AM radio fights for survival

[Stephane Dumas]

Here an article of the LA Times about the death of the AM Radio
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-fi-am-death-20140902-story.html#page=1

Here in Quebec, the remaining and surviving AM stations are rare, very rare.

[SteveG1988]

Disney announced a massive sell off of their AM based Radio Disney network. http://variety.com/2014/biz/news/radio-disney-sells-most-of-its-u-s-stations-as-it-makes-switch-to-digital-1201283925/

[NJRoadfan]

Once upon a time, Canada used to have many great AM stereo stations broadcasting music. Sad to see them all go FM.

[Roadrunner75]

I still use AM frequently for news/traffic, be it 880 if I'm north (NYC area) or good ol' "KYW...Newsradio...1060" (sing the jingle) if I'm south (Eagles Country)

[ZLoth]

I've practically stopped listening to broadcast radio "over the air" entirely, relying instead on the XM radio and the Bluetooth connection instead and listening to MP3s and audio books. The broadcast radio that I listen to is several programs from the local public radio station where I recording the streaming audio for later playback. Hey, anything to annoy ClearChannel.

[DandyDan]

The only time I ever deliberately listen to AM radio is when I know the Huskers are playing and I'm in the car.  I suppose I could set it to whatever SiriusXM channel has the game, but I have 1110 AM (KFAB) preset on my car.  Of course, sometimes, I get bored with SiriusXM and just turn it to AM and start flipping channels.

[SP Cook]

AM radio's death has been predicted for about my entire half-century long life.  Has not happened yet.

Probably never will. 

Because AM radio keeps reinventing itself.  TV took its roll as a general entertainment media, starting in the late 40s, but radio kept at it into the early 60s, because the roll out of TV stations was mis-handled by the FCC in smaller cities.  AM found rock music.  Kept at music from the mid-50s until well into the 80s, even in the face of FM's superiority, because car makers could make some extra $$ by making FM an option until not that long ago.  Then came the end of the so-called "fairness doctrine" and rise of commentators who dared disagree with CBSABCNBCCNNPBSTIMESPOST.  Followed shortly thereafter by Spanish broadcasting.  And, in many places, paid religion can still pay the bills. 

And, through it all, there has been baseball.  And in the South and Midwest, College sports. 

AM radio will be fine.

Now, if you are a lazy broadcaster, and just want to toss up ESPNR or some nut-fringe political talkers that give you the content for free, rather than pay for the true talent, just want to get your "local" news from a statewide service that employs people that cannot pass a basic civics test, don't want to pay for the local baseball team, you will fail.

[SteveG1988]

I once picked up KYW1060 clear as can be out in indiana, right at the ohio state line.

[Pete from Boston]

As goes LA, so goes the country. After all, the NFL folded, right?

[Laura]

The only time I ever deliberately listen to AM radio is when I know the Huskers are playing and I'm in the car.  I suppose I could set it to whatever SiriusXM channel has the game, but I have 1110 AM (KFAB) preset on my car.  Of course, sometimes, I get bored with SiriusXM and just turn it to AM and start flipping channels.

Sirius XM is no better than FM. I got it for free with my last rental car, and they played the same songs over and over. If your station is 80's on 8, you have an entire decade to work with, yet they continuously repeated the same top 40 playlist from that week in 1986. It was pretty ridiculous. It would have been passable if they then did that week in 1983 and then 1989 or something and so on, but no, the exact same list on a 48 hour loop. As a subscription service, this is unoriginal and unacceptable.


iPhone

[SidS1045]

AM radio's death has been predicted for about my entire half-century long life.  Has not happened yet.

Probably never will. 

Because AM radio keeps reinventing itself.  TV took its roll as a general entertainment media, starting in the late 40s, but radio kept at it into the early 60s, because the roll out of TV stations was mis-handled by the FCC in smaller cities.  AM found rock music.  Kept at music from the mid-50s until well into the 80s, even in the face of FM's superiority, because car makers could make some extra $$ by making FM an option until not that long ago.  Then came the end of the so-called "fairness doctrine" and rise of commentators who dared disagree with CBSABCNBCCNNPBSTIMESPOST.  Followed shortly thereafter by Spanish broadcasting.  And, in many places, paid religion can still pay the bills. 

And, through it all, there has been baseball.  And in the South and Midwest, College sports. 

AM radio will be fine.

