Ford Dropping AM Receivers

[spt87]

I can think of many in smaller markets which are successful that don't have a translator- WBEN, WGR, WHAM, WHAS just to hit Buffalo and Rochester, NY. with Louisville thrown in. That's not considering stations like WECK where last I heard around 40% of listening was to the AM. WBEN was on two FMs at one point (rimshots but still could be heard in much of the market) and they got rid of them since listening stayed mostly on the AM. In Albany WROW must have significant AM listening as the translator is not that great.

Pulling AM from cars is less about AM popularity and more about phasing out free entertainment in automobiles. FM will be next. The automakers want subscriptions to services which they will get a cut off. That coupled with the difficulty in replacing modern auto entertainment systems which are very integrated into the vehicle is locking everyone in. At one time our govt went after anti-competitive behavior but we are at a low point for that.

I think the Fed Govt needs to do a few things.

1) mandate the vehicle entertainment systems be replaceable without affecting other vehicle functions. Either make the entertainment system standalone and not integrated into a single screen with the climate control, GPS, etc. or mandate an open standard so that the entertainment module can be replaced and still accessed via the common interface.

2) Block the kickbacks from the streaming companies to the auto makers so the consumers buying the vehicles have priority in the decisions made on features rather than some behind the scenes wheeling and dealing. If SiriusXM wants to offer an incentive for a buyer to equip a vehicle with Sat receiver capability then that should go to the end consumer not the automaker.

3) mandate that vehicle components not emit interference harmful to reception of radio broadcasts. This to help ensure when I buy an aftermarket unit it will work on any radio band it supports. If I want a shortwave receiver, AM, CB radio, whatever in my car I should be able to do that.

It appears today a bill was filed in Congress with support from both parties to mandate AM radio in all new car models. That's another way to go but I think my ideas above are better for consumer choice.

Lastly and somewhat unrelated: mandate the music industry offer a single license for music consumers that is portable across all ways they listen to music (at least non-physical formats). Right now I have a SiriusXM subscription - part of that is a music licensing fee. If I also subscribe to Spotify I'm paying licensing again, Apple streaming - again. I'm tired of the media companies charging us repeatedly for the same content.

 

[CTListener]

No. 2 is restraint of trade. A non-starter.

 

[Yabadabado1]

Ref. my earlier post about my early cars bought when I was a teenager. If I had known what I had back then would be worth 10s of thousands of dollars that the older cars fetch today [one even at six figures!] I would have held on to the damn things.

 

[radiofollower]

Nearly all of those "successful" AMs in smaller markets have translators and the AM is only kept on the air to keep the translator legal.

Correct. And many small AMs that could not get an FM translator went dark. There is a record amount of AMs going dark the last couple of years.

 

[skiwest]

One has to wonder how much longer AM and FM will be around. We all know it is mostly older folks listening now. At some point in the future, OTA sations may be replaced by satellite, streaming, etc.

 

[CTListener]

One has to wonder how much longer AM and FM will be around. We all know it is mostly older folks listening now. At some point in the future, OTA sations may be replaced by satellite, streaming, etc.

FM will likely outlive all, or all but the youngest, posters here. AM may be something all but those over 80 live to see disappear.

 

[johnbasalla]

AM may be something all but those over 80 live to see disappear.

In the Cincinnati forum, a poster shared that WLW AM700 is the #1 station in the market. All of the listeners can't be only ones over 60 years of age to gain that.

 

[johnbasalla]

One has to wonder how much longer AM and FM will be around. We all know it is mostly older folks listening now. At some point in the future, OTA stations may be replaced by satellite, streaming, etc.

How many decades has it been that the death of AM radio being just around the corner has been discussed?

 

[skiwest]

In the Cincinnati forum, a poster shared that WLW AM700 is the #1 station in the market. All of the listeners can't be only ones over 60 years of age to gain that.

That is not surprising. WLW airs The Great American, Bill Cunningham, every weekday. He is Cincy's version of Rush Limbaugh. And WLW is also the flagship station for the Reds.

 

[CTListener]

In the Cincinnati forum, a poster shared that WLW AM700 is the #1 station in the market. All of the listeners can't be only ones over 60 years of age to gain that.

Advertisers are looking to reach listeners who will still be around in 10 or 20 years to buy more of their product and try out new ones. Sooner or later, AM stations will die off from lack of advertiser support.

 

[Santa fe]

78 RPM records, dial telephones, VCRs, incandescent light bulbs, vacuum tubes, fountain pens, Brylcreem, analog TV, fedoras, Conelrad, leaded gasoline, phone booths...these are just some things that time, tech, government mandate and consumer choice have made extinct or rare. Is AM radio soon to join them?
What is the current role AM stations play in the EANS system? Back when, it was always 1100 AM that we monitored on our EBS receivers. Today, in my region, many stations monitor WHBC-FM. When the Atomic Bomb was the big concern, the Conelrad 1240-640/EBS idea was in the event of an all out nuclear attack the government would take over those channels for vital information dissemination. Then the scientists explained that all metal, including radio towers, would be vaporized in a Hydrogen bomb blast, so that idea morphed into what remains today. If severe weather is the main purpose now for EANS, AM can be obliterated by lightening noise in thunderstorms and tornadoes despite its other long wave advantages over FM.
EANS is the main reason given in recent bills introduced in Congress to mandate that AM radio remain in cars, but I wonder how much that would be/is true? What does the NAB say about this?

