And don't ignore the impact of the very obvious and clear difference in sound quality. VERY obvious difference. Difference worth paying for. Even if you didn't care about the content, you were willing to buy a new radio because of the sound quality. And yes it existed long before 1966, but it mattered more afterwards, because of the growth and improvement of stereo recording.
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BOOST AM NIGHTTIME POWER & other interesting suggestions- DO YOU AGREE?
- Thread starter joshzz
- Start date
And don't ignore the impact of the very obvious and clear difference in sound quality. VERY obvious difference. Difference worth paying for. Even if you didn't care about the content, you were willing to buy a new radio because of the sound quality. And yes it existed long before 1966, but it mattered more afterwards, because of the growth and improvement of stereo recording.
Much of the discussion in this thread has centered around cities. Metro markets. And that is where the big dollars are.
But in the mid 60s, something began to happen in Midwestern Rural areas. (In Southern states because of low ground conductivity, every little Mayberry could have it's own AM station... maybe two.) But up in the cornbelt where AM signals just go on and on and on, there were some county seat towns of 12,000 to 18,000 that had NO radio station. Towns that were prosperous not only because of corn belt farming, but industrial factories making car parts, furniture and who knows what all. With no AM frequencies available, some gutsy, creative entrepreneurs began building stand-alone FM stations... not with the traditional easy-listening music found on so many city stations, but with high school sports and trading post and local news. All those stations added together may now have amounted to much in the big scheme of radio as a whole, but they began pitching their stations at the ad agencies in big cities and state capitols, and CocaCola bottlers began bugging national agencies to put some of their ad money into local high school sports on <gasp!> an FM only station in rural America. And some of the owners of these little tea-pot FMS has worked in larger cities and they had an in with some of the account reps in the big city ad agencies.
Again, this rural adoption of FM as REAL RADIO raised the awareness of the industry and the advertising industry and gave everyone in the industry the inspiration to begin thinking bigger about the potential of using FM radio as REAL RADIO.
But in the mid 60s, something began to happen in Midwestern Rural areas. (In Southern states because of low ground conductivity, every little Mayberry could have it's own AM station... maybe two.) But up in the cornbelt where AM signals just go on and on and on, there were some county seat towns of 12,000 to 18,000 that had NO radio station. Towns that were prosperous not only because of corn belt farming, but industrial factories making car parts, furniture and who knows what all. With no AM frequencies available, some gutsy, creative entrepreneurs began building stand-alone FM stations... not with the traditional easy-listening music found on so many city stations, but with high school sports and trading post and local news. All those stations added together may now have amounted to much in the big scheme of radio as a whole, but they began pitching their stations at the ad agencies in big cities and state capitols, and CocaCola bottlers began bugging national agencies to put some of their ad money into local high school sports on <gasp!> an FM only station in rural America. And some of the owners of these little tea-pot FMS has worked in larger cities and they had an in with some of the account reps in the big city ad agencies.
Again, this rural adoption of FM as REAL RADIO raised the awareness of the industry and the advertising industry and gave everyone in the industry the inspiration to begin thinking bigger about the potential of using FM radio as REAL RADIO.
Along the same vein, there was considerable development of FM by AM daytimers who discovered in FM a way to do those local sporting events, weather reports and such. They also found, particularly in the more northern latitudes, a way to overcome the late sign on times and early sign offs of deep winter.
But those stations did not market FM as a new brand, but just as an extension of the AM station. They were not promoting fidelity, immunity to static or stereo. They were promoting the same things they did all day long, just on a different dial position after sunset.
Here is a fascinating read on the marketing of FM to consumers... from 1941.
http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Radio-Today/40s/Radio-Today-1941-10.pdf
Why, after all this time, is the AM band so "densely populated"? Wouldn't you think that by now enough AM stations would have gone dark that the AM band wouldn't be so populated? There has got to be profits being made, which can be something in favor of saving the AM band.
My Theory: (This contribution is worth at least as much as you paid for it!) Until very recent years, an AM station was always viable.... if you could get it cheap enough! What someone paid $200,000 for not too many years ago may have become worth nothing more than $5,000 or $10,000... but if you bought it cheap enough, and you were clever, there was SOMETHING you could do that would make it worth owning. AND, you could see the day coming when maybe the real estate (if it came with the deal) would become valuable enough to make your investment wise.
One of the factors we have reached: If you have a station today that has real estate, the only game plan that makes sense may be to play 'junk yard' and "part it out". If you have a station today that DOES NOT have real estate, when your current rental leases mature, you may own a station that cannot justify continuing to exist.
This is a NEW CONDITION in the AM broadcasting arena. From now... going forward... you will see a noticeable and measureable "thinning of the herd". Up until recent years, the thinning was an 'anecdotal tale' lacking in documentation.
D
diymedia
Guest
You want a Class A? Build a Class A. Let's not further warp the heck out the translator service.
