Silicon Valley AM Bandscan 2003-2004

[Mika Mäkeläinen]

My sabbatical year is drawing to an end, so I have compiled a collection of radio station recordings from my temporary home region, the Silicon Valley in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Silicon Valley AM Bandscan 2003-2004 contains a total of 260 station identifications and other announcements from 208 different AM stations in the Bay Area and the U.S. West Coast, including also a few Canadian and Mexican stations. The recordings have been made in MP3 format. Just click on the call letters to hear an ID. Slogans and formats have been added to make it easier for you to identify the stations when you are DXing the U.S. West Coast.

Enjoy the sounds of the Bay, and please post your comments here, if you have additional information about the stations in question, such as their slogans and changing formats, as well as about stations missing or omitted from the list.

There are a few relatively recent changes in the Bay Area and West Coast radio scene, which enthusiastic DXers may already have taken note of:
- most recently, XEPE Tecate BCN has begun broadcasting on 1700 kHz (see news about this in the DXing.info News section)
- in March 2004, KPOJ Portland OR (620 kHz) changed from oldies format with "Super 62" slogan to "Portland's Progressive Talk"
- stations which until February 2004 broadcast Radio Unica programming, have switched to relaying Radio Formula (these include KWRU Fresno 940 kHz, KATD Pittsburg 990 kHz and KIQI San Francisco 1010 kHz). Also this change was featured in the DXing.info News section in February
- 1250 kHz in Santa Barbara CA is nowadays KZER with Mexican format and slogan "Radio Laser", used to be a newstalk station with calls KEYT
- on 1520 kHz KGDD Oregon City OR uses the slogan "La Gran D", but in 2003 the call was KZNY and format adult standards with slogan "Sunny 1520"
- very recently on 1280 kHz, KXTK Arroyo Grande CA is said to have switched from talk to ESPN Sports, but I no longer have a receiver to confirm this
- also on 540 kHz, sports station KSRK Carmel Valley CA should now be KMEO with Spanish talk, but I never identified anything on this frequency.

Other changes may have escaped my radar, because despite being a DXer, I have to confess having mostly listened to the FM band...