Saving AM Radio

[K.M. Richards]

Beyond what @TheBigA said, which is factually correct, it must also be considered that, in the U.S., unlike Australia (or Mexico or Canada, for that matter), there are a lot fewer FM frequencies available for AM stations to move to. (In fact, in most major U.S. locations, there are absolutely none.)

That's been the case ever since Docket 80-90 added Class A FMs everywhere they would fit in.

Now we have more stations than the business can support. Maybe the AM attrition is a good thing after all.

 

[Frank Perez]

Does "hybrid digital" actually exist or is it a phrase invented by non-industry types as a guess for the meaning of the "HD" in "HD Radio." Turns out that "HD" stands for nothing at all; it's just part of the brand. So if HD Radio isn't hybrid digital, what is?

When Iheart was Clearchannel basically every AM was hybrid, untgil they find out digital carrier hiss interfere with analog carrier.

 

[TexasTom]

K.M., the interesting thing about your Class A0 FM proposal is that it isn't that much different from one of the LPFM proposals submitted to the FCC back in the 90s. Specifically, the one that was filed by the Community Radio Coalition (of which I was part). We didn't quite go with FM translator specs of 250 watts at 100 meters, and instead proposed 1 kw at 50 meters (going out of memory here) because that would have similar coverage but be less expensive to build. And it did have a strict "one per customer" ownership limit. But unlike pretty much every other LPFM proposal, we suggested allowing commercial operation. I can't remember the details anymore, but I'm also pretty sure we had some sort of workaround to avoid spectrum auctions, as well.

Needless to say, it went nowhere.

But the economics of the industry are much changed today, so who knows...

 

[KilowattKat]

Bumping up this thread with an update on the AM radio in vehicles bill. Apparently, progress on it is happening...

AM Bill Finds New Lane In Congress.

AM radio’s dashboard survival fight just found what may be faster lane in Washington. After months stalled in legislative traffic, the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act has been folded

www.insideradio.com

 

[KC8UOK]

Bumping up this thread with an update on the AM radio in vehicles bill. Apparently, progress on it is happening...

AM Bill Finds New Lane In Congress.

AM radio’s dashboard survival fight just found what may be faster lane in Washington. After months stalled in legislative traffic, the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act has been folded

www.insideradio.com

I fear this is another government attempt to be helpful. Even if this does pass, it won't do anything if there are no stations to listen to. And we're certainly moving towards that time

 

[yeoldeschool]

I fear this is another government attempt to be helpful. Even if this does pass, it won't do anything if there are no stations
to listen to. And we're certainly moving towards that time

Quite. Sports is migrating more and more to FM, and stories about AM stations going silent seem to be showing up with ever greater frequency. So this push to mandate AM while wasting the opportunity to simultaneously mandate FM is completely irrational.

Could the bill's actual raison d'être be that conservative political formats primarily exist on AM, while NPR affiliates primarily exist on FM?

 

[KC8UOK]

Could the bill's actual raison d'être be that conservative political formats primarily exist on AM, while NPR affiliates primarily exist on FM?

Even The Answer has FM Outlets. I suspect they may seek to get on FM in those markets where they only have AM. As for other formats, Spanish stations are all over FM here in Vegas and I suspect the same is true in most major markets. Even Oldies. Increasingly I think we'll see that on FM.

 

[MarkW]

AM radio isn't worth saving. There, I said it.

 

[Ryan Williams]

AM radio isn't worth saving. There, I said it.

Ouch.

 

[yeoldeschool]

It would have been worth saving had regulators not become apathetic eons ago, allowing mountains of RFI blasting devices to accumulate in the wild. Devices that radiated interference should have been vigorously dealt with from day one, as if they were unlicensed transmitters broadcasting jamming signals. Put it this way. A prank pirate transmitter appears on FM, broadcasting the droning sound of a hair dryer running 24/7, and the FCC shows up to fine the operator. But sell millions of people cheap hair dryers that make the AM band sound similarly bad directly, and the FCC doesn't show up to fine the manufacturer? This is silly.

