Medium Wave Sunset In Europe

[Ed Nielson]

I'm posting this along with a personal comment, as it relates to the article.

I guess this is the place to post this. I did some "virtual" DXing on the AM (more accurately called the MW) band last night from a couple of SDRs located in the UK and Greece. Needless to say, the band has become somewhat of a wasteland compared to what it once was.

When I lived in Greece as a teenager (a long time ago!) nights on the band were filled with the likes of AFN, the VOA, and a mix of former Soviet Eastern-bloc broadcasters, and, given the location, stations from North Africa. There was nothing like hearing the Russians start up the buzz-saws to drown out the VOA's broadcasts.

Most of them are now gone, leaving the North Africans (Egypt and Tunisia) and the band seems to be occupied mostly by Spain and Romania, and many Greek pirates.

Medium wave’s sunset in Europe

AM radio is disappearing from European skies, a trend that could spread worldwide

www.redtech.pro

 

[secondchoice]

I didn't know that were pirates on AM or medium wave now The US has FM pirates.

 

[Ed Nielson]

Greece (and most likely other countries in the region) have had AM pirates for a number of years. Now with the decline of MW, the band sort of reminds me of the wild west.

 

[RF101]

The recent "apagón" (blackout) in Spain was a serious wakeup call to keeping AM radio going in that country. It's mostly used for the national networks talk- and sports-centric stations.

 

[CentralFL]

A once in a generation blackouts, hurricanes, earthquakes etc don't seem like a reason to keep MW around. Don't Spanish FM's and DAB stations have backup generators? The amount of people without any FM (or DAB where it exists) reception must be insignificant in any country.

 

[davideduardo]

A once in a generation blackouts, hurricanes, earthquakes etc don't seem like a reason to keep MW around. Don't Spanish FM's and DAB stations have backup generators? The amount of people without any FM (or DAB where it exists) reception must be insignificant in any country.

AM signals can have enormous reach. Not so for DAB or FM. If an area has power outages and infrastructure issues, people with portable radios can listen to AM stations from adjacent areas.

DAB portables use rechargeable batteries as they drain power in the DAC circuits. FM depends on local stations being on the air. In the case of severe storms, flooding, quakes, fires, the local stations will be gone. The only usable radio will be AM from nearby areas.

And MW stations from even farther away can be utilized at night in a real emergency.

A good example is the New Orleans hurricane some time ago: the "surviving" station was WWL, whose transmitter was located far away from the city itself and had been reinforced to be above flood levels with a tower that could stand the winds. It was the voice of several million people when all other communications were not able to be used.

 

[CentralFL]

Of course MW can have large listening areas, but FM has a good range too. A lot of markets lack a full-market AM, but many FMs.

Sure, for a few weeks in the event of a major disaster like Katrina, MW has its place. However, unless there is a subsidy of some sort, MW isn't commercially viable in many areas. Spain has a public broadcaster, but I would imagine many citizens would rather have another public service - health, education, transportation rather than a network of MW signals.

Regarding Katrina, was New Orleans without any FM signals? Baton Rouge is only 70 miles away. 100kw FM's should make it, especially w/o electronic interference.

 

[davideduardo]

Of course MW can have large listening areas, but FM has a good range too. A lot of markets lack a full-market AM, but many FMs.

FM is line of sight, period. And we are talking about emergencies, where local stations are "all gone". In that case, only AMs will be listenable.

Sure, for a few weeks in the event of a major disaster like Katrina, MW has its place. However, unless there is a subsidy of some sort, MW isn't commercially viable in many areas.

The big signal AMs in many if not most markets are still viable. I'm not talking about 1 kw directional daytimers on 1570 but 50 kw on 870.

Spain has a public broadcaster, but I would imagine many citizens would rather have another public service - health, education, transportation rather than a network of MW signals.

RNE has never been a huge factor in Spain. In fact, in all the former colonies of Spain and Portugal, government radio has not been a major force or expenditure.

Regarding Katrina, was New Orleans without any FM signals? Baton Rouge is only 70 miles away. 100kw FM's should make it, especially w/o electronic interference.

70 miles is a long way for any FM signal to have a reliable, usable signal. And, even less usable if what people had were hand-held portable radios.

 

[PTBoardOp93]

A once in a generation blackouts, hurricanes, earthquakes etc don't seem like a reason to keep MW around.

Certainly not as a private enterprise. Private broadcasting requires a regular audience to present to advertisers.

Regarding Katrina, was New Orleans without any FM signals? Baton Rouge is only 70 miles away

No. In fact, WWL was knocked off the air for a several hours when the generator failed late on August 28, 2005, and an engineer had to physically go to the site TX site the next day to diagnose and get WWL back on the air. WWL's transmitter is in a swamp just southwest of NOLA, and is not a safe place to remain during a major hurricane. WWL staff continued to broadcast information on Entercom's FM signals, which were all airing WWL programming during landfall and for days (and in most cases weeks) after.

