The Radio Kitchen

Although I hinted about in an earlier post, I might as well be straight-out honest– DXing is an intimate act. It’s you and the radio. While it’s hard to imagine there aren’t people who DX “together,” I have yet to experience a significant journey through the frequencies with another engaged human being.

While there was a time when people sat around together transfixed to the radio listening to news, dramas and variety shows, but for decades radio has been reduced to a background application in social situations. If you want to accomplish some significant DXing you’re probably going to need to reserve some personal time to do any significant listening. Maybe you have friends who are very patient or are intrigued by a session of tuner adjustment and antenna manipulation AND all the strange noises that goes along with testing the limits of a receiver. But I don’t. And unless I happen to sign up for an outing with a DX club sometime soon, I don’t envision sharing this hobby in the future other than writing about it. That’s just the way it is. You may have noticed that the listening experiences I’ve posted here all generally begin after 11 p.m. In practice, I generally don’t get a chance to get to huddle around a receiver until after my better half and the little one hit the hay.

In the end, what I’m saying that even if you have an interest in DXing, or have gone out and purchased yourself a respectable AM radio or shortwave set, unless you’re able to reserve some time to yourself in the evening to play with the radio (hopefully somewhat isolated from RF racket) you’re probably not going to have much luck with searching out distant radio stations. If you happen to be a loner without a TV, DXing might be a viable alternative to more traditional activities, like reading.

Also, like most geeky avocations, DXing is a decidedly male habit. Sure there’s exceptions. Some women read sci-fi and design software too. But you know what I mean. I saw a good illustration of this the other day. I was looking at radios on ebay, and saw an auction for a particular digital shortwave receiver I covet from time to time. According to the text, the guy had purchased this rather fancy portable for his wife, but she wasn’t crazy about having to "tune around" for the Shortwave stations. So now the radio is for sale, and the wife is much happier with her new subscription to satellite radio.  Me? I prefer to tune around. There’s no real adventure in punching up satellite stations.

That said, there are many ways to DX. On shortwave, you can look at a schedule of broadcasts and specifically tune to the frequencies (many stations have multiple simultaneous transmissions), which is better suited to digital tuners. Or with AM you can hunt out distant stations you think you might be able to hear. Although I’ve had a some success DXing this way, unless you have a hot receiver and/or a great location you’re probably going to run into a lot of disappointment.

Or you can "tune around," and search out busy sections of the dial. I find analog tuning best for radio exploration of this kind. And obviously I like to record what happens. I consider every dial scan I glean this way to be a unique media archive, and strange as it may seem I listen to most of them a number of times. Like the slave of any bad habit, I’ve grown to appreciate the side-effects, the musicality of distant radio reception and the poetics of capturing swatches of broadcasting. Each recording is unique and an artifact of its time and place.

And speaking of the glory of DXing, I was honored to see that these posts referred by some DXers to Glenn Hauser (of World of Radio) and mentioned in his “DX Listening Digest.” Nice to know that a few serious DXer’s are actually reading these. However, Mr. Hauser bemoans that I made a couple mistakes on the log of my first AM DX post. Of course, he was right, and I made the corrections. However, there is quite a bit of outdated information on radio stations on the web, and it’s not hard to make a mistake when coming across an unfamiliar station. Although Radio Locator is easier to use, I believe that this site has more accurate listings. In that spirit, I’m always open to corrections, tips, comments and suggestions via email. And comments are good too.

I’ll get back to shortwave listening (or SWL as practitioners like to say) in future posts, but for now I’m going to reconvene where I left off– back to the Michigan picnic table somewhere around midnight in August 2001. It was pre-Patriot Act America, and the headlines were full of Gary Condit. The last station heard in the previous post was clear channel WSB at 750 KHz in Atlanta.

Segment 2 – Northern Michigan Radio 08-23-01 (760 to 900 AM)  29:04

(download)

This dial scan begins at the tail end of my reception of WSB, but quickly segues into…

760 – WJR Detroit, MI

Trucker show, country music. No ID, but I’m pretty sure about this one. Then things get more difficult…

770 to 830 – (Hmmmm…)

Like I said, I’m fairly loose about DXing and rarely log my listening. And trying to ID the next few frequencies that I received at an unfamiliar locale is baffling to me four years later. I never thought I’d be writing about these tapes.

