AM and the BMW mystery

In a year gone by my companion at the time told me she thought I seemed like a BMW kind of person.

At least I was smart enough not to admit that I had no idea what a "BMW" was.

Finding out that BMW is a car brand I felt that she really didn't understand me because I was clearly a Mercedes-Benz kind of guy.

I've never had either a BMW or Mercedes-Benz, but continue to have many AM radios.

 now we will find out just how much AM radio is worth to the general public. If enough folks stand up and want this too then just maybe the FCC will step in and make attempts to revitalize it.

John Q. Public couldn't give a crap if AM radio exists. As long as he can hear the station's programming that he wants to hear.  If John Q's favorite station is ABCD radio, and they've been on 1030 AM for 60 years, and suddenly pull the plug and put that exact same programming on 95.6 FM John Q. Public is NOT going to care.  in fact, he'll probably be quite happy about it as the fidelity will improve greatly, as will the noise and interference. This assumes they simply keep on doing what they're doing and just switch the studio audio feed over to their new FM transmitter.  People want to hear what they want to hear and they don't really give a crap about how they do that, as long as it's handy. So, bottom line is they care about the programming, but NOT the technical way they receive that programming, as long as it's convenient for them.

And speaking of convenience, another stab at AM is the fact that darn near everyone streams. And listening to streaming is getting mighty darn easy these days.  I can listen to the AM station where I work, anywhere in the country on the stream. Anywhere in the world for that matter. It's easy. Hit the bookmark on my computer in the house, or hit the bookmark on my iPhone when I'm in the car. It streams to my car stereo automatically via bluetooth when I get in the car. Not only is it easy, but the web stream has no interference, no static, and is in stereo.  Compared to the mono, frequency response limited AM over the air signal.  Heck, if I wanted to I could load the app into my car dash and punch up the streams of my choice right on the dash. Some cars now actually have web access built right in, to Pandora, Spotify, Shoutcast, etc all pop up on the dash just like AM and FM. This also makes it hard to fight for AM.

The trouble is, all those AM stations need someplace to go. In round numbers there are 15,000 stations in the USA, 5000 are AM.  In addition to those 15,000 stations there are an additional 6000 translators and boosters.  So the FM band is pretty full.  But there's SO much duplication in programming.  The fact that over half the FM stations in the country are owned by giant corporations, who share programming, and hundreds others use satellite programming services, we're wasting a lot of bandwidth with duplicated programming.  It's probably too late for the FCC to change it's laws on ownership, but they COULD change their laws on programming, requiring every station to originate it's own programming, or at least a decent percentage of it, commercials excluded.  Cripes, right now, up here in the boondocks, I can tune in three different FM stations all runing the same satellite music format! What a waste of bandwidth!

Clearly you just can't shut down the AM stations and move them to FM. Although a 500 watt FM signal would easily match the coverage of a heck of a lot of low power AM's out there today. 

Of course one problem with AM is the rising noise floor. Maybe I'm isolated from that up here in the sticks. Everyone rants about how CFL bulbs are wrecking AM. Now, I've personally avoided CFL's for years, but have been gradually giving in, simply because it's a pain in the butt to change lightbulbs (must have something to dow ith getting older) and they DO last longer. But I've noticed no ill effects. In fact, here in my office I just installed a pair of CFL bulbs in the ceiling fixture. In this office I also have ham radio gear, several operating vintage short wave receivers, and two AM radios I use regularly to listen to my work station and my Part 15 station.  I found no noise from the bulbs getting into these radios at all.  I also added a CFL in the hall about 8 feet from my office, and we now have a pair in the living room, and SIX (for Pete's sake) going in the kitchen. I've put the radio between stations, turned in up all the way, and turned all the lights on and off (at once) and noticed zero change in noise.  I also have some 200 watt equivilent (!) CFL's in the basement, all within 10 - 15 feet of my ham station and I pick up no noise from the bulbs on HF gear, including modern Icom and vintage Swan radios.  I also get no detectable noise from my computers, all of which are near AM radio receivers.  Maybe Macs are just naturally electrically quieter than PC's, I just don't know.  I know that none of my iMacs need internal fans, to they operate silently, which is great in a studio setting. If it's REAL quiet you can hear the hard drives working.

I have heard and found electrical noise from bad power transformers out on poles. that's one problem. The electrical infrastructure in many places is mighty darn old.  Updating all this will be expensive.  And if the FCC were to suddenly actually force utilities to repair/upgrade you KNOW this cost would be passed onto the consumer. How many people do you know who wouldn't mind a 20% rate increase if it meant less static on their AM radios?  Not many. 

