AM is it really dead?

[K6GBW]

The United States frequently makes dumb decisions about radio and TV. Why we don't adopt standards the rest of the world uses is beyond me. I can see AM radio going away completely in my lifetime. It's just too hard to manage and too costly. The FM band will be around a lot longer, but why we haven't gone fully digital is silly. We should be leading the world in this, but we don't. We need to adopt DAB or a similar technology or just admit that radio is done for and install an LTE receiver in every car and make it a subscription service. Either way, they need to do something. This half measure, meandering with no clear path is maddening.

 

[mmckenna]

The United States frequently makes dumb decisions about radio and TV. Why we don't adopt standards the rest of the world uses is beyond me. I can see AM radio going away completely in my lifetime. It's just too hard to manage and too costly. The FM band will be around a lot longer, but why we haven't gone fully digital is silly. We should be leading the world in this, but we don't.

Yeah, I agree. I hope AM sticks around. I don't think I'll ever see it go away completely, at least not out west here. Just too many parts of this side of the country that need a wide footprint broadcast medium like AM radio. Too many places I go where FM is either non-existent, or there's only 1 or 2 FM translators to be heard. AM still fills a good role in those parts of the Western USA.

We need to adopt DAB or a similar technology or just admit that radio is done for and install an LTE receiver in every car and make it a subscription service. Either way, they need to do something.

My wife has XM/Sirius/Whatevertheyhelltheyarecalled in her truck. She really likes it, and I've been able to keep the cost down to about $7/month. 7 bucks is worth it for her to be happy. As part of that $7, I can stream the same service on my cell phone. My truck does not have satellite radio, so that works fine for me as long as I have cellular service. 7 bones is reasonable to me, as long as I still have the option of the AM/FM radio in my truck.

This half measure, meandering with no clear path is maddening.

Yeah, I think that the TV digital transition was a good thing, even if it did take a while.

Still, I love to listen to AM DX at night, and I'd miss it if it went away. I think that it'll stick around for a while longer, at least out West here. Just too many areas where AM is a good option.

 

[pitheus]

I grew up to AM radio, reel to reel recorders, b&w tv...floppy disc and DOS and I still enjoy tuning in to AM broadcast at night here in the foothills of SC and hearing those big watt stations drift in from Chicago and NYC . Just like my tv viewing I will not resort to paying for programming sources to listen to the radio. I hate to see it all end one day.

 

[hill]

Still listen to AM radio alot and works well in the Hyundai Elantra and works well even with only having no whip antenna. My goto station is WSM 650 and booms into the mid Atlantic area.

My work truck an a 24 International MV box truck has a awful antenna and AM reception plus FM isn't much better. My temporary 23 International had great reception with an whip antenna and sure did work much better, than the small antenna on the roof.

When in the Richmond area with the work truck I listen to WRVA 1140 on the FM side 96.1 even with being low power.

My car has satellite radio, but listen to regular radio more.

 

[mmckenna]

Still listen to AM radio alot and works well in the Hyundai Elantra and works well even with only having no whip antenna. My goto station is WSM 650 and booms into the mid Atlantic area.

Different vehicles really have different levels of performance.
My 2018 Ford pickup (personal) and the 2017 Ford pickup (work) are outstanding on AM and it's a pleasure to listen to.
My wife's 2021 Chevy Colorado (short/stubby whip on the roof) is a fair AM receiver. My 2024 Chevy Silverado pickup has a pretty poor AM receiver (and it has an actual whip antenna).

 

[a727469]

It is nice to hear various comments on this topic and I agree with many. However, the truth is many of us enjoy listening for either hobby or habit and frankly it still goes back to market and money. How long can a station survive with very little of the prime age market and the extremely stiff competition from other media?
An extreme example of where the market is….WINS news radio and former WCBS. WCBS is no more and WINS retains some ratings mainly because it is now simulcast on FM and is #7 There is one AM in the top 10 and 2 in the top 20. Anything else is buried much lower in the ratings with minimal listenership. WPLJ FM Christian radio has a much higher rating 1.7 than WBBR AM Bloomberg business .5!

