WGBF Adds a New Listener…In Finland!

We hear occasionally from a long-distance listener, but rarely from one as far away as Finland! Here's an email that came in during the holidays:

Greetings from Europe ! I am one of those radio enthusiasts who get kicks out of distant radio signals. I have had this radio hobby for more than 30 years but have I never succeeded in hearing WGBF AM 1280 here in Europe until now...

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure to test my self-made radio control/audio recording program for classic radio receivers in Northern Finland and the lucky stars were on my side: it was a pleasure to become acquainted with WGBF finally after all these years using my own software tools with AM radio receiver (audio & picture enclosed). Your signal was "readable" at times but unfortunately WNAM in Neenam-Menasha WI almost "kills" this frequency: they often block every other radio signal on AM 1280 and it also happened here at the time of the top-of-the-hour announcement as you can hear.

I had to dig out your call-sign between the audio of WNAM (and repeat it a few times for clarity), I hope you can identify your call from the audio clip. If I adjust my ear to follow the audio path of WGBF, I can hear also your website "newstalk1280.com" mentioned in your top-of-the-hour liner here.

Anyway, this was my first signal contact ever with WGBF --- I had a reason to celebrate ! I don't know if I'll ever be given another chance in the next 30 years...

I don't know about weather there but we here in Southern Finland are crying out loud: recently we have got snow, snow and some more snow. We are sinking into the snow, 30 inches at this moment and now the real winter is about to start. If it keeps going like this, we are sinking into 60-90 inch snow dynes in a few months. I hope that the weather is more favorable at your end: it seems that we'll get 10 inches snow more also today. Sigh.

I hope that you could confirm this AM reception with a short note --- I guess my recording is not as good as others that you may have received from this side of the Big Pond but still acceptable for identification.

This radio reception was the highlight of my radio year 2010. The next one will begin soon --- all the best for you in 2011 !

Kind regards,

Ilpo Parviainen

Finland / Europe

I usually answer these emails and explain that WGBF-AM/1280 has a long history of being heard in the strangest places thanks to its dial position, weather conditions and other atmospheric conditions I've never completely understood. Normally, we only are heard within a radius of about an hour drive from Evansville. Anyway, to all of our Scandinavian listeners:  bundle up, stay warm and don't let your ears freeze to your radios!