Now, if you are a lazy broadcaster, and just want to toss up ESPNR or some nut-fringe political talkers that give you the content for free, rather than pay for the true talent, just want to get your "local" news from a statewide service that employs people that cannot pass a basic civics test, don't want to pay for the local baseball team, you will fail.

I hope you're right, but unfortunately the evidence is all too clear that AM is on life support.  I too have heard repeatedly about AM's "imminent" demise through my 45 years in broadcasting, but this time it's much more likely to be true.

First, AM's audience is old and dying off.  Less than 15% of total radio listening is done on AM, and its not being used in any significant numbers by people under 55.  We can endlessly debate why that happened, but those are the facts.  Young people simply don't listen to AM.  Among all the other media choices they have, AM is not on their radar.  It's their grandfather's radio.  They also don't listen in any significant numbers to the paid religion programs you mentioned.

Second, AM stations are extremely expensive to maintain, particularly those with directional antennas.  They use a lot of land which is becoming increasingly more valuable than the AM radio stations which currently inhabit that land.  For this reason, many AM licenses have already been turned in, the stations demolished and the land sold.

Third, AM is becoming increasingly difficult to listen to.  Levels of noise and interference are increasing, thanks in part to the FCC's abdication of its enforcement powers under Part 15 of the FCC rules, which govern (among other things) interference and noise created by consumer devices.  As electronics have gotten cheaper, the amounts of noise generated have drastically increased, making AM listening difficult where it was previously easy.  The interference-free service areas of all AM stations have decreased due to this problem.  The addition, on some stations, of HD Radio (an attempt to move AM radio into the digital age) has unfortunately made the noise problem worse, since HD generates digital hash (which an analog radio can't make anything out of) and that hash is just another noise component.

And lastly, radio isn't doing anything about any of this.  As you noted, in the past, radio was able to re-invent itself.  It's just not happening now.  As the angry-old-man conservative talk format begins to fail because its audience is dying off, no one is coming up with anything to replace it that will have any appeal beyond the 55-to-death demographic.

I wish all of this were not so.  I cut my teeth on AM radio, on both sides of the mic.  But...I fear it is.

[hbelkins]

I listen to an AM radio station every day, but not over the air. I stream it via iHeartRadio. That's because AM reception is impossible due to my geographical location and the structure of my office building, electrical interference, etc.

i don't particularly care about the technical aspects. Content is what I'm concerned about.

[02 Park Ave]

When I drive from Philadelphia to Chicago, i listen to WBBM or KYW during the first and last hours of the journey.  This is just to hear the traffic & weather.  The other dozen hours or so, I generally play CDs.

I've been making this trip several times a year for the past 15 years.  There used to be enjoyable AM stations in southwestern parts of both PA and Ontario, but they're long gone.  The only AM station now worth listening to is Zoomer Radio from Toronto.  It comes in well in eastern Ohio.  I might tune it in if my CD player has to cool down.

[SidS1045]

...AM reception is impossible due to my geographical location and the structure of my office building, electrical interference, etc.

i don't particularly care about the technical aspects.

Actually, those technical aspects are the story here.  They're what's preventing you from listening to your AM radio.

I hate to say it, but we're moving toward a world in which streaming will displace both AM and FM radio.  It probably won't happen in my lifetime, but the economics argue strongly in favor of it eventually.  No massive, regulated technical infrastructure to deal with for distribution and (in AM's case) no large parcels of land necessary to support it.

[Brandon]

As goes LA, so goes the country. After all, the NFL folded, right?

Didn't you know there's absolutely nothing, and I mean nothing between the Hudson River and the LA Basin?

/sarc.

[The Nature Boy]

I once picked up KYW1060 clear as can be out in indiana, right at the ohio state line.

This reminds me:

I was able to catch WBZ out of Boston in the mountains of West Virginia. I was amazed.

[Pete from Boston]

I once picked up KYW1060 clear as can be out in indiana, right at the ohio state line.

This reminds me:

I was able to catch WBZ out of Boston in the mountains of West Virginia. I was amazed.

They claim to reach 38 states (and "the best provinces of Canada").

[The Nature Boy]

I once picked up KYW1060 clear as can be out in indiana, right at the ohio state line.

This reminds me:

I was able to catch WBZ out of Boston in the mountains of West Virginia. I was amazed.

They claim to reach 38 states (and "the best provinces of Canada").

I wonder what their budget has to be. A high powered antenna like that can't come cheap.

