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25 Strongest Signals in the Great Lakes

The technical side of broadcasting. Think IBOC is a sham? Talk about it here! How about HDTV? Post DX reports here as well.
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cckadlec
Posts: 318
Joined: Tue Sep 02, 2008 10:43 pm
Location: Fremont, Mich. / Seoul, Korea
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25 Strongest Signals in the Great Lakes

Unread post by cckadlec »

Here are the top 25 most potent FM signals in the Great Lakes region - in order - measured in terms of coastal reception from 80 beaches where full bandscans were conducted (some on multiple visits), taken from 2016-19 on a Grundig G8 portable radio as part of over 10,000 miles of driving on radio trips. Maps from the top 10 are included as images here (click them to view full size), while there are coverage maps for 40 additional strong signals beyond that linked below as to not create a post forced to load 100mb of images by displaying all 50 maps - people don't appreciate that.

Rankings take numerous factors into consideration such as station location in relation to open water, how many bodies of water are covered in total in relation to tower location, signal levels, interfering stations and the primary station's ability to overcome them, consistency of coverage (whether received at every site or is more hit-and-miss), and maximum reception distances, some of which are heard regularly at 400+ miles (WRVM, WQLH, etc.) Rankings are strictly for coastal reception in marine environments and do not take inland reception into consideration.

1. 96.3 WLXT MI Petoskey / Lite 96.3 / 100kw
2. 92.9 WJZQ MI Cadillac / Z93 / 100kw
3. 106.7 WSRT MI Gaylord / ESPN N. Michigan / 100kw
4. 105.9 WKHQ MI Charlevoix / Hits 106 KHQ / 100kw
5. 103.5 WTCM MI Traverse City / Country / 100kw
6. 90.5 WPHN MI Gaylord / The Promise FM / 100kw
7. 99.7 WUGN MI Midland / Family Life R. / 100kw
8. 102.7 WRVM WI Suring / V. of the Master / 98kw
9. 98.5 WQLH WI Green Bay / Star 98 / 100kw
10. 98.9 WKLZ MI Petoskey / KLT The Rock Sta. / 100kw
11. 88.7 WIAA MI Interlochen / Classical IPR //88.5 / 100kw
12. 102.9 WMKC MI Indian River / Big Country Hits / 100kw
13. 104.3 WVCN MI L'Anse / VCY America / 100kw
14. 93.7 WBCT MI Grand Rapids / B93 / 320kw
15. 105.7 WSRW MI Grand Rapids / Star 105.7 / 265kw
16. 97.1 WGLQ MI Escanaba / Magic 97 GLQ / 100kw
17. 90.5 WPFF WI Sturgeon Bay / K-Love / 100kw
18. 107.5 WCCW MI Traverse City / The 70's Station / 50kw
19. 88.5 WIAB MI Mackinaw City / Classical IPR //88.7 / 50kw
20. 92.5 WFDX MI Atlanta / The Fox FM / 100kw
21. 90.3 WBLV MI Twin Lake / Blue Lake Public R. / 100kw
22. 96.1 WHNN MI Bay City / My 96-1 / 100kw
23. 106.9 WOOD MI Muskegon / NewsRadio 106.9 & 1300 / 50kw
24. 103.7 WRTS PA Erie / Star 104 / 50kw
25. 102.5 WTSS NY Buffalo / Star 102.5 / 110kw


1. 96.3 WLXT MI Petoskey / Lite 96.3 / 100kw
Image

2. 92.9 WJZQ MI Cadillac / Z93 / 100kw
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3. 106.7 WSRT MI Gaylord / ESPN N. Michigan / 100kw
Image

4. 105.9 WKHQ MI Charlevoix / Hits 106 KHQ / 100kw
Image

5. 103.5 WTCM MI Traverse City / Country / 100kw
Image

6. 90.5 WPHN MI Gaylord / The Promise FM / 100kw
Image

7. 99.7 WUGN MI Midland / Family Life R. / 100kw
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8. 102.7 WRVM WI Suring / V. of the Master / 98kw
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9. 98.5 WQLH WI Green Bay / Star 98 / 100kw
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10. 98.9 WKLZ MI Petoskey / KLT The Rock Sta. / 100kw
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And the other 40 maps for those who seek a specific stronger signal in the region:

88.5 WIAB MI Mackinaw City
88.7 WIAA MI Interlochen
89.5 CBSM ON Sault Ste. Marie
89.5 WCMU MI Mt. Pleasant
89.9 WLJN MI Traverse City
90.3 WBLV MI Twin Lake
90.5 WPFF WI Sturgeon Bay
91.1 CJRT ON Toronto
92.5 WFDX MI Atlanta
93.1 CHAY ON Barrie
93.3 WKQZ MI Midland
93.7 WBCT MI Grand Rapids
95.3 CING ON Hamilton
95.5 WIFC WI Wausau
95.7 WCMB MI Oscoda
95.9 CFPL ON London
96.1 WHNN MI Bay City
96.7 CHYM ON Kitchener
96.7 WRGZ MI Rogers City
97.1 WGLQ MI Escanaba
97.7 CHTZ ON St. Catharines
98.5 WUPS MI Harrison
99.3 WATZ MI Alpena
99.5 WDCX NY Buffalo
99.7 WDKF WI Sturgeon Bay
99.9 WHAK MI Rogers City
102.1 WLEW MI Bad Axe
102.5 WIOG MI Bay City
102.5 WTSS NY Buffalo
102.9 WMKC MI Indian River
103.7 WRTS PA Erie
104.1 WVGR MI Grand Rapids
104.3 WOMC MI Detroit
104.3 WVCN MI L'Anse
104.5 CHUM ON Toronto
105.3 CFCA ON Kitchener
105.7 WAPL WI Appleton
105.7 WSRW MI Grand Rapids
106.9 WOOD MI Muskegon
107.5 WCCW MI Traverse City
Marine propagation studies, Korean propaganda and jammers (8 hrs. of audio), 500+ Great Lakes TOH IDs (6 hrs.), Chinese AM TOH IDs (53 hrs.), Chinese and Taiwanese propaganda and jammers, plus articles and maps at www.chriskadlec.com • Tuner: Grundig G8 & TEF6686.
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48125er
Posts: 345
Joined: Thu Aug 04, 2011 5:50 pm

