I can read title and artist, and any other thing, that FM stations place on their system to read. However, I listen to two AM stations that play music. Neither one, nor do any AM stations, provide the same service. From a technical/technology standpoint, why don't, or can't, AM stations provide the same type of title and artist information for the music they air?
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RDS question
- Thread starter johnbasalla
- Start date
Shorty answer: not enough RF bandwidth in analog AM to add a metadata carrier.
Not true. AM RDS was proposed but never implemented. HD Radio has a "ballgame mode" which shuts off the digital audio but retains the Program Associated Data (PAD) text. And way back in the early 1980s, several of the AM Stereo systems (Harris and Magnavox) had the ability to modulate their sub-audible pilot tone to transmit data.
So, AM stations would have to implement an AM Stereo model to do it? I assume if a station did set things up to provide title and artist printed information, current radios in vehicles couldn't receive it anyway.
Not really. When the FCC first authorized AM stereo in the Reagan administration, it assumed one system would naturally win, and declined to select one. That didn't happen, so there were broadcasters using several mutually incompatible systems for several years.
In 1993, after political changes in Washington, the FCC tried to clean up after itself by selecting the Motorola system for AM Stereo. Therefore, Harris and Magnavox AM stereo systems are no longer permitted in the US. Even if they were there haven't been any tuners built to those specs in over 30 years.
I don't think anyone ever petitioned the FCC to allow the AMSS system that was developed by the BBC for low speed data transmission on AM, assuming that's what @kevtronics was referring to. AMSS wasn't created until the mid 00s, and by that time essentially all AM stations were running talk formats anyway, and broadcasters probably thought HD Radio was more interesting anyway.
I'm 95% sure HD Radio is the only system approved by the FCC for AM broadcast which is capable of sending artist and title information.
Actually, the FCC first approved one system. Then, the promoter of another, filed all kinds of legal protests and managed to hold it back for nearly 5 years. And by that time, the window for AM stereo had slammed shut since about 75% of music format listening had gone to FM.
And that is because when stations were finally allowed to "pick a system, any system" there was little interest.
I agree. Broadcasters were initially sucked in by the AM and FM HD Radio systems from iBiquity. Both the NAB and iBiquity knew, or at least suspected, that the FCC would require a digital system that covered both AM and FM. So the AM system was kludged together and, frankly, sounded fairly awful. For that reason, there seem to be only around 50 stations still running it.
Kevtronics (our resident expert on HD, AM stereo and the like), do you have a count on those?
Since so few stations run music any more on AM, I'm not sure it matters. How many listeners to the remaining music stations in Spanish, Tagalog, Farsi, Russian, Kreyol and the like have radios that are even HD capable? And how many even care?
Well, in my area, in and around Northeastern, Ohio, there's my main go-to music AM station, AM 1380 WDLW which also has a small FM translator that's not accessible for me. WAKR-AM 1590, which also has, for me, an inaccessible FM translator. Then there's "La Mega" on AM1300 WJMO.
I remember that AM930, WEOL in Elyria, Ohio was running AM Stereo for some time, but that was a long time ago.
I remember some people saying that AM Stereo sounded very good. Can we say that the whole AM Stereo attempt was a big government boon-doggle?
I remember that AM930, WEOL in Elyria, Ohio was running AM Stereo for some time, but that was a long time ago.
I remember some people saying that AM Stereo sounded very good. Can we say that the whole AM Stereo attempt was a big government boon-doggle?
Correct. For completeness, I should have added that the FCC first approved the system marketed by Magnavox in April 1980. The commission backtracked on that in July 1980, which is lightning speed for government agency.
Then in 1983, in the face of the lawsuits you mention, the FCC ruled that any of five systems (Magnavox, Kahn, Motorola, Belar, and Harris) could be used in the US.
The AM stereo attempt was arguably too late, even if the 1980 ruling had stuck.
Leonard Kahn, owner of the Kahn AM stereo system, continued to shower his competitors in lawsuits throughout the 1980s. Kahn separately tried to claim at the FTC that Motorola was exercising monopoly power, and claim with the FCC that Motorola's system was non-compliant with AM broadcast standards, and with the US Patent Office that his patents were infringed by other systems. None of his claims were substantiated.
The receiver market responded to the uncertainty by creating expensive "universal" receivers. Radio & Records reported that the first such universal receiver was sold for $415 in 1984. I'm sure it was a slow seller that price. Source: https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Archive-RandR/1980s/1983/RR-1983-04-15.pdf
But a few years later, the number of AM stereo receivers on the market dwindled, as consumers didn't see the advantage of buying an AM stereo model.
Broadcasters responded to the dilemma by doing nothing. It is estimated that 85% to 90% of broadcasters never implemented AM stereo of any sort. Source: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED313723.pdf
There was no government "boondoggle" at all. The FCC looked at five competing systems, picked one based on an engineering review. One of the losers protested and kept stations from having a system to adopt for nearly 5 years.
If you want to blame anyone, point your finger at Leonard Kahn.
The HD Radio Directory currently lists 30 AM HD stations:
HD Radio Directory
hddirectory.neocities.org
As for the AM Stereo saga, you could write a whole book about it... and somebody already did:
The Reagan FCC's "let the marketplace decide" approach is also what killed TV teletext in the U.S., due to multiple incompatible systems being in use and no standard being chosen. Again, you could write a whole book about it, and someone already did:
Teletext
Teletext was a technology developed in Europe in the late 1970s and perfected in North America during the early 1980s by the Canadian Department of Communications and AT&T. Teletext was a digital database transmitted along with a regular television signal. It enabled broadcast, PBS, and cable statio
www.google.com
Some people blame Kahn for personally killing AM.
DRM can actually send data and graphics along with the audio. Sounds pretty good, as well. The problem was that DRM is an open system with no money for lobbying the FCC and it never even was considered. SO, we wind up with an expensive, for-profit system from IBiquity.
DRM can actually send data and graphics along with the audio. Sounds pretty good, as well. The problem was that DRM is an open system with no money for lobbying the FCC and it never even was considered. SO, we wind up with an expensive, for-profit system from IBiquity.
Late in life, Kahn invented his own digital AM system, Compatible AM Digital (CAM-D). The system could be yours for $65,000 in 2007, and a handful of stations used it. It was backwards compatible with his analog AM Stereo system, but no digital receivers for it were ever made.
en.wikipedia.org