• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

KWYZ 1230 off air

Told you! Very active social media presence; very doubtful they wouldn't shut off one of their transmitters w/out notifying everyone.
 
Bongwater said:
Laptop speakers the size of a dime? 96kb MP3s? Bluetooth speakers? Smartphone speakers? Earbuds? Crosley Phonographs? (And don't even get me started on THE LOUDNESS WARS!!!!!)

C'mon. Young people will listen to crappy audio. And like it. Because they already do.

They aren't typically the audiophile snobs of our respective generations anyway, as long as they can stream/download it quick and for free.

And under these conditions, KSUH and KWYZ, even on AM, sound just fine. (Or whatever's passable for 2021.)
Click to expand...
Points taken on the bluetooth and smartphone speakers, and even smart speakers that have decent bass response are usually big, bold, beautiful mono.

I used to laugh when people cut down AM radio quality, while listening to tinny, compressed MP3s on their computers or MP3 players. I used to edit MP3s for radio (MP2s, actually), so I was aware of the good and the bad.

But streaming audio had indeed come a long way. I listen to music on YT with my old Sony MDR-7506 headphones and the music sounds really good. The main weakness for streaming audio is the speakers used, especially if you're talking portable ones, like the sound cubes that I see some of the folks using at the park. Earbuds also are variable in delivery quality.

Right now I'm listening to football on KFNQ 1090 my Superadio 2. Sounds OK -- can't see where FM would be a massive improvement for sports. Problem is that most AM receivers don't have sound as good as a Superadio, and the AM ship sailed a long time ago.
 
It's been my experience that people don't necessarily care about mono as much as overall sound quality. Even though they're mono, most Bluetooth speakers sound like FM mono, not AM. It's been my experience that AM radios either have sound quality that doesn't sound much better than a phone call, or they have terrible selectivity. I had this terrible little sports radio that you could still hear other stations on even if you were clearly locked on a station. On this particular radio, FM wasn't great either, which is why I gave it away a couple years later. The headset radio I had that now belongs to a friend was only slightly better on AM, though the difference on FM was significant, especially in areas with few stations. The biggest problem with that radio, similar to a lot of radios with dials, is that it was nearly impossible to tune a rimshot FM with two full signals sandwiched on either side.
 
DavidEduardo said:
Look at this a different way: A large private group, Lotus, is buying AMs when the market and the price are in line; they just included an AM in a Seattle purchase. They have bought AMs recently in Reno, Las Vegas, Fresno, Bakersfield and LA among others.

And across the country there are still plenty of profitable AMs, either in smaller markets or where there are niche opportunities in large ones.

That said, there are many that are just on the air to get a translator, which in many markets and at the right height is enough to be nearly as good as a Class A FM and adequate for covering the central area of a market or a medium to smaller city. If the FCC allowed those translator owners to turn the AM off, I'm sure over 90% would.
Click to expand...

Which AM is Lotus newly buying in Bakersfield? They certainly know that market well, being longtime owners of KWAC, KCHJ (Delano), 92.1 and translators of their stations.
 
This is a bit of a controversial take, but personally, I would like to see SOME AM shut off, and SOME stay on. At this point in time, there are many AM radio stations in existence that are not serving a purpose (mostly on the upper end of the band). Not to say that some of these stations don't have a legacy, but in 2021, I don't see many people tuning into 1,000 watt AM signals. With that being said, I would argue that many of the larger (class A or B) AM radio stations still serve a purpose, and would actually be more relevant if the band thinned out. Specifically, the larger stations might benefit from some of the "clutter" going dark. Personally, I think that AM sounds great when enough of the signal is present, and can actually be more enjoyable than FM. There are plenty of locations where FM doesn't perform very well, but AM booms in with no problem. Of course, this is assuming that you have enough of the signal to work with, and the right receiver. KIRO 710, KJR 950, and KOMO 1000 still sound great in my opinion, and are still relevant.
 
AM still has relevance in some smaller towns (i.e., not nearby suburbs of big cities). I think we all know why a station like KRVN in Nebraska has lasted so long with its Agricultural format. It targets the massive numbers of farmers in that area with reliable news and information on their crops and cattle. Plus they throw in some classic country, and it's 50,000 watts. I'm sure KTNN has a lot of Native listeners in the smaller villages and areas without a lot of radio service.
And even in Yakima, there seems to be a lot of KIT-1280 listeners. No translator, and 5,000 watts on a regional channel. With Republicans taking up a little over half of the county, no wonder. But with Yakima turning majority-Hispanic, how long before Yakima County goes blue in elections?
 
