It might be an overstatement, but I'd venture that most of the posters and readers here hold AM in warm regard because it was AM that we first listened to, AM that first infected us and in many cases, AM on which we caught a break. Ours may be the last class to ride the AM wave while it was strong and vital before we transitioned to FM along with so many listeners our age.
Over the last few weeks, I've been listening to AM more than usual: from WGR, AM 740 to WECK and WBEN, to the last days of WNED-AM. It used to be that I'd check WHLD a few times a week too, just to hear what the station was playing and gauge how the music library was being massaged. For the same reason, I occasionally listen to WECK, which seems to be playing more Classic Hits and Oldies than it did a month ago. Zoomer Radio 740 CFZM gets the same once over.
There are days when I genuinely dig listening to AM, whether it's music or talk. Take last Sunday. The weather was overcast, the ground was snow covered. By instinct or chance, I began a scan of the AM band while driving around the south towns. Distant signals were coming in like locals. 1490 WBTA which usually gets squelched by KB, was audible. 1420 was solid. 1430 was audible and 1440, which offered an ethnic show, was the cleanest I've heard the station sound. 1340 and 1330 were equally accessible. They weren't splashing on each other. Even 1590 from Salamanca was audible.
AM 740 sounded like their stick was within a mile of my car. The Big 8 (well, CKLW) was clean, 620 WHEN was as audible as was 610 CKTB, which really freaked me out because on the low end of the band, stations 10 kHz away usually wipe each other out, but CKTB, although closer, was very likely in directional mode and WHEN, although in Syracuse, probably was in non-DA mode, thereby giving each station equal signal strength on my car radio.
I was so geeked out about the AM conditions that I called one of my engineer friends and, almost apologizing, told him to scan the AM band. He was at home at the time, had at least three computers running and told me he'd check out the band when he was in his car later on because all he could hear on AM was hash and noise.
That was my reality check for the day.
It's not only the AM transmission standards these days, it's the way AM radios are built. Add to this the onset of the digital dashboard and it's easy to see why the clock is ticking on AM.
Another reality check of the day.
