02/17/09 will go digital and then this next AM radio goodbye too by Sept. 2009?

[AlvaJr]

After switching analog to digital by February 17, 2009, my dad told me that on September 2009, the AM radio will probably discontinued too and goes HD Radio with FM and not the AM anymore because my dad heard it on the news.

 

[w9wi]

Re: 02/17/09 will go digital and then this next AM radio goodbye too by Sept. 20

After switching analog to digital by February 17, 2009, my dad told me that on September 2009, the AM radio will probably discontinued too and goes HD Radio with FM and not the AM anymore because my dad heard it on the news.

Whichever news source reported that was wrong.

HD Radio proponents and the FCC do expect that analog radio can eventually be shut down & replaced with full digital mode. However, no date has been suggested for the change. Nobody believes it could happen as early as next year. (my gut feeling is that it would require at the very least ten years, if it can ever happen at all.)

I wonder if what your dad heard applied to one specific station? In Nashville, WLAC-1510 is simulcast on the HD3 channel of co-owned WNRQ-FM; maybe a poorly-rated AM station in your town plans to change to a better-rated format and transfer their existing format to a HD2 or HD3 channel? But even then it's unlikely they'd announce such a move so far in advance.