Time For A Rule Change

[Cold Coffee]

FM translators for AM's the argument went were for struggling AM operators to survive. Station owners who had served their small communities for decades had lost their listeners to FM. They would all go broke and their stations gone. Towns were in danger of losing service that would be lost forever.

The FCC ordered WJLX in Jasper Alabama off FM after their tower was stolen for the AM. I understand that's the rule. But it wasn't right to leave Jasper in the dark.

So here's what I propose. FM translators for AM's should be allowed to stay on when the AM is gone. The listeners have all moved to FM anyway.

We talk about saving energy on our planet. What about all those AM's whose listeners have moved to FM. They should be allowed to turn them off and stay on FM.

 

[fybush]

Because our regulatory process is broken and some in the industry deify a century-old, nearly obsolete technology that most of the rest of the world can't abandon fast enough.

Everywhere outside the US, including Canada and Mexico, understands that licensees should be allowed to move to more current technologies as their audiences move on.

Even within the US, the FCC proudly led TV licensees away from NTSC analog (not even 60 years old at the time) into ATSC and now ATSC 3.0 digital. All of our mobile technology is now 3/4G or better. (Yes, I see you, Paul, and we know about your part of Alaska.)

The copper-based PSTN phone network is on track to go away within a decade. Disney doesn't sell movies on VHS anymore. Software doesn't come on floppies or even on CD.

And so on and so on.

And yet we insist on propping up technology from more than a century ago, often using transmitter facilities that are 70 or 80 years old.

It's time to face the sunset of AM, because it's happening no matter how hard regulators try to stand in the way.

Yes, yes, LCRA blah blah blah. Laws are not permanent, and if they can't change as circumstances change around them, our lawmaking system is broken. (Which it is, but that's another story.)

So don't call these FM signals "translators" if that's a regulatory problem. Call them "class E FM," with the same technical facilities they're allowed now. There's precedent for restricting their use to replacing existing AM facilities - look at the expanded AM band, where only existing AMs could apply.

It doesn't need to be a mandatory move. There's no other real use for MW frequencies and no real-world desire for them (look at the St. Louis special auction that could have given anyone a nice 5 kW full-time 1430, but nobody bid!)

If you're an AM station that's still happy there, great. Stay there as long as it's viable. More power to you. But for everyone else who'd like to get off the dial and focus limited budgets on the band that still has listeners and some growth potential, it's pointless to force them to drag the expensive carcass of an all-but-dead AM behind them.

No other technology gets enshrined permanently in regulation like that in the US. No other nation on earth keeps AM artificially alive like this. Why do we treat that like it's normal?

Sunday rant over. Get off my lawn!

 

[TheBigA]

So here's what I propose. FM translators for AM's should be allowed to stay on when the AM is gone. The listeners have all moved to FM anyway.

What do they get when people stop listening to FM (which is where we are now)?

The fact is there aren't enough FM frequencies to give all AM owners translators. They're just SOL. The only way this transition works now, given the FCC's over-licensing of the FM band, is to enlarge the FM band. The FCC refuses to do that. These AM owners knew what they were buying. AM has been in decline for over 40 years. Yet they bought them anyway. The government expects them to live up to the terms of their license.

 

[Mikey Radio]

FM translators for AM's the argument went were for struggling AM operators to survive. Station owners who had served their small communities for decades had lost their listeners to FM. They would all go broke and their stations gone. Towns were in danger of losing service that would be lost forever.

The FCC ordered WJLX in Jasper Alabama off FM after their tower was stolen for the AM. I understand that's the rule. But it wasn't right to leave Jasper in the dark.

So here's what I propose. FM translators for AM's should be allowed to stay on when the AM is gone. The listeners have all moved to FM anyway.

We talk about saving energy on our planet. What about all those AM's whose listeners have moved to FM. They should be allowed to turn them off and stay on FM.