The UK conjured up the evil television detector van. Why didn't we have good, RFI detection vans sweeping for faulty devices jamming any of the bands, mediumwave or otherwise? And no 4th amendment implications, either. They could've simply direction-found broadband RFI signatures and asked anyone in a building emitting one to turn everything off inside, followed by turning each device back on, one at a time, until the guy in the truck on the street saw it reappear on his scopes. No one ever comes into your home or business. No attempts to demodulate legitimate signals and spy on anything. Just plain-jane broadband RFI detection. The "RFI street sweeping crews" doing this could have issued certificates to each noisy device owner for covering all repair costs -- certificates local repair shops could have sent in confirming their successful repair. The techs would have simply completed them to indicate whether the government should reimburse them by billing the manufacturers (for design faults), or if (for post-manufacturing faults) their reimbursements should come from a general fund allocated for keeping the airwaves clean. (Yeah, I know, "socialism." But there are already funds for cleaning up trash dumping, and the airwaves are just another form of valuable public land, so...)

The end result of not having handled this phenomenon correctly from the get go is not just AM being hashy in many locations now, but the HF ham radio bands, the shortwave bands, and now even FM in certain intense digital environments. Every time I watch the ball drop on new year's eve, I think of the FCC.

 

[Hyrum]

It would have been worth saving had regulators not become apathetic eons ago, allowing mountains of RFI blasting devices to accumulate in the wild. Devices that radiated interference should have been vigorously dealt with from day one, as if they were unlicensed transmitters broadcasting jamming signals. Put it this way. A prank pirate transmitter appears on FM, broadcasting the droning sound of a hair dryer running 24/7, and the FCC shows up to fine the operator. But sell millions of people cheap hair dryers that make the AM band sound similarly bad directly, and the FCC doesn't show up to fine the manufacturer? This is silly.

The UK conjured up the evil television detector van. Why didn't we have good, RFI detection vans sweeping for faulty devices jamming any of the bands, mediumwave or otherwise? And no 4th amendment implications, either. They could've simply direction-found broadband RFI signatures and asked anyone in a building emitting one to turn everything off inside, followed by turning each device back on, one at a time, until the guy in the truck on the street saw it reappear on his scopes. No one ever comes into your home or business. No attempts to demodulate legitimate signals and spy on anything. Just plain-jane broadband RFI detection. The "RFI street sweeping crews" doing this could have issued certificates to each noisy device owner for covering all repair costs -- certificates local repair shops could have sent in confirming their successful repair. The techs would have simply completed them to indicate whether the government should reimburse them by billing the manufacturers (for design faults), or if (for post-manufacturing faults) their reimbursements should come from a general fund allocated for keeping the airwaves clean. (Yeah, I know, "socialism." But there are already funds for cleaning up trash dumping, and the airwaves are just another form of valuable public land, so...)

The end result of not having handled this phenomenon correctly from the get go is not just AM being hashy in many locations now, but the HF ham radio bands, the shortwave bands, and now even FM in certain intense digital environments. Every time I watch the ball drop on new year's eve, I think of the FCC.

Yeah, you've got that right. A more intrusive government could have dispatched RF vans to check up on citizen's hair dryers, computers, wireless phones and everything that runs on electricity. That would have saved AM radio. It would also cost the American tax payer a buck three eighty. That is more than the cost of a government funded day care center. I think AM is beyond saving by now, so let it pass, or to br humain, shoot it in the head and put it out of its misery. But for the sake of humanity don't let government have an ounce more of power. We can't afford more of it. Literally. AM is unnecessary. There are things of FM choices. A million plus internet choices. With all that choice there is plenty to listen to. Unfortunately, with all that choice no one is making any real money, hence the programming is lacking. But with free radio, we get what we pay for.

 

[yeoldeschool]

But for the sake of humanity don't let government have an ounce more of power. We can't afford more of it. Literally.

I'm actually with you. Believe me, in the modern era, I consider the fourth amendment and privacy in general to be nothing short of victims of gang rape. I don't want more taxes, either.

