AM radio is about transmitters and antennas, so I've tapped into the "Transmitter Forum" to share an interesting article from Radio World which presents a wish list of rule changes to benefit the future of AM radio, and I am happy to report that the writers of this piece didn't show any concern whatsoever about part 15 AM, so we can only speculate how our stations would fit into the proposed changes.
http://www.radioworld.com/article/take-a-fresh-look-at-am-rules/218583
Huge changes sometimes bring unexpected results. I'm not sure I understand about all of them but moving to channel 5 seems problematic...
I am not sure that they are looking at the right problems to solve. Could it be that the decline in AM listenership is due to programming and not interference?
Neil
Absolutely, Radio 8Z, and experience proves that programming is the problem.
Frankly, the stations in this town all have very well maintained transmission facilities and there is no noise problem, except for the ugly HD buzz, but no matter when I spin the dial I am just hearing more inane jabber about ball sports or yet another reading from John Chapter 6 by mutants from the Deep South.
Sanity is restored when I reach AM 1680 and hear the exceptionally intelligent programming from my microwave.
Eletronic noise levels are way up in some
houses on my street. I realized this upon
going into friend's houses to try to hear
my carrier current transmissions. Some
internet service connections are noisy -
I don't want to say which ones.
So based on my limited experience,
I think EMI noise can be a problem.
As far as programming is concerned,
when I was growing up as a boy, the
local 50 kW AMer, 3 miles away, was always
playing on a radio on top of our refridgerator -
sometimes from the early morning to the late
evening.
It would never be that way today. Now, there are
too many things on that station that make me
almost physically ill when they are on. BUT that same
station has EXCELLENT coverage during emergencies.
There is a class D mom and pop operation that is
about 10 miles from me. (This station is one of
the few "home town" AM stations left around here.)
Their night time power is pretty low - I would
listen to them at night if I could - but they are
competing with other signals - skywave signals -
that render them useless at night.
AND somewhat related to that point
- when the LOCAL channel stations -
on 1230, 1240, 1340, 1400, 1450,
and 1490 kHz went from 250 watts at night
to 1000, I don't know if it did any good or not.
Maybe one on you guys will have an opinion
on that one.
When I first heard about "HD radio,"
and what it was SUPPOSED to do -
I said to myself - if this class D
station (mentioned above) that I
love so much sounded
like FM and was in stereo, I would have
it playing on my radio most of the time.
How little I knew
then about the future REALITY of HD radio
on the AM band! Almost useless, and most
little class D stations would not be able to
afford it. Heck - doesn't the license alone
cost about 30K dollars?
Some of the AM all news stations
serve a great purpose still. WCBS/
880 kHz/50 kW omni in New York
city is listened to by many people
in the Hartford, CT market. It shows
up in the rating book here sometimes.
I see AM radio for drivetime, news, and
talk (talk for some people, but not me.)
And maybe old music or old time radio
for fun. And some AMers still do these
last two things.
But I think this whole thing is very
very complicated. I really don't
know what to make of it.
Bruce, Stone Soup Think(?) Tank and
the Dog Radio Group
Bruce I truly enjoy your deep thought reflections about the state of AM radio and wish to say more about it.
We have a 1490 station with 1kW fulltime, and during the day it is solid. But starting after the critical hours and through the night its skywave causes it to blur very badly, and it's only 8-miles away!
In this town the one-and-only 50kW fulltimer is devoted to sports and has high ratings, not because the public listens, but because there is nothing else to listen to.
Frankly, everyone I meet watches cable TV or has Netflix. Radio is gone to them.
Still, since this one tower house has the ratings, a whole ton of other stations also do sports, all hoping to out-sport the other. But living sports lovers are at the stadium watching the game and not listening to the radio.
The dividing line between reality and.... I forget, what is the oposite of reality? Well, you know what I mean.
Meanwhile, KDX Worldround Radio (Part 15) keeps me happy with programming so good that if you heard it you would devote your life to it.
Radio programming went south in the 1950s, when TV started to take over (it was less intellectual work, after all). Since then, it's been mostly music (and FM sounds much better than AM) and strident talk shows. Is it no wonder that radio is dying?
The radio shows of the 30s and 40s demonstrate just how powerful radio can be, given some creativity and imagination.
Remember elevator operators? Going up, going down.
I don't think that has anything to do with what I'm about to say.
Except, radio has been going down since the 50s, like Artisan mentioned.
Before then, in the 1940s, radio went way up and they were trying always to go higher.
Still, in the 60s, at least human talent continued to be part of radio and we had some good disc jockeys, news staffs, and quality call-in hosts.
The strident name-calling hate-mongers now on the radio sound like volkswagen horns that won't un-honk. They amplify themselves prior to the microphone, not understanding that they could be heard very clearly at a normal speech level.
Another thing Artisan mentioned was how good FM sounds, it would be perfect for good music. Except most areas don't have good music. Instead, we get un-trained girls screaming into echo chambers and male singers trying to shout and sound as dumb as possible AT THE SAME TIME.
Part 15 radio is more than an art, it's a religion.
