Saving AM Radio

[davideduardo]

Would love to see the math behind the 80 million listeners that David referenced. That would suggest one quarter of America regularly listens to AM radio. In the large and major markets I looked at, the number appears to be closer to 10 to 15 percent - and presumably declining with time.

You are looking at share... that is the percentage who are listening in any given moment. To evaluate, you have to look at cume, which is the circulation of AM stations and the band . AM radio cumes somewhere over 30% in just about every US market.

 

[davideduardo]

If you placed a 300 foot limit on a 1,000 watt translator, it would be a reduction in service for many if not most of them! Translators are kind of fun. You can have a 250 watt translator on a mountaintop!

In a small market, I'd like to have power over height. 1000 watts at a lower height is better than 250 watts at the equivalent height, as it penetrates better. I have a log of experience with that, the last one being moving a Class A with under 800 watts from a high location to the full 6 kw at normal Class A height and having ratings nearly triple (KRCD West Covina, CA).

 

[davideduardo]

AM radio stations with an FM translator have typically rebranded themselves as FM radio stations promoting their translator frequency. Some don't even mention their AM position at all anymore. This indicates that these AM radio station owners know the vast majority of OTA listening is to their FM simulcast. Many of them would turn off the AM in an instant if they weren't forced to keep it on in order to use the FM translator. However, the AM is still getting the credit in the inflated statistic being promoted here, isn't it?

Yes, translators are a factor. But even if you assume that all listening to the station is to the translator, those translator equipped stations in most markets represent nearly no listening shares.

The vast majority of AM radio stations don't have such long range coverage.

If your local stations are all off the air, yes they do.

It's good to know one AM radio station was able to serve this unique island but it's truly an outlier situation. Puerto Rico is far more susceptible to this sort of catastrophe than most parts of the United States

New Orleans? A major earthquake? The new phenomenon of city-eating fires?

and such infrastructure must certainly be prioritized by both the broadcasters and the regional government there.

It's not.

And Puerto Rico does not have a "regional government". It is a "Free Associated State" with its own government.

I also suspect that because of where they live, residents are more likely to proactively own AM radios and don't need a government mandate to do so.

Yeah, after the hurricane everyone ran out to buy one as many homes did not have an AM radio.

That was 20 years ago. WWL is a rare AM radio station with a working newsroom anymore. America's wireless infrastructure has come a very long way since then and is quite effective in all the the most extreme emergency situations, but then no technology will ever be 100 percent dependable.

Wireless cellular depends on hundreds of sites in any major market. Most are vulnerable either to to the building they are in, the tower, the power source or the sustainability of backup power.

We can go back through this site and find multiple examples of when radio completely failed the public in emergency situations, especially in more recent years when radio stations had no news staff and local authorities did not even think about using EAS. The deadly Texas freeze, Maui wildfires, etc.

Maui happened too fast for any reaction. The information sources were initially wrong, and the fire moved faster than any emergency system could accommodate.

The EAS system is fully and exclusively done by the government. Private entities don't have a say in it. The solution there is better training, not better news staffs at stations. In fact, if EAS takes over, the local station is preempted.

EAS was set up knowing that stations would not ever have news staffs late at night or on most of the weekend and is designed to be a direct system between authorities and the public. This system falls exclusively on the government and radio just has to be on the air for it to work.

 

[BruceB]

With the incoming FCC chief Mr. Carr and his Republican majority I wonder if he would have any interest in letting owners of low power and or daytime only AMs surrender their AM license and run their FM translators as stand alone stations.
Would the bureau have the power to do that without Congressional approval?
I'm not talking full power AM stations which I know Congress wants to keep on. I'm talking AM pea shooters.
From a business standpoint it seems like a good idea to give owners the option.

 

[MarkW]

You are looking at share... that is the percentage who are listening in any given moment.

I'm looking at the cume (weekly unique listeners) data available on RadioInsight. I looked at New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Cincinnati as examples.

Of course, three of these four markets have All News stations that are simulcast on AM & FM on full power signals. In LA, I assumed one-half of KNX's cume was attributable to AM 1070. In New York, I assumed one-half of WINS' cume was attributable to 1010. In Chicago, I assumed one-half of Newsradio WBBM's cume was attributable to AM 780.

I'm not even accounting for cross-cume (since I have no way to determine duplicated cume between AM stations).

Unless the NAB shows the data used to arrive at the 80 million figure, my inclination is to view that estimate somewhat skeptically.

The AM stations in my home market (Detroit) combine for about 600,000 weekly listeners before eliminating duplicative cume. That adds up to ~15 percent of the population. Probably less than 10 percent of those folks will be purchasing a new car in the coming year, and only a fraction of those folks will be purchasing an EV (the type of vehicle most likely to have no AM band on the infotainment system).

 

[boombox4]

What you say is true. The problem is that the manufacturers need to support AM radio. When a buyer complains about a particular aspect of the car creating intererence, such as stepping on the brakes, then they have to try to resolve it. That's a big time-waster, and a lose-lose situation.