It’s just after one o’ clock in the morning, and Coast to Coast with Art Bell is just kicking in after the news. Coast to Coast is an overnight staple on hundreds of stations, so between one and five a.m. eastern time it pops up on the AM dial all over the place.

Just turning the dial slightly from WJR, there’s a weak signal bearing Art Bell, and I believe this is WABC in New York. But then another nudge of the dial (or rotation of the loop antenna) brings in a loud clear copy of a replay of an ancient “Fibber McGee & Molly” radio show. And no amount of internet detective work has provided an obvious candidate for this signal. There is a station at 770 in Calgary (CHQR) running 50,000 watts which does run Fibber McGee and Molly at that time, but because of the two American clear channel stations at that frequency they have a directional pattern at night, and it’s AWFUL far away (like 1400 miles) and it seems unlikely that it would come in this well.

Anyway, this is where things get a little loose, because I’m moving back and forth on the dial for a minute, instead of moving in one direction. (Probably trying to get my bearings and testing out my loop antenna for the first time in a promising DX location). What you hear is some country music mixed with a LOT of Art Bell on different stations. In this section of the dial, his Coast to Coast program runs a few 50,000 watt stations in this part of the world– 770 (WABC), 800 (CKLW), 810 (WGY) and also at 840 (WHAS). I believe that I hit all of those here and eventually end up at WHAS coming in nicely. The country station is clear too, and seems to be at 830 KHz. This IS a country station at that frequency in Alberta, but…

Going either unfound or unidentified in this part of the dial, two other clear channel stations I would think would be quite readable– 780 (WBBM) in Chicago and 83 (WCCO) in Minneapolis.

Correction from 02-10-06: I think I figured out some of what was going on here. Although WBBM is an all news radio station, they do feature an hour of old time radio exactly at this time on weeknights. They call it "When Radio Was." That explains the Fibber McGee & Molly. Also, the country music in the middle of all the Art Bell is likely from CIGM in Sudbury, Ontario at 790 KHz.

840 – WHAS Louisville, KY

It’s Coast to Coast AM, with the creator of the program, Art Bell. You heard Bell’s hearty reading of his commercial load in the jumble before this. Now it’s on to the matter at hand– a new crop circle.

If you’re not familiar with Art Bell, though the nineties his overnight talk show went from being carried by a small network in the southwest to become the biggest program in its time slot in North America. At some point on, Bell went from being a maverick right wing talk host to creating a program specializing in topics supernatural, conspiratorial and unusual. And did I mention the aliens? It’s all there.

From his compound in the Nevada desert, Bell was doing a five hour show five nights a week and a three hour weekend program by the late 90′s. And then when you consider that he spends some of his off time chatting on his ham radio, the guy’s truly a compulsive broadcaster. And he’s had a erratic career in the meantime. Bell has “retired” from radio three times since 1998, and has been through a series of bad luck and tragedies over the years. The worst was the untimely death of his wife just a few weeks ago. Bell’s show is now owned by Clear Channel Communications and as the Coast to Coast franchise there’s been a number of other hosts. These days Bell just does the show on the weekends and George Noory is in charge during the week.

Here’s an extended clip that’s typical Art Bell. There’s breaking news in the paranormal world. A crop circle has appeared in England that looks like the “Face on Mars.” And the message? “Soon.” The guest is non-stop chatterbox and fringe science guru, Richard Hoagland.

850 – KOA Denver, CO

Talk radio giant in the west. I believe this still the furthest west AM band catch I’ve received in Michigan. It’s not a strong signal and there are few stations pulsing underneath, but it is 1100 miles away. I remember once I was in Alabama talking on the phone to a friend in California one night. We were both able to pick up KOA at the same time. That’s coverage.

It’s a small dramatic talk radio moment going into an ID and spot break. The topic? Mr. Condit and Ms. Levy. Talk radio was overloaded with Condit outrage that night. Unless you were following the crop circle situation.

860 – CJBC Toronto, ON

Sounds it’s being broadcast from a tower down the road, but it’s coming from almost 300 miles away. I’ve heard a wide variety of music over the years on this French language CBC outlet– jazz, rock, classical, and some great ethnic stuff. Tonight it’s some lovely French pop.

870 – WWL New Orleans, LA

“The wind chill factor was probably about ninety below zero. The fuel in the fuel tank …looked like Vaseline.”