Sure, other markets are different and yes there are parts of the country where AM may cover better, but that does not ultimately pay the bills if no one is listening.

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[mmckenna]

but that does not ultimately pay the bills if no one is listening.

And that's what is going to ultimately kill it.

AM antennas require a lot of land.
AM transmitters require a lot of power.
Listeners don't want a ton of commercials.
DJ's don't work for free.

Where AM works is where it's the only -free- option. Wide open expanses of the western USA where FM requires a lot of high mountains/towers to reach a big enough customer base to pay the bills.

Satellite is effective, but it's difficult to get local programming and news. Satellite also has challenges in the mountains.

Would be interesting to see what would happen with the AM broadcast band if the market dried up. The spectrum isn't very useable for much else. Not much demand for it. AM receivers won't go away. Maybe it'll find a life under some different model.

I've got a little 1KW am station with an inefficient antenna about 50 miles from me. Comes in scratchy during the day, and not at all at night. Local programming. Network news with local news tacked on at the end. In the summers, they often air local little league games. Music isn't networked, but it really sounds like a hard drive with about a 100 songs in it. At a 1000 watts and a small antenna, they are doing pretty well. Primarily aimed at the agriculture listener with the news reports/weather/going rates for produce talked about in the early mornings. Maybe the saving grace for AM will be these small stations.

 

[TGuelker]

I did a stint at WEW 770 AM many years ago about auto repair. Got to be friends with one of the DJs. He said the ad revenue was drying up, and they went to more national broadcasting than local DJs.

It was advertised as the oldest AM station west of the Mississippi. Wide variety of programming, ethnic hours on the weekends, oldies during the day.

Now it is 100% religious and owned by Birach Broadcasting System.

 

[Omega-TI]

Personally I don't mind -SOME- of the AM stations going silent, it'll just make it easier to dig out some of those graveyard frequencies.

 

[hill]

Forgot to comment in my earlier post that the stations I listen to the most on AM radio are all around 100 years old. Guess the mid 1920s was the start of heyday for AM radio broadcasting. Would hate see them gone after all this time, but with them being owned by big companies now anythjng is possible.
See the list below.

Two of them have have there locations in callsigns. WSM was owned by insurance company and stands for We Shield Millions.

WBAL Baltimore, MD

WRVA Richmond, VA

WSM Nashville, TN

 

[trentbob]

AM radio in new cars might be disappearing but in my area in Philly there are quite a few good AM station still going strong.

Talk radio, news radio, sports news radio. New York and Philly still have superstations as does the rest of the country and you can pick them up overnight.

I used to listen to Art Bell on Coast to Coast AM but fell off listening to George Noory, but that overnight show is across the spectrum of the AM band.

We have some interesting very local stations with oldies that go off at midnight.

 

[KK4JUG]

Many, many years ago,I was a jock at various AM stations. After I got out of the service, I worked at smaller AM stations. We used Type II tape cartridges for many of the commercials. (If you're old, you remember those as 4-track cartridges in your car. They didn't last long in the market but radio stations used them a lot.) We cued up records on the turntable. If you hear a record start with a lot of static in the first 3 or 4 seconds, it was probably used at a radio station. We had news on the hour (usually Mutual Broadcasting News). We would back-time an instrumental song so that it ended just before the start of the network news. Every hour, you went to the transmitter in the back room and took the readings off the meters. (If the FCC cares, we did it every hour. We didn't wait 'til the end of the shift and do them all at once. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.) I think I still have my Third Class Radiotelephone License that was required by the FCC. We read news off the Associated Press teletype. It was always yellow paper and a purple ribbon. A couple of my stations put out Top 40 hits lists every week and they usually featured one of the disc jockeys on it, too.

