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"Needs little advice" was reproaching "Hey WSB-AM! Get with the program" immediately preceding.
Clear that my rebuke was not exhaustive enough. A thousand pardons.
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WSB vs WABC
- Thread starter Radig
- Start date
Clear that my rebuke was not exhaustive enough. A thousand pardons.
And, viewing this nationally, nearly all the AM listening is done by those over 55. The exceptions are cases like having the all-sports station still on AM only, or some ethnic audience going to AM because a particular group is not large enough to sustain an FM.
Gotcha! Now I understand. The Internet, just like masks, does not show emotion well.
(That's why we have emoticons)Interestingly, Toronto's 740 kHz CFZM seems to be supporting itself with music programming, that also covers a big chunk of western New York state. That station went from being CBC, mostly news and talk, to now oldies format music. It seems to coexist in the city with CFRB 1010 kHz, which is talk radio!
Great. You realize Canada is a different country? They have different rules and different business models there.
That station is owned by a Canadian billionaire, not unlike the owner of WABC. As I said, Atlanta needs a billionaire.
Yes, it is a different country, and geographically much bigger than the USA. So what rules governing AM radio in Canada give them an advantage that we, in the US, don't have? Their business models are not much different, they have to follow the same laws of supply and demand, etc.
CFZM has a 2.5 share in Toronto, good for 12th place in the latest 12+ Numeris ratings. It is 18th in daily cume (total listeners). Their average listener is 63 years old.
Maybe the economics of advertising are different in Canada, but I certainly wouldn't be rushing to invest in their company based on what I've learned in the States.
Read the second sentence in my post. That station is owned by a billionaire who programs what HE wants.
He funds his radio stations with the billions he makes from other businesses.
That's what you need: A benevolent billionaire who shares your taste and values, and will pay for what you want.
WSB is owned by a private investment company that is looking to maximize value for its shareholders. Different business model.
I'm interested in listening to radio, but not talk radio, and certainly not Right-Wing radio. Fortunately I can change channels, but unfortunately there is not much to choose. I am not interested in investing financially in AM radio, not yet anyway.
I missed that line - I could have sworn that it wasn't there when I first read your post. Sorry.
The radio dial has no limits unless you impose them on yourself. You can stream thousands of stations from around the country.
Is your concern the "prevalence" of right-wing talk radio, or the displacement of FM music stations by spoken-word formats--not just 95.5, but also 92.9, as well as the translators for 680 and 1230?
Doing a back-of-the-envelope rundown, I see the following players in talk radio on both bands in Atlanta (not including religious programming, which is nothing new on AM, and not including non-English stations):
WSB 750/95.5: Erick Erickson is definitely right-of-center, but I wouldn't consider him extreme. Eric von Haessler and Mark Arum play to a more general audience.
WABE 90.1: NPR, definitely not right-wing
WRAS 88.5: ditto
WBIN 640: not right-wing. Class B.
WFOM 1230/106.3 definitely right wing. Class C + translator.
WDUN 550 Class B, out of Gainesville.
WGKA 920 moderate right wing. Class B.
WAOK 1380: not right wing. Class B
WMLB 1690: definitely right-wing. Class B
So on the not-right-wing side, we have two full-power noncom FMs (a class C0 and a class C1), a 50kW day/1000W night AM class B, a 25kW day/4200W night AM class B.
That's 4 viable signals, 2 full-power FMs, 2 class B AMs (one full power day).
On the right-wing side, we have a class A clear channel 50kW AM that simulcasts with a class C1 full-power FM, a 10kW day/2500W night AM class B that is on the edge of the market, a class C local-channel AM that simulcasts on a translator, a 14kW class B AM, and a 10kW x-band class B AM.
That's 7 viable signals (if you count the two FM sides separately). Of those, there are 3 not-full-power class Bs, a class C, an FM translator (which simulcasts the class C), and WSB + WSBB. 5 AMs and 2 FMs (including a translator).
If I were to rank the signal quality, WSB+WSBB definitely has the best signal of the bunch. But after that, then you have the two noncom FMs, and then probably a tie between 550, 640, and 920 (YMMV). Then 1380, then 1690, and the two WFOM signals taking up the rear.
If you set WSB+WSBB aside, the not-right-wing talkers have the three best signals. And the three worst signals are right-wing.
Of course, this is all driven by listenership (or, rather, advertisers' perception of listenership in the case of commercial stations), not any one person's preferences. No listeners=no station.
Much music listenership has gone online, where it is easier to narrowcast and also field niche formats. The music formats on radio tend to be geared to people who may not have or can afford a phone with unlimited data, or LWYW, or broad-appeal formats. And spoken word (talk and sports) appeal to these kinds of listeners as well.
There was a bunch of wailing and gnashing of teeth when the FCC basically punted on setting a standard for AM stereo, thinking that caused AM stereo to fail in the marketplace. Even so, both Steely Dan and TheBigA are right--the biggest problem with AM is static and noise, not monaural or bandwidth.
AM's ace in the hole is really skywave night coverage, and that doesn't help anyone below a class A or a big-at-night class B. And in the ever-noisier AM band (from interference from class Ds running at flea power as well as all manner of RFI from modern electronics), skywave AM isn't great for music, either. Nobody is trying to DX XERF and Wolfman Jack to hear records they couldn't hear locally anymore.
Many electric cars like Teslas are so rife with RFI that they don't even bother putting in an AM radio anymore.
I can use a crystal set to receive AM radio for free, but need to pay for the internet to receive the streaming stations.
Maybe it's an odd personal peculiarity of mine, but I like to listen to an on-air station received on a radio receiver. I enjoyed listening to the BBC on shortwave. They were always there on 15070 kHz. Then one-day they were gone, to be replaced with a channel on satellite Sirius/XM. For some reason, it did not have the same feel to it, as when hearing it on shortwave.
You can hear the Beeb World Service news on WBCX 89.1, Brenau's college radio station. It's a great station overall, if you can pick it up (it's only an 840W class A FM).
You can also get the Beeb on shortwave for other world markets, just not North America. That reminds me--I've been wanting to try this with the Trans-Oceanic. Short-Wave Radio Frequency Schedule for BBC in ENGLISH
The same internet that allows you to post on this message board gives you access to thousands of radio stations.
As I've said, you're trying to live as though the world hasn't changed, and it has. Fifty years ago, you couldn't post on message boards.
Good question. I was really frustrated by the large prevalence of right-wing radio, but the displacement of FM music stations is also becoming a chore.
Good analysis, thank you.
So true; and with video streaming growing fast, it's just a matter of time that over-the-air TV broadcasts may come to an end.
That is what started me on this rant. I was tuning the AM band at night, and it seemed that every channel, every 10 kHz, seemed to have the same right-wing voices. So after fighting off interference and noise, you finally end up with channels full of garbage!
I understand, and believe me, I use winamp to listen to many of them.
Really? I'm actually enjoying my life, even though the AM band is full of garbage, and it was almost fifty years ago that we were posting on BBS boards...
We were just talking about this station on the Philadelphia board the other day. 63 is actually the desired demo, an exception to the usual advertising demo rule.
Canada's Zoomer Media owns TV, radio, magazines and websites, all targeted at seniors, and they act as their own agency to package the ad buys across all their media platforms. No one was able to answer in the other thread how financially successful the company is but the owner, Moses Znaimer, has a long track record of media innovation in Canada and did very well with his previous holdings -- City-TV, Much Music and the CHUM group.
Their one-hour transmission from Oman on 6195 kHz every evening at 10PM our time is usually received pretty well in the Atlanta area.
"36 Jukebox Video." I remember it well.
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