What If AM Radio Was Discontinued?

[landtuna]

I don't know if the writers of Gilligan's Island knew that, but that is how the castaways' AM radio was able to pick up stations on that distant island in the daytime.

If you remember the theme song it was only a "three hour trip". A tourist boat can make about 12 knots so a trip of that sort would put them only 30+ nautical miles from Hawaii (their shove off point). No way there would be "an uninhibited island" within that short radius.

I do remember my destroyer being able to receive KORL (AM) a full day before reaching Pearl Harbor (24 hours X 16 knots).

At any rate, when the Professor can make a radio out of two coconut shells and a jar of octopus fluid, the distance of an AM signal is not much of a long shot. 🙄

 

[landtuna]

A fiction writer I know was cooking up an idea of a book with characters who communicated with old ham radio equipment. She had assumed "Q" signals" were a type of encryption. I explained they were shorthand, originally for morse code. As far as I know, the book didn't happen.

The US Navy (and NATO units) also used 'Z' codes which were military oriented.

 

[CTListener]

The US Navy (and NATO units) also used 'Z' codes which were military oriented.

Those Z codes used to be listed, along with the Q's, in the Radio Amateur Callbook. An amusing one was "ZLF," which meant "Try sending with your LEFT foot." It was intended as a sarcastic reprimand to an operator sending sloppy Morse Code.

 

[KeithE4]

Those Z codes used to be listed, along with the Q's, in the Radio Amateur Callbook. An amusing one was "ZLF," which meant "Try sending with your LEFT foot." It was intended as a sarcastic reprimand to an operator sending sloppy Morse Code.

I remember that as QLF, not ZLF.

 

[landtuna]

Those Z codes used to be listed, along with the Q's, in the Radio Amateur Callbook. An amusing one was "ZLF," which meant "Try sending with your LEFT foot." It was intended as a sarcastic reprimand to an operator sending sloppy Morse Code.

Radiomen can be extremely critical of poor workmanship on the 'other' end.

We didn't use much code when I was a sailor in Vietnam. Electronic messaging had become encrypted RTTY. So instead of sending Morse 'Q' or 'Z' codes we usually used a slash followed by either our initials or a short message. Of course, these were redacted before the message board left the radio shack.

Signalmen still used Morse code (by lamp) and probably still do.

 

[MarioMania]

Can we please not have all caps, Why do people do this for?

It's not like your thread would get notice quicker

 

[CTListener]

Can we please not have all caps, Why do people do this for?

It's not like your thread would get notice quicker

Kind of late in the game to be triggered by that, isn't it?

 

[CTListener]

I remember that as QLF, not ZLF.

Pretty sure it was in the Z's in the Callbooks I remember, in the '70s. I wouldn't be surprised if hams used QLF, though.

 

[b-turner]

Radio 40 to 45 years ago is so far removed from today. 40 to 45 years ago, FM had just begun beating AM in listeners. I think Dallas was one of the earliest markets in 1975. It would be 1982 before my car had an FM (without me buying an AM/FM Cassette). Today maybe 5-15% listen to the AM dial at all. When we recall a successful AM daytimer 40+ years ago, it is just not happening today except in very rare instances (ie: only local station, only station received or something similar). You'd be hard pressed to find an AM station not owned by a major group that can afford a staff.

The station I work for is quite successful as the only daily source of local information and community involvement. We have a morning guy who doubles as operations. Others on air are voice tracked. Before you live is better people yell about that, our afternoon drive ran an actual call from a listener with a question about a contest we are running, answered the question and offered full details/rules of the contest within 30 minutes. Sales works from home. Nobody is at the station after 10am. One client I have spent $1,200 a month in the 1980s with us. I worked them like crazy and finally got them at $300 a month in 2022. That's today's reality...way too many slices in the advertising pie. And the only staff you have really is needed every day. Getting away takes some planning and it can't be for long.

 

[davideduardo]

Radio 40 to 45 years ago is so far removed from today. 40 to 45 years ago, FM had just begun beating AM in listeners. I think Dallas was one of the earliest markets in 1975.

Yep. Nationally, FM became the owner of 50% of listening in 1976, and passed it in 1977. However, FM took the music station listening lead around 1974.

It would be 1982 before my car had an FM (without me buying an AM/FM Cassette). Today maybe 5-15% listen to the AM dial at all.

Nationally, it is just below 9%. But nearly all of that is over 55. Some markets have less than 5% AM listening, usually in cases where the market has no decent AM signals.

