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Saving AM Radio
- Thread starter BruceB
- Start date
No, much smaller, though in the same general area.
St. Joe's problem, in media as in so many other things, is that it's just too close to Kansas City to nurture a separate audience. I'm actually rather fond of the place, but, honestly, it's seen better days.
A sound system is not necessary for blasting whatever music through a 10-50 Watt amp or more. The reason such loud soundsystems are allowed is because, so far, no data correlating accidents to using loud stereos has been tabulated. Remember, it took well over a decade to get cellphone use in cars regulated and/or made illegal.
And if a soundsystem is necessary for information purposes, a lot of that information is via the AM band -- even TIS's like the ones at airports or mountain passes, because the FM band is full. So, in my view, the Federal Government has every right reason to mandate AM in cars.
Oh, you're talking about stereo. I just said what I did thinking the post was referring to any sound. Looking at what I was replying to, I see that stereo is what was meant.
Reminds me of what I told my wife, family, and friends.... do not under any circumstance let me buy an AM radio station.
Haven't had it come up yet as I haven't found anything tempting. But like you said... maybe a cluster comes available and has an AM or two I would similarly look to divest them if possible.
It's funny. Cumulus never intended to own four AMs in San Francisco. That wasn't the goal. They just wanted the two FMs. Back in the days after the TCA of 1996, radio companies would buy small groups. By then, they knew AM was dead. But they wanted the FMs, and had to take the AMs as part of the deal. The thinking was that the money they'd make from the FM would cover the losses they'd have from the AMs. Like you, they thought maybe we can just sell the AMs. That's what CBS thought. When they finally sold KFWB, there were lots of articles about the end of an era. But the era had ended 30 years earlier. Same thing when Audacy did an LMA with Good Karma for WCBS. Lots of articles about the end of an era. But truthfully, that era ended a long time ago. Emmis has that problem now in NY. He wants to sell 98.7, but he also has to get rid of the AM. He just replaced the longtime syndicated gospel format on the AM with a simulcast of the FM. There's a thread on the dentist's board about the end of an era. Yes, we know.
Yeah, you're right.
AM isn't going to die all at once in a big crash or anything; it will just slowly decay and deteriorate into nothingness without anyone noticing, a process that started back in the mid 70s when FM began overtaking it, and its "golden age," if you could call it that, was over a few years later.
It has just been trying to stay alive since then. News, talk and sports offered it an important lifeline which has kept it going for much of the past 40+ years, but now even that's beginning to falter.
What happens next? Who knows....
c
"Calling CQ, CQ, CQ. Calling CQ 560 meters. This is ..."
I would have to say that AM's "golden age" was 1927-52.
CW and digital modes 530-800 kHz, voice and SSTV 800-1700 kHz. 😁
That was the so-called "Radio's Golden Age". But the great era started by KOWH around 1951-52 lasted about three decades, and was longer than the "Golden Age of Radio" which lasted about 25 to 26 years.
There are still 4,383 licensed AM stations as of the end of 2024. That's many more than I realized. Although, it doesn't take into account how many are silent, and haven't turned in their license yet.
Enough justification for keeping AM in vehicles?
Enough justification for keeping AM in vehicles?
Once again, the justification is that the spectrum is owned by the American people, and the government is the custodian of that resource. If they want to give up on it, they can. Lots of other countries have abandoned AM. So far this country hasn't. Until then, they need to do what they can to fulfill their end of the bargain. It has nothing to do with programming or the marketplace. The government is not a business.
AM was still dominant into the 1970's. 1952? Really?
Maybe they’re thinking when TV overtook radio?
The number of licensed stations is not meaningful by itself. It doesn't tell you anything about consumer demand.
In several PPM markets, there is nearly no AM listening at all, per Nielsen ratings. Just checking a couple from Lance's market ranks:
Las Vegas: 3.1 total AM shares
Nashville: 1.8 total AM shares
Indianapolis: 1.4 total AM shares
Maybe it is the case that a third of listeners nationally use AM once a month, but that doesn't mean a car buyer in Indianapolis should be coerced to buy an AM tuner on wheels.
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OK, I can see that. But then I would have said "radio" lost its dominance to TV. In the radio business, FM was still the second tier service until the 1970's. So there was 20 years when AM was the dominant radio service. JMHO, I guess at a certain point it's just semantics.
Once again, the government isn't interested in "consumer demand." The government is not a business.
I'd have to say that it started when the NBC Red and Blue networks were created (1/1/1927; CBS started a bit later), and ended when the majority of comedy, drama, and variety shows shut down. It took several years, but I'll go with 1955, when the last first-run Jack Benny show aired.
That's the general idea. I chose 1952 because that's when network TV stretched across the country. After that, radio was no longer in its "golden age" because AM had massive competition from television and to some extent, FM! None of that existed to any great extent until about 1952.