@slowmover That Crosley is a beauty - form and function united. 
AM is it really dead?
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In junior high school in the late 50s, my teachers thought my new little radio was a hearing aid because it had an earphone but no speaker. I milked that as long as I could.
slowmover
Active Member
I survived a Billy Graham revival by carrying mine in a coat pocket and ran the earplug up the sleeve. The dedication ceremony for Texas Stadium. Got tired of resting head on that one arm/hand.
The one good thing was the combined choir, and, of course, George Beverly Shea:
No denominational problems, IMO, with that sound.
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slowmover
Active Member
You knew a guy was really broke he couldn’t get to a junkyard and liberate a factory AM radio to replace his. Instead he’d hang his 13-year birthday present from the rearview mirror.
How’s this for a re-master:
Wrecking Crew has to invent the music for lyrics written by god-knows-who . . and these actors lip-synch their way along. True for every pop sensation since, in main.
The 1960s ruined the future of AM with this childish stuff. Should have died with the Beatles disbanding in 1970. Had its moment.
The range of music offerings (types; genres) started to die off as the music became happy noises. I know what I like = I like what I know. Excuses made for why this occurred.
Free music lessons (instrument) in schools also went away (1,000-years of learning trashed once the belief that it’s just entertainment).
“Popular Music” used to mean everyone from youngest to oldest. There was also that for adults, and that for the serious-minded.
AM radio was/is more than the speculator report (farm report) and local weather.
Uecker & Scully are gone. First time in over 70-years baseball hasn’t had one or both in announcers booth.
A little AM radio taken to the stadium was another way (once) to stay on top of things.
.
How’s this for a re-master:
Wrecking Crew has to invent the music for lyrics written by god-knows-who . . and these actors lip-synch their way along. True for every pop sensation since, in main.
The 1960s ruined the future of AM with this childish stuff. Should have died with the Beatles disbanding in 1970. Had its moment.
The range of music offerings (types; genres) started to die off as the music became happy noises. I know what I like = I like what I know. Excuses made for why this occurred.
Free music lessons (instrument) in schools also went away (1,000-years of learning trashed once the belief that it’s just entertainment).
“Popular Music” used to mean everyone from youngest to oldest. There was also that for adults, and that for the serious-minded.
AM radio was/is more than the speculator report (farm report) and local weather.
Uecker & Scully are gone. First time in over 70-years baseball hasn’t had one or both in announcers booth.
A little AM radio taken to the stadium was another way (once) to stay on top of things.
.
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Used to be able to hear many stations in 6-7 MHz. This past month, almost dead. usually listen around 9 pm or get up early around 4 am to listen. Picks up a bit above 8 MHz.
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I never had that kind of fervor but always respected the energy behind it, basically, it was good, against bad which is exactly the opposite we have today.
5.9 to 6.1mhz used to be brimming with international broadcasters when I got into the hobby in the late 80's. It's a fraction of that today, but still a fair amount of activity. Really miss those days, but they are gone forever.
When I was a young boy in the ‘60s it was common for people to abandon their cars when they broke down and weren’t worth fixing. I would ride around on my bike and take the radios out. These were probably cars from the ‘30s and ‘40s and were in bad shape. I was under the dash of a car and a little girl said “what are you doing to my daddy’s car?” Stopped doing that right away.
MikeinDestin
Member
You see much of that in the south. Abandoned cars and trucks. Someone from Jamaica told me it's common when there's an accident to leave the cars where it happened. But who cleans it up?
slowmover
Active Member
Who’s gonna drive around looking for an abandoned car?
The junkyard had hundreds if not thousands.
About $5 back then for a generic GM AM radio.
Since the 1970s I’d say that the cars I see abandoned are also going to be of interest to police. Stolen, often. Used by criminals during a crime. Etc.
Yeah, I still see them abandoned. Rural areas mainly. Southland.
