So you would replace a station that consistently draws well in 18-34 and replace it with a station that mainly appeals to 65+?
The FCC is not going to "sunset the band" without an act of congress. Can you imagine the outcry if they did it?
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
Saving AM Radio
- Thread starter BruceB
- Start date
So you would replace a station that consistently draws well in 18-34 and replace it with a station that mainly appeals to 65+?
The FCC is not going to "sunset the band" without an act of congress. Can you imagine the outcry if they did it?
And what would be the benefit of sunsetting the band?
Who is to determine which station is to live or die? You want a corrupt and awful government to do that? Let the market place choose by listening or not listening. If an AM programming idea is good, it will eventually find a new home on FM. If it's not that good let it die naturally. Let's not worry about AM radio in a land with thousands upon thousands of choices for music and information. The marketplace will weed it all out and the few AMs which survive can be enjoyed by the 18 listeners who still want to listen through the noise and interference. Please though, let's not allow the government to "fix" or use your money to offer aid to AM radio
When listening to the radio while driving, I've found AM digital on analog signals to be a poor listener experience.
Back when KNX 1070/Los Angeles was running digital, the great-sounding audio would always cut out after a few minutes -- switching back to the muddy-sounding analog signal.
At first I thought it might be a signal-strength issue. I'm listing from 120 miles away in San Diego, even though KNX is easily listenable in the car down here. But when I was driving in Los Angeles, I tuned into Classical 1260's digital -- with the 20kw transmitter only about 10 miles away. Same thing happened.
By contrast, FM digital in the car stays in digital constantly-- unless the signal-strength fades. Even then, the fidelity difference switching from digital to analog is fairly minimal.
Last edited:
Much of that is caused by terrestrial noise sources like power lines, trolley lines, and newer buses that use electric/hybrid power with noisy electronic speed controls.
If the station ran full MA3 mode verses hybrid, there is additional bandwidth for data packets because it doubles the bandwidth when one removes analog. Makes for a much more robust digital stream.
Easily. And so it wouldn't happen, of course.
The ones in Amsterdam were gone when I last was there (2022); they had posted messages online (in English!) stating they had had inadequate financial support from advertising.
I don't know what keeps Radio Brainport Eindhoven afloat: there are no ads but it also doesn't sound like a hobby station. It's targeted toward English-speaking expatriates. This is what 100 watts on 747 kHz sounds like from 6 miles away: https://www.mediafire.com/file_premium/wpjgd80cr8biecq/Radio.Brainport.2022.09.05-0957.mp3/file
Excuse my ignorance, but what kind of programming did the European AMs have? As we all know, the only reason AM has survived so long in the U.S. is its embrace of political and sports talk.
I'd send a telegram first.
In Spain, it's mostly talk now; RNE (Radio Nacional de España) also runs an all-news service (RNE5) on AM. When France still had AM, it was a mix of public and private stations. There was a nostalgia station in Paris on 873 (if I recall correctly); Radio France-Inter (public) was on the 162 longwave signal; France-Info (public, all-news) was mostly on FM but had 500 kw on 630 kHz from Lyon. Radio Monte Carlo was still going with talk on 216 kHz when I was last in Europe in the fall of 2022. The BBC had the World Service on 648 kHz until David Cameron's government pulled the plug on it. In the Netherlands, 747 was originally the flagship Radio 1 signal, mostly news, talk and cultural. Later it became "Arrow Rock" with a classic rock format, then wrapped up as a Christian preaching station before NOZEMA, which was then the authority that ran all the transmitters, couldn't find someone else to lease it when the Christian station's lease expired.
The signs on Dutch motorways indicating radio frequencies for national and regional stations still show "Radio 1 747 AM" even though that's more than a decade out of date. Public broadcasting has since reorganized there as well.
......and ethnic broadcasting.
Maybe they survive on donations? If you're an expat in Holland, you probably have money, because from what I've read, the Netherlands is an extremely expensive place to live.
But a decade or more from now, the situation with AM will have changed to where the bigger ones (especially those that have FM translators) my go digital (MA3), the smaller ones may just go off the air, as we see happening with various small AM stations presently. With more cars with HD, it may work out, at least for commuting listeners to the AM stations that remain. An FM translator / MA3 combination.
Bad idea, sorry. 16% of radio listeners listen to AM at least once or twice a week. A lot of ethnic radio can only use AM, because FM is full in many markets. Whenever I listen to the local Punjabi station, I hear plenty of local spots. Same thing with one of the local Regional Mexican stations. AM may be "sentimental to aging Boomers" but there are other listeners out there who use AM, including ethnic businesses who can not advertise in their languages on local TV and local commercial FM radio. The AM station, decidated to serving their community, is all they've got. That and print, and maybe the business's website, which may or may not get hits or engagement. But they advertise on these stations, and they do it for a reason.
Make all AMs IBOC (through incentives -- to those stations that wanted it; obviously, some can't really install HD because of their antenna systems) mandate HD radios in every car with a soundsystem. Promote HD AM, IBOC as well as MA3, through government incentives.
Of course, none of that would save AM a bit. The matter is already settled. The future is already here, and it's audio streaming on the smartphone. The smartphone is the modern version of the 1960's transistor radio and 1980's boombox, as well as other devices it has replaced.
Streaming platforms are going to replace "radio", regardless of anything government does to boost AM, or even FM, for that matter. So any government actions wouldn't do much.
The AM Revitalization scheme seems to have worked out well, though. Eventually the government will probably allow the AM stations to switch off the MW transmitters and remain on FM. So at least those stations will still be on the air for a few more decades, until FM fades out into the sunset....
Good point about the foreign language Stations.hasn't happened yet here in Southwestern Ohio, but I can see Indian language stations, for example.
All these syndicated sports stations are splitting a small audience that wants to hear about The Yankees and Dodgers 24hr a day.
That's only in certain big markets. The closest to me is Atlanta
The big groups are closing AMs at a rapid pace in Spain, and nearly all commercial AMs are gone in Portugal. Italy never had much commercial AM as FM pirates took over going back 40 years.
A current copy of WRTH shows that nearly all other nations in Europe have eliminated or heavily reduced the number of AMs.
Same goes everywhere from Japan to Indonesia to India. Of course, India is repurposing AM (or, more properly, Medium Wave) for DRM with many high power transmitters covering the nation and each language area.
Agree.
They tried that 20 years ago. It requires people to buy HD radios, which is why it failed.
There were also interference issues caused by the IBOC system.
Mostly government news and information services, such as the BBC, Deutche Welle, RAI, RTVE and the like.
Generally, in Europe there was no commercial AM broadcasting ever except in a couple of places like Monaco and Andorra as well as Spain and Portugal. Elsewhere, it was government run with few and only more recent exceptions, using high power (100 kw to 1 megawatt) transmitters covering wide areas... or strings of little local low power ones all on the same channel to fill in bad reception areas.
AM also does very well in several other sectors in the US: religion and ethnic programming. It is not just conservative talk.