Regarding the subject at hand, one of the drawbacks of local (read little) station operation was the fact that the power had to be reduced at sunset. Most of the stations I worked at were 5KW during the day but 250 watts after sunset. We probably lost 80% of more of our listeners when the power was cut. It was my understanding that the reduced power insured that there would be minimum interference with the big 50KW clear channel stations at night.

 

[Omega-TI]

Many, many years ago,I was a jock at various AM stations. After I got out of the service, I worked at smaller AM stations. We used Type II tape cartridges for many of the commercials. (If you're old, you remember those as 4-track cartridges in your car. They didn't last long in the market but radio stations used them a lot.) We cued up records on the turntable. If you hear a record start with a lot of static in the first 3 or 4 seconds, it was probably used at a radio station. We had news on the hour (usually Mutual Broadcasting News). We would back-time an instrumental song so that it ended just before the start of the network news. Every hour, you went to the transmitter in the back room and took the readings off the meters. (If the FCC cares, we did it every hour. We didn't wait 'til the end of the shift and do them all at once. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.) I think I still have my Third Class Radiotelephone License that was required by the FCC. We read news off the Associated Press teletype. It was always yellow paper and a purple ribbon. A couple of my stations put out Top 40 hits lists every week and they usually featured one of the disc jockeys on it, too.

Regarding the subject at hand, one of the drawbacks of local (read little) station operation was the fact that the power had to be reduced at sunset. Most of the stations I worked at were 5KW during the day but 250 watts after sunset. We probably lost 80% of more of our listeners when the power was cut. It was my understanding that the reduced power insured that there would be minimum interference with the big 50KW clear channel stations at night.

Yup, back in the day (before satellite downlinks) even the American Top 40 with Casey Kasem came on multiple records.

 

[steve9570]

The only AM I still listen to is WBZ 1030 Boston Ma Its a power house heard in 38 states still.
One of the first Radio Broadcast stations in the US.

 

[merlin]

Back when I had my FRT-39D, (Big Bertha) it got to where I couldn't afford the power. Sold it to an outfit in Denver.
It did AME nicely.
Several local AM stations here, been a few months since I tuned in, but then, I hardly even watch TV.

 

[merlin]

AM radio in new cars might be disappearing but in my area in Philly there are quite a few good AM station still going strong.

Talk radio, news radio, sports news radio. New York and Philly still have superstations as does the rest of the country and you can pick them up overnight.

I used to listen to Art Bell on Coast to Coast AM but fell off listening to George Noory, but that overnight show is across the spectrum of the AM band.

We have some interesting very local stations with oldies that go off at midnight.

I never missed the wolf man jack show from XERB, 150 KW, came in strong at night. When Bob retired the station died.

 

[KK4JUG]

I never missed the wolf man jack show from XERB, 150 KW, came in strong at night. When Bob retired the station died.

I used to listen to him, too, but I thought it was XERF, right across the border from Del Rio, TX.

 

[T680]

One thing that keeps me listening to AM radio is nothing says it's summertime to me like listening to a baseball game on a picket sized "transistor" radio in the backyard while drinking a beer. There are a number of different things I could listen to in different format but nothing says it's summer to me like that.

 

[trentbob]

One thing that keeps me listening to AM radio is nothing says it's summertime to me like listening to a baseball game on a picket sized "transistor" radio in the backyard while drinking a beer. There are a number of different things I could listen to in different format but nothing says it's summer to me like that.

Good for you that you don't have all of the interference out there that would cause a radio like that not to work for the average listener, depending on location AM radio is very susceptible to interference, even lightning.. LOL.

 

[WA8ZTZ]

One thing that keeps me listening to AM radio is nothing says it's summertime to me like listening to a baseball game on a picket sized "transistor" radio in the backyard while drinking a beer. There are a number of different things I could listen to in different format but nothing says it's summer to me like that.

Summertime baseball broadcasts without the occasional static crash just don't sound right on FM.