This has been mentioned and touched on before on this site, and as I've seen @DavidEduardo say more than once, there are lots of AMs out there that'd go dark if they didn't have to keep their transmitters on, just so they could have their FM translator going - and that's for a lot of reasons, including the expense of powering and maintaining an AM transmission system.

As I've mentioned, a few summers ago I happened to be in Pittsburgh, and even legacy station KDKA, with it's long and storied history, mentions it's FM frequency first, then "1020 KDKA" in all their positioning and printed collateral.

That said, the rules are indeed the rules, at least for now...

 

[CTListener]

The fact is there aren't enough FM frequencies to give all AM owners translators. They're just SOL.

Exactly. It's time for the crying to stop and the shutdowns to start. Too bad for the employees, what few are left. Too bad for the owners for backing the wrong horse in the technology race. But guess what? Sometimes life sucks. You pick yourself up and move on, or give up and end it all. Hopefully, few choose that final, nuclear option.

 

[fybush]

What do they get when people stop listening to FM (which is where we are now)?

The smarter broadcasters I work with are already well along that progression. FM is one tool in the toolbox, along with all the other ways they now reach their audiences. For now, having a linear broadcast presence still matters for visibility and a few other things like reduced royalty rates for streaming.

Will that still matter in 10 years? If any of us knew, we'd be positioning ourselves to get rich.

The fact is there aren't enough FM frequencies to give all AM owners translators. They're just SOL. The only way this transition works now, given the FCC's over-licensing of the FM band, is to enlarge the FM band. The FCC refuses to do that. These AM owners knew what they were buying. AM has been in decline for over 40 years. Yet they bought them anyway. The government expects them to live up to the terms of their license.

The transition has already happened everywhere except the letter of the law.

There were multiple translator windows beginning in the mid-teens. Pretty much any small market AM that wanted to be able to be heard on FM got a signal and has been using it for six or more years now.

As a broker, I don't even try to find buyers anymore for small AMs without translators. They are, almost without exception, literally worthless, which is why so many of them are dropping like flies now.

I'm not arguing for opening any new windows. I'm not arguing for adding anything more to the existing FM dial. I'm a realist who's saying that one specific obsolete technology is being kept on life support for no good reason. The reality is that these "translators" are de facto small commercial FM stations and it's time for regulations to catch up to reality.

As for "live up to the terms of their license," that's a nonsense argument. At one time, the terms of TV stations' licenses obligated them to transmit a single 525-line analog signal. That technology became obsolete and the licenses now obligate digital transmission and allow for multiple HD channels, 4K, HDR, etc.

Explain to me why the even more obsolete technology of AM radio should be treated any differently from NTSC TV, AMPS cellular, etc?

 

[Cold Coffee]

What do they get when people stop listening to FM (which is where we are now)?

The fact is there aren't enough FM frequencies to give all AM owners translators. They're just SOL. The only way this transition works now, given the FCC's over-licensing of the FM band, is to enlarge the FM band. The FCC refuses to do that. These AM owners knew what they were buying. AM has been in decline for over 40 years. Yet they bought them anyway. The government expects them to live up to the terms of their license.

Some of the big companies already had plenty of FM channels. They have also IBOC with more channels. Emmis owned the 50 KW AM in Indianapolis. They took an AM that had been highly rated for decades and moved the listeners to two FM translators. They were then able to turn off the AM because they had hd2 to rebroadcast on the translators.

 

[Cold Coffee]

Many many AM's in small towns do have translators. But the cost of maintaining useless AM tower sites with no AM listeners may ruin them.

Save energy! Let them turn off the AM's

 

[TheBigA]

As for "live up to the terms of their license," that's a nonsense argument.

As I said, they knew what they were buying. It wasn't a big secret. The technological limitations of AM were known in the 1930s. That's why Armstrong invented FM.

 

[fybush]

As I said, they knew what they were buying. It wasn't a big secret. The technological limitations of AM were known in the 1930s. That's why Armstrong invented FM.

So?

