Like the subject says is AM radio history or does it still serve the public in some way. Also which AM stations do you feel still do a good job anywhere in the country and do they still have listeners. This is not a downer just an honest question. I felt one of the best AM stations we had in this state until recently was WTMA in Charleston.
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Is AM Radio History?
- Thread starter Gatekeeper007
- Start date
The answer is that the AM band is pretty much dead except for niche audiences and for feeding FM translators. Once Clear Channel and others started bandwidth limiting the stations in order to run IBOC, it became unlistenable on all but the cheapest radios. Also, the growth of most metro areas has expanded beyond the reach of the patterns of many of the directionals, almost all of the lower-nighttime-power facilities, and most 1kw graveyarders.
As an AM Station owner and operator, I sure hope we're not yet past tense. WNMB in North Myrtle Beach has been profitable for my company for a long time. We follow a simple formula. We serve our community by being involved in it and by reporting news and information which focuses on North Myrtle Beach first. City officials, civic organizations and so on are a part of what we broadcast every day. As to listeners, we "marry" our AM signal (stereo) into our website with a 24 hour stream. The website itself contains local news, community annoucements and so on. As to entertainment programming, we try to act like and be proud of being a radio station. We don't think of ourselves as AM or FM or whatever, we just do the best we can with the resources we have available. The ultimate test of our viability rests with our clients. We have many clients and most attest to the fact that we work well for them. They are happy to send us a check every month. They do so because listeners respond and buy their products and services.
Is it tougher to sell than it used to be? Yes. But not just because of AM. It's also a result of the continuing fragmenting of the media overall in today's world.
My greatest concern about the future is the terrible wave of AM receivers being put into automobiles today. Sit in my 2005 Thunderbird and the AM Stereo sounds fantastic. It's very competitive with FM. Sit in my new Mustang and the AM sounds like mud, no matter how good our fidelity. It is this that may well lead to the demise of AM. http://www.wnmb900.com
Is it tougher to sell than it used to be? Yes. But not just because of AM. It's also a result of the continuing fragmenting of the media overall in today's world.
My greatest concern about the future is the terrible wave of AM receivers being put into automobiles today. Sit in my 2005 Thunderbird and the AM Stereo sounds fantastic. It's very competitive with FM. Sit in my new Mustang and the AM sounds like mud, no matter how good our fidelity. It is this that may well lead to the demise of AM. http://www.wnmb900.com
S
Scooter Lesley
Guest
No, I'm not an Engineer, but I did spend 30+ years on the "other side";
On-Air, and Programming. Clearly to me, AM Radio hit the hard slide due to not what was done, but what was simply not done. We still sell the camera, but not the film. Both Detroit, and the FCC did not do what would have built, and susstained backbone. What the factory car units could be, as opposed to what they are. AM Stereo should have had a chance to compete. I often wonder why the MD Mini-Disc recording format didn't last. It was featured well, and you couldn't touch or damage the playing surface, yet no longer.
To me, the Auto side will always follow what the FCC does, so here again, it's the Government's falt!
On-Air, and Programming. Clearly to me, AM Radio hit the hard slide due to not what was done, but what was simply not done. We still sell the camera, but not the film. Both Detroit, and the FCC did not do what would have built, and susstained backbone. What the factory car units could be, as opposed to what they are. AM Stereo should have had a chance to compete. I often wonder why the MD Mini-Disc recording format didn't last. It was featured well, and you couldn't touch or damage the playing surface, yet no longer.
To me, the Auto side will always follow what the FCC does, so here again, it's the Government's falt!
Bill said:My greatest concern about the future is the terrible wave of AM receivers being put into automobiles today. Sit in my 2005 Thunderbird and the AM Stereo sounds fantastic. It's very competitive with FM. Sit in my new Mustang and the AM sounds like mud, no matter how good our fidelity. It is this that may well lead to the demise of AM. http://www.wnmb900.com
AM stereo in a 2005 automobile? I thought that was pretty much gone by the mid 90s.
Eric
Scooter Lesley said:We still sell the camera, but not the film. Both Detroit, and the FCC did not do what would have built, and susstained backbone. What the factory car units could be, as opposed to what they are. AM Stereo should have had a chance to compete. I often wonder why the MD Mini-Disc recording format didn't last. It was featured well, and you couldn't touch or damage the playing surface, yet no longer.
Radio does not live in a cocoon where only the FCC affects its direction and its future.
There is something out there we call "The Market Place". Beta-Max was probably a better video recorder/playback system, but the market place made VHS the king.
Along with my other vices, I am a photography nut. Last week I shot advertising style photos of 45 items and now I am tediously editing all 45 photos... about 7 per day is my best output so far. Its a private project that is a gift to my wife. It is a learning project that is forcing me to learn a few Photoshop features I have avoided for several years. Would film have produced a better final product? Maybe. Probably. But the market place has decided that digital photography should rule the world. The market place has decided that fully sold-state devices are better for carrying around music in your shirt pocket than little thingys with discs and other moving parts.
