That read is the same old same old, as far as I'm concerned.
It's all about technicalities of AM, as if a clear noise free signal is all it takes.
Wrong!
There's never a mention of the elephant standing in the room, called "programming".
I am an active AM listener because I love the medium, but all I ever discover is that all the local stations have bad programming.
It's not about favorite music or traffic reports, to me the word "programming" sort of glosses over the real issue... "personalities."
These days management has no sense at all for seeking and finding on air people with the right personalities.
Personality is a mix of intelligence, good pipes, quick wit and a certain knack for knowing how to come across a microphone.
Weezing processed meat gas bags like Rush Limpbah and Mark Leven shout at their microphones seemingly ignorant of the preamplifiers that make shouting a wasted effort.
Going further and saying the politically incorrect, most women do not have radio voices and may not be suitable for the work, yet they're all over the dial squeeking and screaching, sounding like cats and grade schoolers.
Let ME run the AM dial for awhile and we'll get that engine started again.
Programming is a pretty big problem as well. Its pretty much a combination of the two issues. Good programming will have a hard time on a lousy signal.
As far as voices go, deeper for whatever reason sounds better on radio. That being said, there are some female DJs that have some very nice (and sexy) pipes.
Hearing the good voices both male and female makes for good listening.
Back when I recorded commercial audio I really searched widely for the best voices.
There were around ten excellent female voices that I routinely called for the jobs that came up.
One of them did a show on a religious station, so I called her up.
One of them did news breaks on a tv station so I called her.
One of them left an audition tape with a station I worked at so I hired her for my recordings.
Two of them had never appeared on media before I hired them.
Come to think of it there were a few "Ted Baxters" (remember the Mary Tyler Moore Show) among the male voices... men with excellent low voices who had vacant space between the ears, but they could do a script.
In very rare instances people can succeed despite not having ideal voices... there was an attorney on a university student station with a speaking impediment, but his commentary on the political news was brilliantly funny.
I forgot what this thread is about.
Just having translators as a solution does nothing for the AM band. People will just listen to the FM broadcast instead of the AM broadcast and the AM part is just transmitting to empty space. This will just speed up the demise of AM.
Mark
The exact sentiments of many owners of small struggling AM stations. They pretty much forget about the AM after the translator signs on.
There's a station that got their translator, and the only time you hear about the AM is once an hour when they quickly say its calls and city, along with the FM's in a two second quick cut ID. The AM's signal covers much more area than the translator does, but the translator is strategically placed in town, where most of the listeners probably are anyway.
That's their intention, but an AM operator who likes AM might promote it more. I think my local AM should promote their AM more, because when you get out of town, the FM gets choppy, when the AM's still in there solid.
"Make AM Great Again" should be the battle cry of the ALPB!
"Make AM Great Again" will be taken up at the next meeting of the ALPB as a possible "position" worthy of declaring.
I proposed a similar position awhile back... "Keep AM Analog."
The concept of declaring "positions" by the ALPB was tabled for future discussion because it is not something the Charter of the organization outlines... I guess we would need to add "position language (?)" to the Charter.
Of course we already think AM is great, the real slogan might be "Make the Public Less Stupid."
Want to save AM? Give 1600-1710 Khz to Hobby Broadcasting and also allow for 2 Watts output and maybe you may have something. AM is only good for TIS stations anymore and that is if one can deal with the noise. But at least unlicensed Radio could be something that would cause more listeners once again.
Legacy, with all due respect how in the heck would that help the AM Broadcast band at all?
AM still has a lot of use, certainly more than just TIS systems.
If anything they need to move more stations into the expanded band to help relieve the older band.
Mighty 1650 said: "If anything they need to move more stations into the expanded band to help relieve the older band."
I'd like to analyze that statement to discover whether it's correct.
The older band is already less populated than it was, and much of the junk that clutters it up is caused by the IBOC buzz-saw mess.
Stations doing poorly on the old band put no effort into programming and will not be any more attractive whether they're on small FM translators or the expanded AM band.
The one and only thing that will help AM is to remove the dullards who currently hold licenses and find creative radio people who understand the medium.
Of course Mighty is right in this sense: doing anything to advantage part 15 stations will not help the AM band because the signals are too small to matter in terms of overall geographic areas.
The Legacy said: "Want to save AM? Give 1600-1710 Khz to Hobby Broadcasting and also allow for 2 Watts output and maybe you may have something. "
WA4JM said: "Why would you open 1600 to 1710 for a web site? 🙂
WA4JM said: "Why would you open 1600 to 1710 for a web site? 🙂
KDX replies: If we say Pretty Please.