You were upscale back then you got an AM//FM/FM-Stereo from a luxury car. Mounted inside glovebox. Cut holes in door panels for 6x8 KRACO’s
The junkyard had hundreds if not thousands.
About $5 back then for a generic GM AM radio.
Since the 1970s I’d say that the cars I see abandoned are also going to be of interest to police. Stolen, often. Used by criminals during a crime. Etc.
Yeah, I still see them abandoned. Rural areas mainly. Southland.
You were upscale back then you got an AM//FM/FM-Stereo from a luxury car. Mounted inside glovebox. Cut holes in door panels for 6x8 KRACO’s
slowmover
Active Member
I’d bet they were 1950s. Cars didn’t last all that long till circa 1965. From then on they’d last two decades easily. That window shut again after circa 2006. Different reasons, same results.
Traveling by car in the 1960s & 1970s all over America, Canada and Mexico, AM Broadcast was a familiar friend who wore different hats.
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Conditions were a bit better last night. Did pick up some stations in the 6-7 MHz. Just below was banging strong. 8-10 MHz had allot more last night too.
Glad to still have WBZ am1030 here in Boston one of the FIRST am radio stations in the US.
Listen to them every morning on the wat to work and home. AS a clear channel it heard in over 20 states.
Listen to them every morning on the wat to work and home. AS a clear channel it heard in over 20 states.
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You can be jealous of me. A couple of decades ago, XM wanted to raise money with soon coming XM/Sirius merge. They called me (I had a subscription). For 3 years payment, I would have an XM paid subscription for life. Issue later formed over what people were told if the radio failed. It is now a paid subscription for life with a $30 charge every time I replace the radio. Talk about being in the right place at the right time.
Deal of the century. Even $7 month is a great deal. Something about paying for radio still rubs me the wrong way, though. Are you finding that advertisements are getting more plentiful at all? My parents got cable in the early 80's and the "freedom from commercials" was certainly one of the selling points. Commercials, as we know, started creeping in and many formerly ad-free channels are among the worst offenders. (AMC anyone?)
mmckenna
I ♥ Ø
I don't view it as paying $7.00 a month for radio. I see it as paying 7 bucks a month to keep the wife happy. Much cheaper than some of the other options.
WBZ is a staple on the AM dial and sounds like a local here. Their signal makes the trip across the pond as well. WABC here in the NYC area is also among the very early AM broadcasters.
Does WBZ also broadcast on FM? WINS (1010) here does. IIRC, the FCC requires the AM signal to be kept going as a condition of broadcasting on FM. If that rule is changes, we might see more AM stations go dark. We just lost WCBS 880 recently, now just another sports talk station.
Though coming in very-late to this thread, it seems to me the impetus to driving a stake through the heart of AM Radio has accelerated since the passing of Conservative Rush Limbaugh. He was King of the AM and talk radio. Entirely political...Progressives hated the free talk and expression of ideas. I've always felt that "pushing" AM down was a form of censorship.
@TrainsOfThought - There are many factors playing a role in AM's decline, as previously discussed above. The main factor is technology - the rise of the internet and advent of cheap satellite radio available in cars. There are podcasts covering every imaginable topic. Satellite radio offers more channels and variety than one can find on terrestrial radio. By and large, people were listening to AM radio in their vehicles. Losing that segment to satellite cost AM radio a great deal of its listener base.
mmckenna
I ♥ Ø
What that fails to take into account is that one of the companies that doesn't put AM radios in their vehicles is Tesla. If you have any doubts about the political leanings of Elon, just turn on the news.
As for Rush Limbaugh, there was a flood of people that quickly came in to fill his slots on the radio that were of the exact same political ideology as him.
This isn't a political thing. It's a technology thing. Vehicle manufacturers don't want to be bound by the requirements of not polluting the RF spectrum, so it was just easier to eliminate the AM radio feature from their cars.
As for progressives hating free speech, that wouldn't explain the current push to defund PBS/NPR. That's coming from the other direction.
