Acceptable registrations in the queue through March 16 at 11:00a ET have now been activated. Enjoy! -M.W.

Terms of Use have been amended effective October 6, 2019. Make sure you are aware of the new rules! Please visit this thread for details: https://www.mibuzzboard.com/phpBB3/view ... 16&t=48619

am 1250 Saginaw

Discussion pertaining to the Tri-Cities, Flint, Mt. Pleasant, and Bad Axe
fairbankshockeypuck
Posts: 122
Joined: Wed Jun 08, 2011 4:18 pm

am 1250 Saginaw

Post by fairbankshockeypuck » Fri Dec 28, 2018 10:36 pm

How is AM 1250 doing these days>>>any plans for a stream or FM translator>>>



Deleted User 14803

Re: am 1250 Saginaw

Post by Deleted User 14803 » Sun Dec 30, 2018 4:23 pm

When ever I travel in the Tri-Cities area I tune them in, not a bad station 4 out of 5 stars.



Chris1980
Posts: 111
Joined: Sun Nov 04, 2018 9:43 pm

Re: am 1250 Saginaw

Post by Chris1980 » Sun Dec 30, 2018 8:12 pm

They have a CP for a translator at 99.3. They were originally granted one at 98.5 which would have given WUPS listeners in Midland and Bay counties some headaches. They then were granted a move to 98.7 and now 99.3. The tower looks like it's co-located with the AM tower southwest of Bridgeport.

https://fccdata.org/?lang=en&facid=4600



fairbankshockeypuck
Posts: 122
Joined: Wed Jun 08, 2011 4:18 pm

Re: am 1250 Saginaw

Post by fairbankshockeypuck » Sun Dec 30, 2018 8:42 pm

curious how far that 99.3 would carry????? 10 miles 20 miles 30 miles????



Chris1980
Posts: 111
Joined: Sun Nov 04, 2018 9:43 pm

Re: am 1250 Saginaw

Post by Chris1980 » Thu Jan 03, 2019 5:09 pm

If you click on the link and then click on "Advanced Coverage Area," you'll have an idea of how far it might be listenable.

I wouldn't be surprised if WATZ gives this translator some trouble as they seem to boom into the area with even the slightest bit of enhancement.



User avatar
MWmetalhead
Site Admin
Posts: 11873
Joined: Sun Oct 31, 2004 11:23 am

Re: am 1250 Saginaw

Post by MWmetalhead » Sat Jan 05, 2019 4:58 pm

Thank God these guys very wisely filed a CP MOD to move off 98.5 MHz!!

I give ownership credit for recognizing what a debacle usage of 98.5 MHz would've been.

99.3 MHz is one of the better frequency options available. Good move! :)



User avatar
Ed Joseph
Posts: 379
Joined: Sat Sep 10, 2005 9:27 pm

Re: am 1250 Saginaw

Post by Ed Joseph » Mon Jan 07, 2019 4:37 pm

My agenda the next decent weather day is to get outside and redo my outside antennas, which were taken down by a large willow branch. I'm curious if 1250 will even come in here. I haven't really tried, but 1210 came in here, especially back in the late 70's when Jim McCluskey had the pattern all flipped out. For a few weeks, it came in full-scale in Flint, as strong as WFDF and WTAC.


I confirm all my information through a high, white whore's souse!

Deleted User 24

Re: am 1250 Saginaw

Post by Deleted User 24 » Mon Jan 07, 2019 4:43 pm

Ed Joseph wrote:
Mon Jan 07, 2019 4:37 pm
My agenda the next decent weather day is to get outside and redo my outside antennas, which were taken down by a large willow branch. I'm curious if 1250 will even come in here. I haven't really tried, but 1210 came in here, especially back in the late 70's when Jim McCluskey had the pattern all flipped out. For a few weeks, it came in full-scale in Flint, as strong as WFDF and WTAC.
He was on Whittier Street before WKNX. I heard a story that Jim flipped the pattern 180 degrees and got a nasty call from WCAU-AM, who were wondering just what the hell was going on.



