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Saving AM Radio

BruceB said:
With the incoming FCC chief Mr. Carr and his Republican majority I wonder if he would have any interest in letting owners of low power and or daytime only AMs surrender their AM license and run their FM translators as stand alone stations.
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Not without violating §307(b) and the LCRA.
BruceB said:
Would the bureau have the power to do that without Congressional approval?
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No in almost most cases. If the translator facility can provide service to a significant portion of the AM's designated community of license AND the translator is in a situation where it not only protects but also is fully outside of all other broadcast facilities (secondary or not), then possibly, but even then, another station, especially a primary station could make a modification to cause interference. Translators cannot become primary because of the LCRA.
 
MarkW said:
I note the legislation as currently drafted says "receive signals" in subparagraph 3(a)(1) and then in subparagraph 3(a)3, it mentions installation of "devices that can receive signals and play content transmitted by digital audio AM broadcast stations" as an option for achieving compliance.

Whether that text solely means broadcast AM band signals received OTA or can be construed to mean something else (i.e. internet streams of AM stations) is open to interpretation, I suppose. My own interpretation is the device must receive analog radio signals, digital radio signals or both that are broadcast on the AM radio band. I do not believe an internet app would qualify as compliant.
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They mean over the air. It's defined in §2(7):

(7) DIGITAL AUDIO AM BROADCAST STATION.—
(A) IN GENERAL.—The term “digital audio AM broadcast station” means an AM broadcast station that—
(i) is licensed by the Federal Communications Commission; and
(ii) uses an In-band On-channel system (as defined in section 73.402 of title 47, Code of Federal Regulations (or a successor regulation)) for broadcasting purposes.
(B) EXCLUSION.—The term “digital audio AM broadcast station” does not include an all-digital AM station (as defined in section 73.402 of title 47, Code of Federal Regulations (or a successor regulation)).
 
MarkW said:
It would behoove the federal government to develop emergency message communication infrastructure that isn't so heavily reliant on an archaic broadcast medium.
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OK, but at what cost to, and to whom? The government? And even if the gov't comes up with a more robust emergency message system (i.e., cell based), there is nothing wrong with the same gov't insisting on emergency message & information redundancy, i.e. AM still being available in vehicles.

When it comes to emergencies and public safety, redundancy in mechanisms for delivering that emergency info is better than less redundancy.
 
DavidEduardo said:
I did 400 watts into 4 bay vertical only elements in several locations above Quito, Ambato, Riobamba and Cuenca, Ecuador. The ERP after cable loss was about 1200 watts and it worked fine, even for the biggest city with over a million people in very, very rough and irregular terrain.
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This almost sounds like you're referring to TPO, not ERP!
 
semoochie said:
This almost sounds like you're referring to TPO, not ERP!
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Nope. As I said, I only used vertical polarization after several years of experimentation with my 5 Quito FMs. At those lower power levels, we did not use... due to cost and the high rate of shipping damage... rigid heliax or gas-filled coax, so there was loss on the coax (even at less than 25 meters of coax).

So we had vertical elements with mechanical beam tilt (a pully, a crank some gears and a chain!) and the multiple in ERP on 4 bays was just over 3 times the TPO. A lot of our measurements were based on very primitive signal strength meters installed into our car radios and not measured field strength with $5000 test gear.

I put my first FM... home built transmitter, exciter, board, antenna, even tower sections, for less than U$S 5,000. The most expensive items were the Audimax and Volumax, cart machines and the quality turntables which we could not build locally.

That was the first FM in northern South America at the time. Two years later, we went stereo. Had to buy stereo Audimax and Volumax and build a new board. The stereo generator was a Philips bench test stereo "emulator" made to accept audio rather than a set of L and R tones.
 
Miss Tuned said:
Meanwhile in the UK, FM stations are going off the air where the coverage is duplicated by DAB.

It's mostly in cases where the transmission equipment needs to be replaced at a cost, and where listening on FM is so low that the cost would never be recouped.
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It's amazing how much farther the UK and other parts of Europe are ahead of North America with a digital transition for radio.
 
Theater of My Mind said:
It's amazing how much farther the UK and other parts of Europe are ahead of North America with a digital transition for radio.
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Because in the US, radio is all privately owned. Cumulus and Townsquare have been turning in AM licenses, but FM is still viable here.

The FCC here was resistant to DAB, and the few experiments with all digital radio haven't been very successful.

The public chose against buying HD radios or digital broadcast radios.
 
TheBigA said:
Because in the US, radio is all privately owned. Cumulus and Townsquare have been turning in AM licenses, but FM is still viable here.

The FCC here was resistant to DAB, and the few experiments with all digital radio haven't been very successful.

The public chose against buying HD radios or digital broadcast radios.
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Streaming seems to me the equivalent of DAB here as far as people increasingly using it.
 
DavidEduardo said:
In a small market, I'd like to have power over height. 1000 watts at a lower height is better than 250 watts at the equivalent height, as it penetrates better. I have a log of experience with that, the last one being moving a Class A with under 800 watts from a high location to the full 6 kw at normal Class A height and having ratings nearly triple (KRCD West Covina, CA).
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Exactly, for example in my city Hermosillo. Personally, I made a similar recommendation, since the station was a category "A" with a limit of 3kW apparent and 1kW effective, while going up to a higher altitude of 440M the regulator is authorizing 400 watts apparent, with 80 watts effective for the category. I prefer more energy than height in these cases.
 
radiofan2023 said:
They’re terrible, it’s just an excuse for him to warble old songs:
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George Noory sounds horrible. He has aged very much.
Listened last night in the car (the only program I listen to on Austin's major talk station- too unbalanced all other times).

Was shocked by how much he sounds old and tired, or that he had a cold.

I like him, but liked Art Bell better, though they're two different animals, so isn't fair to judge him against his predecessor.
 
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TheBigA said:
Because in the US, radio is all privately owned. Cumulus and Townsquare have been turning in AM licenses, but FM is still viable here.

The FCC here was resistant to DAB, and the few experiments with all digital radio haven't been very successful.

The public chose against buying HD radios or digital broadcast radios.
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And Canada, also with a high historic concentration of private radio, tried DAB and abandoned it after a number of years and considerable expense.

There has been no interest in digital in Latin America, where government radio is even less prevalent.
 
Flying Dutchman said:
When is the last time any of you listened to AM radio?
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Last night, for the Rams/49ers game on Westwood One, on KQFN 1580 in Phoenix. Its 70 watts at night from about 30 miles west of me comes in better than its Fountain Hills translator on 95.9, which is spotty in Mesa.

Other than KMVP-FM/98.7, the other Phoenix sports stations are AM repeated on weak FM translators or HD2. Doesn't help me on the road -- no HD in my radio. Ancient Modulation still serves a purpose for some people, including me.
 
In 1980, I was on AM, FM, and shortwave all at once. We took phone calls and asked listeners how they were hearing us. FM listeners beat AM listeners ten to one. Shortwave came in second.
 
Flying Dutchman said:
When is the last time any of you listened to AM radio?
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In the Cincinnati and Dayton markets, if you want to listen to news about your sports teams in the car it's all on AM radio.
In season, the Reds are on AM only likewise
UC and Xavier basketball.
No FM station in either market does sports news, that I'm aware of.
 


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