Doc writes about his obsession with DXing as he was growing up. I shared that delight — but from a different locale in the Buckeye state.
My favorites were WBZ in Boston, WLS in Chicago, and WHO in Des Moines. I remember listening to Dick Biondi and “Cousin” Bruce Morrow, in particular from the WLS days.
Closer to home, KDKA was always there along with KYW — both ‘weird’ aberrations of the FCC’s callsign issuing convention of stations east of the Mississippi beginning with “W” and west with “K”.
Somewhere along the way, a came across a copy of White’s Radio Log. I remember it being bound into the back of one of the electronics magazines of the period.
White’s was a wonderful — listing every station on every AM frequency from 540 kHz all the way up the band. Some very impressive spots on the dial were held by the big clear channel stations — those listed above along with others like WLW in Cincinnati and KSL in Salt Lake City. I remember snagging KSL as my record haul while growing up in Ohio.
Update: Today, the FCC provides an online search of all the AM stations in the US and Canada – it’s the online equivalent of the old White’s Radio Log.