 

[davideduardo]

Can we please not have all caps, Why do people do this for?

It's not like your thread would get notice quicker

I can correct those that appear if I have time to waste... but you are right: on the web, all caps means SCREAMING!

 

[Daryl Lynn L.A.]

Yep. Nationally, FM became the owner of 50% of listening in 1976, and passed it in 1977. However, FM took the music station listening lead around 1974.

Nationally, it is just below 9%. But nearly all of that is over 55. Some markets have less than 5% AM listening, usually in cases where the market has no decent AM signals.

David, if nationally, AM listeners are just below 9%, and most of that are listeners over 55........then how do the right-wing talkers like
Rush Limbaugh ( in the past), or his brother David Limbaugh, Thomas Sowell, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Alex Jones, Michael Savage, etc. get so many listeners? Is it because the company Clear Channel Communications Inc. ( not the descriptor, but the corporation) bought up so many big 50,000 watt stations? That corporation owns over 50 of the nation's most powerful AM stations, correct? So, where there are listeners available for AM radio ( people over 55 in large markets), a huge number of them are tuned to a 50,000 watt station that can charge higher ad rates, correct? Thank you for any clarification you can provide.

 

[frankberry]

I can correct those that appear if I have time to waste... but you are right: on the web, all caps means SCREAMING!

I don't have a problem with thread titles in all caps. Beyond that, the text of the post should not be in all caps. That is considered SCREAMING.
Newspaper headlines are generally in all caps. On TV, the lower thirds (slugs) are generally in all caps.
That's my two-cents worth.

 

[CTListener]

Newspaper headlines are generally in all caps.

No. Most newspaper headlines are written just as you'd normally write: Capitals for the first letter of the first word and for proper nouns, lowercase for everything else. The New York Times capitalizes the first letter of all words except for conjunctions and the articles "the" and "a." All-caps headlines are usually found in tabloids, and even in those papers, they don't represent the majority of the headlines used.

 

[frankberry]

CTListener,
You are correct. My memory failed me. Nonetheless, I have no issue with thread titles in all caps. Many times, folks copy and paste the thread title from an internet site where it originated in all caps.

 

[vchimpanzee]

No. Most newspaper headlines are written just as you'd normally write: Capitals for the first letter of the first word and for proper nouns, lowercase for everything else. The New York Times capitalizes the first letter of all words except for conjunctions and the articles "the" and "a." All-caps headlines are usually found in tabloids, and even in those papers, they don't represent the majority of the headlines used.

I have a problem if I try to copy a headline for Wikipedia. One of the sites I use has headlines in all caps. I've seen people leave them like that if they got the headlines from sites that do that. But I figure it's better to convert them.

I have access, through the college I went graduated from, to old Charlotte Observers online. Not being a student I have to actually go there, but every single first letter in every word in headlines is capitalized.

 

[vchimpanzee]

If you remember the theme song it was only a "three hour trip". A tourist boat can make about 12 knots so a trip of that sort would put them only 30+ nautical miles from Hawaii (their shove off point). No way there would be "an uninhibited island" within that short radius.

That's if they hadn't gotten caught in that storm. Who knows how long it took them to get to the island?

I remember hearing that before Myrtle Beach SC had Top 40 radio locally, The Big Ape (now WOKV) Jacksonville, FL at 690, 50,000 watts, was the area's Top 40 station during the day, and I even remember listening to Rush Limbaugh on that station (though the signal wasn't great by that time).

 

[Kelly A]

If you remember the theme song it was only a "three hour trip".

A "three hour tour".

 

[CTListener]

I have a problem if I try to copy a headline for Wikipedia. One of the sites I use has headlines in all caps. I've seen people leave them like that if they got the headlines from sites that do that. But I figure it's better to convert them.

I have access, through the college I went graduated from, to old Charlotte Observers online. Not being a student I have to actually go there, but every single first letter in every word in headlines is capitalized.

I should have added that several other papers, not just the New York Times, still capitalize first letters throughout headlines. In fact, my first employer was a paper that didn't capitalize, but my second employer was a paper that did. So I had to remind myself to capitalize all the words... for all of six months, which was when the paper's executive editor decreed that we weren't doing that anymore!

 

[landtuna]

I can correct those that appear if I have time to waste... but you are right: on the web, all caps means SCREAMING!

Except in the US Navy where all caps were the norm.