[hbelkins]

When I was growing up, my dad listened to WHAS (840 AM, one of the old-time clear channel stations) out of Louisville. They played music but also had a lot of news, the University of Kentucky basketball games and the games of the old Kentucky Colonels ABA team, and so on. I've heard stories of UK fans driving their cars to remote rural locations and listening to the UK games on WHAS back before nearly every game was on TV.

Even in the mountains, we had pretty good reception for WHAS, but we had a rule that we couldn't have blinking Christmas lights on the tree because the flashing lights (hi, Takumi, where you been lately?) interfered with the radio reception.

When an area FM station that we could pick up well dropped the Cincinnati Reds, my dad started listening to the games on WLW (700 AM, another clear channel station).

Now both of those clear channel stations are Clear Channel stations.

[roadman65]

If it was not for political talk and all around news, AM would have folded a long time ago.

Also in Orlando, Florida the AM dial is loaded with mostly Latino stations as you climb higher on the dial.   That is because Orlando is growing in Hispanic population. With all of this, as well, I think that is causing the AM radio to hang on here in O Town.

So far what I learned at CSB it is not that much of a threat yet.  What I learned in school is that Sirius Radio is the one that is dying more than AM is.  The way my instructors made is sound that if it was not for Howard Stern, that would have gone under years ago.  It seems that his one of a kind perverted sense of humor that attracts millions of listeners could easily keep Sirius in business by itself.

[vdeane]

I hate to say it, but we're moving toward a world in which streaming will displace both AM and FM radio.  It probably won't happen in my lifetime, but the economics argue strongly in favor of it eventually.  No massive, regulated technical infrastructure to deal with for distribution and (in AM's case) no large parcels of land necessary to support it.

Better not happen any time soon.  I enjoy listening to the Fly Morning Rush on my commute and use FM whenever in the Rochester-Albany Thruway corridor.  I am NOT paying extra to have some internet service in my car.  Plus by that point it may be impossible for me to stream music from a device; I currently use a very old iPod nano for trips where I don't have stations on my presets, and I wouldn't be surprised if MP3 players themselves go the way of the dodo by the time I need to replace it.

[The Nature Boy]

If it was not for political talk and all around news, AM would have folded a long time ago.

Also in Orlando, Florida the AM dial is loaded with mostly Latino stations as you climb higher on the dial.   That is because Orlando is growing in Hispanic population. With all of this, as well, I think that is causing the AM radio to hang on here in O Town.

So far what I learned at CSB it is not that much of a threat yet.  What I learned in school is that Sirius Radio is the one that is dying more than AM is.  The way my instructors made is sound that if it was not for Howard Stern, that would have gone under years ago.  It seems that his one of a kind perverted sense of humor that attracts millions of listeners could easily keep Sirius in business by itself.

I would be sad if we lost Sirius. I travel a lot and find it easy to just throw on Sirius for hours instead of fishing for local stations whenever I enter a new market. I've never listened to Howard and never would.

I could always buy a new car radio that has an AUX port but cell reception isn't always reliable.

[cpzilliacus]

All-news WTOP in Washington, D.C. (transmitters in Maryland) was on 1500 AM for decades (WTOP stood for "top of the dial"). 

But 1500 AM is now WFED, a specialized station aimed at federal employees and WTOP has moved to three FM stations, the primary one being 103.5. 

[Jardine]

Regarding interference, yes, many more things these days disrupt AM reception. In my area, a big one is bad insulators on power lines, and tree limbs rubbing power lines.  Those are easy to notice when out driving around. It seems like everything in my house generates noise in the AM band, light dimmers, motors, microwave, TV, computer, my well pump, electric fence chargers and refrigerator and freezers.

I've also noted some radios are better than others at pulling a signal out of the crud. My aftermarket CD/tuner sucks on AM, the Equinox has a passable AM radio, and the '87 Ford pickup I sold a few years ago was actually pretty good.

As for even expensive receivers, they are a joke.

[DandyDan]

Sirius XM is no better than FM. I got it for free with my last rental car, and they played the same songs over and over. If your station is 80's on 8, you have an entire decade to work with, yet they continuously repeated the same top 40 playlist from that week in 1986. It was pretty ridiculous. It would have been passable if they then did that week in 1983 and then 1989 or something and so on, but no, the exact same list on a 48 hour loop. As a subscription service, this is unoriginal and unacceptable.


iPhone

There's some truth in what you're saying, but if I get bored with one channel, I flip it to another one.   There's enough channels on SiriusXM.  And if I get really bored, I turn it to the Canadian channels.