The Day the AM Band Died

[davideduardo]

It is time for the big boys to power down. The 50kw stations were useful before the days of internet and cable, but now it is a waste.

50 kw is barely able to put a usable signal over large metros, what with the noise and interference and dimmers and such.

I recently was involved with an AM in a market of 17 million. It is low band (710) and was built with 100 kw into a 5/8 wave tower at an ideal site. The 100 kw could still not get perfect reception in the downtown areas, so a passive 1/4 wave tower was put "behind" the tower to nudge the station's signal more towards the metro, kicking the field strength up nicely and dominating the noise.

So here is a case where 100 kw on a low frequency is not enough.

The reason AM is in trouble is partly because most metro stations were licensed even berore W.W. II and were fine for the market until post-war urban sprawl made the market bigger than many signals. Add in man made interference and the overpopulation of the band, and a large percentage of AMs are not viable except as religious, brokered or ultra-niched format stations.

 

[8638]

I guess all things must pass, although I'm not happy about it. I have been in places in the US where nighttime skywave service provided the only usable reception (I-70 in Utah....same stretch in daytime produced NOTHING AM or FM....this was twenty years ago, so things may have changed, but, given the fact that there are no exits for 100 miles on this stretch, I doubt it.

Many fond memories of being on the road in the late seventies and early eighties at night, knowing that WOWO, WBT, and so many others were just a dial away. At least I have my tapes and CD's. Thanks, FCC, for ensuring that AM dies a painful death.

 

[Mike Walker]

WOWO, huh? What is the temperature outside on the fire escape?

 

[PhilGalasso]

What a lot of people seem to be missing here is not the problem of IBOC hash interfering with distant skywave signals but the larger, more important problem of IBOC hash from distant stations interfering with local stations. There are a lot of 50 kW flamethrowers on first or second adjacent channels to regional stations. For example, if WBBM, a 50 kW station on 780 kHz in Chicago goes IBOC, it will destroy reception of regional stations on 790 kHz at night. A worse situation is faced by local stations on 1490 kHz, adjacent to the clear channel of 1500 kHz occupied by such 50 kW stations as WTWP in Washington, DC and KSTP in St. Paul, MN.

Daytime interference from AM IBOC stations is bad enough. In Northeastern Pennsylvania, two local stations receive lots of IBOC interference from stations 20 kHz away from their frequencies. WNAK, 730 kHz in Nanticoke, PA, receives annoying IBOC hiss from WOR (710 kHz, New York City) just 15 miles east of the WNAK transmitter site. WAZL, 1490 kHz in Hazleton, PA receives harmful interference from WYHM, a 5 kW station on 1470 kHz in Allentown, PA. Allentown is approximately 40 miles from Hazleton and the interference can be heard plainly about 10 miles from the WAZL transmitter. Both WNAK and WAZL are 1 kW daytime. WAZL is 1 kW at night, while WNAK is 12 watts after local sunset...just enough to cover its city of license. That coverage will be totally destroyed by IBOC hash from WOR, made worse if WGN (720 kHz, Chicago) goes IBOC.

Another problem ignored by the FCC is pattern bandwidth. Many AM directional arrays have nice, deep nulls on the center carrier frequency. But, as one goes farther from that frequency, the null becomes shallow or disappears. The pattern null distortion heard on many stations as one drives through a null is an example of this, as the carrier nulls out but the sidebands do not null well. It sounds like monkey chatter. The IBOC hiss may not be nulled at all 15-20 kHz from the carrier frequency for which the array was designed.

I visualize a nighttime AM broadcast band that sounds like the high end of the 40 meter amateur band at the height of the Cold War. At that time, the Russians ran many "white noise" jammers on that band. Those sounded a lot like today's IBOC hiss. Hey, if IBOC dies the quick death it deserves to, maybe the equipment manufacturers could sell the leftover AM IBOC exciters and transmitters to the Cubans through a Canadian or Mexican subsidiary. They would make great jamming transmitters for a totalitarian government that doesn't want its citizens listening to foreign stations!

