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There's background noise in my signal.

Oh, my goodness, R. F.

I never argued that young people stopped listening to AM. I echoed Chuck's eloquent statement of the obvious: that people of our generation who grew up habitually listening to AM are getting older, hence the aging demographic associated with the band. Nobody suggested that today's teens once listened but have stopped. Nor did either Chuck or I allege that there is a "new influx of aging listeners." You completely missed this point.

Your statement about WNYC and its simulcasts or lack of other New York simulcasts is irrelevant. I was stating that if owners were required to put standalone programming on their AMs instead of just duplicating FMs it might force them to think about utilizing them fully - and profitably.

As far as picking the best management talent properly, you stand corrected: Wall Street does not care about "payrolls" any more than they care about what automation software radio companies use. These are niggling matters which are entirely left to managers. Wall Street cares about fiscal PERFORMANCE. And if you'll check it, radio isn't doing very well. CC is trading at about 25% of its high. Gee, maybe if big radio management thought about AM, and developed it with a little imagination, it could make a contribution to the bottom line - instead of just representing a maintenance cost and power bill.

As far as smaller companies finding revenue where larger ones can't: I just can't define your argument here, much less understand it. What I was trying to say is: if Bill in North Myrtle Beach can make AM work with 500 watts, and Bob in Rochester can throw off $100K annually with a standalone suburban AM, there is absolutely no valid reason why big radio groups with vastly superior resources can't make money on the band. To argue otherwise is absurd.
 
Savage said:
Postscript: for all the wailing on this board and elsewhere about how "nobody's listening because of that awful AM sound," I don't believe I have ever heard a listener or advertiser tell me, "I'd spend more money/time with your station if it just sounded like FM."

I've never heard that either. What I have heard on almost a daily basis.
"Ewwww AM, we don't buy AM radio. Only FM"
"No one listens to AM anymore."
"Why don't you guys get on an FM station. I like what's on, but you (And KXXX-AM and KYYY-AM) don't sound very good."
"I don't know why you guys bother with all that fancy remote equipment. AM radio sounds tinny anyway"


Now honestly, Savage. You don't get "No one listens to AM anymore"?

Clouseau

Wondering if it's time to move back up north. :)
 
Actually, Clouseau, that's the wrong question.

It's beyond dispute that AM audiences are too small. But that has less to do with inherent technical shortcomings than it does with lack of management commitment and imagination. And trying to parachute in with a miracle-engineering-cure long after decades of neglect and myopia have done the damage to AM radio is ridiculous and counterproductive. IBOC is just the latest, most expensive and egregious insult to the service. It's a lie which will only further hurt the band. You can't force progress. Like planting any cash crop, all you can do is create ideal conditions for germination and growth, make corrections and harmonize with the external factors over which you have little literal control. The same tenets we all learned and hold dear about radio, especially venerable AM radio, are still true. It's been said that most people tragically discard the things that matter most to them. So don't do it!

Blowing the world up in vain hope that a new, better one grows in its place, is brutal and unnecessary. Find the real answers instead of indulging in yet another desperate stab at a quick, relatively cheap, fix. Look at Bill in North Myrtle Beach! You can't believe he's violating some law of nature with a local AM stereo 500-watter with music and full service programming elements - and is somehow successful!!

C'mon back up north where for some inexplicable reason, AMs can make money! (And, hot dang - we're also "having fun in radio," that so-elusive quality!)

Jump in, Inspector, the water's fine!
 
A postscript for the Inspector and others:

a. In 20 years of operating an AM, I have never heard objections from prospects or advertisers about "tinny" audio or AM "not sounding very good." Not one. That could be because we have never tried to compete with FMs as a music medium, so the comparison may not be a fair one, but that's our experience. Believe it or not.

That's not to say we haven't gotten objections about reception conditions or programming which a prospect doesn't care for, the usual barriers thrown up by skeptics when you're trying to sell them. But AM sound quality has literally never been an issue.

b. As far as "smaller AM audiences" go (and I dissent from the sentiment "nobody listens to AM anymore," which I haven't gotten from the public/prospects either) let's take a spin around the AM dial here in Rochester:

1180 - 50kw NDA, CCU, usual news/talk suspects Rush, Hannity, Beck, local midday guy.
1280 - 5kw 4-tower covers 45% of one county of MSA at night - Fox sports and Don/Mike porn talk, zero local content.
1370 - 5kw 4-tower DA-N, covers 60% of one MSA county, NPR.
1460 - 3.8kw 3-tower DA-N, brokered religion. Zero local content.
950 - 1kw DA-2, 4 towers, lefty talk. Zero local content.
990 - 5kw DA-D, 2.5kw DA-N, 6 towers, covers about half of one county of MSA with bizarro "Legends" "like this song? You'll hate the next one!" format, Rupert Holmes followed by Xavier Cugat followed by James Taylor, IBOC-restricted 4.5 kHz analog bandpass so muffled you have to crank your radio to half-open to even understand what the announcer is saying. Weekends and nights, brokered Hispanic, religion, vanity segments.

Then, of course, WYSL, which I immodestly will say does a pretty good job with our news/talk/sports DA-3 on 1040.

I think our market is quite typical of what you find on AM wherever you go these days. So, be honest; if "nobody listens to AM any more," would that be....because of the lack of sparkling digital HD audio? Or because of the sorry, lame, defeatist stab at "programming" which essentially is keyed to "how much effort" the AM takes as a distraction to "more profitable" pursuits?

Or, to put it another way: you can't really believe that if this unattractive bog of no-merit content were suddenly heard in HD-AM that people would flock to buy new radios and AM would be "saved." (Setting aside for a moment the obvious truth that on these pipsqueak AM signals that don't cover the market in analog, would NEVER reach a significant audience with digital.)
 
Hey Savage, I'm curious as to the level of the IBOC sidebands on WHAM 1180 from Rochester. It is only one of two 50KW stations that I receive in HD at night at my location. Can your engineer scope out the level of the IBOC sidebands on WHAM? I'm curious if theirs, and KMOX, are running at a significantly higher level then other 50KW AM's and that's why they can make the cut to HD at night?
 
IT WAS IBOC NOISE. I just got a report from my engineer and his crew which have been studying the noise or hiss we reported. He says it was definitely IBOC. I don't wish to go further on this except to say the noise is not now present and it was not present last night. Without seeking to be confrontational or antagonistic, we will vigorously defend our right to our protected contours. We have investment much money into WNMB in order to serve our community with a quality radio station. We cannot allow such interference. We hope the offending signal will do the right thing and permanently cease such interference.
 
Savage said:
Or, to put it another way: you can't really believe that if this unattractive bog of no-merit content were suddenly heard in HD-AM that people would flock to buy new radios and AM would be "saved." (Setting aside for a moment the obvious truth that on these pipsqueak AM signals that don't cover the market in analog, would NEVER reach a significant audience with digital.)

It seems to me the old adage; "you can't polish a turd” is still appropriate. You can have frequency response from DC to light, a 96-db signal to noise ratio and better than 60db channel separation, but if you don't use it to broadcast something people want to listen to, they still won't tune in. High Fidelity crap is still just crap.
 
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