A quest to save AM radio (from Yahoo)

[bryada]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/a-quest-to-save-am-before-it’s-lost-in-the-static-210744940.html

 

[johndavis]

Ah, yes. All we need to do is lift all regulations and let people run higher power so the invisible hand of the market will guide us.

Unfortunately, there are those pesky laws of physics. One needs to only tune in AM 1230 after dark to hear what happens when you tell an entire class of stations to crank up the night power.

 

[indieradioguy]

“If it had to rely on music,” said Michael Harrison, editor and publisher of Talkers magazine, “AM radio would be dead.”

I don't necessarily agree with this. Case in point: There are a lot of local artists to this day who still cite 1060 KUKQ as a major musical influence. Given the choice to hear "Blurred Lines" on hi-def FM, HD, whatever, versus CHVRCHES and MGMT on AM, I think PPM would justify the latter. However, if the bean counters have "Blurred Lines" and "Roar" programmed to play 20-30x day, it's tilting at windmills.

 

[KeithE4]

There's probably a good reason why (1) KUKQ only lasted a few years, (2) KUKQ was dropped in favor of KDUS in 1996, and (3) KDUS still exists after 17 years - pending Mother Hubbard's upcoming takeover - even as the lowest-rated sports station in town. If KUKQ had made money on its own, it might have lasted a few more years - at least through the rest of the '90s anyway.

 

[johndavis]

Music on AM works when there's no other outlet. As Jonathon L tells it, KUKQ pulled in numbers back in the day, and you couldn't get that music anywhere else.

So, following Jonathon's story, KUKQ implodes as the station changes hands in 1992 and key players defect to KFMA. KFMA is FM, but their coverage of the Valley is far less than advertised. By January of 1993 you have alternative on KEDJ. So once an automated alternative KUKQ returned to 1060 it's no longer special because it's an automated AM going up against a live FM where the jocks have as much credibility with the audience as the former KUKQ did back in the day. You'll go broke trying to beat KEDJ. So of course you go sports, where you can make money brokering time and fill the rest of the hours with barter programming.

With so many FM stations in the market all filling various format holes, there aren't many unique formats for AMs to fill in Phoenix. But whether it's music or spoken word, the only way for an AM station to be your first choice is for there not to be an FM that's easily received.

 

[DrAkbar]

Ancient Modulation must be saved. Otherwise we'll have even more colon-blow, bible thumping, and ranchera musica on FM. YIKES!!

 

[MC]

Guess he likes the evening Bollywood music on 1440 AM

 

[indieradioguy]

Guess he likes the evening Bollywood music on 1440 AM

Compared to any music on FM? Including 91.5's - air quote - "jazz," Bollywood would be an improvement.

 

[radiowizard101]

AM radio needs to take a step back and re-evaluate traditional Engineering Standards. Used to be my GE Superadio sounded very good on Music stations. However, some chucklehead in Engineering thought it would be a grand idea to limit the bandwidth with the NRSC standard. That means no audio frequencies past the 10K threshold with a rapid decline after 8K. Well, that killed audio quality (that already had limitations) and most music formats. Combine this with the rejection of the C-Quam stereo standard and you get really poor audio quality for a music format. By the way, when selling the NRSC limited bandwidth standard, AM broadcasters were told that there would be AM radios manufactured to compensate for the NRSC restricted bandwidth, much like the frequency compensation in FM receivers.

Then the same genius's gave us IBOC (In Band On Channel) digital audio that not only further limits audio bandwidth, but hasn't had widespread acceptance and offers some serious sideband interference. Some IBOC broadcasters limit analog as low as 5K. Very bad for music and very bad for the analog listener that comprises 99% of available listenership.

What is needed now, (and this could be done immediately), is an AM Radio Organization that that would get rid of the NRSC AM Standard as well as all IBOC broadcasting, embrace the C-Quam Stereo Standard that has been a success elsewhere around the world, and come up with some creative content that the listeners actually want.

These are very simple solutions that could be implemented quickly. The quagmire that AM Radio is currently in has been brought upon itself.

This subject should be addressed on the Engineering Board.

 

[johndavis]

You can make music on AM sound really good within the NRSC standards, with or without IBOC. I've heard it with my own ears. But it requires a skilled hand at the controls (and, for that matter, an AM radio to listen on where they spent more than $0.25 on the AM section). You have to know what you're doing, not just at the audio processor, but throughout the entire transmission plant.

Getting rid of NRSC and going back to C-QUAM isn't going to solve all of the man-made interference issues that come from traffic lights, high voltage power lines, CFL bulbs, and cheap switching power supplies.

Reality: you could fit the number of AM enthusiasts in a small auditorium and still have plenty of seats left. The market has spoken. Ancient Modulation has a purpose: when the big storm hits, it's the one old technology where everyone has a radio that will work and consume minimal power. So basically, until that emergency strikes, we're just filling time with colon blow and formats that can't hack it on FM.