The Canadians and Mexicans may lodge a formal protest to the FCC and the State Department, as both countries fear harmful interference to their AM stations from IBOC hiss propagated via skywave from U.S. stations. Many U.S. clear channels are first adjacents to Canadian and Mexican clears.

As for AM skywave listening, it is not the exclusive province of DX'ers and hobbyists. Some years ago, when Hurricane Hugo knocked most local AM, FM, and TV stations off the air in the Carolinas, people got news and information from stations propagated via skywave, such as WGN and WLS (Chicago), WLAC and WSM (Nashville), and WCBS, WABC, and WOR (New York). While satellite radio offers nationwide coverage, at least you don't have to pay to listen to AM skywave.

We can only hope that iBiquity gets sued into bankruptcy by AM broadcasters whose primary, local signals are destroyed by IBOC hash extending up to 15-20 kHz from the hybrid digital station's carrier. This fiasco, like the impending digital television fiasco caused by the United States adopting an inferior transmission standard, is what we can expect from a government where lobbyists hold sway and from an FCC where decisions on technical standards are made by attorneys, rather than by engineers.

 

[8638]

WOWO, huh? What is the temperature outside on the fire escape?

Wasn't that great? I first heard WOWO in the early seventies...I was a little kid. I figured Fort Wayne must've been a big city with a radio station like this! Years later, I found out that its 'sound' and power belied its small population. And, I really enjoyed its interpretation of AC in the early nineties, in AM STEREO, even! Yet, how many of us all around eastern America knew of this station back then? More than a few, I think.

k2pg is knowledgable about all technical broadcasting matters, and has been nice enough to give me advice when I had to deal with the local cable company's leakage that deteriorated my OTA TV reception. I believe him when he says that 8-VSB is inferior, and I already know, from my own ears, that iBOC is crap. Anything that hashes outside of the assigned frequency over 80 miles from the TX is crap, plain and simple. I've heard the hash on WOR in Wilmington, Del! And now the entire AM band will be 'all hash, all the time.' Ah, progress.....please go away!

 

[paul vincent zecchino]

Dear Don, The Dude, K2pg, and fellow radio lovers -

As you say, iBLOC is garbage. Distant stations are blocked, and, as you note, courtesy of HD stooge radio jamming, you lose your local station. Many believe this was true goal of HD from the outset - jam competitors off the air and listeners into submission.

Virtually everything HD cheerleaders say is false. How can we believe any program they air?

HD is akin to sending tap water and sewage through the same pipe. HD is as if you or I wish to add on to our home. Our lot is small, so we bribe a 'friend' at city hall - voila! - our new addition sits upon half our neighbor's lot. Does he object? Sure. Does it matter? No. Why not? We 'partnered' with 'friends' at city hall to gain illicit ends.

One poster expressed it succintly - HD is 'trespassing' on AM. Forget sanctimony about 'the agreed upon standard, etc.' My foot. Our hypothetical family room squatting upon the neighbor's land is, by the same measure, an 'agreed upon standard'.

Just depends upon who 'agreed' to what amount of compensation.

Digital sound quality? MP3s are to audio quality what junk food is to nutrition. Sorry, HD stooge-radio cheerleaders, wrong again. Analog still sounds better.

Yes, we can build pyramids from styrofoam. But the sandstone originals still carry the value.

Performers who want to sound their best prefer new recording studios equipped with analog tube mixing boards and tape recorders for that warm rich sound.


HD stooge-radio pulled every string to gain its ends. But without an audience, they're through. If we don't buy stooge-radios, we can't be their audience.

Our influence counts - let's use it.

Dr. Paul Vincent Zecchino
Manasota Key, Florida
24 March, 2007

 

[SUPERCASTER]

It is time for the big boys to power down. The 50kw stations were useful before the days of internet and cable, but now it is a waste.

50 kw is barely able to put a usable signal over large metros, what with the noise and interference and dimmers and such.

I recently was involved with an AM in a market of 17 million. It is low band (710) and was built with 100 kw into a 5/8 wave tower at an ideal site. The 100 kw could still not get perfect reception in the downtown areas, so a passive 1/4 wave tower was put "behind" the tower to nudge the station's signal more towards the metro, kicking the field strength up nicely and dominating the noise.

So here is a case where 100 kw on a low frequency is not enough.

The reason AM is in trouble is partly because most metro stations were licensed even berore W.W. II and were fine for the market until post-war urban sprawl made the market bigger than many signals. Add in man made interference and the overpopulation of the band, and a large percentage of AMs are not viable except as religious, brokered or ultra-niched format stations.

So how is very low powered, noise and interference prone HD Radio supposed to help?
Coverage is less the half of analog, and the HD signal completely disappears whenever there is noise or interference.

 

[clouseau]

Dear Don, The Dude, K2pg, and fellow radio lovers -

As you say, iBLOC is garbage.

Opinions vary. The samples of the audio don't really sound like "Garbage" to me...

Distant stations are blocked,

Thanks for finally coming clean on this. I know HD proponents always lie. Funny how your situation is almost totally DX , but you convieniently omitted that fact at first.

and, as you note, courtesy of HD stooge radio jamming,

Great example of how if you don't have anything of value to say, make up phrases and call names.

you lose your local station.

If you say so. I've seen a lot of moronic things posted here, but losing your local station is approaching the Zenith of deception.

Many believe this was true goal of HD from the outset - jam competitors off the air and listeners into submission.

I think you mean "Many conpiracy theorists who were tine foil hats believe".

Virtually everything HD cheerleaders say is false.

Never a single example and always an overstatment. You have a strange way of telling the world "listen to me, I'm credible". Maybe an improvement in that area would be helpful. After all, according to you, there won't be local radio after a while.

HD is as if you or I wish to add on to our home. Our lot is small, so we bribe a 'friend' at city hall - voila! - our new addition sits upon half our neighbor's lot. Does he object? Sure. Does it matter? No. Why not? We 'partnered' with 'friends' at city hall to gain illicit ends.

Actually more like...

Every zip code only has One Street. It's called "Main Street". And local zoning requires 3 lots between every house. NOW lets apply your crazy analogy.

1)you or I wish to add on to our home.
2)Our lot is small,
3)so we bribe a 'friend' at city hall (Always with the tin Foil Hats) How about "Propose a new allocation system? Whatever.
4)our new addition sits upon half our neighbor's lot. (Actually, it sit upon their Address. As you convieniently forgot to mention, their ACTUAL "Lot" is far away. Actually Distant)

One poster expressed it succintly - HD is 'trespassing' on AM. Forget sanctimony about 'the agreed upon standard, etc.' My foot. Our hypothetical family room squatting upon the neighbor's land is, by the same measure, an 'agreed upon standard'.

It's funny that you try to revert this thing back to land ownership. In a way, it's very much like land ownership. In fact you can lay it out with maps. And protected coverage areas. The problem for you is, YOU DON'T LIKE THE DEEDS!!!

Your previous messages have stated the problem that you have because you can't get Miami because of Tampa. Etc.. etc.. All of your complaints are WAYYYY dx. If you use the "LAnd Analogy" you're so fond of, the stations you're crying about don't own the real estate....

Things change. Your house - 10 blocks from the beach has a great water view? - FINE, but don't cry because someone 3 blocks off the water built on THEIR land. You had a nice view for a long time. It was free. And you can still live in your house and utilize all the features specified in the deed. You just no longer get the bonus "Water View".

Just depends upon who 'agreed' to what amount of compensation.

Tin Foil hat time. No "owned" property was taken. No compensation was given.

Digital sound quality? MP3s are to audio quality what junk food is to nutrition. Sorry, HD stooge-radio cheerleaders, wrong again. Analog still sounds better.

Surprisingly, I am very comfortable with the sound of AM radio. I like it. Always have. However, it's a little misleading to say it sounds "Better" than an MP3. You do know that's pretty well a falsehood, right?

Yes, we can build pyramids from styrofoam. But the sandstone originals still carry the value.

How Prophetic. Not to mention competely irrellevant.

Performers who want to sound their best prefer new recording studios equipped with analog tube mixing boards and tape recorders for that warm rich sound.

Everyone prefers their own form of distortion. Not many artists prefer the sound of Analog AM-DX. So what is it? Is it coverage? or is it sound? Or is it Bitterness about life?

HD stooge-radio pulled every string to gain its ends.

When In doubt, name call. Clearly a great take.

But without an audience, they're through. If we don't buy stooge-radios, we can't be their audience.

We agree on something. Don't but "Stooge Radios". I know I won't. My Accurian and Aruba work just fine.

Our influence counts - let's use it.

Doc, I think "Your Influence" has enlightened a great many people on this issue. You might be surprised how, though.

Clouseau

 

[davideduardo]

So how is very low powered, noise and interference prone HD Radio supposed to help?
Coverage is less the half of analog, and the HD signal completely disappears whenever there is noise or interference.

On Am, the useful metro area signal is 10 mv/m, as has been proven. The HD signal is generally good inside this contouur. So the useful, usavle coverage of an AM today is duplicated by HD. No listener loss.

 

[PocketRadio]

So how is very low powered, noise and interference prone HD Radio supposed to help?
Coverage is less the half of analog, and the HD signal completely disappears whenever there is noise or interference.

On Am, the useful metro area signal is 10 mv/m, as has been proven. The HD signal is generally good inside this contouur. So the useful, usavle coverage of an AM today is duplicated by HD. No listener loss.

There are many listeners, who reply on skywave AM, especially in the Mid-West.

 

[davideduardo]

On Am, the useful metro area signal is 10 mv/m, as has been proven. The HD signal is generally good inside this contouur. So the useful, usavle coverage of an AM today is duplicated by HD. No listener loss.

There are many listeners, who reply on skywave AM, especially in the Mid-West.

First, radio listening at night is about a quarter the daytime listening. Second, AM listening at night is about 15% of daytime levels... nationally, AM listening is 20% of all radio listening...and under age 45, pretty much nothing.

The county by county ratings done in the US show very little night listening to distant stations. First, because there is nearly no night AM listening at all, and second because what listening is done is predominantly to local stations.

But the most important fact is that distant listening is not "salable" by commercial staitons who depend on ad revenue to stay on the air. If you can not create sales from something, it is useless.

 

[PocketRadio]

Well, with my list of 50KW AM stations:

http://www.northpine.com/broadcast/50kwam.html

there are very few 50KW AM stations in the Mid-West, and with the popularity of nighttime AM talk shows, surely there will be quite a few listeners driven to XM/Sirius, if HD/IBOC causes nighttime interference. Since I do not have any 50KW AM stations in my area, I am hoping that nighttime HD/IBOC won't be too much of a problem, where a local station would cause adjacent-channel interference to incoming skywaves.

 

[awj223]

First, radio listening at night is about a quarter the daytime listening. Second, AM listening at night is about 15% of daytime levels... nationally, AM listening is 20% of all radio listening...and under age 45, pretty much nothing.

The county by county ratings done in the US show very little night listening to distant stations. First, because there is nearly no night AM listening at all, and second because what listening is done is predominantly to local stations.

But the most important fact is that distant listening is not "salable" by commercial staitons who depend on ad revenue to stay on the air. If you can not create sales from something, it is useless.

But FCC policies have nothing to do with reported listening. For the same reason that the little station in an urban area that's 4x larger than when it was licensed who has been selling ads to listeners outside its protected contour CANNOT do anything about IBOC interference from the 50kW flamethrower in the next market that cuts its usable signal by 2/3 during critical hours, that 50kW class A flamethrower CAN bring legal action against anybody interfering with its protected skywave contour - listeners or not. Likewise, a regional station on an adjacent channel in a nearby market can file a complaint against the 50kW station if its IBOC signal is so strong that it reaches too far into the protected contour of the regional. The NRSC mask has not changed, the protection criteria have not changed, all that's happened is that, as long as it doesn't cause harmful interference, the FCC has given the green light to night HD. My opinion is that interference will be so bad, the FCC will be forced to reverse course after the real world results come in, and hybrid HD will either be de facto limited to 6 dB below the daytime level at night, or eventually required to be off the air after sunset or, at the latest, after drivetime regardless of sunset time. The only modes of operation most stations will be allowed to use after that time will be pure analog or pure digital.

It's so obvious that the FCC bought the report http://www.nrscstandards.org/DRB/NRSC eval iBiquityAM/amibocevaluationreport04062002.pdf that the NRSC and NAB prepared. No wonder it was approved for all night operation. They don't make it sound half bad on pages 54-57, do they? If interference proves to be bad in the real world, I'd be happy if the FCC forced AM hybrid HD off the air after drivetime. I'd give up a few hours of skywave in winter to clean up the AM band at night (due to the reduced analog bandwidth HD stations use) until the full transition to digital happens.

Let's face it, even if all AMs went dark between midnight and 6am, probably over 90% of the population would never notice unless someone else told them. I wouldn't be surprised if a large chunk of late night AM listening is from dedicated sports fans who follow every game their team plays. I don't ever want to see HD on my sports station because it introduces unacceptable delay into the play-by-play broadcast. That's probably why this particular station isn't even licensed for HD. Go to the stadium during a game and look around at all the people with headphones who listen to the broadcast while watching the game in person and you'd understand why (People HATE delays. You should have heard the uproar when the regional TV sports network delayed its signal by just 1-2 seconds to do HDTV and callers to the radio station started complaining about it being out of sync with the TV. Imagine what a 10-15 second HD delay would do!) For what it's worth, I'm in a top 10 market and only 3 AM stations are on the air with HD. Of those, none are 50 kW and the highest rated one is #25 overall. And this is an AM friendly market. AMs hold 2 of the top 3 positions and 3 of the top 10 spots.

 

[PocketRadio]

I'd give up a few hours of skywave in winter to clean up the AM band at night (due to the reduced analog bandwidth HD stations use) until the full transition to digital happens.

How is the fulll transition to digital ever going to happen, with consumers not buying HD radios - the transition to DAB has stalled in Canada, due to lack of consumer interest.

 

[R.F. Burns]

I'd give up a few hours of skywave in winter to clean up the AM band at night (due to the reduced analog bandwidth HD stations use) until the full transition to digital happens.

How is the fulll transition to digital ever going to happen, with consumers not buying HD radios - the transition to DAB has stalled in Canada, due to lack of consumer interest.

Because the US isn't Canada. It's a much different country with different needs and a much smaller population. HD radio have only recently come on the markey and those that are on the market are selling. If they weren't selling you wouldn't see companies such as Sangean manufacturing radios. Now that IBOC has been delared the winner of what is now an official digital broadcast system in the US you'll see more radios coming on board. Hey, it's only been official for 3 days. How about we see what occurs over the next year or so. Again, Canada and the US are different countries. Hey we don't speak French in the US but they do in Canada. I went to school in Buffalo and know just how different the two countries are. Don't base what happens here on what happened in Canada.

 

[davideduardo]

Because the US isn't Canada. It's a much different country with different needs and a much smaller population. HD radio have only recently come on the markey and those that are on the market are selling. If they weren't selling you wouldn't see companies such as Sangean manufacturing radios. Now that IBOC has been delared the winner of what is now an official digital broadcast system in the US you'll see more radios coming on board. Hey, it's only been official for 3 days. How about we see what occurs over the next year or so. Again, Canada and the US are different countries. Hey we don't speak French in the US but they do in Canada. I went to school in Buffalo and know just how different the two countries are. Don't base what happens here on what happened in Canada.

By the way, CRTC and Industry Canada just recently opened up a full study of IBOC, based on the total failure of Eureka 47 in Canada. They are looking at if and whether to permit HD Radio in Canada, mostly for FM since the AM band is down to about 100 stations now.

 

[PocketRadio]

I'd give up a few hours of skywave in winter to clean up the AM band at night (due to the reduced analog bandwidth HD stations use) until the full transition to digital happens.

How is the fulll transition to digital ever going to happen, with consumers not buying HD radios - the transition to DAB has stalled in Canada, due to lack of consumer interest.

Because the US isn't Canada. It's a much different country with different needs and a much smaller population. HD radio have only recently come on the markey and those that are on the market are selling. If they weren't selling you wouldn't see companies such as Sangean manufacturing radios. Now that IBOC has been delared the winner of what is now an official digital broadcast system in the US you'll see more radios coming on board. Hey, it's only been official for 3 days. How about we see what occurs over the next year or so. Again, Canada and the US are different countries. Hey we don't speak French in the US but they do in Canada. I went to school in Buffalo and know just how different the two countries are. Don't base what happens here on what happened in Canada.

Doesn't really matter that they are differnet countries, but they are very similar. Point is, that DAB has stalled in Canada, and HD/IBOC will stall further in the U.S., unless consumer up-take happens, which is very doubtful after this much time. The problem with HD Radio is not lack of distribution, but lack of consumer interest - period.

 

[R.F. Burns]

I'd give up a few hours of skywave in winter to clean up the AM band at night (due to the reduced analog bandwidth HD stations use) until the full transition to digital happens.

How is the fulll transition to digital ever going to happen, with consumers not buying HD radios - the transition to DAB has stalled in Canada, due to lack of consumer interest.

Because the US isn't Canada. It's a much different country with different needs and a much smaller population. HD radio have only recently come on the markey and those that are on the market are selling. If they weren't selling you wouldn't see companies such as Sangean manufacturing radios. Now that IBOC has been delared the winner of what is now an official digital broadcast system in the US you'll see more radios coming on board. Hey, it's only been official for 3 days. How about we see what occurs over the next year or so. Again, Canada and the US are different countries. Hey we don't speak French in the US but they do in Canada. I went to school in Buffalo and know just how different the two countries are. Don't base what happens here on what happened in Canada.

Doesn't really matter that they are differnet countries, but they are very similar. Point is, that DAB has stalled in Canada, and HD/IBOC will stall further in the U.S., unless consumer up-take happens, which is very doubtful after this much time. The problem with HD Radio is not lack of distribution, but lack of consumer interest - period.

I don't know what you base your statements on but did you know that up until Thursday IBOC was an experimental technology and that now it is officially the digital system which will be used in the US. 3 days isn't a lot of time as far as what will happen with this system. Again, the US and Canada are two different countries with different laws. By the way, One of the HD manufactures is doing so well with one of their HD radios that they are already preparing a second generation receiver for sale. That being the case, I guess your assumptions proved wrong.

 

[4dude]

They are looking at if and whether to permit HD Radio in Canada, mostly for FM since the AM band is down to about 100 stations now.

Good they are keeping this crap off AM...

 

[davideduardo]

They are looking at if and whether to permit HD Radio in Canada, mostly for FM since the AM band is down to about 100 stations now.

Good they are keeping this crap off AM...

They will not have any AMs to put it on. Canada is basically eliminating AM except for niche formats in major cities. Several provinces no longer have any AMs, and several others have one or tow.