crainbebo said:
AM still has relevance in some smaller towns (i.e., not nearby suburbs of big cities). I think we all know why a station like KRVN in Nebraska has lasted so long with its Agricultural format. It targets the massive numbers of farmers in that area with reliable news and information on their crops and cattle. Plus they throw in some classic country, and it's 50,000 watts. I'm sure KTNN has a lot of Native listeners in the smaller villages and areas without a lot of radio service.
And even in Yakima, there seems to be a lot of KIT-1280 listeners. No translator, and 5,000 watts on a regional channel. With Republicans taking up a little over half of the county, no wonder. But with Yakima turning majority-Hispanic, how long before Yakima County goes blue in elections?
Click to expand...
Classic country, oldies, and similar music formats sound best on AM, in my opinion. With that being said, it's not easy to find these formats on the radio anymore in this day and age. While I would say that most AM radio stations in 2021 are not viable business models, the larger ones still have a place on the dial. And signal wise, 710, 950, and 1000 arguably have better coverage than some of the FM's in the market.
 
Absolutely! AM isn't as affected by the mighty Cascade range. From Ellensburg and Yakima, 710 and 1000 both put in decent signals during the day. Noisy at times, but perfectly listenable. My new car's radio on the other hand can't even get KUTI 1460 that well (30 miles away) over the god-awful engine noise. '02 Hyundai Santa Fe, with stock radio - replaced my old Elantra that quit working. Was able to pull out the Pioneer aftermarket Supertuner and will be putting it in the Santa Fe with the hopes that it will work better. Otherwise, hopefully someone has a whip they can install onto the front of the car - I doubt it, in this day and age of Spotify and streaming in cars...
 
crainbebo said:
Absolutely! AM isn't as affected by the mighty Cascade range. From Ellensburg and Yakima, 710 and 1000 both put in decent signals during the day. Noisy at times, but perfectly listenable. My new car's radio on the other hand can't even get KUTI 1460 that well (30 miles away) over the god-awful engine noise. '02 Hyundai Santa Fe, with stock radio - replaced my old Elantra that quit working. Was able to pull out the Pioneer aftermarket Supertuner and will be putting it in the Santa Fe with the hopes that it will work better. Otherwise, hopefully someone has a whip they can install onto the front of the car - I doubt it, in this day and age of Spotify and streaming in cars...
Click to expand...
I know that it's possible to get a bracket for a vehicle to mount a CB antenna. I'm sure that you could probably use a similar bracket to mount a whip antenna if you really wanted to. With that being said, I'm not sure if it would do any good for AM, as I've always been under the impression that whip antennas are for FM. Car radios are weird. Some work great for AM, some are downright awful. I've never had a car with an infotainment layout for radio, but I've heard that the AM reception isn't great.
 
crainbebo said:
Otherwise, hopefully someone has a whip they can install onto the front of the car - I doubt it, in this day and age of Spotify and streaming in cars...
Click to expand...
Exactly. I'd bet that not even one out of ten thousand consumers would be willing to butcher their car body to install a whip antenna, and certainly not to hear the most technically inferior form of audio.
 
There's no FM translator for KUTI 1460 Yakima (ESPN). They broadcast the Huskies. KXLE-1240 doesn't air them and there's no FM affiliate nearby. There is also no AM translator for KIT-1280. If I'm on the road and want to listen to college football, I can only pick up the Cougars affiliate (which is KPQ-560 or KEYG-98.5, KPQ is stronger than KUTI). KCWU-88.1 stopped broadcasting CWU football, all coverage is handled on TV by SWX now (operated by KNDU and KHQ).
 
Hyundai must have some weird querk in their engines that cause AM noise. I had a Sanada hybrid a few years ago as a Lyft, and that car got a lot of AM noise. I've had other cars where AM was as listenable as it usually is. Our previous car, a 2012 Mazda 6, had this whistle whenever the car was running, only noticeable if you were listening on a weak signal. I have yet to hear AM in our new Camry, but as it's a Toyota, I would think it would work pretty well. Doesn't it say something about the state of AM radio that we've had that car almost a year and I still don't know what AM in it sounds like?
 
bobdavcav said:
Hyundai must have some weird querk in their engines that cause AM noise. I had a Sanada hybrid a few years ago as a Lyft, and that car got a lot of AM noise. I've had other cars where AM was as listenable as it usually is. Our previous car, a 2012 Mazda 6, had this whistle whenever the car was running, only noticeable if you were listening on a weak signal. I have yet to hear AM in our new Camry, but as it's a Toyota, I would think it would work pretty well. Doesn't it say something about the state of AM radio that we've had that car almost a year and I still don't know what AM in it sounds like?
Click to expand...
My 2014 Kia (part of the Hyundai company) minivan has a great AM radio that can even pick up decent out-of-area signals during the day sometimes. At night, it rivals the main radio I use at home for AM DXing. Our old Honda CR-V has a pretty good AM radio as well.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom