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KULF AM

Keeping an AM alive to sell it is not always possible. The station I managed spent 3 years with zero income. In my opinion, the ownership made some very poor decisions that encouraged that loss to continue but that was not my decision. I know it cost thousands to keep the station running month after month. After 3 years I was no longer being paid and they were broke.
 
If t
theantennaguy said:
Everyone inside the industry is aware the FCC plans to introduce rulemaking to sunset the AM band in a few years. It's not a question of if, it's a matter of when. What is uncertain is whether there will be a spectrum buyback at taxpayer's expense, will AMs get a channel in the new expanded FM band being considered, or will AM broadcasters just get told to shut down and kick rocks?
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They're better off waiting for stations to sunset themselves. Most of the band will become unsustainable within the next 10 years and will be forced to shut down. Spectrum buyback programs are absolutely not necessary.

Since there is a dwindling amount of overall revenue, I'm not too sure corporate radio (which already owns most of the FM band in urban areas) will be on board with doing what Mexico did. Mexico just gave Class A stations to AM broadcasters as if they were candy.
DavidEduardo said:
A huge percentage of AMs have translators. To keep the translator, at least those granted translators as part of the oddly named AM improvement initiative by the FCC, they must keep the AM running.
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Maybe in rural areas. But in Urban areas, I have a hard time believing a "huge" percent of AMs have FM translators. There's just no space in in urban areas, Definitely not the case in Houston
 
From the J1000 brochure on Nautel web site:
PLUG AND PLAY
Linear extended band performance
supports both HD Radio™ and DRM
digital transmission formats.
 
ContinuousWave said:
From the J1000 brochure on Nautel web site:
PLUG AND PLAY
Linear extended band performance
supports both HD Radio™ and DRM
digital transmission formats.
Click to expand...
And see I took that as it would support MA3 but when I was discussing it with Nautel's engineers they told me they weren't confident it would pass the all-digital mode. It wasn't a supported mode of operation for the J1000 in 2020, at the time only the latest generation of transmitters natively supported MA3. AFAIK that hasn't changed.

Regardless, the station owners weren't willing to be a guinea pig to find out. They wanted it to work and to know it would work without any doubts, and of course, without spending a ton of money either.
 
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I honestly hope some AM music stations with translators will switch to MA3 here. There's one station in particular I really want to switch but I don't think they seem interested.
 
DavidEduardo said:
A huge percentage of AMs have translators. To keep the translator, at least those granted translators as part of the oddly named AM improvement initiative by the FCC, they must keep the AM running.
Click to expand...

That's the rule that should really be sunset. Let them turn off the AM signal that no one listens to and continue as an FM station if that's what they want to do. The whole translator concept just seems like a charade at this point.
 
radioislife2020 said:
Could someone help me explain why a company would turn in a license vs reducing the cost and selling it.
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Often the owners couldn't find a buyer, or can no longer make any money with it. I recall there was a station in Cypress-Rosehill (KYND) who had an endless loop begging for clients to buy brokered time on the station. This went on for months and months. Then there is the issue with loss of the transmitter site which required a very specialized directional pattern versus the cost to rebuild and re-engineer the site at another location (example: KEYH). And finally, engineering for AM is more complex and requires specialized skills, the number of AM engineers are shrinking, and consequently the charges that the existing engineers are increasing. Is there any money in AM? If you were to program in a New/Talk or Sports format, maybe. However, as long as FM, HD, and satellite are available, music is no longer a viable format on AM. KEYH has resurfaced as an all-music format, with an obvious lack of advertisers. Ditto for KLLS in Beaumont, again with no advertisers. In the case of the latter, most recently they have gone dark once again, probably for lack of revenue. I hoped I helped explain this for you. You're welcome.
 
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