Scott Fybush's report at the time indicated WWL had also transmitted for a time from their AUX facility, colocated with WWL-TV.

A selection from a decade of visits to tower and studio sites in the Northeast and beyond

This BBC retrospective tells the story of WWL during Katrina: The Hurricane Station

WWL was the only broadcast source that did not evacuate New Orleans. Clear Channel evacuated and originated their Katrina coverage from Baton Rouge. Most of the TV stations also decamped to Baton Rouge, although I think one or two fed programming from sister stations in other markets.

I should note that FM was better suited for disasster coverage of Hurricane Sandy as well -- most of the NYC AMs, including WINS and WCBS, were taken off the air by flood water. Entercom used WXRK 92.3 (now WINS-FM) and WCBS-FM to relay news coverage.

 

[CentralFL]

WINS was definitely knocked off along with many, if not all AMs, located in the Meadowlands in NJ. I though WCBS stayed on. They are on an island in the Long Island Sound called High Island. Perhaps the name indicates that it has some elevation to it? Regardless, for the majority of the population FM is more than sufficient in an emergency.

One drawback could be if all the FMs were at the same location. Think 9/11. Having some transmitters on the Empire and some on the Twin Towers lowered the risk of losing all transmissions. If they had all been on the twin towers, AM would have been all that was left for emergency broadcasts.

 

[secondchoice]

With all the new tall buildings in NYC, one would think a simple one or two bay antenna with a 5 KW transmitter on a 800 foot plus roof would work. After all except for tests you hope you never have to use it!

 

[davideduardo]

WINS was definitely knocked off along with many, if not all AMs, located in the Meadowlands in NJ. I though WCBS stayed on. They are on an island in the Long Island Sound called High Island. Perhaps the name indicates that it has some elevation to it? Regardless, for the majority of the population FM is more than sufficient in an emergency.

AMs generally don't have auxiliary sites due to the need for extensive terrain and the fact that AM does not work well (as radio broadcasters discovered by 1930) on rooftops. So most AMs will be in suburbs (or what were suburbs in the 30's and 40's) and on land not always suitable for other purposes.

High Island is not particularly "high" in elevation. But the ever-so-inaccurate Wikipedia does say it might have been considered higher than other islands or sandbars:

High Island (Bronx) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

One drawback could be if all the FMs were at the same location. Think 9/11. Having some transmitters on the Empire and some on the Twin Towers lowered the risk of losing all transmissions. If they had all been on the twin towers, AM would have been all that was left for emergency broadcasts.

A lot of the NYC FM stations have auxiliary sites such as the Condé Nast building and elsewhere.

 

[alok]

WINS was definitely knocked off along with many, if not all AMs, located in the Meadowlands in NJ. I though WCBS stayed on. They are on an island in the Long Island Sound called High Island. Perhaps the name indicates that it has some elevation to it? Regardless, for the majority of the population FM is more than sufficient in an emergency.

I did not know they (1010WINS) was off the air, during Sandy.

I spoke to a WINS transmitter engineer (I paid visit to the site) about a year after the hurricane and he said they stayed on the air the whole time, they did have water up to the door at the station entrance, the door is about 5 feet off the ground with stairs. He said the VSWR went up and he had to reduce power to 10kw from 50kw to keep transmitter on the air.
I think he did say they were off the air for short periods, but overall they were on.

WINS did have a backup transmitter site at WABC's site, they used during the mid 90's when they went from 4 in-line towers to the present 4 tower parallelogram configuration.

Don't know if that backup is still at WABC site, the engineer at WINS the day I was there did not mention that it was still at WABC site.

 

[CentralFL]

Good info regarding WINS during Sandy. I'm pretty sure they simulcasted on 92.3 during the storm....ultimately what they are now full-time. Although it is probably more accurate to say that 1010 AM is a simulcast of 92.3 at this point.

As of 2023, there is only WABC's main tower and a smaller back-up tower out in Lodi, N.J.

 

[Miss Tuned]

I'm posting this along with a personal comment, as it relates to the article.

I guess this is the place to post this. I did some "virtual" DXing on the AM (more accurately called the MW) band last night from a couple of SDRs located in the UK and Greece. Needless to say, the band has become somewhat of a wasteland compared to what it once was.

When I lived in Greece as a teenager (a long time ago!) nights on the band were filled with the likes of AFN, the VOA, and a mix of former Soviet Eastern-bloc broadcasters, and, given the location, stations from North Africa. There was nothing like hearing the Russians start up the buzz-saws to drown out the VOA's broadcasts.

Most of them are now gone, leaving the North Africans (Egypt and Tunisia) and the band seems to be occupied mostly by Spain and Romania, and many Greek pirates.

Medium wave’s sunset in Europe

AM radio is disappearing from European skies, a trend that could spread worldwide

www.redtech.pro

In the UK at night, I mostly hear Spain along with the few remaining UK stations on AM/MW. In the gaps where there are no Spanish or UK stations, I hear bits of Eastern European radio mostly related to the Ukrainian-Russian war. In other gaps, I hear a lot of Middle Eastern stuff, they still have some mega-powered stations (up to 1,000kW) in places like Iran and Saudi Arabia.

In the daytime, because the band is so quiet now, the few UK stations left can be heard for miles. I can quite comfortably listen to the London station on 558 (which has flipped between various ethnic formats with a brief foray into sports a few years ago and is currently Panjabi) nearly 200 miles away in Manchester.

 

[Mediafrog+]

In the UK at night, I mostly hear Spain along with the few remaining UK stations on AM/MW. In the gaps where there are no Spanish or UK stations, I hear bits of Eastern European radio mostly related to the Ukrainian-Russian war. In other gaps, I hear a lot of Middle Eastern stuff, they still have some mega-powered stations (up to 1,000kW) in places like Iran and Saudi Arabia.

In the daytime, because the band is so quiet now, the few UK stations left can be heard for miles. I can quite comfortably listen to the London station on 558 (which has flipped between various ethnic formats with a brief foray into sports a few years ago and is currently Panjabi) nearly 200 miles away in Manchester.

I just did a mediumwave bandscan on the UTwente SDR just after 1400UT, which would be mid-afternoon in Western Europe. It is astonishing how empty the AM band is there. This is all I could hear:

540–very weak Hungary (very powerful transmitter)
558–weak Punjab Radio UK
648–Radio Caroline UK
675–Dutch LPAM
693–BBC Radio 5
819–Dutch LPAM
846–Dutch LPAM
891–Dutch LPAM
918–Dutch LPAM
1008–Dutch LPAM
1053–TalkSport UK
1395–Dutch LPAM

I did not listen long enough to pull IDs off of the various Dutch LPAMs. There are several on most of those particular frequencies, according to the 2025 World Radio TV Handbook.

The situation is very different at night, when as you said, there are plenty of signals from Spain, Romania and North Africa.

 

[Miss Tuned]

I just did a mediumwave bandscan on the UTwente SDR just after 1400UT, which would be mid-afternoon in Western Europe. It is astonishing how empty the AM band is there. This is all I could hear:

540–very weak Hungary (very powerful transmitter)
558–weak Punjab Radio UK
648–Radio Caroline UK
675–Dutch LPAM
693–BBC Radio 5
819–Dutch LPAM
846–Dutch LPAM
891–Dutch LPAM
918–Dutch LPAM
1008–Dutch LPAM
1053–TalkSport UK
1395–Dutch LPAM

I did not listen long enough to pull IDs off of the various Dutch LPAMs. There are several on most of those particular frequencies, according to the 2025 World Radio TV Handbook.

The situation is very different at night, when as you said, there are plenty of signals from Spain, Romania and North Africa.

There are also a couple of Irish pirates that I forgot to mention. They're very weak but audible at my location - 846 kHz is Radio North, and 981 kHz is Radio Star. Both are located in Ireland close to the border with Northern Ireland and target a mostly Northern Ireland audience with Country and Irish music and religious programming.

Ireland is not as bothered by the presence of unlicensed broadcasters as the UK, and both transmitters are obvious and visible - here is 846 on Street View.

It's useful to note that Ireland has DAB again now, after a few abortive previous attempts. I picked the signals up myself on the west coast of Wales last week and there are a few ex-pirates on the air legally via the new Irish DAB.

 

[gr8oldies]

There are also a couple of Irish pirates that I forgot to mention. They're very weak but audible at my location - 846 kHz is Radio North, and 981 kHz is Radio Star. Both are located in Ireland close to the border with Northern Ireland and target a mostly Northern Ireland audience with Country and Irish music and religious programming.

Ireland is not as bothered by the presence of unlicensed broadcasters as the UK, and both transmitters are obvious and visible - here is 846 on Street View.

It's useful to note that Ireland has DAB again now, after a few abortive previous attempts. I picked the signals up myself on the west coast of Wales last week and there are a few ex-pirates on the air legally via the new Irish DAB.

I've been using the UTwente SDR for several years, and the number of stations that have disappeared is staggering. 1377 in France, 1440 in Luxembourg, 1548 Gold, and the powerful Christian station on 1008 to name a few.

 

[Ed Nielson]

The LW band isn't much better. The big four are gone. (Europe 1, Monte-Carlo and Luxembourg and France-Inter Allouis). All that remains of the once-mighty Allouis station is a time signal. There's a couple of North Africans (Algeria and Morocco) on 171 and 252. And of course BBC is still alive on 198.

 

[Mediafrog+]

The LW band isn't much better. The big four are gone. (Europe 1, Monte-Carlo and Luxembourg and France-Inter Allouis). All that remains of the once-mighty Allouis station is a time signal. There's a couple of North Africans (Algeria and Morocco) on 171 and 252. And of course BBC is still alive on 198.

Longwave also still has Romania on 153 and Poland on 225. Plus the Mongolian stations on 164, 209 and 227 are still active.