Amateur Radio has tons of spectrum already allocated that is mostly unused. (And I have an amateur radio license) The Short and Medium Wave areas of spectrum are too noisy and not usable for bandwidth-heavy digital communications. I suspect someday those bands will be nothing more than silent atmosphere.
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Amateur Radio has tons of spectrum already allocated that is mostly unused. (And I have an amateur radio license) The Short and Medium Wave areas of spectrum are too noisy and not usable for bandwidth-heavy digital communications. I suspect someday those bands will be nothing more than silent atmosphere.
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FredLeonard
Guest
Short wave is dying, too. (And short-wave is also AM. What people here call "AM" is actually medium wave.) International broadcasters are shutting down completely or shifting to the Internet.
Action is needed now. Read the subject line of this thread. The patient is dying. Do you act when the patient is dead? Why bother?
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Avid Listener
Guest
No, it doesn't use the metaphor "patient", as if AM Radio were a human being. The exact words are, "AM radio is approaching the graveyard". That is a metaphor for death, but the fact that a metaphor was used doesn't mean that the AM Broadcast Band is some living entity whose life must be saved. The AM Broadcast Band is not a patient. It's an artificial construct, fabricated by humans based on the technology available in the 1920s, to serve the needs of people in the 1920s. Technology has advanced. Peoples' needs have changed. Keeping Amplitude Modulation broadcasting alive just because it exists makes about as much sense as requiring all phone companies to continue to support pulse dialing.
So then you're saying action is needed now.
You just answered your own question. EAS on AM Radio has reached a good area of the nation. If the AM band is gone because of technological changes or just nobody wants to listen to AM anymore, what will that do to a network that everyone has come to know. What will the FCC have to do to make sure that there is just about the same coverage on FM stations that AM stations have always done.
I am not talking about the laws, laws is something I am going to take a course on this upcoming August. What I am talking about is what will become of something that AM has always provided when the changes to AM (if any) occur. Maybe the stuff I'm talking about is something that should stay out of the forums.
Short Wave was mostly dead by the time the 70's rolled around, save in a few countries with state controlled radio that only used those bands.
I saw raw ratings data from many countries in Latin America starting in the 60's and finding a mention of any short-wave station became an amazingly rare feat by the early 70's. In Ecuador, I looked at hundreds of thousands of ratings mentions in the three major cities and never saw any shortwave station mentioned... neither domestic nor the VOA and BBC and Radio Habana and friends.
In a way, this illustrates how the stations continued to operate, despite having little or no audience, way beyond the time when they should have been closed. Since most of them were run by national governments, this is not hard to understand. On the other hand, the commercial SW stations began shutting down or moving to FM or AM even in the 60's.
They don't have to do anything. Just accept the change and begin to substitute the Class B and Class C FMs for the clear channel stations. If anything, they will get better coverage of markets like DC, Houston, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Kansas City, Jacksonville, Spokane, Wichita, Topeka, Portland ME, Albany, Buffalo, Toledo, Columbus, Lexington, Wheeling, etc., etc.
FMs cover more of the country better than AM does. As an example, take a look at the AM coverage of the Flagstaff / Prescott, AZ, market. AM coverage is spotty, and much of the area can get no AM at night. THe big FMs, on the other hand, cover the market quite thoroughly.
Even that is something, and requires them to officially admit the problems with AM, beyond what a couple Commissioners have said.
Then I believe they have to co-ordinate with the other committees involved, and get everyone on board with the new procedure.
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Avid Listener
Guest
No, that's not what I'm saying. I'll re-type this slowly, in italics, so that you can understand it.
Keeping Amplitude Modulation broadcasting alive just because it exists makes about as much sense as requiring all phone companies to continue to support pulse dialing.
If that doesn't help, would you prefer I use larger type?
What are you talking about? Who has "come to know" the EAS system? It's a minor annoyance when they run those occasional tests, but otherwise most folks are both ignorant and apathetic about EAS. They don't know, and they don't care.
Haven't you read the post suggesting that any new emergency alert system relies on smart phones? The chances of someone having a smart phone with them in an emergency is much better than the chance of anyone having an AM radio in their pocket.
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You can say it any way you want. It doesn't matter to me.
AM will stay alive because it stays alive. If you don't listen, then it won't matter. Just like what you're typing doesn't matter.
People can suggest things on message boards all day and all night. Until someone brings it up on the floor of Congress, it won't happen. And the status quo remains. No one has to do anything. It is self-perpetuating. Like this thread.
