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Levine Sees AM Digital Vote as “Breakthrough”

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rbc

Longtime broadcaster Saul Levine thinks the FCC’s decision to allow all-digital on the AM band is “a breakthrough,” and he’s encouraging his fellow AM station owners to invest in new equipment and programming with an eye on eventually going all-digital.

For now, the president of Mount Wilson FM Broadcasters Inc. has just spent a quarter of a million dollars on a new AM transmitting system at his oldies-formatted station KSUR(AM) in Los Angeles.

And he has turned on hybrid AM HD Radio as an interim step, making him one of the few U.S. broadcasters to add fresh AM HD Radio service in recent years.
[...]
https://www.radioworld.com/news-and-business/headlines/levine-sees-am-digital-vote-as-breakthrough
 
AM Digital "A Breakthrough"

I saw this on another board, and thought it should be posted here too:

Longtime broadcaster Saul Levine thinks the FCC’s decision to allow all-digital on the AM band is “a breakthrough,” and he’s encouraging his fellow AM station owners to invest in new equipment and programming with an eye on eventually going all-digital.

For now, the president of Mount Wilson FM Broadcasters Inc. has just spent a quarter of a million dollars on a new AM transmitting system at his oldies-formatted station KSUR(AM) in Los Angeles.
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https://www.radioworld.com/news-and-business/headlines/levine-sees-am-digital-vote-as-breakthrough
 
TheBigA said:
I saw this on another board, and thought it should be posted here too:



https://www.radioworld.com/news-and-business/headlines/levine-sees-am-digital-vote-as-breakthrough
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Wow, he is totaling going against the wise counsel dispensed here to "Turn it off, sell the land, recover the losses."

Putting $250,000 investment into a station that can't afford to pay its light bills is definitely saying something. With Saul, he always lets his actions do the talking for him. Plus there is this little nugget from the story:

He (Saul) said that KSUR has a “significant” existing audience, so he views using hybrid mode as a compromise that lays groundwork for going 100% digital, which he anticipates doing in 12 to 18 months.

Well that is certainly interesting. A poster to this board just got banned for repeatedly saying exactly the same thing. The question is now quite clear. Who to believe, the "experts" who will tolerate no dissenting voice, or the actual owner of a station that I was reliably informed has no listeners and no chance, who just invested $250,000 in new state of the art equipment?
 
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ChannelFlipper said:
He (Saul) said that KSUR has a “significant” existing audience, so he views using hybrid mode as a compromise that lays groundwork for going 100% digital, which he anticipates doing in 12 to 18 months.
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The minute he goes 100% digital, he will kill off the station's current existing audience, unless they all buy digital radios. So then ask yourself why is he now adding classical music to that station's format? Is his real goal to go all classical once he goes all digital?

You have to remember that Saul has no emotional attachment to the oldies format. His emotional attachment is to classical and jazz. He is willing to run formats such as country music because they get him from point A to point B. It's possible that he sees oldies the same way.
 
TheBigA said:
The minute he goes 100% digital, he will kill off the station's current existing audience, unless they all buy digital radios. So then ask yourself why is he now adding classical music to that station's format? Is his real goal to go all classical once he goes all digital?
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Maybe. I was always certain the all-Beatles format was not his permanent solution when it aired. But it doesn't matter, the one thing you know with Saul's AM properties, particularly KSUR, the format is only temporary and he can and will change it whenever he wants. Certain listeners who enjoy hearing their oldies should get their listening in now, because a format change is always in the works. That's the deal.
 
ChannelFlipper said:
Wow, he is totaling going against the wise counsel dispensed here to "Turn it off, sell the land, recover the losses."
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Which is really poor judgement by Levine. He should turn the terrible facility off and sell the land.

Putting $250,000 investment into a station that can't afford to pay its light bills is definitely saying something. With Saul, he always lets his actions do the talking for him.
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The station is not billing enough to cover its costs. The likelihood that a bad-signal AM, even in digital, will get traction in a streaming world is disingenuous.


Plus there is this little nugget from the story:

He (Saul) said that KSUR has a “significant” existing audience, so he views using hybrid mode as a compromise that lays groundwork for going 100% digital, which he anticipates doing in 12 to 18 months.
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It does not have "significant" existing audience. "Insignficant" is closer to the truth. The audience size is so tiny as to not get even a 0.1 rating.

Well that is certainly interesting. A poster to this board just got banned for repeatedly saying exactly the same thing. The question is now quite clear. Who to believe, the "experts" who will tolerate no dissenting voice, or the actual owner of a station that I was reliably informed has no listeners and no chance, who just invested $250,000 in new state of the art equipment?
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No, the poster who was banned was removed for a personal insult and an email threat.

In the case of this station, spending all that money is proof of the old saying, "a fool and his money are soon parted". While Saúl has been successful with fringe, niche formats for 60 years, he is not recognizing that a band with no attractive stations for the population under age 60 or so will not drive sales of sets or use of AM HD in cars, even if those cars have HD already. AM is technology's ghost town with just a few stragglers left.

I've done a lot of very risky firsts, such as first Top 40 in all South America, first FM in all the Bolivarian nations and lots more. Digital AM is not a risk I would chose to take, and it distracts one from the real issue which is the abandonment of one-to-many radio in favor of one-to-one custom choices.
 
