Post some of your favorite Am radio stations.. present and past

From the past very long ago, 1220 WGAR Cleveland, WIXY 1260 Cleveland and 800 CKLW Detroit. I miss the station jingles that were often played back in day. I was glued to my AM radio during my youth and didn't care about FM.

Present day, 1100 WTAM Cleveland and 650 WSM in Nashville.

Some may think I'm nuts but I love the sound of static from a distant thunderstorm.
WSM in Nashville is often an awesome station. Not a fan of their morning show as seems more like a promotion (commercial) for a artist. But times they play music not heard elsewhere on the radio.

And of course- Purnell's "Old Folks" Sausage commercials on WSM are heartwarming.

 
Also growing up in Illinois I will second the comment about WLS in Chicago. Back in the day they were a Top 40 station with some additions from their on-air personalities such as Animal Stories with Larry Lujack and Little Tommy.

There was also WBBM of course, the great news station that also had some programming in the evenings such as Old Time Radio Classics with Chuck Schaden. We would often listen to that on trips back to my parent's house.

 
I was only a passive listener as a young kid in the early '80s, but I remember KOMA 1520 from OKC (I think they were playing country by then) and KOA from Denver--Broncos games and Alan Berg's talk show.
 
Charlie Douglas hosted the “Road Gang” show from WWL 870 in New Orleans starting in the early 70’s. He usually signed on around 9:00 pm and would broadcast for 7 or 8 hours. The station had to have a huge output as I have listened to the show from over a thousand miles from NO and the signal was crystal clear. It was geared toward long haul truckers. He would play requests from spouses and family members to truckers, usually by using their CB handle, as well as weather and traffic reports. I remember that one of the sponsors of the show was Matlack transport that pulled bulk tankers all over the country back in the day. I have driven many late night and early morning miles listening to Charlie Douglas‘ Road Gang show!
One additional thing about WWL, was that truckers listened and when there was a family emergency, family would contact the station and the station would broadcast Trucker Xxxxxx, call home for an emergency. 59,000 watt Clear Channel Station. This was before Cell Phones. I could pick up WWL all over.

As for the distance, back in 1964, on a ship off Mar Del Plata Argentina, I picked up WKBW Buffalo NY, three nights out of five.
 
Growing up it was almost entirely 710AM WOR, 77WABC, and 880WCBS. But 710 mostly. Out in the mountains it was 840WVPO which played the National anthem at sundown, and since there were enough ethnic Germans and Poles in NE PA, had a German hour and a Polka show on the weekend. The fact that you could tune in a clear channel station from Louisville after sundown is what sparked my interest in AM long ago.

I’d be interested to know if folks from western Idaho/eastern WA might know one.… Once I was out in Coeur D’Alene and Spokane, and was scannning AM. I happened upon a great oldies AM station. Played all the tunes I liked. I thought I wrote down the number/call sign but lost it. Station may be gone, or not. But I really liked the music they played. Any idea????
 
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WSM in Nashville is often an awesome station. Not a fan of their morning show as seems more like a promotion (commercial) for a artist. But times they play music not heard elsewhere on the radio.

And of course- Purnell's "Old Folks" Sausage commercials on WSM are heartwarming.


I agree with your morning show comment. I don't care for the host but like his side kick. They had an excellent "overnighter" show as it was catered to overnight truckers and great music but budget cuts axed the host and change it to "canned" music.
 
It went through several incarnations over the years, but there was what was once known as XTRA 690 in Tijuana. At the time they were calling it that, it was a 50,000 watt nighttime station and a 77,000 watt daytime station. They broadcast all sorts of sports and all the programming was in English. But every hour they would do their required station disclaimer in Spanish.


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Kind of weird how it all ended up. After a while they changed formats, but Clear Channel owned them and had to divest because they had to count it against ownership limits and had to divest. It's now a Chinese language station. Not sure that there are a lot of Chinese speakers in Baja California, but I'm sure it's targeted towards Southern California.

 
Don't think you are going to hear them in SC.
Already checked both of them out. The classic country was not the classic country i prefer, and the other station was Spanish speaking, so i passed on it also. Most radio stations today can be heard on-line, both of those two stations offer a streaming option.

Although I don't speak Spanish- while living in Arizona picked up a Spanish TV station called Estrada or something like that. It was fun to watch, especially Don Cheto. Like other things- Estrada channel became off limits in our home.... My Wife gets all power when it comes to things that may be considered inappropriate. And she keeps a watchful eye..... :oops:
 
WESX 1230, Salem MA- Transmitter was next door to my grandparents house in Marblehead.
I listened to it occasionally until the station got sold and switched to a Spanish/Portuguese format in 2006.

WFEA 1370, Manchester NH- I enjoyed the adult standards/big band that they played, just different then everything else out there on the dial.
They stopped playing music in 2015 and switched to pure talk radio. There is a automotive repair program that I listen to once a week, but aside from that, I stopped listening.
 
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WSM in Nashville is often an awesome station. Not a fan of their morning show as seems more like a promotion (commercial) for a artist. But times they play music not heard elsewhere on the radio.

And of course- Purnell's "Old Folks" Sausage commercials on WSM are heartwarming.


His plant is just down the road from me here in Louisville...
 
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From the past very long ago, 1220 WGAR Cleveland, WIXY 1260 Cleveland and 800 CKLW Detroit. I miss the station jingles that were often played back in day. I was glued to my AM radio during my youth and didn't care about FM.

Present day, 1100 WTAM Cleveland and 650 WSM in Nashville.

Some may think I'm nuts but I love the sound of static from a distant thunderstorm.
Growing up in Cleveland I would also add WHK 1420 and WKYC 1100 when they played rock and roll...
 
Also growing up in Illinois I will second the comment about WLS in Chicago. Back in the day they were a Top 40 station with some additions from their on-air personalities such as Animal Stories with Larry Lujack and Little Tommy.

There was also WBBM of course, the great news station that also had some programming in the evenings such as Old Time Radio Classics with Chuck Schaden. We would often listen to that on trips back to my parent's house.

WLS with its commercials for Mr. Norms Grand Spalding Dodge...
 
Hmm I don’t remember that one and I listened to them nonstop through the 70’s and early 80’s. What was it about?
Mr. Norms was a famous Dodge dealership in the 60s and the 70s and sold souped up Mopars. He also was big in Drag Racing in the funny car class in the 60s and the 70s....Mr. Norms Grand Spalding Dodge was well known by drag racers back then....
 
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