I noticed the first West Coast public FM receiver has launched - in San Rafael. The audio is a little low but it works. Map at FM-DX Webserver List .
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Thank You TEF668x Bay Area Operator!
- Thread starter RF101
- Start date
Not working for me at all
Because hardly anyone under 50 knows that AM exists. The band is essentially on life support. It’s an obsolete technology.
I don't mean to be unkind here, but that happened almost 17 years ago.
Because FM is where the listeners are, and even some of those listeners have gone on to streaming.
The bigger question is why KCBS is still on AM. Likely that's due to full-market coverage, something that's impossible on FM due to the terrain and geographic size of the Bay Area, and the lack of an alternative.
You are making a joke, right? If not, are you just now discovering the world of radio dx'ing (or radio in general)?
What the Hell are you talking about?
I've been DXing for over 50 years.
The migration of talk radio and news radio to FM is a different thing.
Yes, I know it's been going on for a while but I still don't see why it's so necessary.
Not only that, the AM signals travel much farther so it's a much better coverage area than the same station on FM.
Or maybe there are plans for the AM band to be used for something else in the future such as government communications or something.
FM is where the listeners are for music but did listeners demand that talk, news, and sports go to FM or are the listeners there for such formats only because that choice was made for them?
It's necessary because less people are listening to FM radio stations for music only, and moving to streaming services like Spotify, etc. to listen to music, so some companies have decided to switch some music stations to news, talk and/or sports formats.
"FM is for music, AM is for talk and spots".. what era are you stuck in.. 1982?
You make me think of the guy in this clip fromn 1982 of a WCBS TV report when WABC changed formats in 1982, fast forward to 2 mins 15 secons
It wasnt so much a demand, but as someone in the radio business, ive talked about this with others before and its been in the news before.. fm attracts an audience that wouldnt listen to something simply because its AM. FM is younger, am is older.. and fm solves some reception problems AM has in cities.
Excuse me for not wanting to jump on every trend that comes along.
Although I miss the days of top 40 on AM, I can see why music went to FM because it sounds better and that's fine.
But I'm not a Millennial or any of the younger generations who live on their phones and only get their music from Spotify or other streaming services.
I just think people should have some choice and news, talk, and sports stations are slowly replacing FM stations that had been for music and I have the right to not like that.
Sorry for not being a conformist.
Although I miss the days of top 40 on AM, I can see why music went to FM because it sounds better and that's fine.
But I'm not a Millennial or any of the younger generations who live on their phones and only get their music from Spotify or other streaming services.
I just think people should have some choice and news, talk, and sports stations are slowly replacing FM stations that had been for music and I have the right to not like that.
Sorry for not being a conformist.
people have plenty of choice for what to listen to on the radio
im noyt a conformist at all either, but this is a necessary evolution of what is a business
I see that you are in Hilo Hawaii. I've always wondered what, if any, AM signals are you able tp pick up from the mainland? .
Have fun shaking your fists at the clouds as economic realities dictate that AM and FM stations make format changes.
At night, the dial is flooded with signals from the mainland and it's even better in winter.
The regulars with listenable signals are stations like KFI, KNX, KNBR, KMJ, KFBK.
Other less strong regulars are, KDWN, KKOB, KKOH (often with WBBM in the background and even taking over at times), even WBAP from Dallas to name a few.
One of my favorite videos I've made. WWL from over 4,000 miles away.
The graveyard frequencies are filled with many stations at once too but none have ever gotten strong enough for me to ID.
The drawback though about DXing in Hawaii is that there's no E Skip on FM which is what I really miss from having lived in New Jersey and Florida.
Unless I'm thinking of someone else, Gar, you were a Florida DXing guy for quite the spell, right? That counts as points for me insofar as DX chops are concerned.