It’s the Road Gang trucker show with Dave Nemo, which I believe was the first all night trucking radio program. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Nemo has moved on to XM satellite radio and he’s sorely missed on the AM radio dial. When Nemo was playing non-stop classic country through the night and talkin’ truckdrivin’ this was the one of the best listens when driving in the dark across the eastern half of the U.S.

On this night Nemo is taking calls from aging truckers as they share harrowing tales of sub-zero trucking. I could listen to old geezers tell tales like this all night. And not a word about Condit.

870 or 880 – (Art Bell again)

This station is another mystery to me. I believe it’s at 870 KHz in a null from WWL (picked up by turning the antenna.) Again, it’s the ubiquitous Coast to Coast program here with Bell and Hoagland continuing the update on the mysterious crop circle.

Bell mentions his website, which was an extremely popular and huge site filled with information on strange topics. Lots of pictures. However, artbell.com is long gone now. Bell took it down when Clear Channel/Premiere officially took over the show. Now they have their own site. For a while, the original webmaster was selling CD-ROM’s of Art’s website online, and I’ve even seen the whole thing posted on Usenet.

880 – WCBS New York, NY

Traffic and weather on the 8′s. Construction on the LIE, Lincoln and Holland look great. 58 degrees. Top stores coming up. Something about a congressman and an intern. Tell your friends!

890 – WLS Chicago, IL

“Chandra and I never had a cross word.”

It’s ABC News, and a little Canadian news as I dip into CHML a couple of times. ABC features their sound bites from Connie Chung’s TV inquiry. And even the ABC news anchor seems angry at Condit. It’s bad enough that Bin Laden has gone missing all this time, but why hasn’t this man been brought to justice by now? Oh yeah, the other big story– A crazy Ukranian killer on the loose.

900 – CHML Hamilton, ON

Hah! The lead headline in Hamilton? The Ontario Teachers’ Federation elected Hamilton teacher Pearse Shannon as its 58th President. Gary Condit is four or five stories into this Canadian newscast. And then there’s Bubba O’Neal, with sports.

More of this next week.

Thanks for listening.

(This post originally appeared in Beware of the Blog.)

All that said, don’t walk into a Radio Shack looking for the equipment I’m talking about here. They’ve discontinued both the antenna and the radio. While I don’t remember any public announcement, over the last decade Radio Shack stores has become a different kind of franchise. Where you could once find a plethora of shortwave radios and all the clips, cables and connectors you’d ever need, Radio Shack is now a swell place to get accessories for your cell phone and some nice video equipment. I think they keep a few radios around just in case somebody happens to notice that the word "radio" is in their logo.

And what makes this session of radio listening more interesting than some others is the point in time of its occurrence. It was Thursday, August 23, 2001. George Bush Jr. was on the longest vacation of any sitting President, and the attacks of September 11 were just two and half weeks away. So, the radio recordings I made on that trip are audio specimen slides of our culture on the brink of a cataclysmic event, and right before the dawn of a national obsession. It was a lot like the world we live in now, except totally different.

The bandscan here features me slowly turning the knob on an analog receiver starting at 530 KHz and working my way up. Usually stopping at each point where a signal should be (in 10 KHz steps in the U.S.), and then adjusting the dial and antenna to find the best reception (if there’s something there). And the text below will be an attempt to briefly identify and perhaps describe what was received.

I believe this scan begins sometime just before 11 p.m., but I haven’t verified that yet. With a decent setup and a good location, every notch on the dial at night is filled with something, even it’s just 2 or three stations faintly throbbing on top of each other. And in a situation like this a majority of the allotted frequencies will have some station you can discern if you work at tuning it in. However some stations will come in much weaker than others, and others will have some tough competition with a station sharing the frequency in another part of the country. But at some stops, there really is nothing there to hear but distant tiny noises.

Like usual, I didn’t keep a log   but there are so many familar stations across the dial here that it’s usually not difficult to know what frequency I’m near at most points in this recording. And it sure helps having the internet to quickly research stations as you review a listening session like this.

On now on to the show.

