WJR 760 AM 0415 UTC 29 Feb. 2020

[Treehouse SWL]

With San Diego's KFMB less audible than usual with Mark Levin's show at this hour, WJR was peaking at the same level or slightly above KFMB. The Detroit station was running “The Savage Nation,” with a substitute host talking about coronavirus and then taking calls, followed by an ad break, and back at 0425 UTC with more callers.

By 0428 UTC, KFMB was fading back in somewhat, and CFLD’s music started interfering with the two talk stations. WJR's distance from me is 1,917 miles; between logging this for the first time and hearing WWL, it was a nice time for long reception on Friday night.

[pinto vortando]

"The Great Voice of the Great Lakes"... nice catch on this one and the New Orleans station.

[East Troy Don]

"The Great Voice of the Great Lakes"... nice catch on this one and the New Orleans station.

......and the ex-home of the former legendary Detroit Tiger announcer of 42 years, Earnie Harwell. (1960-1991 and 1992-2002).  Back in the early 60's when, as an 11 year old, I discovered I could pick up the Tigers games at nite on my 9 transistor under my pillow making my parents believe I was sleeping cuz I had school the next day. Living in Milwaukee I was a Milwaukee Braves fan but it was great to be able  to listen to American League games via Ernie and WJR. It was my 1st DX experience ever.

[East Troy Don]

FOLLOWUP:  2045 UTC ON 760 KHZ. Received a new CountyComm GP-5/SSB today (pretty slick unit for $105 including shipping on EBAY thru BigApple.   ETM works wonderfully.. targeted 69 stations between 540 and 1710 khz)  and pulled in good ol' WJR tonite with a weak but steady signal with talk radio .  Interview with some YM with a Cuban/Jamaican accent rehashing his experiences living in a Communist country. 

21:00 ID: "WHERE DETROIT COMES TO TALK" . Then news block leading with stories on Democratic rallies and Trump administration initiatives to combat the corona virus.

TX <> RX:  275 Miles

[Pigmeat]

WJR blasts in here from sunset until after dawn year round. I've always wondered about their night time antenna pattern due to this effect as they're long ways off.

[pinto vortando]

WJR blasts in here from sunset until after dawn year round. I've always wondered about their night time antenna pattern due to this effect as they're long ways off.

The WJR studio is located in the Fisher Building, an Deco masterpiece by Albert Kahn located in the New Center area of the city of Detroit.
The transmitter site is further south near the Downriver community of Riverview.  The soil conductivity there is quite excellent.
The 50kw of power is fed to one antenna and the pattern is omnidirectional day and night.

[pinto vortando]

"The Great Voice of the Great Lakes"... nice catch on this one and the New Orleans station.

......and the ex-home of the former legendary Detroit Tiger announcer of 42 years, Earnie Harwell. (1960-1991 and 1992-2002).  Back in the early 60's when, as an 11 year old, I discovered I could pick up the Tigers games at nite on my 9 transistor under my pillow making my parents believe I was sleeping cuz I had school the next day. Living in Milwaukee I was a Milwaukee Braves fan but it was great to be able  to listen to American League games via Ernie and WJR. It was my 1st DX experience ever.

Ernie Harwell originally did the Tigers play by play with George Kell on WKMH 1310 Dearborn.  Could pick up that signal on a xtal set in my attic bedroom.  In 1963, WKMH became rocker WKNR "Keener 13" (the WKNR call letters now belong to a station in Cleveland OH).  Beginning with the 1964 season, WJR became the Tigers flagship station.  Ernie called the games there along with Paul Carey, Frank Beckman, Jim Price, and others.  He moved to WKBD TV ch 50 for a while in the 90s and did the Tiger games there along with Al Kaline.  Ernie came back to WJR for a couple of years and then in 2001 WXYT 1270 (formerly WXYZ) became the Tigers flagship.  Ernie Harwell finished his Tiger baseball broadcast career at WXYT in 2002 and passed away in 2010.

edit:  Just came across this...  The ballpark at Wayne State University in Detroit has been named Ernie Harwell Field.   The ballpark also houses a museum dedicated to Harwell's life.

[pinto vortando]

"The Great Voice of the Great Lakes"... nice catch on this one and the New Orleans station.

......and the ex-home of the former legendary Detroit Tiger announcer of 42 years, Earnie Harwell. (1960-1991 and 1992-2002).  Back in the early 60's when, as an 11 year old, I discovered I could pick up the Tigers games at nite on my 9 transistor under my pillow making my parents believe I was sleeping cuz I had school the next day. Living in Milwaukee I was a Milwaukee Braves fan but it was great to be able  to listen to American League games via Ernie and WJR. It was my 1st DX experience ever.

Ernie Harwell originally did the Tigers play by play with George Kell on WKMH 1310 Dearborn.  Could pick up that signal on a xtal set in my attic bedroom.  In 1963, WKMH became rocker WKNR "Keener 13" (the WKNR call letters now belong to a station in Cleveland OH).  Beginning with the 1964 season, WJR became the Tigers flagship station.  Ernie called the games there along with Paul Carey, Frank Beckman, Jim Price, and others.  He moved to WKBD TV ch 50 for a while in the 90s and did the Tiger games there along with Al Kaline.  Ernie came back to WJR for a couple of years and then in 2001 WXYT 1270 (formerly WXYZ) became the Tigers flagship.  Ernie Harwell finished his Tiger baseball broadcast career at WXYT in 2002 and passed away in 2010.

edit:  Just came across this...  The ballpark at Wayne State University in Detroit has been named Ernie Harwell Field.   The ballpark also houses a museum dedicated to Harwell's life.

UPDATE:  Sad to report that Detroit Tigers great Al Kaline passed away today.   Rightfielder Kaline  (#6) spent his entire 22 year (1953-1974) career with the Tigers. He was 85.

[East Troy Don]

Kaline played for years with Rocky Colavito  in Detroit before Colavito went to Cleveland where in 1965 Colavito became the 1st (and still ONLY) player to play all 162 games in a season at one position (center field) without an error.

[pinto vortando]

Kaline played for years with Rocky Colavito  in Detroit before Colavito went to Cleveland where in 1965 Colavito became the 1st (and still ONLY) player to play all 162 games in a season at one position (center field) without an error.

IIRC Colavito  came to Detroit in the around 1960 from Cleveland before eventually returning to Cleveland.
Seem to  vaguely recall him playing at Briggs Stadium before it was renamed Tiger Stadium.
Kinda remember him as a good hitter but for some reason not a favorite with the press.
Anyway, thanks for the memory.

edit:  Been thinking about Colavito… as kids we would imitate the stretch he did with the bat behind his shoulders when he came up to the plate.

[East Troy Don]

According to Wikipedia  (you can decide what its worth) here's the story:
The Curse of Rocky Colavito is a phenomenon that supposedly prevents the Cleveland Indians Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise from winning, be it the World Series, the American League (AL) pennant, reaching postseason play, or even getting into a pennant race. Its origin is traced back to the unpopular trade of right fielder Rocky Colavito to the Detroit Tigers for Harvey Kuenn in 1960. It was not claimed that Colavito placed the curse, and he has denied doing so. It is one of several curses believed to have stricken the city of Cleveland's major sports franchises for decades.