From what I've heard and recall, residents down there are just as traditional in their ways as you seem to be. No one calls the thing The Gulf of America. For the longest while no one has ever referred to it as the Gulf of Mexico, either! It's called 'The Gulf', period. By weathercasts, by people who require a direction reference, etc. No re-write of geography is taking root or is necessary or tolerated.
I too have been told to 'get with it' (often), meaning the new ways to do things and access things. If I find the cost of any of these things do-able, I'll dabble. After a prolonged sigh, of course. In the interim, the abridged bottom-line approach to music, commercials and other former 'radio-exclusive' creativity has been swirling down the nearest sewer. The blame can be assigned to the music industry (horrific music 'substitute' is all that's left), or the lack of young blood (listeners AND farm-system participants), or the nervous ulcers of clusters watching their own product as warily as they adjust to competing stations, or what seems to be a limited range of products willing to advertise. The dials are putrid in all regards. AM and FM both sound like going-out-of-business auctions with no fresh chatter, really lousy current music, inane and lifeless ads that sound as though the writers would do well to be popping the very products they're hawking -- iow a real lack of effort all around because, well, none is needed to pay the bills yet, and cheapness is usually cheaper to enact.
Put me in Gar HI's corner. Besides: the more stations go belly up, the better for DXers
From what I've heard and recall, residents down there are just as traditional in their ways as you seem to be. No one calls the thing The Gulf of America. For the longest while no one has ever referred to it as the Gulf of Mexico, either! It's called 'The Gulf', period. By weathercasts, by people who require a direction reference, etc. No re-write of geography is taking root or is necessary or tolerated.
I too have been told to 'get with it' (often), meaning the new ways to do things and access things. If I find the cost of any of these things do-able, I'll dabble. After a prolonged sigh, of course. In the interim, the abridged bottom-line approach to music, commercials and other former 'radio-exclusive' creativity has been swirling down the nearest sewer. The blame can be assigned to the music industry (horrific music 'substitute' is all that's left), or the lack of young blood (listeners AND farm-system participants), or the nervous ulcers of clusters watching their own product as warily as they adjust to competing stations, or what seems to be a limited range of products willing to advertise. The dials are putrid in all regards. AM and FM both sound like going-out-of-business auctions with no fresh chatter, really lousy current music, inane and lifeless ads that sound as though the writers would do well to be popping the very products they're hawking -- iow a real lack of effort all around because, well, none is needed to pay the bills yet, and cheapness is usually cheaper to enact.
Put me in Gar HI's corner. Besides: the more stations go belly up, the better for DXers
You're so right in that people in Florida refer to it as "The Gulf".
Another thing in radio that's become common for many years now is how virtually every oldies and classic rock station in the country plays the same very limited rotation of songs over and over and over and over again.
Someone in the radio business once told me here, I think it was, it's because that's what people want.
I find it hard to believe that most people like to hear songs like Sweet Home Alabama, Heart of Glass, Hotel California, Sultans of Swing, Every Breath You Take, Brown Eyed Girl, Joy to the World, all the time and not want to hear so many other great songs from over the years that never make airwaves anymore.
People can't be that lame.
Another thing in radio that's become common for many years now is how virtually every oldies and classic rock station in the country plays the same very limited rotation of songs over and over and over and over again.
Someone in the radio business once told me here, I think it was, it's because that's what people want.
I find it hard to believe that most people like to hear songs like Sweet Home Alabama, Heart of Glass, Hotel California, Sultans of Swing, Every Breath You Take, Brown Eyed Girl, Joy to the World, all the time and not want to hear so many other great songs from over the years that never make airwaves anymore.
People can't be that lame.
lemme tell ya... as a current on air guy at two stations.. one station has a lsitener every few weeks request the same song.
on another station i have a regular group of callers that cycle through the same dozen or two dozen songs often enough that i have to tell them to pick another song.
They dont know they want whats familiar and only that till they hear a stiff.
Good thing they invented streaming services and personal playlists so that you aren’t subject to the “whims” of experienced programmers.