On Wed, 16 Aug 2017 09:58:37 -0400, John H
wrote:

Yesterday I came back from Gettysburg, about 100 miles. It wasn't until I got within about 80 miles
that I could pick up the FM news station I listen to regularly broadcasting from DC. It's for damn
sure I couldn't get any Boston FM stations, like, I'm sure, Harry does.

FM is pretty much line of sight. I know that even here in Florida
where there are no real hills FM is tough. On a clear night I can get
the FM station out of Marathon (Fl Keys) but that is across the water
about 100 miles. I start losing the Tampa stations and FT Myers
stations about 70 miles away. There is a dead zone around Venice where
I don't get either of them.
Now if you are talking AM, the clear channel 50KW stations can be
heard 1000 miles away at night. There used to only be a handful of
them but the last time I looked there are a **** load of them. I guess
as AM popularity faded, they started allowing more big ones.
Unfortunately it seems most AM is either sports, news or Spanish.