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Proposed Super Power AM Stations

gr8oldies said:
I have DXed a Reloj (for about 15 seconds) and another Cuban from Tennessee on FM. If there are contraband ways to receive Dish Network in Cuba, you'd think there'd be a few FM radios running around.
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There is no shortage of FM radios. The government operates about 75 FM stations, and radio's are for sale. But given the state of the economy where the average weekly salary is $20, not everyone can get one.

And the government controls all programming, mostly with national networks.
 
DavidEduardo said:


FM receivers are common, although plenty of AM-only radios still exist. There is not a wide range of different programming on FM, though... mostly rebroadcasts of the big AM networks.
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No wonder! The government never issued a verdict for separate programing so no one bought the radios. Sound familiar?
 
semoochie said:
That's just a technicality. The end result would be the same.
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The reason why separate FM programming has not been forced is that the government uses the media (they own radio, tv and newspapers) to further the social agenda of the party. Pushing FM would only cause a "fuga de divisas) "flight of currency" to buy imported radios and cause a burden on the general population.
 
DavidEduardo said:


The reason why separate FM programming has not been forced is that the government uses the media (they own radio, tv and newspapers) to further the social agenda of the party. Pushing FM would only cause a "fuga de divisas) "flight of currency" to buy imported radios and cause a burden on the general population.
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Yes but the fact that there isn't separate programing on FM, has the same effect that it had here prior to 1961, when the government issued an edict that required separate programing. If we never had that edict, FM might possibly be right where it was back then or more likely, most if not all the licenses would've been returned to the FCC by 1970 or so. Of course, EMF would have a field day! :)
 
semoochie said:
Yes but the fact that there isn't separate programing on FM, has the same effect that it had here prior to 1961, when the government issued an edict that required separate programing. If we never had that edict, FM might possibly be right where it was back then or more likely, most if not all the licenses would've been returned to the FCC by 1970 or so. Of course, EMF would have a field day!
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The mandate to end simulcasting by most fulltime AM-FM combos went into effect on January 1, 1967. 1961 was the year when FM stereo became approved and stations began to install multiplex stereo generators.

Prior to the mandate, the number of FM stations had been increasing from the low in 1959 to about the double by 1967.

What really helped FM in the 60's was the introduction of AFC circuitry in FM radios, eliminating the annoying drift prevalent up till then. Add in the inherently more stable transistorized circuitry of the later 60's and FM became much more "useful".

On the other hand, FM stations had gone from over 1000 in 1950 to about 700 by the end of the 50's, and all the separate programming of the 40's and early 50's had all but disappeared.
 
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DavidEduardo said:


The mandate to end simulcasting by most fulltime AM-FM combos went into effect on January 1, 1967. 1961 was the year when FM stereo became approved and stations began to install multiplex stereo generators.

Prior to the mandate, the number of FM stations had been increasing from the low in 1959 to about the double by 1967.

What really helped FM in the 60's was the introduction of AFC circuitry in FM radios, eliminating the annoying drift prevalent up till then. Add in the inherently more stable transistorized circuitry of the later 60's and FM became much more "useful".

On the other hand, FM stations had gone from over 1000 in 1950 to about 700 by the end of the 50's, and all the separate programming of the 40's and early 50's had all but disappeared.
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Yes, you're right. I got it switched with the FM stereo date. Apparently, my wife's trouble with numbers is starting to rub off on me.
 
DavidEduardo said:

The reason why separate FM programming has not been forced is that...Pushing FM would only cause a "fuga de divisas) "flight of currency" to buy imported radios and cause a burden on the general population.
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I saw something many years ago which showed a Cuban factory making B&W TV sets, so they could manufacture domestic radios and just transition all of their networks over to FM. The reason that they would be advised to do this (were they to hire me as a market consultant...LOL) is to wean young listeners off of inferior AM radio, as has been proven to be the case in much of the world. Why would they want to? To discourage people from listening to stations from outside of Cuba. A list I had many years ago showed that pre-90s South Africa either had on, or was trying to move all their radio networks to FM.
 
cyberdad said:
I'm going to be passing through El Paso on my I-10 road trip next week. I'll report on what I encounter with XEROK.
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So here I am. What I can report at this point is that coming in from the East on I-10 this afternoon, XEROK was the first El Paso/Juarez signal to surface. Tripping the scan button at about 130 miles out. El Paso 690 and 600 were next in that order. 10kw and 5kw respectively. Actually there's a 720 from Ciudad Jaurez. Supposedly 50kw, and I was hearing a weak signal on 720 at about 160 miles out, but I'm not sure if I had Juarez or perhaps KSAH.
 
Most likely Ciudad Juarez. It has been a couple of years since I did the El Paso drive on IH 10, but KKYX will take you just west of Fort Stockton and they carry the longest. Most of the other San Antonio AM's will fade in the Ozona, Sonora area.

Back in the mid 90's, I carried XEROK until Benson, AZ by day. The 790 in Tucson gave it fits at that point. I'm guessing XEROK was still running 150 KW at that point.
 
dlf1 said:
Most likely Ciudad Juarez. It has been a couple of years since I did the El Paso drive on IH 10, but KKYX will take you just west of Fort Stockton and they carry the longest. Most of the other San Antonio AM's will fade in the Ozona, Sonora area.

Back in the mid 90's, I carried XEROK until Benson, AZ by day. The 790 in Tucson gave it fits at that point. I'm guessing XEROK was still running 150 KW at that point.
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Ging west, I had both XEROK and 720 until about the AZ border. XEROK was the better signal, but not by much. The Tucson 790 wasn't really an issue at that point.
 
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