But any proposal that involves changing standards is just throwing money away. See also: C-QUAM, Kahn, IBOC.

 

[Willits]

You can make music on AM sound really good within the NRSC standards, with or without IBOC. I've heard it with my own ears. But it requires a skilled hand at the controls (and, for that matter, an AM radio to listen on where they spent more than $0.25 on the AM section). You have to know what you're doing, not just at the audio processor, but throughout the entire transmission plant.

Getting rid of NRSC and going back to C-QUAM isn't going to solve all of the man-made interference issues that come from traffic lights, high voltage power lines, CFL bulbs, and cheap switching power supplies.

Reality: you could fit the number of AM enthusiasts in a small auditorium and still have plenty of seats left. The market has spoken. Ancient Modulation has a purpose: when the big storm hits, it's the one old technology where everyone has a radio that will work and consume minimal power. So basically, until that emergency strikes, we're just filling time with colon blow and formats that can't hack it on FM.

But any proposal that involves changing standards is just throwing money away. See also: C-QUAM, Kahn, IBOC.

Another much bigger factor regarding the decline of AM radio is the increase in ambient noise floor since the 1980s. Light dimmers, personal computers, and countless other digital and other sources of analog noise (IBOC hashing impulse response is a component of this) all add to the din. Today it is so bad that only a few high-powered AM stations (like KFI, KCBS, or a KNBR) have (S+N)/N that rises above what an average listener can tolerate. Adding to that the urban sprawl that places the mean listener a longer distance from radio stations, increasing the average noise but affecting the lower power stations the most, you have an intolerable situation as far as the radio consumer is concerned. The competition on FM wins handily. The FCC has contributed to this problem by allowing shared used of what were once clear channels, along with crowding more stations onto other channels out of necessity, and this contributes to the noise also.

The saddest part about it is that the problem is so out of control that it will likely never be reversed. The only hope is to change modulation standards on the band, and then it will be "AM" no longer.

 

[KeithE4]

Another major factor regarding the decline of AM radio is the increase in ambient noise floor since the 1980s. Light dimmers, computers, and countless other sources of noise add to the din. Today it is so bad that only a few high-powered AM stations (like KFI, KCBS, or a KNBR) have (S+N)/N that rises above what an average listener can tolerate. Adding to that the urban sprawl that places the mean listener a longer distance from lower powered radio stations, you have an intolerable situation as far as the radio consumer is concerned. The competition on FM wins handily. The FCC has contributed to this problem by allowing shared used of what were once clear channels, along with placing more stations on other channels out of necessity, and this contributes to the noise also.

This is something else that needs to be put to rest permanently. The billions of noise sources are not going to go away. There has been noise on the AM band ever since the first TV was installed in the late 1930s, and has gotten worse over the decades. But since there are few listeners to AM, there are few complaints.

The saddest part about it is that the problem is so out of control that it will likely never be reversed. The only hope is to change modulation standards on the band, and then it will be "AM" no more.

There will be no changes in the modulation method on the AM band. Complex digital modulation (IBOC, DRM) methods don't work well where the ionosphere is involved - in fact, they need to go away - and narrowband FM is even worse than AM.

 

[Willits]

There has been noise on the AM band ever since the first TV was installed in the late 1930s, and has gotten worse over the decades. But since there are few listeners to AM, there are few complaints.

It was the increased noise that chased the listeners away. There are few complaints because there is a low-hanging fruit competitor down the street called FM. Listening to FM is a lot easier than complaining. Besides, what can a single AM station do about the few complaints it gets?

As I was trying to convey in my previous post (or if one is simply a careful reader), it's over for commercial AM as we know it, and it's the steadily-increasing analog noise over time that mainly killed it.

 

[KeithE4]

It was the increased noise that chased the listeners away. There were no complaints because there was a low-hanging fruit competitor down the street called FM. Listening to FM was a lot easier than complaining.

As I was trying to convey in my previous post, it's over for commercial AM as we know it, and the steadily-increasing analog noise over time mainly killed it.

The noise level had almost nothing to do with it. The ending of simulcasting (with some exceptions) and the emergence of rock on FM in the late '60s caused the demise of AM. 1967 was the beginning of the end for AM; it's been slowly dying ever since.

FM had been around for close to 30 years (if you include the prewar 45 MHz band) before it really took off. The noise immunity and better sound quality had been there since Day One and it hadn't mattered for all that time. But once the first FM rock stations went on the air, AM began to be abandoned. Other than for sports, AM does not exist to those younger than 60, and that has nothing to do with the noise level. I'm 58 and as soon as we got FM rock in Indianapolis in 1968 (when I was 13), AM was dead.

 

[MC]

Does any one want the AM band for something else? What else could it be used for?

 

[KeithE4]

Does any one want the AM band for something else? What else could it be used for?

I'm sure hams would love to have it (we'll take anything we can get). :-D

But whether used or not, the AM broadcast band is an international allocation. It can't be used for anything else, not that it has any other commercial value anyway.