Folks who tried tone dialing on touch button phones never, ever, wanted to return to dial phones.
On the other hand, 47 years after the FCC kick started FM by mandating an end to simulcasting in most markets, AM still has nearly 20% of the market, a figure roughly commensurate with the percentage of AMs with viable signals in rated markets.
So AM is not being kept alive, as we sometimes tell our kids, "just because". AM is alive because a large number of stations are still viable, and as long as they are, we will continue to have them around.
For all we know, economically sustainable AM narrowcasts will take the place of some AM formats in the future, giving a bit more life to the band.
What we know now is that 9 of the 25 highest billing stations in the U.S. are AM, showing that good facilities are still highly viable.
Yes, the gradual decline of AM shares shows signs of continuing, but the decline has been quite slow in the last decade and a half so it is not really correct to say that AM is "dying" unless it is in the context of the eventual death and replacement of much technology.
We have a saying in Spanish that goes, roughly, "you are looking for the fifth paw on the cat". It ain't happenin'.
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FredLeonard
Guest
Viable: n. Capable of working successfully; feasible. Capable of living.
Viable? Brokered preaching. Brokered hobby shows. Brokered infomercials. Foreign language (that used to be on sub-carriers). Right-wing talk with a shrinking and dying audience and bottom-feeder advertisers.
You're setting the bar pretty low for viability.
Organisms don't die all at once. Various life-functions deteriorate. Then various organs shut down. Breathing stops. The heart stops. Then the brain dies. It can be a slow, gradual process. And often family members are in denial and prolong granny's suffering with artificial like support. Not too different from AM radio.
Maybe AM will not be allowed to die. Maybe it will be like passenger rail travel and AM radio will end up with something like Amtrak.
Viable? Brokered preaching. Brokered hobby shows. Brokered infomercials. Foreign language (that used to be on sub-carriers). Right-wing talk with a shrinking and dying audience and bottom-feeder advertisers.
You're setting the bar pretty low for viability.
Organisms don't die all at once. Various life-functions deteriorate. Then various organs shut down. Breathing stops. The heart stops. Then the brain dies. It can be a slow, gradual process. And often family members are in denial and prolong granny's suffering with artificial like support. Not too different from AM radio.
Maybe AM will not be allowed to die. Maybe it will be like passenger rail travel and AM radio will end up with something like Amtrak.
adj.
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Avid Listener
Guest
And I predict that enough AM stations will remain viable for approximately one decade. Maybe a little more, maybe a little less.
I drive a 1998 automobile with over 195,000 miles on it. It is still "viable". It still works. I will continue to use it as long as it works. It's not going to keep on working forever. The AM broadcast band is in similar condition.
I'll have the garden-fresh viable, but no onions on it please.
It's an adjective, Fred.
In any case, in this context "viable" means that a station is capable of making a profit and some kind of reasonable return on investment.
As has been pointed out, "you" don't have to like every station, but as long as there are enough listeners to get advertiser response or enough donors and supporters to pay the expenses, there will be thousands of AM stations in the US.
Fred brought up the AMTRAK example, and while federal involvement would require lots of agencies to make changes, the local or state involvement is already happening. Travel on any major highway, and you'll see a sign directing you to an AM frequency for updated traffic information provided by the state DOT. Also, airline info in typically provided by the airport authority. Sure it's also available on personal devices, but the AM radios are already installed in the dash. That's a practical use, and doesn't require daily usage or advertising support.
Tell that to the phone on my wall I bought on ebay. I bet I will need one of these before AM radio flat lines. http://www.oldphoneworks.com/pulse-to-tone-converter.html
FM radio will "die" as well, but much much later. Either way it will be slow for both.
Which is why all radio stations must diversify, so their content is available on all platforms, to reach listener on all devices.
Exactly! Then it really won't matter if AM or FM radio is "dying" because the only way the transmitter would be shut off is when all of the listeners have shifted to other devices. This will take awhile; be it AM or FM, and I think people will still call it radio when they are listening to baseball games or talk shows streaming through these devices.
I will miss the ability to be able to take a radio to the ballpark and listen to the play-by-play with no delay. On second thought that probably won't end in my lifetime and I'm only 34.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if I am 84 and listening to the game on 680 at AT&T park. The most surprising part will be, if the name of the park hasn't changed and making it pass 83.
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