Well, very often there is no room at the inn for a Class A, but there is room for a translator. You get what you can under the rules as they exist. I didn't write them. I just try to deal with them.
D
diymedia
Guest
I feel ya, but if the rules don't mean what they say, or encourage "bad" behavior....
Perhaps the best way to go about this is petition the FCC to change the status of translators as a class? Or reinstate a revised class D? Fat chance, but hey, at least that would be honest.
Perhaps the best way to go about this is petition the FCC to change the status of translators as a class? Or reinstate a revised class D? Fat chance, but hey, at least that would be honest.
I think translators should be reclassified. Those that broadcast local content should have a leg up on those who are merely repeaters for national networks. That reclassification includes those who rebroadcast a local AM station. In fact, I think translators should be allowed to originate local programming. If the FCC is serious about wanting more local content, that would solve a lot of issues. Even though I think this should happen, the chances of that happening are slim to none. Therefore, I'll do the best I can with the rules the way they are.
I'm not sure the FCC cares at all about more local content. All they care about is that there's something on the carrier, and it's not indecent.
If you go back to the required financial reports that the FCC got from stations back to the 50's, we find that about half of all stations did not make money. Granted, a lot of small market owner/operator stations paid the profits to the owner as a salary, avoiding double taxation. But plenty of stations actually lost money.
The same scenario was seen into the 70's with FCC reports. Later, reports were not required but the NAB did a survey and found the same thing, even more so after Docket 80-90 (mentioned earlier by Big A). And the proponents of consolidation latched onto that as a reason to "save radio" by allowing radio to grow, gain access to credit, etc.
My experience is that there are a lot of stations that are losing money or just scraping by by not maintaining equipment, cutting benefits and, probably, buying used Spotmasters.
I should probably expand on what I was thinking when I said "AM stations were viable... if they were cheap enough to purchase."
This industry has always had a certain number of "players" who were addicted to the business, to the lifestyle.
There is another scenario that contributes to the number of stations not making a reportable profit. So you are a divorced guy with just enough skills and self-control to grab a station "on-the-cheap". If you make money in a way that shows up on the books... the ex-wife and your kids are standing there waiting for their share. But if you do some trade-out advertising that provides for your groceries and a few toys (and maybe some booze) then the divorce lawyer can't find much of anything to garnish. People "living in THIS zone" have no incentive to create a reportable profit.
I enjoy DXing AM signals late at night, though not as much as I used to. You can talk about increased diversity in programming all you wish, but in practice what you get is George Noory (or whoever) repeating overandoverandover across the dial. Won't either reducing the number or increasing the power of AM stations simply exacerbate this same problem? I still pick up some "different" programs; there's still music in the air, though usually in foreign languages (Mexican banda, French pop from Canada, even one Chicago station in Polish) or the few stations who still do a "truck driver's friend" all-night old-school country show. Sometimes I hear bits of old-time-radio shows; it's probably "When Radio Was" though I usually can't hold the signal long enough to tell. Can anyone recommend (short of searching out an old Zenith Trans-Oceanic) a good reasonably priced receiver that gets the most out of distant AM signals?
Tecsun PL 660, a bit over 100 bucks
Tecsun PL 600, around $75
Tecsun PL 606, just over $40
I have a 606 that I carry everywhere in my computer case, and it is as good as a $200 to $400 radio was 25 or 30 years ago. The 660 is reportedly even better.
Once or twice I've listened to a nearby but not local AM at night suddenly become subject to unusual interference. Then it turns out that some daytimer has run its usual power output after sundown due to floods or blizzards. I know of one daytimer with licensed lower power AFTER sunset, but NO licensed lower power before sunrise that routinely signs on with full power at 6:00 am all winter long. I wouldn't be surprised if it interferes with distant coverage of the primary station until sunrise there.
D
diymedia
Guest
Actually, Congress first eviscerated LPFM at the behest of the NAB and NPR (Radio Broadcasting Preservation Act of 2000), and then LPFM advocates spent 10 years lobbying Congress to undo what they did (Local Community Radio Act of 2010). Even then, LPFM has never been implemented under the FCC's initial 1999/2000 parameters. All that energy spent...for what, exactly?
Because between 2000 and 2010, those who might have wanted to start LPFMs instead began internet radio stations. They reach more people on a smaller budget. Making LPFM obsolete for most operators.
Maybe, but I don't think so. The music royalty folks at Sound Exchange make streaming look pretty expensive on a per listener basis. If Congress ever changed the rules on streaming, it would be a great alternative to LPFM, and probably many small AM stations too. One BIG problem is a lion's share of your on-line listeners tend to be outside of your immediate market. I'm very flattered that people in Thailand or Australia like to listen to my station on line. Unfortunately, they add nothing to the economic viability of the station. I suppose that could be fixed, but we are a long way from a workable solution.
Well, I'm certainly eating a bit of crow. It looks like my AM will be getting a translator after all. Not sure why, but I'm not going to complain!
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