I have to agree that, at least in this market, it is the programming that has driven people away. In droves. Matter of fact it has been mentioned on more than one occastion that "AM is dead here." An Arbitron reference to the "worst AM market in the country" some time ago showed my fair city at dead last in AM listenership.
We have five local AM stations here - four are Christian or gospel and one is sports. The sports station used to have a small rating. That is now gone, but one black gospel station has a 1.3. And that is the total of AM listening according to the ratings powers that be.
But...a few years ago my little Part 15 was on 1160 AM. Several hurricanes hit Florida that year. During Hurricane Frances, one Christian station and my 1160 were the only AMs on the air. The other station played preachers. I got busy with Red Cross information, shelters, flooded streets, downed power lines, and other information. Sure, I played some music, but went a full 12 hours on the air during the worst of it.
Someone I know had to be out, and discovered a weak 1160 on the air with a live person reading weather information. He said I was not a hobbyist, but someone trying to perform a service.
Radio used to perform some public service. Now we have one station with an absentee owner leasing his station to another absentee party. Once in a while one will call and ask me if their station is on the air. I do not listen to dreck, so I never know and have to tune across to give them the answer.
Sad. Interference is not the problem here. Lack of listenable content is.
But I DO listen to AM now via Big D Country on 1610.
I will say this - when I was in Boston,
Mass. General hospital, 100 miles from
home, at age 12, with hardly any visitors:
the WMEX 1510 Good Guys really really
kept me going! It was the craziest, goofiest
TOP 40 station I had ever heard! And it kept
ME from going crazy, because I had no
vision for several weeks.
It was 1967, and I was there for about
4 weeks, with one 5 1/2 hour retina
operation, and another one that was
2 hours long, because the first operation
failed. I had to be on my right side for
most of the time, so the barely repaired
retina would be leaning in the correct
position. My father had just started a
new job, so my parents could only get
to see me about twice a week, about
2 hours at a time. SO anyway - WMEX signed off
at about 1:AM - however - if I remember
correctly - and on Sunday nights they shut down
at 11:PM. That's when I started AM DXing -
right there in that hospital bed. I also remember
hearing a beauty contest on that station. Imagine
that - a beauty contest on the radio! The announcer
had to describe what the contestants were wearing!
Well, anyway - I eventually got home to Hartford.
I had to rest and do NOTHING, really. They wouldn't
even let me brush my teeth for fear that the retina
would detach again.
So, I listened to the radio. I knew AM radio could
skip, but I could not find WMEX no matter how hard
I tried. I did not know that WMEX's pattern fired N/NE
and was protecting another station on 1510 in Connecticut -
WNLC in New London. WNLC was a weird set-up.
It was 10,000 watts with an 8 tower array. And
most of the energy went out to the Atlantic ocean.
WNLC could have had a better coverage area with
less towers, less power, and a slightly different
transmitter location - but the reason they refused
to change the set-up is so typical for broadcast
managment dudes: WNLC was 10 kW, and it
was the second most powerful station (wattage
wise) in Connecticut - second only to WTIC's
50 kW power in Hartford. So even though WNLC's
coverage area wasn't all that great - the management
got to say: "WNLC - the second most powerful radio
station in Connecticut!" Yeah sure. It sort of
covered New London, CT - but most of the RF
went out over the ocean! Somebody said once
that the submarines returning to the Groton
(next to New London) Navy base would surface
way out in the ocean and take a bearing of WNLC
to lead them home. Nobody planned it that way,
but that's the way it worked out. (British subs/ships(?)
supposedly still follow the BBC long wave signal on
198 kHz. I think that runs a million watts or so,
but I'd have to look it up. LWBC is still alive in
Europe.) Anyway, at some point, WNLC changed
it's pattern, or something - because WMEX/ Boston went
up to 50 kW from 5 kW, and I could hear then at
night in Connecticut. But this was years later, and
WMEX wasn't the way it was in '67. I don't remember
what it was doing, but I think it was a sports format.
Around 1999 (?) WNLC Groton/New London pulled the OFF SWITCH forever.
And it was gone.
Radioboy - I think it's wonderful that your emergency
reports were heard - that is a great Part 15 story!
One of the best ones, really!
Oh yeah, I cannot get this typing program to go
single space. That's why it looks the way it is.
I'll have to work on that.
Well, if you are still reading this,
I'm from:
The Stone Soup Think Tank/Dog Radio Group -
Bruce, TSSTTDRG
Radioboy brings up a very important matter, namely the lack in many locations of any emergency coverage on the radio when it's needed.
It seems to me that those Part 15 stations wishing to do so should be able to boost power during periods of emergency so long as they are supplying genuine vital information.
I would personally not call such a worthwhile effort by the name "piracy", because it serves public safety.
The FECES...or, what did I say, the FCC....oh jeez now what.....certainly aren't going to write any such provision into the rules, so it should probably be a matter of citizens stepping in to fill the gap left by lack of useful radio service.
As for me I won't do it, because I shut down and run for cover during emergencies, but I take a radio along, and tune around the static looking for a sign of life on earth, which is not easy to find at times.