QSL: KYW Philadelphia PA 1060

For a clear channel station broadcasting with a power of 50 kilowatts, KYW in Philadelphia is surprisingly difficult to hear. I guess the reason is that the station restricts their signals going into our direction, as can be seen on their coverage map. This protection obviously works quite well because it is far more common to hear WQOM in Boston and Radio Educación in Mexico City on 1060 kHz here.

Still, “Newsradio KYW” can be heard here too from time to time, last time in October 2020. Alex Silverman, Brand Manager, confirmed my reception with an e-mail.

KYW is one of the oldest radio stations in the world, tracing their origins back to 1921. KYW thus celebrates 100 years of broadcasting this year! KYW started up in Chicago, but moved to Philadelphia (keeping their call letters) in 1934. KYW is one of the few stations east of the Mississippi with a K call, and one of the few stations east of the Mississippi with just a three letter K call.

QSL: WSAN Allentown PA 1470

1470 kHz is one of the most interesting frequencies on the AM band. We have surely heard more than 10 different North American radio stations on this frequency over the years.

One of the stations which might pop up on 1470 kHz is WSAN in Allentown, Pennsylvania. WSAN is not a common catch, but was heard at Lista last January and has also been heard on a few other DX-peditions. Pat Gremling confirmed my audio recording of the station last week.

WSAN broadcasts with a power of 5 kilowatts and has a rather unique program format: WSAN broadcasts mostly podcasts distributed by the iHeart radio network, which explains their branding name “iHeart Podcast AM 1470”. WSAN has had an impressive number of format changes over the years. Their previous formats include sports, progressive rock(!), country music, pop music, Christian talk, oldies and talk radio. Let’s see how long their podcast format will last!

QSL: WLUI Lewistown PA 670

WLUI made a brief, but very welcome, appearance on 670 kHz on our first evening at Lista in January. They came up all of a sudden with the (to us) magical words: “…everybody’s talking about Big Lewie 92.9 and 670…”.

This daytimer is very rarely heard in Europe and this was certainly our first brief encounter with the station. WLUI – or “Big Lewie” as they usually call themselves – is listed with a power of 5400 watts, daytime only. The station is located in Lewistown, Pennsylvania, and has an oldies format.

I received a kind reply from Operations Manager Jeff Stevens, unfortunately with a less than perfect verification text. Nevertheless, I am inclined to count his reply as a QSL.

QSL: WEEX Easton PA 1230

WEEX was heard briefly at Lista in January 2011. Previous attempts at getting a reply from the station were all in vain untill Tom Fallon, Program Director, confirmed my reception of WEEX some weeks ago. My thanks to Bjarne Mjelde for providing a working e-mail address for Tom and especially (of course) to Tom for replying to my not-so-perfect recording of his station.

1230 kHz is a frequency where it is possible to dig out many North American stations. I have only been able to hear WEEX once so far, so WEEX is definitely not the most commonly heard station on the frequency. WEEX broadcasts with a night time power of 1 kilowatt from Easton, Pennsylvania. The station usually carries ESPN programming.

QSL: WFNN Erie PA 1330

WRCA in Watertown, Massachusetts, is by far the most commonly heard station on 1330 kHz. The second most common station is WFNN in Erie, Pennsylvania, which can be heard every now and then with Fox Sports programming. The station usually identifies simply as “The Fan”.

Chales Lelievre at parent company Connoisseur Media confirmed my reception with an e-mail and also attached the above QSL card with his e-mail.

Fox Sports Radio AM 1330: The Fan

QSL: WPHT Philadelphia PA 1210

Marc Rayfield, SVP Market Manager/General Manager of WPHT-AM, sent me an e-mail last Saturday confirming my reception of WPHT in Philadelphia on 1210 on the November 2007 DX pedition to Lista.

At Lista, WPHT is the most commonly heard station on 1210 kHz along with VOAR in Newfoundland. On a southernly location such as Lista, however, where you can almost see the transmitting towers of Virgin Radio in Scotland on nearby 1215 kHz, the signal of Virgin Radio  is often so strong that it entirely spoils reception of any AM stations on nearby 1210 and 1220 kHz. During November 2007, the signals of both VOAR and WPHT on 1210 as well as WHKW on 1220 were at times sufficiently strong to be heard through the splash. WPHT brands itself both as “The Big Talker” as well as “Philly’s No. 1 For Talk Radio”.

WPHT is my 100th verified U.S. radio station! (including both medium- and shortwave).

QSL: KDKA Pittsburgh PA 1020

Received a short e-mail verification from Gary Dickson of KDKA. Gary was the host of the programme I heard back in February and said he was going to read my letter in one of his programmes. Gary has his own web pages at http://www.garydickson.com/