About a year ago I posted news of a clear channel opened up on 1640 kHz because Radio Disney in Sussex, Wisconsin, serving Milwaukee, had gone silent.
Recently I moved to 1640, but noticed voices in prayer all the time, so I checked and found that Catholics have taken the Sussex station and are sending "Relevant Radio," which has an impressive string of radio stations.
Two of their stations are in the Chicago area and I've noted some unusual things about those stations. For one thing, one is at 950 kHz and the other on 930 kHz, with only one guard-band between them. The 930 station is in Sandwhich, Illinois.
Both stations have unusual power arrangements. 950 has 1 kW day and 5 kW night. The other one, 930, has 2.5 kW day and 4.2 kW night. Notice what's so unusual about that? They both have MORE power at night than in the daytime! It's usually the other way around.
Yes, high power at night is odd. On a barely related note, I had US gov print reports for me (they hated me, you should have seen the stack), mid 80s or so, and there were still open allocations on am never filled from the 1950s. In theory, just fill out the paperwork and pay the fees then on the way to construction permit. Of course there isn't a soul for 100 miles in any direction. 🙂
My guess would be when originally licensed and built those two stations were protecting daytime only stations on those frequencies and then the daytimers signed off at sunset these two stations were then allowed to crank it up. Only a guess. There were an awful lot of daytime only stations on 930 and 950 over the years.
Tim in Bovey
Maybe all their listeners work night shift.
@ Johnny C: *grin*