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Save AM Radio

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dand5780

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WHAM 1180 is stating that the government is going to allow AM radio signals to be interfered with at night.

They are requesting the listeners sign a petition to Save AM Radio so they can continue to provide great programming like Bob Matthews, Kimberly and Beck, Michael Savage, Ground Zero, Coast to Coast, sports games, weather updates, The Morning News, and more.

http://wham1180.iheart.com/features/save-am-radio-1919/
 
These petitions are popping up all over the place since the FCC made its proposals public. Most of them are "sponsored" by stations owned by iHeart (see any pattern there, Anderson?).

Any station that carries "Coast to Coast" overnight doesn't need protection. That program is all over the place at night.

And I doubt "The Morning News" is going to be affected by a proposal for nighttime service.

I bet that if marginal, unprofitable AMs simply converted to daytime-only service (in other words, let's get rid of the 9 watt nighttime authorizations) the interference problem would solve itself in the process. But noooooooo, every AM thinks it has to operate at night, even though the available audience is far less than pre-sunset.

And here's something the geniuses at iHeart never got through their thick heads: Online petitions have never changed the FCC's mind about anything.
 
Resolving the "AM problem" won't be found in more nighttime service on low-powered AM stations in small markets. FM translators will serve those folks better. Even low-powered FM does a better job these days.
 
joebtsflk1 said:
Any class D AM with an FM translator should be able to sign-off the AM during night-time hours. Same with the class Cs
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The Class C stations, unless rules are changed, have to meet minimum hours of operation. While they could sign off earlier, they could not become daytimers.
 
Such sign-offs would be voluntary, and indeed the rules would have to be changed to allow this to go forward. With the class Ds, do current rules require the FM translator to go off the air whenever the AM goes off, unless the AM is a true daytimer with no nighttime auth?
 
joebtsflk1 said:
Such sign-offs would be voluntary, and indeed the rules would have to be changed to allow this to go forward. With the class Ds, do current rules require the FM translator to go off the air whenever the AM goes off, unless the AM is a true daytimer with no nighttime auth?
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I believe there's a 12 hour grace period.
 
The new clock radio I just bought doesn't even have AM. It does have FM and Bluetooth steaming. iHeart has a great selection of formats on the internet. They know how to put it all together.
 
With the proliferation of such connected devices, AM radio is likely to fade farther into the background noise. That doesn't mean that listening needs to fade, however. It's just that the delivery system probably will. The Internet can already deliver better quality audio for voice than the current AM standard. The impact on data caps is negligible. The only AM signals left may end up being small-market rural stations and high-powered big-city AMs. We are seeing the transition happen in the marketplace. AM is simply missing on most new devices.
 
SirRoxalot said:
The Internet can already deliver better quality audio for voice than the current AM standard.
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Now if only the internet streams had equalization/processing that made voices sound fuller and of over-the-air quality. Because the way it is now, it's too raw, sometimes unlistenable, pitchy, sloppy and unequal audio---especially if there is any phone iteration.
 
K.M. Richards said:
These petitions are popping up all over the place since the FCC made its proposals public. Most of them are "sponsored" by stations owned by iHeart (see any pattern there, Anderson?).

Any station that carries "Coast to Coast" overnight doesn't need protection. That program is all over the place at night.

And I doubt "The Morning News" is going to be affected by a proposal for nighttime service.
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The Morning News sure is affected, starting at 5am. I don't know what the end time is for WHAM, but on WBEN you can hear them switch from night to day sometimes at 7:15, 7:30 am, depending on what time of year it is.
 
dand5780 said:
The Morning News sure is affected, starting at 5am. I don't know what the end time is for WHAM, but on WBEN you can hear them switch from night to day sometimes at 7:15, 7:30 am, depending on what time of year it is.
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The switch time for every AM with differing day and night power and/or pattern is part of the license and it should change slightly every month, so that isn't a factor.

What IS a factor is how AM signals propagate right before sunrise. The earliest any AM is ever going to be allowed to be on day power/pattern is 6:00am, and if sunrise isn't until after 7:00am, you're going to hear a cacophony of signals fighting with each other if they're all coming on at full power and/or non-directional at 6:00am. In fact, it is entirely possible WBEN would be less receivable if it ran its daytime facilities at night.

Tell ya what, my often-clueless friend, why don't you ask over on the DX board what kind of mess is made when stations accidentally (or accidentally on purpose) fail to switch to night power/pattern? I think you might realize what a disaster this proposal is if you hear some of the horror stories.
 
K.M. Richards said:
Tell ya what, my often-clueless friend, why don't you ask over on the DX board what kind of mess is made when stations accidentally (or accidentally on purpose) fail to switch to night power/pattern? I think you might realize what a disaster this proposal is if you hear some of the horror stories.
Click to expand...

Some people like to think they are geniuses. You're telling me that the Morning News wouldn't be impacted.

I'm telling you that it is. I used to be able to hear it, and now I can't. That's the bottom line. Unless I'm so clueless that I was only just imagining that I have been hearing it for several years.
 
dand5780 said:
Some people like to think they are geniuses. You're telling me that the Morning News wouldn't be impacted.

I'm telling you that it is. I used to be able to hear it, and now I can't. That's the bottom line. Unless I'm so clueless that I was only just imagining that I have been hearing it for several years.
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If the problem you describe has been going on for years, you should look at the possibilities.

One possibility is that the WBEN pattern has deteriorated, due to degradation of the ground system or something similar such as construction in the area which has upset the pattern.

Another possibility is that noise levels have increased in your area, rendering unusable what was a usable signal before.

Third would be interference from another station on 930 operating outside its licensed parameters.

The impossibility is that things have changed due to an action by the FCC to improve AM reception, as that has not happened yet.

Note that sunrise in January is around 7:45 while in June it is 5:15 (adjusted for DST). Depending on the exact location of the transmitter site, the FCC will have assigned WBEN pattern change times that are close to those, rounded to 15 minute increments.
 
K.M. Richards said:
The switch time for every AM with differing day and night power and/or pattern is part of the license and it should change slightly every month, so that isn't a factor.

What IS a factor is how AM signals propagate right before sunrise. The earliest any AM is ever going to be allowed to be on day power/pattern is 6:00am, and if sunrise isn't until after 7:00am, you're going to hear a cacophony of signals fighting with each other if they're all coming on at full power and/or non-directional at 6:00am. In fact, it is entirely possible WBEN would be less receivable if it ran its daytime facilities at night.

Tell ya what, my often-clueless friend, why don't you ask over on the DX board what kind of mess is made when stations accidentally (or accidentally on purpose) fail to switch to night power/pattern? I think you might realize what a disaster this proposal is if you hear some of the horror stories.
Click to expand...

I'm confused by your use of "6AM", as the earliest pattern change time. The earliest any AM is allowed its daytime facilities is sunrise and in the summer, that's before 6AM.
 
semoochie said:
I'm confused by your use of "6AM", as the earliest pattern change time. The earliest any AM is allowed its daytime facilities is sunrise and in the summer, that's before 6AM.
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I'm speaking in generalities, because those are the only things Mr. Anderson understands. In fact, your post will likely set him off on a whole new round of asking why WBEN can't be on day power when his beloved news program first starts in the morning.

Thanks loads.
 
K.M. Richards said:
I'm speaking in generalities, because those are the only things Mr. Anderson understands. In fact, your post will likely set him off on a whole new round of asking why WBEN can't be on day power when his beloved news program first starts in the morning.

Thanks loads.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry. Some people take this sort of thing as "striving for accuracy" but others just think it's being too picky. I had intended the former. Hopefully, I didn't do too much damage and this will all work out.
 
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