Unless it's specifically written into the proposed AM Radio law, they don't have to. RFI is everywhere. Every AM radio listener knows it. Doesn't have to be from your car. The government hasn't eliminated RFI from switching power supplies or solar panels. I think BigA said waaaay upthread (or in another thread) that the new, proposed AM law only states that AM has to be receivable. The quality of the reception is not in the law. And if people complain, they may complain anyway. Even before the legislation was written, there was RFI in cars.

I don't see it as a negative.

 

[davideduardo]

I'm looking at the cume (weekly unique listeners) data available on RadioInsight. I looked at New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Cincinnati as examples.

Of course, three of these four markets have All News stations that are simulcast on AM & FM on full power signals. In LA, I assumed one-half of KNX's cume was attributable to AM 1070. In New York, I assumed one-half of WINS' cume was attributable to 1010. In Chicago, I assumed one-half of Newsradio WBBM's cume was attributable to AM 780.

I'm not even accounting for cross-cume (since I have no way to determine shared cume between AM stations).

Unless the NAB shows the data used to arrive at the 80 million figure, my inclination is to view that estimate somewhat skeptically.

If you are a Nielsen subscriber, you can create "clusters" (used mostly to combine your own co-owned stations in packages) with all AMs in one group. When you process that, you get unduplicated cume of the entire AM band's worth of stations.

And if you ask Nielsen to run a special tabulation, they break single line reporting of AM/FM combos into separate stations... doable because even simulcasts have separate encoder IDs... and that is what was apparently done for the NAB to make its claim.

 

[boombox4]

A friendly disagreement..
Disagree all you want, but it's the height of hypocrisy for "conservative" talk radio to demand the "strong arm of government" (how many conservative hosts overuse that phrase?) short-circuit "market rules" and protect their narrow partisan profession?
If almost no one listens to AM, why force automakers to do something not in their economic interest?

And "conservative" is an accurate label for the once great talk radio... Dems., "leftists", "wokes," never-Trumpers, moderate Repubs- essentially, anyone different from their narrow partisan views -- need not apply.

Let's be consistent and let the market decide.

Yes, agree to disagree here.... Car manufacturing is heavily regulated, with the government having every right to determine what is in automobiles. That's why there are laws in every state against you using your cell phone in your car. That's why, during the height of enforcement of the 1990 Clean Air Act, if you disconnected the smog pump in your car you were breaking the law, and in some states, liable for a fine. It didn't matter if the smog pump in question wasn't making your exhaust cleaner (some worked well, others didn't). By law, it had to be connected, working or no.

Everything dealing with automobiles is regulated. Even conservatives agree with such safety and many other auto manufacturing regulations. Insisting that AM be turned on in the chips that are already installed, and already capable of receiving it, is not 'the strong arm' of anything. And there are a lot more stations on AM than just conservative talkers. In my metro, the number of ethnic AM's outnumber the conservative talkers by about 2-1.

 

[boombox4]

Ya know what is unaffected by hurricanes or floods? Satellite radio. Just sayin'.

I know there have been dedicated emergency info channels on Sirius or XM (or both) in the past.

Yeah, and Sirius XM is sooooooo important during a local disaster, hurricane etc. How many dedicated Sirius XM channels helped people during Hurricane Helene? Or Sandy?

Different services, different abilities. And of course you have to pay for satellite. AM, like FM, is free.

 

[MarkW]

The car makers don't want to deal with the potential fallout arising from reception complaints in electric vehicles, where electromagnetic interference can be a major problem.

Subduing that interference is going to take more effort and more $$$ than activating chips.

 

[MarkW]

Yeah, and Sirius XM is sooooooo important during a local disaster, hurricane etc. How many dedicated Sirius XM channels helped people during Hurricane Helene? Or Sandy?

Different services, different abilities. And of course you have to pay for satellite. AM, like FM, is free.

SXM has the ability to remove encryption from channels that broadcast emergency info.

Your questions are certainly valid, and admittedly, I do not know the answer.

The below article is from summer 2023:

SiriusXM Boasts Enhanced FEMA Connection Amid AM's Battle - Radio Ink

FEMA and SiriusXM announced a bolstering of their partnership to enhance the connectivity of the Integrated Public Alert & Warning System.

radioink.com

The above article includes the following passage:

SiriusXM has been working with FEMA for over twenty years, providing dedicated satellite radio receivers for emergency distribution and functioning as an NPWS station. SiriusXM also broadcasts Emergency Alert System (EAS) messages on its free preview channels during disasters.

I know many years ago, XM had an emergency info channel on 247. I am unsure how it was actually used.

 

[boombox4]

I have to admit it's a little bizarre that the biggest complaint here on this thread over the proposed law is a) 'those evil conservatives on talk radio', and/or b) 'It's going to drive up the cost of my next new car!'

First off, only a few AM stations in any given metro are conservative talk. The majority serve other audiences -- be they Hispanic, religious, offbeat music formats like Classic Country or Asian formats like Punjabi and Korean. One of the stations in Oregon with the greatest reach is KOAC, which is OPB/NPR/BBC at night. A lot of people listen to it, as it can be heard all over Western Oregon, in places the OPB FM's can't reach.