Any company that bought a TV station in 1995 "knew what it was buying" - the ability to transmit one SD analog picture. Any company that bought a wireless carrier in 1995 "knew what it was buying" - an analog AMPS system that could do voice and maybe SMS texting.

Yet we happily allowed those licensees to move forward with technology.

So again, the question everyone seems to be dodging: what is so unique about AM radio in the United States that it should be the one technology licensees are bound to for all eternity?

 

[TheBigA]

Yet we happily allowed those licensees to move forward with technology.

What compatible technology is available for AM? IBOC? That's about it.

 

[exdjted]

So don't call these FM signals "translators" if that's a regulatory problem. Call them "class E FM," with the same technical facilities they're allowed now. There's precedent for restricting their use to replacing existing AM facilities - look at the expanded AM band, where only existing AMs could apply.

I'll go you one better. Call them Class L FMs. "L", as in local. A lot of these translators were supposed to be for AM's, and yet, so many of them have wound up in the hands of EMF and Bott and other NCE organizations, that they no longer serve the purpose they were originally allocated for. Make it a condition of the license that it has to be used for the origination of LOCAL programming. ( I know, I know, it will never fly, but you can't blame me for trying.)

Also, what's wrong with letting weak, under-performing stations die? The market has spoken. AM is a goner. If the FCC and the federal government want AM to survive so badly, let them buy up the clear channel AMs and designate them as "Essential Emergency Communications" to be activated in case of a natural disaster. Otherwise, stop trying to force-feed AM down the throats of unwilling consumers.

Survival of the fittest is at play, and AM is old, bloated and can't outrun its technological predators. It's time for Radio to evolve or die.

 

[Cold Coffee]

As I said, they knew what they were buying. It wasn't a big secret. The technological limitations of AM were known in the 1930s. That's why Armstrong invented FM.

Also there were small town broadcasters who loved their community. Getting an AM was the only way to own a station in their hometown at the time. Now, they have a translator and the listeners are on FM. Why keep the power hungry and expensive AM on the air now?

 

[TheBigA]

Why keep the power hungry and expensive AM on the air now?

For the same reason congress is passing AM in every car.

 

[fybush]

What compatible technology is available for AM? IBOC? That's about it.

Define "compatible technology."

ATSC isn't compatible with old NTSC sets. Your 1995 Nokia phone won't work on a 5G network. They don't even use the same frequency bands.

Again: what is so sacred about AM in this context?

 

[Cold Coffee]

For the same reason congress is passing AM in every car.

Congress needs to let the FCC make rules instead of them.

 

[TheBigA]

Again: what is so sacred about AM in this context?

I think we're saying the same thing. I'm not defending AM. It is what it is. Giving all owners an FM translator is a windfall profit.

Congress needs to let the FCC make rules instead of them.

The FCC is an unelected regulatory agency. They don't make laws.

 

[Cold Coffee]

I think we're saying the same thing. I'm not defending AM. It is what it is. Giving all owners an FM translator is a windfall profit.



The FCC is an unelected regulatory agency. They don't make laws.

That's right. They make rules instead. But congress can tie their hands.

 

[fybush]

I think we're saying the same thing. I'm not defending AM. It is what it is. Giving all owners an FM translator is a windfall profit.

It's already happened. How was it any more of a "windfall profit" than giving every TV station a new frequency and the ability to transmit HD, multiple streams and a ton of datacasting bandwidth?

 

[exdjted]

For the same reason congress is passing AM in every car.

The funny thing about Congress and their interference is that among the congressmen and women I've spoken to, only 3 could name a single AM station in their state, much less their congressional district. I've been in contact with many people in the government in the past year regarding the ownership caps, and every time someone threw out the AM issue, I asked them to give me the call signs of even one station they listen to. You'd be very surprised how many of them wanted to change the subject immediately. They have no problems standing in front of a microphone or camera and spouting pablum from a paid lobbyist, but to actually name a station it would benefit, then...