But the cost of an unaddressed problem sometimes exceeds the tax value of dealing with it. And I believe the implementation could have been done in a privacy-kosher way -- again by forbidding entrance into anyone's homes or businesses, and by not giving them equipment capable of demodulating anything (e.g., only waterfall-style scopes allowing visual identification of stuff like broadband hash and long chains of harmonics spurs).

And most field encounters could have been entirely pre-empted had newly manufactured and imported devices just gone through tougher FCC evaluations in the first place, before ever reaching the market.

This is all moot, anyway. The radio spectrum is now so polluted in dense urban environments that nothing short of draconian would suffice for cleaning it up. And I would never want draconian. My ideas could have worked only if applied from the very outset, before the noise floor had time to build up. It's too late now.

 

[MarioMania]

What's keeping AM Radio alive besides News/Talk, Sports & Religious

Not counting Classic Country Stations

 

[Hyrum]

What's keeping AM Radio alive besides News/Talk, Sports & Religious

Not counting Classic Country Stations

What make you believe AM radio is still alive? Aside of a few, very few big guns who attract a 100 year old audience, I have not heard a reference to anything on or about an AM station for literally years.

 

[Hyrum]

I'm actually with you. Believe me, in the modern era, I consider the fourth amendment and privacy in general to be nothing short of victims of gang rape. I don't want more taxes, either.

But the cost of an unaddressed problem sometimes exceeds the tax value of dealing with it. And I believe the implementation could have been done in a privacy-kosher way -- again by forbidding entrance into anyone's homes or businesses, and by not giving them equipment capable of demodulating anything (e.g., only waterfall-style scopes allowing visual identification of stuff like broadband hash and long chains of harmonics spurs).

And most field encounters could have been entirely pre-empted had newly manufactured and imported devices just gone through tougher FCC evaluations in the first place, before ever reaching the market.

This is all moot, anyway. The radio spectrum is now so polluted in dense urban environments that nothing short of draconian would suffice for cleaning it up. And I would never want draconian. My ideas could have worked only if applied from the very outset, before the noise floor had time to build up. It's too late now.

I see your point and I would not have objected if the FCC imposed restrictions on RF emissions from appliances way back when it was first becoming a problem, but the did little or nothing. The had every right to imposed manufacturing restrictions for such devices to be sold in this country. I will never approve of the government van outside my door listening in on my hair dryer. And God help those do gooders if they ever try to enter my property without permission or a court order.

 

[Todd Mitchell]

AM radio isn't worth saving. There, I said it.

Tell that to WLW, WISN, KFI, KIRO...

 

[semoochie]

Tell that to WLW, WISN, KFI, KIRO...

Keep going. Let's see how far you get. My guess is not as far as last year but more than next year.

 

[101tm]

AM radio isn't worth saving. There, I said it.

This thread has been going for two years and all I’ve seen is AM deteriorate further, like it will continue to.

 

[MarkW]

Tell that to WLW, WISN, KFI, KIRO...

Those stations are successful on their own. They don't need governmental help. They also are not representative of the typical AM station in the year 2026. The typical AM station has a garbage signal with ultra niche programming that is enjoyed by only a small audience.

Fewer and fewer music stations will be sustainable on FM with time. Successful, mainstream AM brands should add FM simulcasts or migrate to FM entirely in the years ahead.

 

[CTListener]

Those stations are successful on their own. They don't need governmental help. They also are not representative of the typical AM station in the year 2026. The typical AM station has a garbage signal with ultra niche programming that is enjoyed by only a small audience.

Fewer and fewer music stations will be sustainable on FM with time. Successful, mainstream AM brands should add FM simulcasts or migrate to FM entirely in the years ahead.

What about WBZ Boston, which has no FM translator or simulcast and is losing audience with each book? Eventually, iHeart is going to have to blow up one of its FMs (Urban/hip-hop WJMN or CHR WXKS) and put the news there, especially since the hip-hop and CHR audience is migrating to streaming media, right? But if the audience for ALL radio formats is doing what radio's advertisers have been doing for the past decade or so -- ignoring radio entirely -- then what does it matter what station is carrying which format?