Segment 1 – Northern Michigan Radio 08-23-01 (530 to 750 AM)  25:28

(download)

530 – (Nothing Intelligible)

540 – (Nothing Intelligible)

550  – WKRC Cincinnati, OH 

It’s THE TALK STATION. Starts off with a promo for the 55KRC Morning show. Sounds kinda like a manic loud mouth talk host sounding unconvincingly outraged. This is followed by one of their pre-recorded slogans: “We have an opinion, and we give it everyday.” Just think, in less than three weeks slogans like this would be replaced by “United We Stand,” and “God Bless America.”

This is actually a pretty good catch considering that WKRC is only broadcasting with 1000 watts from 450 miles away.

560 – WEBC Duluth, MN (probably)

Some sports conversation. Apparently there was some bitterness between the Miami Dolphins and the Chicago Bears. I hope they’ve worked it out since then.

570 or 560 – (Unidentified Spanish station)

Might be something in Cuba. Sounds like there might have been some kind of ID in there. Any Spanish speakers out there able to help me ID this station?

570 – WKBN Youngstown, OH

“You’ve got a voice. Use it! Call the comment line…” It must be a talk station. Then some techno bumper music leads us into the Phil Hendrie program. Phil is calling his own show on the phone again, pretending to be “guest”– one of his stock characters, "Ted Bell." It’s another screwball Hendrie monologue where he pretends to be outrageous goofball and suck in angry callers who think he and his guest are actually two different people.

580 – (Nothing Intelligible)

Sounds like at least three different stations somwhere…

590 – WTCM Traverse City, MI

The topic of the night begins.

“I think everybody will agree that this guy is immoral…”

Earlier that evening, Connie Chung interviewed Congressman Gary Condit on national television. The Chandra Levy missing person story (now a murder mystery no one talks about much) was the number one issue in America the month before 9-11. And as you’ll hear repeatedly through this dial scan, it was all over talk radio and the news. While I’m as likely as any of the callers you’ll hear on these recordings to suspect Condit might have had some role in Levy’s offing. But I don’t KNOW, and I really leave it to the police and courts to figure that out that sort of thing. And I don’t spend a lot of time dreaming up scenarios and motives, and invest any of my valuable anger toward a creepy California politician.

It’s funny how foul play against one attractive American white girl combined with a politician’s adultery scandal can capture an entire country’s imagination and make so many people angry, yet the death and torture of thousands of people overseas barely registers any national outrage. Gary Condit had nothing to worry about. In less than a month everybody forgot about Mr. Condit or that body that would eventually be found in Rock Creek Park.

This is “The Jim Bohannon Show.” Bohannon inherited Larry King’s late night radio gig when King gave it up in 1993. Maybe it takes somebody as uncharismatic on the radio as Bohannon to make you really miss Larry King. But he’s real pissed off about Gary Condit at this time. Call in the Ethics Committee! It has already been over two years since the Clinton impeachment and the possibility of another Democrat in a sex scandal was getting a lot people in the media all worked up. As the caller keenly points out, these politicians need to “keep their morality up in their off-time.”

590 – (Unidentified lousy rock music)

I don’t know. Could be CKRS 590 in Jonquiere, Quebec, or WJMS, 590 in AM, Ironwood, Michigan.

600 – CFCH North Bay, ON (probably)

It’s faint country pop song– “Yooooo never FOOLED around…” Kinda hokey, but I think I like it.

610 WTVN Columbus, OH

More Condit fever. This caller’s got it all figured out, and the talk host is interviewing him as if he were an invited pundit with years of research under his belt. And he asking pointed questions about an interview the caller hadn’t even seen yet. But look at the facts. Condit has been “ducking the media on the questions,” and “lying to the authorities that were investigating it…What else CAN you assume?” Assuming is even more fun when you do it together, isn’t it?

Ducking the media? Lying to authorities? You could get into trouble… if you’re a Democrat.

620 – WTMJ Milwaukee, WI

This is coming in pretty good across Lake Michigan. Nothing blocking a radio wave flying across all that water. While the trolley to the Mexican Fiesta commercial is nothing special, the two that follow are entertaining local ads. The first is for a company that calls itself the “guardians of data,” and presupposes that customers might be “frolicking naked through candyland” when a monster storm knocks out their “service.” The next is an ad for a music warehouse joint encouraging parents to rent the musical instruments when kids take up music lessons. After all, parents need to protect themselves. It’s nice little manic collage. (Kind of reminds me of someone I know…)

630 – CFCO Chatham, ON

It’s a Canadian oldies station between Detroit and Toronto, "Classic Gold." Nothing special, except the fact that you’re hearing a music format on AM radio, which isn’t so common these days. It’s Bob Dylan, “Lay Lady Lay.” I didn’t edit it, and just included the whole song on this archive. If you can enjoy this song for what it is, from a somewhat distant station with Art Bell’s talk show eating the edges of the signal, maybe you have what it takes to DX AM radio. As far as copying a distant music station, this ain’t bad.

