radiorob2.0 said:
The original intention of starting this topic was the future of WSM. We can pretend all day and night, "Gee, isn't it swell WSM is one of the last stations playing music on AM and I love the skyfade and they shouldn't change a thing". My question was, "Why didn't anyone move the format, and a good one at that, to FM?
The reality is things change. We used to get around with horse drawn wagons but today we have cars. We used to make trips across the country on rail and to other countries on steamer ships, today we have air travel. We used to shop downtown but retail has moved to the suburbs. We used to depend on AM radio for wide area communications but we now have the internet and satellite delivery.
WSM is one hell of a radio station. But AM is no longer the best delivery system to reach the audience potential.
Rob,
That’s a good question. National Life (former owner of WSM-AM and TV) purchased WLWM-FM (now know as 95.5, the Wolf, WSM-FM) in 1968. One would have thought that was the reasons for the FM purchase. They anticipated the rise of FM as early as the late 60’s and the programming should have been moved to the FM, or a simulcast of the AM & the FM over a period of years, until they could get the programming up on satellite. They could have made the programming available for FMs, market to market.
The FCC has made a statement that it realizes that AM is a dying part of the spectrum. They say that the only good it’s for is ethnic programming, which will move to FM within the next 5-10 years in the medium and small markets. Lots of us (including me) own AM stations, but AM is a struggle to sell, unless your WGN, WLW, or WABC, and even these stations are not the cash cows they once were and we sometimes wonder how much longer we will be here.
As we move towards 2010, digital will take over. Digital AM does not work, period. The bandwidth is just to narrow. Neither IBOC, nor DRM is any good in the commercial AM band spectrum.
The AM DX guys, like myself, realize it’s just a matter of time, and AM will be a dead horse. It’s really not as fun to DX, like it once was. Consolidation killed a lot of it, with the same satellite programming on from market to market. In addition, AM skywave has changed over the past 15 years or so, and it’s harder to receive distant stations these days, than it once was.
Only time will tell, as lobbyist and the government decided what is best for the consumer and the demands of the majority of the consumers.
Now let's move on to another subject matter folks,
AND NOT THE LACK OF OLDIES STATIONS MR. JULIAN! That's another subject matter that has been way wore out, much worse than the topic about WSM. Hell, it's been discussed for over 2 years on this board! Get over it and move on to the future. WHIN will never be the same again, period. It can be moved towards the metro, sold for a BIG price, and go to an ethnic format. I see that happening if Sparkman gets his share of the money he wants for his 50% of the station.