From my understanding of the bill, it started as simply being a mandate that those wanting AM radio can get it in their new vehicle purchase. When vehicle manufacturers refuse to offer it as an option, then AM radio has an issue with that. And not every AM station is dead in the water...most are.
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Saving AM Radio
- Thread starter BruceB
- Start date
One of the few good answers! If you have a store with products nobody wants to buy, you can repaint the front, put new carpeting in, move to a bigger building and still go broke because YOUR PRODUCT DOESN'T SELL. Same for radio Digital AM, stereo AM, quad AM what ever way you want to modulate that signal is all worthless if what you are modulating with IS NOT liked by the listeners! Owners and management have thumbed their noses at everything local. In turn, everything local has thumb their noses at radio and THAT is a FACT in many, many markets. Radio isn't circling the drain, it's in hospice! It's not coming back and yes, many of us who made radio worth listening to are in mourning because of it.
True, so the solution would be for Congress to create a separate Class FM for the current FM translators, make them permanent primary signals and in exchange allow the "parent" AM to hand in their license. The FCC fees on the "new" FM's would be the same as the fees on the deleted AM's. So there is no net loss to the FCC fee income.
You keep saying that, and it's not true. Owners and management would LOVE to hire more local staff. But the audience isn't there for it.
The formats that require local staffing have local staffing. That's news, talk, and sports. It's there if you listen, but people have chosen not to listen.
People aren't using Spotify or Apple Music or Pandora to hear hosted, linear radio. They use it to listen to unhosted music.
The fact that this bill did not make it is a real indicator of how far the lobbying power of the broadcast industry has fallen relative to other industries.
Sorry I didn't read al 79 pages of this thread so if I repeat excuse me, but I feel the land requirements for direction class B's is an issue too. The commission should allow directional class B's to move and waive nighttime COL coverage if they maintain their night time power. A lot of growth has happened in some markets so instead of nighttime coverage in the old city core they might focus their night coverage on the suburbs. Of course they would have to continue to protect whoever they go directional at night for. An example would be WCNN moving 20 miles north or NW or NE. They could sell their their existing site and move out to less expensive land and cover the economically more desirable northern part of the Atlanta market. WCNN's city of licence is fictional anyways.
Another station that might improve their nighttime signal is 1440 Greenville if they moved "back" northwest 20 miles they should cover most of the suburbs. 610 in Charlotte if moved back 20 miles could have covered more of the suburbs.
In reality, this might have worked 30 + years ago. I doubt with today's AM economic outlook anybody will spend a whole lot or money building new sites.
Another station that might improve their nighttime signal is 1440 Greenville if they moved "back" northwest 20 miles they should cover most of the suburbs. 610 in Charlotte if moved back 20 miles could have covered more of the suburbs.
In reality, this might have worked 30 + years ago. I doubt with today's AM economic outlook anybody will spend a whole lot or money building new sites.
Thirty years ago maybe, now non.
I believe the last line of my post covered your query.
I believe the last line of my post covered your query.
I do not agree. There was such momentum in the "clear everything not related to keeping the government running" out of the bill that a lot of good things, useful things and even important things were swept away. The objective was to reduce the bill from over a thousand pages, full of "studies of the reproduction of catfish" and all the typical special interests of each legislator.
I suspect this one will be back, and since AM is still the stomping grounds of conservative talk, those in power will be promoting it.
Are you accepting negative numbers in our responses?
Heck, a full ESB signal FM in the #2 revenue market in the US can't find an acceptable buyer.
Except that the bill is mainly directed at electric car manufacturers, of which Elon Musk is one.
Hold that thought for 24 hours...
An interesting perspective.
In much of the world, cities grow, adding area as population extends outwards. But the U.S. system requires a "city of license" which is a remnant of the old "local service" requirements. Instead, we should have the system other nations use which is to license the station to its transmitter site and whatever it can cover from there. All the nonsense of "serving" tiny suburbs or even unincorporated crossroads needs to be ended.
And some stations don't want to move because the newer technical rules may result in lower power and coverage; KILT (AM) in Houston is one example as are the several 50 kw stations in Chicago that have moved to new or shared sites.
Since essentially nobody listens to skywave AM signals any longer, the FCC rules should eliminate those protection requirements totally.
When I was at WQII, a 10 kw fulltime station on 1140 in San Juan, PR, we had to protect WRVA in Richmond in areas where neither of our stations could be or would be listened to. Instead, I had to maintain a null of about 500 watts over a major suburb of San Juan (Bayamón) so fish could hear WRVA. If there was no protection outside of the normal daytime service are of WRVA, we could have more than quadrupled the power in that null and better served our market.
But at this point I do not think that anyone wants to spend the money to "fix" a dying band.
can’t imagine that skipping would’ve been avoidable driving over rough railroad crossings or a pothole patched street…
remembered seeing a unit in a catalog, (probably in the late 60’s-early 70’s) that could play only 45 rpm records, which meant that every 3-4 minutes the record would’ve had to be changed… did the pictured record player also play LP’s? (33 1/3 rpm)
It's not just the band that's dying. So is the generation that grew up with AM. That's a problem, because that means there are fewer people who believe AM should be a priority, or even that the simple fixes you suggest are worth pursuing. How can you expect the FCC to address these issues when none of the commissioners even listen?
Good point. And Musk helped start this whole fight by dropping AM from Tesla.
But all he has to do is return AM tuners to his cars. If they buzz to much to use them because of interference from the motor what does he care?
He DOES care. That's why people buy his cars. They buy them because they believe in him and his brand.
His owners manual explains clearly why he doesn't include AM in his cars. I don't see him changing his mind.
He won't spend 1/10th of a penny on anything he deems unnecessary. That is the one constant in his otherwise mercurial persona: he is extremely cheap.
Why do you think his cars, with their fancy semi-autonomous features, like to randomly crash and burn? Because he's cheap and removed LIDAR and other sensors because cameras are cheaper.
Who gets to pay the price for the damages and injuries caused when said system malfunctions? Certainly not him....
Well, I doubt anyone is going to care. I'd estimate that a good 75-80% of those who would buy a Tesla don't listen to radio at all, unless it's streaming over their phones.
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When I say Musk cares, I'm saying he cares about the sound quality of the radios in his cars. It's why he eliminated AM from his cars.
That’s as likely as any of us growing to be 10 feet tall.