ESPN is shutting down all-news radio station WCBS, 880 kHz in New York City. Although we live 68 miles from the WCBS transmitter, it is like a local station here and it is my station of choice in the Subaru. It will be a sad day when they finally pull the plug at WCBS.
Although it has been one of my favorite stations for a long time, I only wrote about it here once. In honor of WCBS’s imminent demise, I am repeating that May 2019 post here now.
AM Radio at Dawn on I-80
The second leg of my drive home from Hamvention began at 6 AM, about 5 minutes before sunrise on Monday morning in Hubbard, Ohio. Since nighttime propagation was still in effect, I was curious as to what the AM flamethrowers on the East Coast sounded like in the Midwest.
First, I tuned to 880 to listen for WCBS. My favorite news station was in and out vying with an unidentified religious station.
Next, I tuned to 1010 to listen for WINS, my other favorite news station. I was surprised to find 1010 completely dead.
I tuned up to 1080, the home of WTIC, my local flamethrower and it was loud and clear with no sign of another station on frequency. I was impressed.
1700 was my next target. Hoping to hear WJCC – not a flamethrower, but a 1 kW FLA station I heard mobile in Connecticut. Instead, I found the reborn WRCR with a weak, but solid signal.
I tuned back to 880 to see how WCBS's signal behaved as the sun rose. For nearly a half hour, WCBS hung in there. Most of the time, it was very weak, but occasionally, it was solid for a minute or two. It finally dropped out of sight at about 6:45. I did not hear WCBS again until I was in Eastern Pennsylvania four hours later.