Isn't it kind of too late to support AM Digital at this point. Sure the idea would have been viable in the Early 2000's when Satellite Radio, and HD Radio were at their start up phases. But in the 2020's ?? I'm not so sure about that given that car makers were heading towards dashboard apps prior to the COVID-19 shutdown. I know the big ones such as Iheart, Entercom have been emphasizing podcast only shows recently on their apps and between segments. I'm not so sure how Digital AM will work.
 
TheBigA said:
The minute he goes 100% digital, he will kill off the station's current existing audience, unless they all buy digital radios. So then ask yourself why is he now adding classical music to that station's format? Is his real goal to go all classical once he goes all digital?

You have to remember that Saul has no emotional attachment to the oldies format. His emotional attachment is to classical and jazz. He is willing to run formats such as country music because they get him from point A to point B. It's possible that he sees oldies the same way.
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Any AM station that doesn’t have a translator that goes all digital will kill off it’s audience in a heartbeat. Apparently this owner has FM translators and internet radio to fall back on. As some posters have said in the past “AM radio is dead” but is it really dead?
 
DavidEduardo said:
Which is really poor judgement by Levine. He should turn the terrible facility off and sell the land.
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Well it's his facility and his land so what he does with it is his prerogative.

DavidEduardo said:
In the case of this station, spending all that money is proof of the old saying, "a fool and his money are soon parted".
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This station seems to be an indulgence for Levine and he's got enough experience to know it's probably not going to be a money maker. But while he and his money may be parted, that doesn't necessarily make him a fool. If it makes him happy to experiment with the new technology and offer his pet formats, then as long as he can afford it, why not? There's another old saying about money, "you can't take it with you."

DavidEduardo said:
While Saúl has been successful with fringe, niche formats for 60 years, he is not recognizing that a band with no attractive stations for the population under age 60 or so will not drive sales of sets or use of AM HD in cars, even if those cars have HD already. AM is technology's ghost town with just a few stragglers left.
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You're measuring success only through the lens of profit, which of course is the way most business-minded people measure it. I suspect that may not be the biggest motivation for this particular owner at this juncture in his life, though. He has other stations that are profitable. His measure of success for this one may be to position himself as an innovator and influencer, to be seen the savior of the AM band by leading the charge toward the transition to all-digital, to demonstrate how it's done and to indulge his favorite niche format in the process. It could be all about legacy building for Levine.

DavidEduardo said:
Digital AM is not a risk I would chose to take, and it distracts one from the real issue which is the abandonment of one-to-many radio in favor of one-to-one custom choices.
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I tend to agree with that assessment, but then who are we to tell this owner what to do? He has every right to program his station as he wishes and while I don't believe a transition to all-digital is going to save AM radio, I do admire him for making the investment and taking the risk for something he believes in.
 
Theater of My Mind said:
I tend to agree with that assessment, but then who are we to tell this owner what to do? He has every right to program his station as he wishes and while I don't believe a transition to all-digital is going to save AM radio, I do admire him for making the investment and taking the risk for something he believes in.
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I agree. We are just discussing the possible end game with both AM in general or this particular station.

A few miles away in the Valley, 710 is selling its land and going to diplex with 1110. In the process, reducing power. The land is worth more than the station.
 
TheBigA said:
Currently he has one FM translator:K252FO And he uses the four HD-FM channels that exist on his 105.1 FM signal.
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And the translator is like Star Wars... Long ago and in a land far away. It's a pretty useless limited translator that is directional covering a tiny bit of the West Valley.
 
I wonder whether the antenna array has sufficient bandwidth for good digital performance.
Tight patterns such as this (particularly the night pattern) are known to have narrow and non-symmetrical sideband response.
 
semoochie said:
As far as I know, the hybrid mode never sounds really good and can sound dreadful! I see no advantage.
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Levine has the resources to do it. His plan is probably to build a small but loyal base

I see the motive for this is to split the channel for Analog translators. Right now it isn't allowed, but as the codec is manipulated and when broadcaster give the FCC a compelling argument to do it that gives broadcasters more options.
 
DavidEduardo said:
[/I]Which is really poor judgement by Levine. He should turn the terrible facility off and sell the land.

In the case of this station, spending all that money is proof of the old saying, "a fool and his money are soon parted". While Saúl has been successful with fringe, niche formats for 60 years.
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David, For the last time STOP DISRESPECTING SAUL BY INCORRECTLY - AND NOW OBVIOUSLY PURPOSELY - MISSPELLING HIS NAME.

His Name is not Sol
His Name is not Saúl

His Name is Saul. You have now been told this multiple times by multiple posters. It is moronic and unprofessional of you to keep putting some Spanish take on his name, especially when then man clearly is not of any Hispanic heritage. And please, no more of your lame excuses. You are an accomplished writer, poster and board moderator. I know you can handle the spell-checker and your predispositions towards language just fine when you need to. Just do the right thing and spell the man's name, that only has four letters, correctly. Thank you.

As a side note, calling a man with well over a half a century's worth of radio experience and who has become rich in the process a "fool" doesn't exactly reflect well on your judgement either.
 
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frankberry said:
I wonder whether the antenna array has sufficient bandwidth for good digital performance.
Tight patterns such as this (particularly the night pattern) are known to have narrow and non-symmetrical sideband response.
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He's running MA1 digital on it already, which (at least in theory) requires flat response over 30 kHz. Assuming the array was properly tuned up when he added MA1 ("hybrid") HD, it will be plenty flat for the narrower bandwidth needed for MA3 all-digital, which only needs 10 kHz.

Whether it will play out as well in practice as it does in theory... well, we'll see.
 
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