Speaking of AM radio, the station I work for just wrapped up 2015 with another record year in sales/profits.  We've set a record year for the past several years. Both the AM and FM did so. Locally owned, locally programmed stations. So it certainly CAN be done. And (especially for the AM) EVERY "expert" we talk to, EVERY magazine article we read on programming, EVERY "music programmer" says we're doing it all wrong and can't possibly be successful. We laugh at them. Ha. Ha. 

Meh. As usual, just tossing thoughts out.

TIB

In Russia the FM band stretches from 64 to 108 MHz.

Sometimes other countries are smarter than The Homeland (formerly the U.S.A.).

Does the FCC have the presence of mind to stop whatever "repacking" or "auctioning" that they are fiddling with and just fix the FM dial by matching Russia's intelligent approach?

64-108 Mhz would allow the AM's to switch to FM and give Microcasters a chance.

A good point was made.....the fact that the majority of radio(and TV) stations in the US and Canada are big corporation owned , in fact here in Canada 3 major companies own most of the stations including the small ones in towns.

Programming is decided from one head office for 500 stations and one station I know in Huntsville about 2 1/2 hours north of Toronto gets a feed from Texas for it's programming. They don't have a record library.

I agree that stations should go back to originating their own stuff, like it used to be.....you know those good old days when things were so much better!

But then, most stations were privately owned so I don't know how forcing original programming could work now.

As for not missing AM radio in cars what about someone who wants to listen to a baseball game when driving somewhere?

There still is a demand for it.

Mark

In keeping with the topic in this thread look at this....

http://ericpetersautos.com/2015/04/15/the-end-of-amfm-radio/

Mark

That was an interesting topic.. One of the user comments had posted a link to another interesting article, which says; in part:

...According to a new Ipsos study, the majority of American drivers said they listen to AM and FM radio more than any other type of music in the car. Moreover, the majority of drivers said that the lack of an AM/FM radio would be a deal-breaker when buying a new car.

In the survey, 84 percent of drivers said they still listen to AM/FM radio when driving, with 62 percent saying they do so every day...

.."Despite all the technological advances we’ve made when it comes to digital listening, the vast majority of Americans still prefer AM/FM radio overall and especially expect it to be a part of their cars," Ipsos MediaCT vice president Thomas Spinelli said in a statement. "In fact, virtually all said they wouldn’t buy a car without a radio."

You can read it in its entirety here: http://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/car-tech/poll-84-percent-of-american-drivers-prefer-am-fm-radio-to-cds-bluetooth/ar-AAb1cwZ?ocid=DELLDHP

You know, I'm not so sure that the increase in the popularity of streaming services will ultimately result in the end of over-air broadcast..

Most people I know subscribe to cable for their tv, but I cut the cable cord about 10 years ago. The price now for cable is crazy IMO. I get a total of 12 channels over-air (13 if you include a spanish staion), About month ago a new channel went into service in my area called "Antenna TV, which only airs old programs, and as of Jan 1 they started airing full episodes of Johnny Carson, uncut, complete and they're going to continue to do so 7 days a week! - What's funny about this, is that here you can't get  the Antenna Tv network on cable! On top of that I have a Roku, none of this cost any money at all.

But much the same.. I don't think AM and FM are going anywhere anytime soon.

By the way, for you Johnny Carson fans, Antenna tv now in 88% of homes (cable and over-air)has exclusive rights to air all his shows 30 years worth from 1972 to 1992 (the ones prior to 1972 are lost) http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/johnny-carson-tonight-show-full-episodes-antenna-tv-1201568250/

To keep driving safe and uncomplicated I only use the radio when driving... no CDs, no gadgets patched anywhere, no cassettes.

My car came equipped with a CD player that plays MP3 files, but I have never used it because it would be one more thing to manage and keep organized... CDs in the car need to be put where the sun can't warp them, are difficult to keep clean, require time and physical involvement to select, play and change... no thank you.

Radio programs are right there. Plus they give me something to complain about later. I love having detailed complaints ready to share and radio gets it started.

Baseball games will become a part of Subscription or satellite Radio.

When cars are self-driving you will sit in the backseat watching games on widescreen TV.

I know it's relative but what is your typical noise on say 75 or 40 meters during the day? I see around S7 on both 75 and 40 on my Ten-Tec Jupiter.