Article is right on.
Mark
Every morning I get up and go do a morning show on a 5000 watt AM station, where I've been for 30 years. I see revenue continue to grow year after year, listenership continues to grow as the population in the area grows and people discover real, live, local programmed radio. You can blame all you want on the FCC, and noise, and rules. But you can also blame a lot of programmers and owners who don't want to put in the work to do it right.
TIB
The article focuses on the technical problems of AM exacerbated by government and FCC ineptitude and there is some truth to that but the major failing of AM I see is the programming. Migrating current syndicated programs with saturation level commercials to FM will not make any difference to me since I will not tune in.
In the 20s up through the 50s it was common practice for listeners to supply an outdoor antenna which connected to the terminals provided on receivers. It was not unusual for listeners to choose to tune in stations 100 or so miles away to seek programs of their preference and in many cases these were the closest stations. My point here is that if a person seeks programming to their liking they will find a way or ways to overcome techincal issues with AM.
There are a few distant AM stations which I seek because they offer programming to my taste and unlike most urban stations they are comparatively sparing with commercials. In order to receive these signals I have erected an outdoor antenna and use an outstanding quality receiver which has no problem with sensitivity or selectivity.
Similarly, in the pre cable days, TV reception often required outdoor rooftop antennas and it was a normal and accepted mode of obtaining reception. Likewise for AM an outdoor antenna with a balanced feedline provides reception on a suitable receiver without noise from things inside the house.
The AM band can continue but it is not just a technical fix which is required. There needs to be something there which people want to hear, at least in my opinion..
Neil
They could re-run old theater of the mind radio dramas and a lot of people would listen to that.
There's a station in Hamilton, west of Toronto, that every night from 10PM to 1AM broadcasts old radio dramas as they were aired in the 30s 40s and 50s with the original commercials including the cigarette ads and it's great.
Just an example.
Mark
Mark: we run OTR on our LPFM here in Florida. Running old shows with cigarette ads is still a no-no in the United States.
Tim you make valid points about programming but the best programming is useless when it fades into powerline noise, plasma TV's etc while still in the predicted coverage areas. Also, where does the average Joe go to buy a quality AM radio? Certainly not Wal-Mart.
Just regarding that radio station
you mentioned: CHML 900 in
Hamilton, Ontario - - yeah - it
is great! I listen to it
here too. Old radio shows
with great reception at night here in
Hartford, CT
Brooce, Part 15 in...
Oh yeah you know that
already.
I have not looked into it but:
I wonder if AM radio is
providing any useful assistance
for the present disaster in Texas
and areas nearby...
And what about FM
and over the air TV.
Maybe my question
is just plain silly under
the present circumstances?
I think there is another thread
that might help answer the
question. I geuss I should
look over there.
Brooce
In answer to Brooce... while Hurricane Harvey was approaching the coast of Texas I tried to tap into the streams of two news talk stations in Corpus Christy, KKTX 1360 and KEYS 1440. One of them had Michael Saage the other had Sean Hannity. Neither one had any sign of local reporting.
So I connected with WOAI 1200 AM in San Antonio which had total storm coverage as "Operation Stormwatch". I re-streamed it on KDX for 2 days.
When Houston got involved I re-stream KTRH 740 AM which was devoted 100% to storm coverage.
As the storm began threatening Louisiana I carried WWL 870 AM New Orleans for reports on what they anticipated.
I was amazed at how these stations managed to be on the air during the disaster.
KKTX was simulcasting KTRH on air, KEYS I believe was simulcasting the local TV station. At some point all radio stations were simulcasting eachother or the TV station or KTRH. (If they weren't rolling their own)
The streams are fed via alternate methods so they probably weren't always relaying what was going out on air. (Not to mention nearly all of them went offline at some point but stayed on air)
I know iHeart evacuated their studios, could have been the same story for KEYS.
It won't be long to start tapping into Florida stations.
Druid Hills Radio, we will be following things very closely and watching Irma, hoping it decides to make a right turn and go back out to the Atlantic!
We will start posting information about the big 50 kW News/Talk stations in Florida.
We just did a quick brush-up on Florida cities and radio stations.
The most populous city is Jacksonville, the second is Miami.
Because Miami is closer to the tip of the state and may potentially receive first impact from Irma we have selected News Talk 610 WIOD for Operation Stormwatch.
Tomorrow we'll have a Jacksonville station selected, either WBOB or WOKV.
Storms often change course and that is what we hope in this case.
We have been preferring AM stations for disaster coverage, probably unfair to FM news/talkers if there are any. Maybe we'll take a look.
WFLF AM 540 50 kW between Tampa and Orlando.