If you want to see that sort of thing in the SF Bay Area, visit the Marine Radio Historical Society in Marin.[1] They have a big ship-to-shore station, built on Federal land a century ago and turned over to the Park Service when it shut down.

They operate many of the transmitters each weekend. They applied to the FCC for a commercial coast station license, probably the last one, and got it. So they can send at quite high power. They talk to museum ships around the world.

[1] http://www.radiomarine.org/