640 – (Nothing Intelligible)

A few stations battling it out here, at least three of them. There’s a man and woman speaking English with foreign accents and a sports station. I do wonder what all this is.

650 – WSM Nashville, TN

The big clear channel station in Nashville and the home of The Grand Ole Opry. Over 650 miles away and coming in with clarity. Still playing the old country music after all these years. I wish there were more stations like this across the dial. And it’s another catchy song.

660 – WFAN New York, NY

Some deep pop psychology regarding the New York Mets. Some people spend a lot of time and energy thinking about the emotions and motivations of a few rich athletes.

It’s a whopping clear channel signal however, and used to be a big NYC top 40 station (WNBC) once. It’s almost 650 miles away

670 – WSCR Chicago, IL

More sports. Nice awkward live read (at least I HOPE it’s live) of a restaurant spot. Actually this is the best moment I’ve heard on a sports talk station in quite a while.

680 -  (Nothing Intelligible)

A muddle of signals. One of them is probably CFTR, a talk station in Toronto.

690 – CINF Montreal, QC

This is the same station I picked up in upstate New York heard on this post. I had said it was CBF at that time (That’s still how the Radio Locator site identifies it.) But Canadian reader David Bachner in his comment corrected me. And he’s right. Apparently official CBC stations have call letters that begin in with “CB,” and this station was sold to other interests in a national campaign that had the network giving up their AM outlets for high fidelity FM stations. Now it’s "Info690," a French language talk station.

700 – WLW Cincinnati, OH

Sports. After a year the Bengals are getting used to their new stadium. I’ve heard it takes a while to get adjusted to a stadium.

710 – (Nothing Intelligible)

Seems like I should have stuck around a little longer and worked that antenna to see if I could dig WOR in New York out of the noise.

720 – WGN Chicago, IL

Gas prices were rising in the Chicago area. I guess there was a refinery fire.

730 – (Nothing Intelligible)

740 – CHWO Toronto, ON

Frank Sinatra singing “I’ve Got You Under My Skin”

Otherwise known as AM 740, this is one of my favorite stations on the AM dial here in the city at night. Although they don’t have a live DJ in the wee hours, their “jukebox” format overnight has plenty of old pop tunes to satisfy and entertain almost anybody who remembers when the AM dial was full of this stuff. It’s a shame that since clear channel WQEW has been reduced to running canned "Radio Disney" that not one station has taken up a format anything like this in New York City. And there’s not a country station here either.

750 – WWKK Petoskey, MI

The Rolling Stones – “Get Off Of My Cloud”

This is now “Progressive Talk KOOL-750,” but this is when it used to be an oldies station, still called KOOL-750. (Why avoid those intriguing call letters– WWKK?) The transmitter itself is very close, less than twenty miles away, but the signal is dodgy at best. Why? They’re only allowed to run 330 watts at night.

 750 – WSB Atlanta, GA

Just turn the loop antenna, and there’s another radio station. And this one is a better read, AND it’s coming from over 800 miles away. That’s the power of a 50,000 watt clear channel station.

First the weather. It’s August, it’s horrible hot in Atlanta. And there’s a “code orange” alert. However, it’s not a terrorism problem. Just smog. And some radio smog as well, in the form of a rerun of the Neal Boortz program. He’s another second tier national right wing blabbermouth host based out of Atlanta. Like O’Reilly, he occasionally disagrees with the Republican party line and acts like he’s a radical maverick. But he’s just another monkey, and not an appealing one.

Actually, he has a male/female duo filling in this evening. And tonight’s scintillating topic? Should teachers who go through a sex change come back to work at the same school or district after they’ve “crossed over?” Man, that’s got a lot of potential for a burning debate. Thanks to talk radio a lot of important issues are thoughtfully reasoned out in public forums like this.

Next week I’ll get back to this dial scan, again starting at WJR in Detroit.

Thanks for listening.

(This post originally appeared in Beware of the Blog.)