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iHeartMedia supports Revitalization of the AM Radio Service

B

BOZ Profit

Guest
We read this this morning:

From: Notice of Ex Parte Communication with Media Bureau and Audio Division MB Docket No. 13-249 (Revitalization of the AM Radio Service)

Mr. Littlejohn noted that quality and expensive full service programming content, such as significant news production and sports programming combined with reliable coverage, is often what drives listeners to Class A AM stations. National and regional advertisers expect wide-area, multi-state coverage, especially at night, from Class A AM stations, so that the loss of listeners outside of standard Metro areas would undercut the profitability of Class A stations and
reduce the ability to continue the high quality programming expected by their audiences.
Click to expand...

What are your thoughts?
 
Overall I agree that just upping the power will do more harm than good, mostly to the class A guys. As far as an AM only FM translator auction, It would be great to get a hold of a decent translator signal but in any major or mid level market its not realistic.
 
As an owner of a couple of AM stations, one with translators and one without, I'd love to see a special filing window for AM's to get translators. At one time the FCC said they would do it, now Mr. Wheeler says it wouldn't be fair to others to have an exclusive window. That was not what I wanted to hear. My AM's are music stations and actually sound pretty good, until some device causes horrendous interference, rendering them unlistenable. The FCC is supposed to regulate unintended interference issues, but for years, they have done little or nothing about it. It seems to me that a lot of the blame for AM's problems rests firmly on the shoulders of the FCC, and they should be the ones to fix it. Since it is unlikely that we will be shipping mega-tons of junk electrical and electronic products back to China, the best bet for some remediation is to put AM stations on FM translators. Actually doing their jobs and policing Part 15 interference issues, and setting some requirements for receiver quality would help too, but given the current direction the FCC is heading, I don't see that happening.

Many will say that FM translators do nothing to save the AM band, and that is true, but it can at least save the businesses that currently rely on the AM band. Taking this a step further, I'd propose that after one year of operation on a translator frequency, those translators become permanently affixed to the AM licence and be promoted to being a Primary Service that can't be bumped because of encroachment of another full power station. Once the translator achieves Primary Status, the Licensee should be given an incentive to shut off and abandon the AM facility. Not everyone would want to do that, but many small stations might, and that would help clean up the band.
 
RDGeneralManager said:
We read this this morning:
Mr. Littlejohn noted that quality and expensive full service programming content, such as significant news production and sports programming combined with reliable coverage, is often what drives listeners to Class A AM stations. National and regional advertisers expect wide-area, multi-state coverage, especially at night, from Class A AM stations, so that the loss of listeners outside of standard Metro areas would undercut the profitability of Class A stations and
reduce the ability to continue the high quality programming expected by their audiences.

What are your thoughts?
Click to expand...

This is the unfortunate case of engineers not taking enough with the sellers and programmers.

There is, first of all, very little paid business placed on radio after 7 PM. So, whether AM or FM, the night hours are not particularly strong revenue producers.

Then, the advertisers who are regional and national buy via agencies and agencies buy numbers. There are essentially no stations that consistently show up in non-adjacent markets where only the skywave signal can be heard. Even the venerable WSM does not show up in any other market other than Nashville, day or night.

Absent ratings, there is no reason to believe that any "big signal" station has a significant audience outside its own home market. And given that conclusion, there is no money being derived from the night coverage due to skywave. None.

In fact, local stations that have good ratings in adjacent markets seldom make a dime off the added numbers. For example, most of the significant AM and FM stations in Los Angeles do very well in the Riverside / San Bernardino market. However, none of those LA stations can monetize that out-of-home-market audience because of the way local stations are bought by advertisers and agencies.

So if adjacent market audience... significant, measured real audience... can't be monetized, unrated, imaginary audiences in a daypart agencies generally don't buy are of no value at all to stations.

Loss of out of market coverage, particularly at night, would probably not reduce revenue by a single dollar on any station. Thinking otherwise is a total self-serving fantasy-.
 
There's interference from electrical sources. Then there's all the interference from too many stations on a cluttered band. Plus the IBOC hash added in the name of getting through the existing interference. The latest solution is adding FM translators so the FM band gets cluttered, too.

And for IRipoffRadio to talk about quality and expensive programming on Class A stations is the most blatant hypocrisy. They have turned these stations into repeaters for their own syndicated right-wing demagoguery.

Super power has been tried, on Cheap Channel's own WLW. Caused all sorts of problems even in those less cluttered, less electrical interference days.

The only workable solution: Prune the dead wood from AM. To start, kill every station licensed since the Havana Treaty.
 
Increasing signal and doing nothing about audio quality is a waste of time. Consumers have access to better sounding platforms than AM. Even with all the criticism of low bit rate music services, they're an improvement over what that same content would sound like on AM. It was audio quality that lost listeners in the 70s. It's key if revitalization is to happen now.
 
Oscar Madison said:
Super power has been tried, on Cheap Channel's own WLW. Caused all sorts of problems even in those less cluttered, less electrical interference days.
Click to expand...

The WLW operation at 500 kw was very successful, and caused no real ongoing technical problems during the roughly 5 years of operation*. The major issues had to do with the FCC not wanting to give too much power to big network stations while encouraging local service, something congress picked up on passing a bill making broadcasting with over 50 kw against the public interest and local service.

* To protect the Canadian assignment on 690, two passive towers were constructed to keep the signal away from that nation.
 
DavidEduardo said:
The major issues had to do with the FCC not wanting to give too much power to big network stations while encouraging local service, something congress picked up on passing a bill making broadcasting with over 50 kw against the public interest and local service.
Click to expand...


I think the FCC is still in that mindset, which is why I believe they would not be inclined to approve IHeart's suggestion.
 
If the News/Talk format dries up completely and only All News is competitive(only in a handful of markets), what then? You can't run Sports on all stations and Religion and non-Spanish speaking ethnic programming can't be the answer. AM would have less than a five share nationwide!
 
semoochie said:
If the News/Talk format dries up completely and only All News is competitive(only in a handful of markets), what then? You can't run Sports on all stations and Religion and non-Spanish speaking ethnic programming can't be the answer. AM would have less than a five share nationwide!
Click to expand...

That's the issue facing the FCC. The problem, from their point of view, is if they make the band more viable, it simply makes it more valuable for those who own stations, and that's not really their purpose. So as long as AM stations remain on the air, and are available for emergency purposes, the fact that fewer people listen doesn't really matter to them.
 
semoochie said:
If the News/Talk format dries up completely and only All News is competitive(only in a handful of markets), what then? You can't run Sports on all stations and Religion and non-Spanish speaking ethnic programming can't be the answer. AM would have less than a five share nationwide!
Click to expand...

The problem is that the top 100 markets only have about 170 AM stations that cover a minimum of 80% of the market day and night. That means that we go from some markets with 5 or 6 full coverage signals to others like DC and Houston, with one or none.

So essentially, outside the top 10 markets, you can do talk while it lasts or sports on the viable signals. The rest are going to be brokered, ethnic or religious.
 
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