WMVP Downgrade

[Ben Zonia]

WMVP 1000 is downgrading to 37000 watts Nighttime, and shorter towers. From just East of Joliet, IL.

1. Much weaker signal in Downtown/Loop Area of Chicago, and the Northern parts of Metropolitan Chicago. Better at Night in Western suburban places like Aurora and Naperville.

2. Roughly comparable in rural areas of Central and Northern Michigan at Night, and Northern Wisconsin.

3. Remains a Class A Skywave protected station.

[CurlyHoward]

I'd forgotten WMVP has the Bears and White Sox now.

Of course, their signal was notorious for like, literally being stronger in Pittsburgh and Buffalo than Aurora because it was so heavily nulled to the west to protect the station in Seattle on 1000. When the White Sox were last on WMVP in the early 2000s they had affiliates in Aurora, DeKalb and a couple of other stations pretty much on the western periphery of Chicagoland itself because 1000's reception was so bad to the west and streaming/apps weren't advanced to the point that they are now.

I wonder how this will affect the signal going eastward?

[Ben Zonia]

I'd forgotten WMVP has the Bears and White Sox now.

Of course, their signal was notorious for like, literally being stronger in Pittsburgh and Buffalo than Aurora because it was so heavily nulled to the west to protect the station in Seattle on 1000. When the White Sox were last on WMVP in the early 2000s they had affiliates in Aurora, DeKalb and a couple of other stations pretty much on the western periphery of Chicagoland itself because 1000's reception was so bad to the west and streaming/apps weren't advanced to the point that they are now.

I wonder how this will affect the signal going eastward?

It looks like it's somewhat reduced to the East.

Sirius XM doesn't have everything. It has areas where it drops out in hills and trees. Internet has failures and monthly data limit slow downs which are annoying to unusable. The ever now rapidly increasing costs and long signup agreement commitments may cause the cord cutting TV crowd to go back to radio, though probably more to FM now than AM. Many of the Class As have full power full market or rimshot FMs. WMVP, WLS, WSCR, and WJR are four close Class A AMs that don't. Translators wouldn't help those much either.

[bmw]

It's too bad that sometime fairly recently they have significantly degraded their audio quality by adding that weird effect that I don't know how else to describe other than as a reverb in a tin can. There are a number of AM stations that use this same effect and I find it completely unlistenable. WMVP used to sound really good.

[MWmetalhead]

Agreed!

To further Ben's points, it does appear WMVP will see a noticeable decline in signal strength in rural portions of NW Indiana (places around Valparaiso, etc).

[k8jd]

Just took a look at RadioLocator and the FCC AM Querry pages, and WMVP has no CP listed for this downgrade ! Must be inside info!
I recall when it was WCFL. Drove past the three mismatched towers (not quite in a line) many times when I lived there.
I know there is a AMBC transmitter site with (maybe) 6 towers for WYLL 1160 near Joliet, They still can be heard well in the Detroit area at night, even with one small lobe in night pattern our way.

[CurlyHoward]

On a Chicago sports forum I frequent, somebody living in St. Joseph was complaining about the signal being weak when trying to listen to a Bears preseason game, so it does appear the signal is weaker to the east now.

1160 is also a strange signal-you can hear it in Detroit at night but in the south suburbs of Chicago it often gets wiped out by a station in Cincinnati. In the late 90s the Score was on that signal and they also had Westwood One NFL games, which were impossible to listen to for me because of the signal.

[k8jd]

Ju
I know there is a AMBC transmitter site with (maybe) 6 towers for WYLL 1160 near Joliet, They still can be heard well in the Detroit area at night, even with one small lobe in night pattern our way.

Now that WCXI 1160, 15 kW has moved into my neighborhood , WYLL is no longer heard here.

[k8jd]

Still see no CP or anything about a downgrade at WMVP, on the FCC AM Querry page. Or the Radiolocater listing