We can gather up a firing squad and take Detroit and the FCC out in the back yard and do away with them if you like, but in the end, it is still the fickle, sometimes selfish, always a bit unpredictable market place that will determine the future of AM radio.
"AM stereo in a 2005 automobile? I thought that was pretty much gone by the mid 90s."
No. The greatest number of AM Stereo radios happened in cars between 1999 and 2005. Ford Motor Company led the way with the Audiophile Satellite Ready receiver which came equipped with C-Quam AM Stereo. Many Expeditions, Crown Vics, Explorers and Escapes came so equipped. Every Thunderbird made between 2002 and 2005 had this receiver. Chrysler also produced many models with AM Stereo up through 2004-05. Lots of vans, etc.
There is not a week goes by here at the Beach that we don't hear from someone who can hear WNMB in stereo. This past week we had visitors from Pennsylvania who brought SONY srf-a100's with them.
As many broadcasters took out their AM Stereo exciters, many car makers were putting in as a standard in their cars. What lousy timing took place on this whole event!
I have no illusions about the future, but I tell you this; I defy anyone to come here and listen on the Audiophile AM Stereo receiver and tell me that it is not competitive with FM.
No. The greatest number of AM Stereo radios happened in cars between 1999 and 2005. Ford Motor Company led the way with the Audiophile Satellite Ready receiver which came equipped with C-Quam AM Stereo. Many Expeditions, Crown Vics, Explorers and Escapes came so equipped. Every Thunderbird made between 2002 and 2005 had this receiver. Chrysler also produced many models with AM Stereo up through 2004-05. Lots of vans, etc.
There is not a week goes by here at the Beach that we don't hear from someone who can hear WNMB in stereo. This past week we had visitors from Pennsylvania who brought SONY srf-a100's with them.
As many broadcasters took out their AM Stereo exciters, many car makers were putting in as a standard in their cars. What lousy timing took place on this whole event!
I have no illusions about the future, but I tell you this; I defy anyone to come here and listen on the Audiophile AM Stereo receiver and tell me that it is not competitive with FM.
Now that I would like to hear.
Come on to North Myrtle Beach. We are at 429 Pine Avenue, which is just off highway 17 and Main Street. Phone is 843-249-6NMB. E mail to: [email protected] You can sit in a Thunderbird or an Expedition and push buttons between 900 and any FM Station you choose. You will be able to choose from around 25 signals.
Bill as soon as I get a day I will call ahead of time and then head that way. Thanks
My family moved to Myrtle Beach during May 1972 (I had just turned 13). They opened a business right beside Hussey Realty on Main Street in Ocean Drive. Just behind our business was a then-new radio station, WNMB-FM (105.x, as I recall). My parents occasionally had communications with people at the station, and also advertised on it. In late 1974 we moved back to Charlotte and lost track of WNMB. I wonder why it switched to AM.
I will try to make a long story short. I was one of the original staff members of WNMB 105.5 FM in 1972. We went on the air on the 15th of August in '72. In 1980 I purchased a station in North Carolina and moved there. Twenty years went by and we accumulated several radio stations, but one never gets the sand out of your shoes (in my case, my head). So one day in early 2000 I went to North Myrtle Beach and offered to purchase WNMB-FM, but, alas, I was a little late and the station had just been contracted to a firm from Pennsylvania. Later in the year, the station manager told me WNMB-fm was going to move its studios to Myrtle Beach. I came down a few days later and made a deal to buy the studio and office building at 429 Pine Street in the Ocean Drive Section. I needed a way to pay for it and the new ownership didn't appear to have any long range plans for this AM Station at 900. So, it got included in the deal, and as a part of the overall arrangement, the FM was given new call letters and became EZ 105.9. I got to keep the WNMB call letters in North Myrtle Beach and they were transferred to 900.
I remember you, Bill Norman, and the older gentleman (Harry?) who ran and possibly owned brand-new WNMB-FM 105.5. My parents' business was the Western Auto between Hussey Realty and the old Hewett House Hotel. They sold in late 1974. As a 13 year-old I was thrilled to get a tour of the WNMB studio, as radio was a big interest of mine. I had spent the previous 12 years living a short walk through the woods from the studios and four-tower array of WAYS (61 Bigways). During my single-digit-aged years those tall towers fascinated me, and I occasionally got to go into the Bigways studios. This fascination led me to being interested in electronics, which in turn led me to become an electrical engineer.
I hope an opportunity arises some day for you to switch to FM. I drive a 2007 Toyota Camry, and the AM sound quality is poor. All I ever listen to on AM any more is news/talk.
I hope an opportunity arises some day for you to switch to FM. I drive a 2007 Toyota Camry, and the AM sound quality is poor. All I ever listen to on AM any more is news/talk.
The new Western Auto was my client. Very nice people. As to the AM sound quality, there are some pretty poor radios in the newer cars. It's the radios, and not the station, with the bad quality. We broadcast in stereo and have a clean audio chain, good processors and new transmitter. Try the stream at www.wnmb900.com. We also have an FM station at 94.9. It's called "The Surf" and it specializes in Carolina Beach Music.
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