CK-722
Posts: 1284
Joined: Sun Dec 16, 2018 3:53 pm

Re: am 1250 Saginaw

Post by CK-722 » Tue Jan 08, 2019 1:24 am

Chris Peeters (CE WAMM, Assistant CE WKMF) told me back in the 1960s that at one time, WKNX was running 25000 watts and at Night. I don't know how that could have been, as you would have had to have a 25 kW transmitter, or seriously beefed up 10 kW transmitter with tubes and components and not to mention phasor and tuning building (doghouse) components that would handle it. They did have a 500 watt PSA, and could have been running an experimental period DX test. But one time in the 1960s, I heard it on a crystal radio in Northern Genesee County for about a minute. It would have had to be at least 5 mV/m with my antenna to have been received with an unbiased 1N34 diode. I suspect that there was some switch in the phasor that changed the phase of one or more of the towers, perhaps the switch that switched to nondirectional operation in an in between position or with dirty contacts. Something like that had happened circa 1972 when I called Chris one evening at WKMF, and the Day Night pattern switching was malfunctioning, and I thought they were still at 5 kW Daytime facilities. Grease or dirt can act as an insulator, making a switch function as a capacitor, which could induce a phase shift. Chris rocked the Day Night switches back and forth a few times, and the signal returned to normal Night levels.

Oh, the WJMK 1250 DA is a LOT different than the WKNX Pattern, with almost nothing to the South. They ran it at 1 kW with the same WKNX dogleg ~ 1/2 wave towers, with a new pattern, and then added a fourth ~1/4 wave tower to form a four tower dogleg, none in line with more than one other tower. They went to 5 kW-D, 1.1 kW-N, DA-1 with the new four tower array.

I had a copy of an old WKNX 1210 Coverage Map done by Kear and Kennedy with the 0.5 mV/m and 0.1 mV/m shown. I forget where I found it. It was in some kind of broadcast publication and was a reduced thumbnail of the original map. I had an image of it, and I emailed it to someone, but I can't find it. It was probably around 2009, so it couldn't have been from americanradiohistory.com. The 0.1 mV/m went up near the Straits, and down to near the Ohio State line. It seems it was about 330 mV/m @ 1 mile inverse field to the South, in the Minor Lobe. The null was about the equivalent of 1 kW nondirectional toward the then WCAU (WPHT) Philadelphia. The null to the West was shallow, an advantage of the dogleg arrangement, which appeared pretty linear when viewed from I-75. The null toward WCAU allowed the full 500 watt PSA.

Rich worked at WKNX-TV, but I think he left before the AM went to 10 kW DA-D. They were 1 kW nondirectional until around 1960, from a tower on Treanor St., next to where the old WKNX-TV tower was located, and where the WILZ 104.5 tower is today.


Is THAT where they got the idea for the 486-SX?

Same (x, y, z), different (t)

Your bullet missed my trial balloon.

RTN Price. Not guaranteed. As of 12:30, 157.71 Down 0.22.

Artificial Intelligence is a Child that needs a Parent to guide it through.

TomSanders
Posts: 63
Joined: Sun Nov 04, 2018 12:34 pm

Re: am 1250 Saginaw

Post by TomSanders » Tue Jan 08, 2019 11:23 am

I was in Flint yesterday and heard sports talk on 1250, too strong to be any out of town station, no breaks / promos / liners. What station could this be? (Could hear WNEM-AM in Lakeport on a GE SuperRadio II when it was all news, and Ave Maria Radio. Now this freq is quiet in the daytime here.)



User avatar
Ed Joseph
Posts: 379
Joined: Sat Sep 10, 2005 9:27 pm

Re: am 1250 Saginaw

Post by Ed Joseph » Tue Jan 08, 2019 11:48 am

Vic Doucette wrote:
Mon Jan 07, 2019 4:43 pm
He was on Whittier Street before WKNX. I heard a story that Jim flipped the pattern 180 degrees and got a nasty call from WCAU-AM, who were wondering just what the hell was going on.
That place on Whittier was a dump! Probably a nice house under all the dust bunnies, radio junk and flat-out mess. He had the Q102 transmitter in the garage, also under an inch of dust. He had his record library in the bedroom, on ad-hoc shelves made of cinder blocks and random boards. His place looked how parts of my basement does, only everywhere. I don't know how Mary Sue put up with it.


I confirm all my information through a high, white whore's souse!

