met a YL while my ship was being overhauled in Bremerton a few years later, and after we'd moved to Vegas, she would listen to it and get really homesick. We moved back to Bremerton in spring of 1967 and listened to KOMO for most of the trip.
 
I don't remember all the station IDs, but when I was growing up I listed to Dick Biondi at WLS. I also listened to WCFL when it was a top 40 format. Later on, while being a traveling musician, we used to listen to WOWO out of Fort Wayne, and a few others I can remember. But we always wanted to listen to the mystery drama, "Beaker Street Theater" . I believe it was KAAY. Cruising down I-75 at 3 or 4 AM listening to the mystery. AAaahhhhhhhh ... those were the days!!
 
CA central valley/silicon valley kid until I was 18. KGO was the local talk station and whenever we went somewhere (never went that far) it came in at night, no problem.
 
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When I was 12 years old my mom and dad gave me an RCA tube-type table top radio for Christmas. My dad wired a jack into it and gave me a set of headphones so I could listen to it at night in my bed. The list of stations that old RCA picked up that I still remember was pretty long:
WGN Chicago
WLS Chicago
KXEL Waterloo Iowa
KMOS St Louis
WRVA Richmond Virginia
KDKA Pittsburg
KWKH Shreveport

My favorite was WLAC Nashville Tennessee. They played rhythm and blues music that I never heard in Indianapolis. I remember the night DJs were Gene Nobles, John R, and the Hossman Bill Allen. Their main sponsers were Randy's Record Shop in Gallitin TN, and Ernie's Record Mart in Nashville. When I heard a song I really liked I would go to the Broad Ripple Record store and order it. I had the best record collection. When I brought Elvis Presley's "MYSTERY TRAIN" to a party, it blew the other kids in my class away.
The other thing I liked about that old RCA was that it sure kept me warm on those cold Indiana winter nights.

- 399
 
WGN, WLS, WMAQ, and WCFL (old station call) here in Chicago used to clear channel stations,I don't know if they still are. All of them are 50k power houses. I have heard WLS in Las Vegas at night. I hear WSM out of Nashville on 650khz at night.
 
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