Secondly, if having AM switched on in your next new car is keeping you from buying one due to 'extra cost', maybe you can't afford a new car, period. Because it won't, and wouldn't drive up the cost by more than a few bucks, maybe 50 to 100 bucks max on some vehicles. But hey, having all those spyware systems on your car are expensive, and the cars increasingly have them. They probably cost more than an AM regulation would.

 

[boombox4]

SXM has the ability to remove encryption from channels that broadcast emergency info.

Your questions are certainly valid, and admittedly, I do not know the answer.

The below article is from summer 2023:

SiriusXM Boasts Enhanced FEMA Connection Amid AM's Battle - Radio Ink

FEMA and SiriusXM announced a bolstering of their partnership to enhance the connectivity of the Integrated Public Alert & Warning System.

radioink.com

I know many years ago, XM had an emergency info channel on 247. I am unsure how it was actually used.

Fair enough. I just don't see an XM emergency channel being used during localised or regional emergencies. And then you have the issue with satellit receivers. Not every new vehicle has them -- at least as far as I'm aware.

RE; electric vehicles and RFI: point taken. I know there are some manufacturers who apparently have reduced the RFI. Others haven't. But according to the proposed law, the radio would just have to have the AM available. I don't' think there is an RFI threshold required.

 

[TheBigA]

The car makers don't want to deal with the potential fallout arising from reception complaints in electric vehicles, where electromagnetic interference can be a major problem.

Which is why the law allows them to use digital devices to receive the AM content. That was written specifically to address that issue.

 

[TheBigA]

With the incoming FCC chief Mr. Carr and his Republican majority I wonder if he would have any interest in letting owners of low power and or daytime only AMs surrender their AM license and run their FM translators as stand alone stations.

I addressed that in a previous post, and the answer is no. Carr wants to hold licensees to their agreements. You're right that it would be a good business decision, but doesn't do anything for the government. The new administration is all about getting something in exchange for giving something. The question is what would AM owners be willing to give the government in exchange for turning in their AM? Would they be willing to add live news?

 

[semoochie]

In a small market, I'd like to have power over height. 1000 watts at a lower height is better than 250 watts at the equivalent height, as it penetrates better. I have a log of experience with that, the last one being moving a Class A with under 800 watts from a high location to the full 6 kw at normal Class A height and having ratings nearly triple (KRCD West Covina, CA).

Yes, of course it's double the coverage but that's not what we're talking about. 250 watts at 100 meters is not equivalent to 250 watts on a mountaintop! On the other hand, I see your point but is a single kilowatt sufficient?

 

[davideduardo]

Yes, of course it's double the coverage but that's not what we're talking about. 250 watts at 100 meters is not equivalent to 250 watts on a mountaintop! On the other hand, I see your point but is a single kilowatt sufficient?

I did 400 watts into 4 bay vertical only elements in several locations above Quito, Ambato, Riobamba and Cuenca, Ecuador. The ERP after cable loss was about 1200 watts and it worked fine, even for the biggest city with over a million people in very, very rough and irregular terrain.

 

[MarkW]

Which is why the law allows them to use digital devices to receive the AM content. That was written specifically to address that issue.

I note the legislation as currently drafted says "receive signals" in subparagraph 3(a)(1) and then in subparagraph 3(a)3, it mentions installation of "devices that can receive signals and play content transmitted by digital audio AM broadcast stations" as an option for achieving compliance.

Whether that text solely means broadcast AM band signals received OTA or can be construed to mean something else (i.e. internet streams of AM stations) is open to interpretation, I suppose. My own interpretation is the device must receive analog radio signals, digital radio signals or both that are broadcast on the AM radio band. I do not believe an internet app would qualify as compliant.

...allowing a manufacturer to comply with that rule by installing devices that can receive signals and play content transmitted by digital audio AM broadcast stations as standard equipment in passenger motor vehicles...

The above is excerpted from subparagraph 3(a)3.

 

[wadio]

Unless it's specifically written into the proposed AM Radio law, they don't have to. RFI is everywhere. Every AM radio listener knows it. Doesn't have to be from your car. The government hasn't eliminated RFI from switching power supplies or solar panels. I think BigA said waaaay upthread (or in another thread) that the new, proposed AM law only states that AM has to be receivable. The quality of the reception is not in the law. And if people complain, they may complain anyway. Even before the legislation was written, there was RFI in cars.

I don't see it as a negative.

Car dealers don't have to respond to complaints but generally they try to. I know from experience.

I bought a Jeep back when I used to listen to AM radio and every time I stepped on the break there would be a loud squeal in the AM radio. They kept the car for 2 days while they tried to fix it and gave me a loaner car in the meantime.

Big waste of time. Maybe that wouldn't be a problem today since few people listen to AM.

 

[Michi]

Because they know every law involves compromise. This was put in to make it easier for Big Auto to comply.

But being that complicit, they have just thrown 95% of their AM members under the bus.