radiorob2.0 said:We went through the same issue 60 years ago during the AM population explosion. It makes sense on paper but in real life it is abused.
Yeah, and the receiver manufacturers responded to the increased interference by reducing the bandwidth of their receivers. That's why AM sounds like butt today. It's not necessarily that we're putting out a bad product, but it's that almost all AM receivers can't reproduce what we are transmitting.
radiorob2.0 said:Ah, Owensboro. The Kentucky city with the most overcrowded dial in the state. You want to talk about 80/90 abuse, look no further. Individuals like Bud Walters have crammed as many signals as possible on the dial and in crammed office space. Prior to the RKA upgrade we had 102.9/103.1/103.3 located within 25 miles of Owensboro, two of the signals were trying to compete in Owensboro. Thank goodness for radios with good selectivity. Then add the stations two channels apart competing for revenue along with translators and LPFM's "importing" teaching programming and there is no room left for anything. And yes, the skips reek havoc.
I understand, but you can't blame Bud for that. Congress and the FCC created this mess, usually with the intent of helping more minorities get radio stations. But once these frequencies exist, it's normal marketplace economics that determine who ends up with them. Walters is just a businessman trying to maximize the profit potential of his property. And if it hadn't been him, it would have been someone else.