We have a little AM station here, 450 Watts day, 500 Watts night, 920 kHz with a decent lobe smacking the entire metro area.
Format is non-descript talk with people no one knows talking about who-knows-what. I can never tell if it's a sports station, political, or is local or satellite.
So yesterday I found out they have a new FM translator on one of my frequencies, 106.9 MHz at 99 Watts covering the same area as the main lobe of the AM. In no way does the FM extend the AM into outlying reaches.
I'm not smart enough to understand how this helps them or anyone else.
It's to get them on to FM with better fidelity and no noise so it's listenable in a home on a radio operating from A/C.
But I don't undertand this revitalization either. It's not revitalization at all, just moving from one place to anoher.
Mark
I know you're right, Mark, that some listeners will hear the FM translator with better fidelity, but given the large sprawl of this area and the comparatively teensy footprint of the 99 Watt FM signal, it's not going to penetrate too many walls.
I'm reasonably close to the tower but am on the outskirts of the coverage area.
My best FM radios can hear it IF they are in the right room with the antenna carefully adjusted.
Here is a thought why not have the commercial AM stations start using carrier current and get permission from the power company to be on the main grid. This way everyone in the home will have a clean AM radio signal? But I guess that's just too much easiness for them to figure out.
TheLegacy said: "Why not have the commercial AM stations start using carrier current and get permission from the power company to be on the main grid."
I wonder how large a transmitter and coupler it would take to do carrier current on the main grid (?)
Nielsen says that a gigantic share of radio listening takes place in the car. That makes carrier current a far less attractive option as a solution.
I agree with what marosborne said: "Nielsen says that a gigantic share of radio listening takes place in the car."
That seems like a trustworthy finding on Nielsen's part because the radio is the simplest audio device in the car at the push of a button.
Disc players and cassette players take far more fuss to maintain in a car... the discs and tapes must be kept out of the sun, they get scratched and dustry, they are hard to deal with while driving...
On the other hand the home or apartment is far more likely to be dominated by internet and television. I doubt that average people do much radio at home, and I don't think there's a reliable way to find out.
I have over 300 songs at my disposal while driving, mind you my 2000 Grand Cherokee Laredo was built before hard drives were ever thought of for use in cars/trucks etc,
The Sony car stereo offers a usb jack to use with Pandora ( i don't use it ) or a thumbdrive, I have a 16 GB SanDisk Cruzer plugged into the usb and never get tired of the playlist.
Most of the tracks are whole albums and the search function on the radio is fairly easy to use but for the most part, i just let the radio pick random tracks in shuffle mode.
It works for me.
Even when mobile the radio stays off. I have had my fill with biased so called news and abrasive commercials, 22 minutes per hour is just too much.
A few years ago I received a survey, Arbitron I think, with an enclosed dollar bill and a request that I keep a viewing and listening log for a week. I replied honestly, I returned it blank.
Tis a shame since I used to enjoy local programming and news but that is all but gone now. I seek and find music from non broadcast sources, except of course my own stations.
Neil
Radio 8Z's experience is the same as mine: "I have had my fill with biased so called news and abrasive commercials, 22 minutes per hour is just too much."
That's for sure.
But I drive for such a short amount of time... always starting with the dial on KDX until it's out of range in 2-blocks, then I like to know what's happening on my channel when out of range of my own signal. I listen to background garble and like it.
On very rare occasion I'll hear one of the area stations only to remind myself how well I have it with my own stations, which someday I hope will be available on the whole auto trip.
Brooce MICRO1700 has already achieved it, he listened to KDX all over Hartford by streaming on his SmartPhone.
I can offer my input on this being the CO/CE/PD/etc of a local AM with an FM Translator.
Translators on the commercial band relaying commercial stations cannot in any-way extend the service area of the primary station. For FM Translators the 60dbu cannot exceed the primary service contour of the AM (or FM).
How do FM Translators help AM stations?
Understand that FM translators are only the first step of several for AM revitalization, the translators are only there to serve as a financial band-aid for AM stations.
I can honestly tell you, based only on my personal experience, that the addition of an FM translator or FM signal of anykind dramatically increases the audience potential. For my station, we saw our listening audience first double then triple after the addition of the FM signal.
Also they are useful for locking up available LPFM spots.
"Translator", "devitalization". Explain.
Simeone may follow me with better explanations.
"Translator" is the technical name used by the FCC for a low power transmitter intended to "fill in" part of the coverage area of a full power station, for example in a valley where mountains block the main signal, the low power "translator" transmitter "fills in" so people in the valley can hear the station. "Translators" cannot carry original programs... which means that they are not low power radio stations.
My made-up term "devitalization" is based on the term recently coined by FCC and radio engineers to "Revitalize the AM Band", that is, to "bring it back to life".