let's save the AM band

[grantchester]

Yes, indeed the trends don't look good, but the fundamentals are there. You have a service that can reach tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, and in some cases, millions of people, FOR FREE!
The basic rules of broadcasting apply:
Find an audience.
Identify the audience.
Join the audience.
Serve the audience.
If the owner of an AM radio station wants to serve a young demo, he or she can. It would take some work, and some time, but it is still possible. Whether it's a religious group, a linguistic group, a psychegraphic or just a large group of friends, the potential is there. Everyone has an AM radio. They would turn it on, if they thought there was anything there for them.
Gordon McLendon did it. Rush Limbaugh did it. Heck, David Gleason does it every day. It can be done. AM can be saved, and thrive again.
g

 

[oaktree]

And if "ifs and buts were fruits and nuts...we'd all have a Merry Christmas."

For the life of me, I can't imagine what could be AMs interference-prone, average to poor quality, limited signal resusitator format-wise without a lot of pruning of AMs from the band. I don't mean the ones truly serving their communities ... just the ones that can't or just plain don't.

Oh, yeah. Mass migration of AMs to FM on channel 6. Yep, that's the ticket.

 

[SeanRuadh]

Slick glossy magazines look great, but pulp black and white papers still make money. Once the greedheads let go of the AM band maybe someone with a grasp of how this communications thing works can show us a new way to make the meters jiggle. If there is an unserved group, someone who figures out how to serve them might find one of those archaic old Marconi system AM stations affordable enough to show us how it's done.

 

[dbdigital]

Slick glossy magazines look great, but pulp black and white papers still make money.

This is absolutely true. I know of a very unglossy (almost a design disaster) magazine devoted to car restoration that rakes in 6 figures every year. It also happens to be the best magazine on that subject and the most respected. So the trick is to be the best and most respected in whatever media you're working in.

Last year, the BBC published a study on the future of AM and concluded that only ethnic programming would save the band. But we know that all-news/traffic AM stations also do very well. Since a music format is pretty much out of the question for AM it may be that more information-type programming is the short term answer (until HD-Radio becomes more common). For example, there are a couple of car talk shows (such as the one with Sam Memmolo) that have a very loyal following.

In this regard, I think an indicator would be to check out podcast downloads. What subjects are the most popular, particularly with younger age groups? Could these subjects be formatted for radio and sustained on a daily basis? Just a thought.

db

 

[davideduardo]

Last year, the BBC published a study on the future of AM and concluded that only ethnic programming would save the band. But we know that all-news/traffic AM stations also do very well.

Commercial all news stations number in the 20 to 30 range in total in the US, because the format is only really viable in the very largest markets... mostly top 10. The ones that are in smaller markets are mostly one net news feed aftder another, or have lots of paid programming in additon to news fare.

All news is the most expensive format in radio.

 

[MACK184]

It all depends on where you are and what your competition is. We have a station in northeast Pennsylvania,
Hazleton to be specific. They have an AM station with a good staff, diverse programming, and they seem to be making money. Is an AM going to go head to head with an FM in a major market and beat them. Not very likely, but as it was mentioned in an earlier post..find a market, find a need, and serve it. People will listen. I think AM's have a semi-decent future in smaller communities, and even have a role to play in larger ones. It's not dead yet. If you think about what FM was doing in the 60's..experimenting and trying things that had not been done, you find that the AM band is the place for those things to happen now.

 

[oaktree]

Very nice sentiments for what was and has been the cornerstone of commercial radio as we know it.

But let's face it, the problem that no one has yet mentioned, in my opinion, is that AM radio had does nothing to "reinvent" itself since Rush Limbaugh did 18 years ago.

Let's see hard rock on a newly-purchased $5-million dollar small signal AM in Philadelphia. No blip on the radar, but a few saying, "How creative." No money...but creative. Music via satellite. Less expensive, but no control and, still it's not working on big stations nor in medium markets. Maybe in small markets as a "get by" but it's not really happening. How about, all-news. Well, Clear Channel was convinced to keep up the legend in Wilmington, Delaware in the shadow of Philadelphia on a "heritage" all news station there ... gave $4-million to the owners and ... caved the format to CC News/Talk.

Talk works, but it, too, is expensive if done locally...and, frankly, with few exceptions, for results, I feel it must be...even on FM.

Ethnic programming...sure, that might work, so will brokered cultural programming and religion.

But overall ... it's about what will make money ... not what merely "sounds good."

Again, those stations who have the results and the support of their communities large, medium or small are there because they work at it...not because it "just happens."

And to save AM...there is a lot of work yet to be done.