Re: 25 Strongest Signals in the Great Lakes

Unread post by 48125er »

I would add a couple
WIIL 95.1 you can lock that on the lakeshore here in Michigan most of the summer and often 50 miles inland.

Power 92.3 from Chicago would be another, before the translator in Lowell came along I could get that as often as 95.1 here.

WMYX 99.1-Milwaukee
That gets into a cat fight with WFMK a lot where Im at in the summer, I've been able to get that almost to Traverse city on seek.

WUOM 91.7 Ann Arbor- of all the SE MI stations that comes in the most, I've heard of that reaching London.
cckadlec
Posts: 318
Joined: Tue Sep 02, 2008 10:43 pm
Location: Fremont, Mich. / Seoul, Korea
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Re: 25 Strongest Signals in the Great Lakes

Unread post by cckadlec »

48125er wrote: Sat Apr 25, 2020 12:53 am I would add a couple
WIIL 95.1 you can lock that on the lakeshore here in Michigan most of the summer and often 50 miles inland.

Power 92.3 from Chicago would be another, before the translator in Lowell came along I could get that as often as 95.1 here.

WMYX 99.1-Milwaukee
That gets into a cat fight with WFMK a lot where Im at in the summer, I've been able to get that almost to Traverse city on seek.

WUOM 91.7 Ann Arbor- of all the SE MI stations that comes in the most, I've heard of that reaching London.
Thanks for the suggestions. However, (not to rain on your parade or discount your thoughts), these signals didn't qualify for the following reasons:

All of these are strong signals, but 95.1, 99.1, 100.7 (I'll throw this one in there because it's one of the big three), and 92.3 have signals that are confined to a single lake. The reason they get out so well is because their signals sink into Lake Michigan's marine layer when there is a temperature inversion and easily make it up to Ludington and Manistee on the Michigan side and up to Sheboygan and Manitowoc and beyond on the Wisconsin side (even Power 92!). They are heard in Manistique and have made their appearances returning from my Grand Marais (Michigan, not Minnesota) site once over the hill just south of town. BUT, they stop there. They don't have that added elevation that the Northern Michigan stations have with high towers on high land that let their signals hop, skip, and bounce over multiple lakes for hundreds of miles. They have limitations that the others don't. The same limitations allow their signals to get caught within Lake Michigan's layer and intensify like mad and beam all their power at Michigan, where the signals holds strong far inland. It's like a laser beam that has a great power over a shorter distance that fries everything in its path as opposed to one that beams over a really long distance with less power. (104.3 L'Anse and GLQ are actually somewhat similar - check out those signal levels over Lake Michigan and Superior in comparison to other similar signals - MONSTER power!)

You need to compare ones like WRVM and Star 98 that get out 400 miles regularly to Parry Sound. Granted they have a more beneficial location than the bottom of a lake in the corner of the region, of course, and fewer stations to interfere.

To be fair, 99.1 can be heard in the Thumb and they do appear elsewhere too. WFMK, on the other hand, can be heard across multiple lakes (location is helpful) and actually gets out better - believe it or not, despite its inland reception being less impressive.

91.7 is a different signal altogether because of the location and power. And this one WAS in the running for top 50 and I pondered making a map for it even. It appears in my Mackinaw bandscan (to my lucky advantage, CMU flat out went off the air during one of my scans there for quite some time!), is a regular at South Haven (over multiple scans there, comes in quite well with TOH ID) and across from there in Zion (far north Chicago suburbs), in downtown Cleveland with RDS, at Long Point in Ontario, and is heard at my Killbear site in Parry Sound. BUT... it lacks consistency in reception along the coast, so in the end, I said "... ehh."

Keep in mind that 95.1, 99.1, and 100.7 were actually the REASON I got into this whole study back in 2002. Here in town, they're the three regulars at 110-120 miles that pound in over the water and inland. But I analyzed over 100 strong signals and they're merely in the top 100 in comparison to others in the Great Lakes. So obviously you could believe... there are some pretty good signals out there if they're that far down the list. (Note that I stopped ranking at 25 because I'm not insane and there are too many factors in play for all this stuff before my head starts hurting).
Marine propagation studies, Korean propaganda and jammers (8 hrs. of audio), 500+ Great Lakes TOH IDs (6 hrs.), Chinese AM TOH IDs (53 hrs.), Chinese and Taiwanese propaganda and jammers, plus articles and maps at www.chriskadlec.com • Tuner: Grundig G8 & TEF6686.
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