cobalt pet shortwave / mediumwave weblog

05 December 2006

more clues for 1690 khz

Several days ago, I picked up a strong nighttime signal on 1690 khz that I couldn't identify. As mentioned in a previous post, the signal had a new-age style song starting at the top of the hour and looping for several minutes.

Tonight, I had another strong signal from 1690 khz on my Eton E5. There was some russian, then english advertisements. At the top of the hour, I heard the same looped song as before, so I put the E5 near my computer in order to record the audio.

Here's a low-quality mp3 of the looped music (2m 40s, 627 kb):
mystery_signal_1690_khz_05_dec_2006.mp3

Can anyone identify the song, or even better, identify the station that loops this song?

I'm guessing that the station runs out of content in the evening, and keeps the transmitter on the air with this music loop.

I searched the FCC site for stations in the United States with a callsign starting with "K" and licensed to operate on 1690 khz. There were two matches:
* KFSG in Roseville, California
* KDDZ in Arvada, Colorado

The use of the russian language and the looped music to fill radio silence seems to rule out Radio Disney. Roseville is only about 90 miles away from me, which would explain the strong nighttime signal despite a nighttime transmitter strength of 1 kW for KFSG.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

The tune is to a Christian song called "Seek ye first". Check out: http://www.cgmusic.com/cghymnal/others/s/seekyefirst.htm

The tune is in flute - but at the end it does wax into a more modern arrangement, so it could be a Christian Music station. It sounds a lot like that "intro" music you hear on shortwave broadcasts - does that have a name? Fill music for sure.

weatherall said...

Mark:
Nice job identifying the song! The fact that it is a Christian song adds more weight to my theory that this station is KFSG.

weatherall said...

Oh, and intro music for radio shows is sometimes referred to as bumper music, or if it is a shorter piece of custom music, some radio hosts might simply call it the "band" or "orchestra".

Anonymous said...

Actually, I was kind of curious so I tuned in 1690 myself last night and heard a russian language broadcast (boy do they talk fast) - then a current pop song then the ID on the top of the hour in English:... KFSG, Roseville, Sacramento. The following segment was in Spanish.

weatherall said...

That's the first indication that I have of an English identification for that station. Thanks again for the additional info! Where are you located?

I will try to tune in again to try to hear the identification at the top of the hour.

Anonymous said...

I'm in the SF Bay area. I was a MW DXer a loooong time ago, so I'm happy to see your reports.