User avatar
Ed Joseph
Posts: 379
Joined: Sat Sep 10, 2005 9:27 pm

Re: am 1250 Saginaw

Post by Ed Joseph » Tue Jan 08, 2019 11:51 am

TomSanders wrote:
Tue Jan 08, 2019 11:23 am
I was in Flint yesterday and heard sports talk on 1250, too strong to be any out of town station, no breaks / promos / liners. What station could this be?
WGL in Fort Wayne. That's my guess. Or.... WSSP from Milwaukee bounces in here in Flint from time to time. There are a bunch of 5kW stations down south and along the East Coast. May have been WGHB from North Carolina.

What time was it when you were listening?

The other possibility is a pirate or overpowered Part 15 station on AM.


I confirm all my information through a high, white whore's souse!

Deleted User 24

Re: am 1250 Saginaw

Post by Deleted User 24 » Tue Jan 08, 2019 12:07 pm

Ed, I was referring to his (our) place of employment, not the house. I never went there, not that I wished to.

Speaking of employment, I came back to Michigan in 1987 unemployed and broke. I learned of an opening at 1510 AM in Jackson sent a tape and was granted an interview.

When I got there, an older woman gave me a tour of the station, which was an automated crap hole. She told me was holding down the fort for her son who owned the station. She mentioned his name; I asked if he was the same guy who had been the CE at WSAM for a time when I worked there. She said he was and then called him. He said he didn't remember me.

After a few more minutes, she offered me a job as PD for minimum wage. I told her that at this stage of my life I wasn't interested in a minimum wage job, especially if it involved working for the likes of her son.



User avatar
Ed Joseph
Posts: 379
Joined: Sat Sep 10, 2005 9:27 pm

Re: am 1250 Saginaw

Post by Ed Joseph » Tue Jan 08, 2019 12:10 pm

Ed Joseph wrote:
Tue Jan 08, 2019 11:51 am
TomSanders wrote:
Tue Jan 08, 2019 11:23 am
I was in Flint yesterday and heard sports talk on 1250, too strong to be any out of town station, no breaks / promos / liners. What station could this be?
WGL in Fort Wayne. That's my guess. Or.... WSSP from Milwaukee bounces in here in Flint from time to time. There are a bunch of 5kW stations down south and along the East Coast. May have been WGHB from North Carolina.

What time was it when you were listening?

The other possibility is a pirate or overpowered Part 15 station on AM. But why anyone would program sports-talk on one is a mystery. How was the audio?
I do know that crystal oscillator chips for 1250 kHz are pretty common.


I confirm all my information through a high, white whore's souse!

User avatar
Ed Joseph
Posts: 379
Joined: Sat Sep 10, 2005 9:27 pm

Re: am 1250 Saginaw

Post by Ed Joseph » Tue Jan 08, 2019 12:25 pm

Vic Doucette wrote:
Tue Jan 08, 2019 12:07 pm
Ed, I was referring to his (our) place of employment, not the house. I never went there, not that I wished to.

Speaking of employment, I came back to Michigan in 1987 unemployed and broke. I learned of an opening at 1510 AM in Jackson sent a tape and was granted an interview.

When I got there, an older woman gave me a tour of the station, which was an automated crap hole. She told me was holding down the fort for her son who owned the station. She mentioned his name; I asked if he was the same guy who had been the CE at WSAM for a time when I worked there. She said he was and then called him. He said he didn't remember me.

After a few more minutes, she offered me a job as PD for minimum wage. I told her that at this stage of my life I wasn't interested in a minimum wage job, especially if it involved working for the likes of her son.
Yeah, Jim and Ken butted heads quite often from what I heard, that's how he ended up at KNX. Me and a friend was working for Jim trying to repair the pattern for about a year, and helped install the MW10 at WKNX. We stopped by his place on Whittier quite a few times during that ordeal. I put over 2200 miles on my car running monitor points.

I heard Jim bought 1510 WJCO under the assumption it was a 24 hour license. How do you NOT discover that fact in due diligence? I know if *I* was buying a station, I'd find out as much info and dirt as I could about the place before I ever even set foot in the door.

And minimum wage for a PD, that's Jim! All the way! I was surprised WAAQ Big Rapids sounded as good as it did, which wasn't saying much. Another thing I always found odd was those banjo-based jingles for WJCO. They sounded like they were made in some garage in "Deliverance" territory.


I confirm all my information through a high, white whore's souse!

Post Reply Previous topicNext topic