"ve3..." wrote in message
oups.com...
I am about 600 miles northeast of WHO Des Moines 1040 and hear them on
skywave until they fade out. I like to listen to Don Thompson's
breakfast program on Sunday morning (7am-8 cst). I find it a delightful
mix of music of the 50's/60's, reminiscences of Hollywood, and pleasant
talk. I have to report that in the introduction, Don greeted listeners
from COAST to COAST and metioned a few towns around the country.
Horrors! Heresy! Why is this station greeting dx'ers who won't show up
on their ratings book. Are they mad?

It is really hard to keep talent from wanting to mention distant listeners,
and it does add a "bigness" if not overdone. Essentially, it is a fallback
to decades past when there were fewer stations in more rual areas and folks
had to listen to distant signals.

WHO, like regional signals such as WMT, WNAX, KFYR and KFGO, used to be huge
billing stations based on thier agricultural coverage. As the owner operated
family farm dwindled, and farmers could get weather and commodity prices on
pagers and cell phones, agribusiness advertising has fallen about 90% from
the 60's.

So you are hearing the end of an era on one of the few 1-A stations that has
enormous groundwave coverage (due to conductivity in the prairie states).
Few other stations do this or care. And, I believe, WHO was always the
smallest of the 1-A clear channels in terms of listenership and revenues.

Remember, there are only a handful of stations with as much protection as
WHO. 640, 650, 660, 670, 700, 720, 750, 760, 770, 780, 820, 830, 840, 870,
880,890, 1020, 1030, 1040, 1100, 1120, 1160, 1180, 1200 and 1210 are all
there are vs. nearly 5000 AMs that can not provide regular, reliable skywave
today.

Eduardo says profit
maximize...don't let a cost escape your eyes. WHO is fading out early
these days but I did note two commercials: one for a function at the
Iowa State Fairgrounds and another announcing a tour of the Canadian
maritimes. Whoda thunk it? A station not only greeting am dx'ers but
encouraging them.

If I am not mistaken, the IA state fair takes place within the groundwave
coverage area of WHO, and a tour to visit the maritimes would be directed at
WHO listeners who want to travel to new places, not to listeners in the
Maritimes (where WHO can rarely be heard, even by DXers with excellent
equipment).

With reference to CFRX. They use a Harris 1kw transmitter and I
would guess that the electric cost would be about $100 a month. They
also have an active support group that handles QSL's.

It is nice that they get support. I had an SW license years ago and truned
it in as there was no way I could afford to keep it running.