 

[davideduardo]

In the Cincinnati forum, a poster shared that WLW AM700 is the #1 station in the market. All of the listeners can't be only ones over 60 years of age to gain that.

But nearly all are over 55 which is the general cutoff point for most agency ad buys. They do well, still, with more direct accounts, lower rates and a high commercial load

 

[Rusty Muck]

In the Cincinnati forum, a poster shared that WLW AM700 is the #1 station in the market. All of the listeners can't be only ones over 60 years of age to gain that.

WLW has been in the talk format since the mid-80s (as @gr8oldies would say, “when Randy Michaels taught the old lady how to dance”). Their bread-and-butter comes from the Reds PBP and perform quite well during baseball season.

It’s impossible to compare it to … say, WTAM, which, while a talk station since 1985, has seen their lineup and image blown up multiple times prior to 1996 and only recently lost their top syndicated host and local host in a matter of months.

And even then, WLW is not the same as it was in the mid-90s, the hosts have aged and the successful programmers have left. Inertia is partly keeping them afloat.

 

[Rusty Muck]

Nearly all of those "successful" AMs in smaller markets have translators and the AM is only kept on the air to keep the translator legal.

And for those stations, the FM’s coverage area easily dwarfs the AM (especially if it’s a class D high-band AM with an imperceptible night signal like WBTC in Uhrichsville). The AM is superfluous and unneeded.

WMVO’s translator was equally much, much better than their parent AM signal. Only because the FM could be multiplexed did it give the owners an ability to shut the AM down entirely.

 

[Rusty Muck]

I would think that they do, but the majority of affiliates are probably on AM radio. Additionally, a number of the FM's are small-wattage translators with limited coverage. One time I was driving through downtown Elyria, and WEOL's (in Elyria) FM translator was unlistenable. I believe their tower/transmitter is in Grafton.

WEOL’s translator is only a whopping 25 watts ERP / 65 watts output because WNIR 100.1 objected to their original CP of 250 watts, which would have covered the county but severely intruded on WNIR’s 60 dBu.

There’s really nothing WEOL can do, and honestly, given the translator’s poor coverage area, it feels like they’d be better off using it and 930 to simulcast WKFM’s country format. Or even WLKR’s AAA format.

 

[johnbasalla]

There’s really nothing WEOL can do, and honestly, given the translator’s poor coverage area, it feels like they’d be better off using it and 930 to simulcast WKFM’s country format. Or even WLKR’s AAA format.

WEOL's Morning Show super-serves Lorain County. Elyria's Mayor is an often-heard guest giving updates and answering questions. They have lots of guests from the area on. Just a last week the Morning Show team was on the road, broadcasting from, if I'm remembering correctly, Avon. The Local News is very much just that. They have a good number of commercials from a variety of advertisers. The play-by-play voice of the Cleveland Cavaliers (sp?) came over from WEOL, and he hasn't forgotten his roots. During the season, he does special interview segments on the WEOL Morning Show and now that the NBA season is over for the Cavs, you can hear him doing play-by-play on high school sports broadcasts. I wouldn't mess with this success.

 

[gr8oldies]

WLW has been in the talk format since the mid-80s (as @gr8oldies would say, “when Randy Michaels taught the old lady how to dance”). Their bread-and-butter comes from the Reds PBP and perform quite well during baseball season.

It’s impossible to compare it to … say, WTAM, which, while a talk station since 1985, has seen their lineup and image blown up multiple times prior to 1996 and only recently lost their top syndicated host and local host in a matter of months.

And even then, WLW is not the same as it was in the mid-90s, the hosts have aged and the successful programmers have left. Inertia is partly keeping them afloat.

True. Randy Michaels "taught the Grand Old Lady to dance" in the 80s but it wasn't updated further.

 

[radiofollower]

WEOL's Morning Show super-serves Lorain County. Elyria's Mayor is an often-heard guest giving updates and answering questions. They have lots of guests from the area on. Just a last week the Morning Show team was on the road, broadcasting from, if I'm remembering correctly, Avon. The Local News is very much just that. They have a good number of commercials from a variety of advertisers. The play-by-play voice of the Cleveland Cavaliers (sp?) came over from WEOL, and he hasn't forgotten his roots. During the season, he does special interview segments on the WEOL Morning Show and now that the NBA season is over for the Cavs, you can hear him doing play-by-play on high school sports broadcasts. I wouldn't mess with this success.

Yes, WEOL's morning show is a fine example of local radio. However, after that, the station primarily runs network programs off the bird.

 

[radiofollower]

True. Randy Michaels "taught the Grand Old Lady to dance" in the 80s but it wasn't updated further.

WLW is an iconic station and has maintained its iconic stance in Cincinnati over the years (unlike Cleveland old timers like WTAM and WHK which lost their way years ago). However, as was mentioned, the non-play-by-play hours on WLW show primarily a 55+ audience, which is a ticking time bomb and will not be sustainable.

 

[johnbasalla]

Yes, WEOL's morning show is a fine example of local radio. However, after that, the station primarily runs network programs off the bird.

We also must factor in that they do a large amount of local sports play-by-play which, along with bringing in revenue, are also fine examples of local radio. WEOL is so big with local sports that sometimes the Cleveland baseball games get bumped, or they enter the games in progress.