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Latest station count from Inside Radio

davideduardo

Moderator/Administrator
Staff member
Do you think Digital AM is ever going to take off or not, David?
More like a crash landing of a test flight. Never got much interest, and now we are down to well under 100 such stations.
 
That’s about 10x as many as I thought there were
I don't know if anyone has an accurate count. If anyone knows, it might be Scott Fybush! My guess is in the 70's now.
 
The proposal to allow a broadcaster to purchase an unlimited number of AM stations with no market cap is interesting. I just don't see it as a way to save AM. It seems difficult enough when an owner is trying to sell just one station with no buyers. Even the number of AM's with translators is on the decline. That's no longer helping to save AM's either.
 
The proposal to allow a broadcaster to purchase an unlimited number of AM stations with no market cap is interesting. I just don't see it as a way to save AM. It seems difficult enough when an owner is trying to sell just one station with no buyers. Even the number of AM's with translators is on the decline. That's no longer helping to save AM's either.
Completely agree. This amounts to a chicken and egg solution. If AM likely has no future, even with translators which only cover a portion of the AM local population, then what kind of business proposition is it to find financing (assuming one could) to own more?
 
Would be interesting IMO to go back every 10 years and see similar counts of full-power stations from 2013, then 2003, 1993,1983, etc.

2013:

AM STATIONS 4728 (265 more than today)
FM COMMERCIAL 6613 (70 fewer than today)
FM NONCOMMERCIAL 3989 (247 fewer than today)
FULL POWER TOTAL 15,330 (44 fewer than today)


Further back is harder to find. If I get some time later today, I'll give it a shot.
 
The proposal to allow a broadcaster to purchase an unlimited number of AM stations with no market cap is interesting. I just don't see it as a way to save AM. It seems difficult enough when an owner is trying to sell just one station with no buyers. Even the number of AM's with translators is on the decline. That's no longer helping to save AM's either.

First prize, an AM radio station!

Seconds prize, TWO AM radio stations.
 
And last place: Two AM stations, a struggling mall, and a Chucky Cheese restaurant.
Did you mean Upchucky Cheese?
True story - In about 2001 I and a few other engineering staff were working a site in a city none of us were familiar with. We wanted pizza for dinner so we hailed a taxi and told him to take us to a Pizza Hut. He dropped us off near an outlet mall and explained there was a pizza place there. From what we could tell at least, the only pizza joint we spotted in the area was a Chuck E. Cheese - So we went in, grabbed a table, sat down and ordered a few pizzas and a pitcher of beer. After a few minutes the server came over and said "Um, you guys don't....have any kids....in your party, do you?" The answer of course was nope! Regardless we ate, downed a few pitchers and then went and played the games, collected tickets and cashed them in for prizes like every other party in the place! There was a motorized model car there that you inserted quarters into and it would bounce around and during the "ride" it would take your picture and print it out on a 3" wide strip of thermal paper. We all got in/around the car, inserted our coins, got an excellent photo which we took to the FedEx/Kinkos next door to have copies made for everyone in our group. I still proudly have mine :)
 
Could AM be saved by having just high powered stations with a stronger signal and better reach. Less is more approach?
 
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