Does ANYONE still listen to AM radio (except really big stations)?

[Chris]

Overcrowding led to an early adoption of FM in Europe. AM has not been used much for the last 20 - 25 years. In most of Europe the last major AM stations ceased operations in 2015-2016, I believe they had a very low market share for a long time already.

I remember tuning in to AFN (American Forces Network) while on trips in southwestern Germany. It was interesting to listen to American radio while driving on the Autobahn. Evidently most of their transmitters have been shut down now, the last time I listened to it was near Kaiserslautern a number of years ago. The Kaiserslautern area is home to some 50,000 American personnel.

[nexus73]

Overcrowding led to an early adoption of FM in Europe. AM has not been used much for the last 20 - 25 years. In most of Europe the last major AM stations ceased operations in 2015-2016, I believe they had a very low market share for a long time already.

I remember tuning in to AFN (American Forces Network) while on trips in southwestern Germany. It was interesting to listen to American radio while driving on the Autobahn. Evidently most of their transmitters have been shut down now, the last time I listened to it was near Kaiserslautern a number of years ago. The Kaiserslautern area is home to some 50,000 American personnel.

Europe, North Africa and the Middle East were also known for LW (longwave) broadcast frequencies.  They are the ones below our AM band with the range being 150 KHz to 350 KHz.

Back when radio was just getting started, the thought was it was only the lower frequencies that had any value so the ones above were left for amateur radio.  Their experiments showed the value of the HF, VHF and above frequencies.  Now hardly any use is made of the lower frequencies.  We did have a military communications system which used them for backup to the HF frequencies in a post-nuclear war environment when I was in the USAF.  Even that system was eventually torn down.

Rick

[hbelkins]

I rarely listen to radio, period.

I listen to a couple of AM stations on the iHeartRadio app, and often will do that even if I'm in range of the signal, because if the cell service stays good the sound quality is better. But other than that, no. Not AM and not FM.

[Hurricane Rex]

Yes, but generally conservative talk radio in rush hour car rides.

LG-TP260

[bugo]

The other day I was at work and turned the radio on to an early morning AM sports talk show. It wasn't very interesting and finally the announcer said something so stupid and so offensive and I turned it off. AM radio is the MTR of communications.

[abefroman329]

The other day I was at work and turned the radio on to an early morning AM sports talk show. It wasn't very interesting and finally the announcer said something so stupid and so offensive and I turned it off. AM radio is the MTR of communications.

I remember once listening to talk radio for a few minutes where the tribalism was so intense and finely tuned, I couldn't tell if it was sports talk or political talk. Turned out it was sports talk.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

I spent some time listening to WCCO-AM in the Twin Cities recently for the first time in years and noticed that the hosts (the same ones I grew up with and had seemed pretty balanced) had taken a hard right turn in terms of their content. I suppose their target audience likely fits a lot of that demographic (aging, conservative white people) but I wondered when this shift had taken place.

[allniter89]

I only listen to AM for traffic reports.  The few times I've listened to FM I couldn't find much I liked.

[SectorZ]

I don't think I've flipped on AM to listen to something other than Howie Carr in Boston for a long time, probably since I moved back to my childhood home in 2014. Even then, when WRKO and WEEI were each Entercom, WRKO was the 'HD2' signal for WEEI and I could listen to it there if I was close enough to Boston. Since the whole CBS / Entercom / iheartradio shuffle that option went away.

[Henry]

I guess WBBM/WGN/WLS/WMVP/WSCR (Chicago) and KIRO/KOMO (Seattle) don't count, so no, I do not listen to AM radio at all.

[Sctvhound]

In Charleston, AM radio is basically a shell of its old self. Only two stations of 10 don't have a FM translator for their signals, and one that doesn't, WTMA, is getting one this year.

WTMA was a legendary top 40 station in the 60s and 70s which was hugely popular in the area. Later on in the 90s it was a popular news/talk station. It still is, but it now gets terrible ratings (usually a 1 or so). It used to get 6 or 7s in the early 90s when Rush was big.

WOKV (690 from Jacksonville) used to be WAPE, and has a huge daytime signal which can be heard in Charleston and Myrtle Beach daytime, all the way to Cape Hatteras on a good day.

Skywave nighttime AM (Chicago, WSB Atlanta, WBT Charlotte, New York) used to be a lot more popular, but now with almost the entire country having radio service, not many people listen to them.

[Kulerage]

Occasionally delved into the AMs
There was a Spanish music station that played Spanish music. It was a perfectly normal station as well, just with lower sound quality

[DandyDan]

On my own, only for sports. My dad listens to a talk radio station and I will if I am with him and mom is not along.

[MNHighwayMan]

I spent some time listening to WCCO-AM in the Twin Cities recently for the first time in years and noticed that the hosts (the same ones I grew up with and had seemed pretty balanced) had taken a hard right turn in terms of their content. I suppose their target audience likely fits a lot of that demographic (aging, conservative white people) but I wondered when this shift had taken place.

I used to listen to WCCO from when I got my first car at 16, all the way up to about 2012 (when I discovered that NPR was more to my liking ), and I too remember it to be pretty centered (with one or two exceptions). The shift doesn't surprise me in the slightest.

[KEVIN_224]

The last AM station I listened to somewhat was 740 AM from Toronto at night. It was once the CBC Radio station there. Today it's Zoomer Radio, a commercial station. Otherwise, I was a frequent listener of WCBS-AM 880 of New York City. I might still check WTIC-AM 1080 of Hartford for the occasional news update, but that's infrequent.

[bandit957]

The last AM station I listened to somewhat was 740 AM from Toronto at night. It was once the CBC Radio station there. Today it's Zoomer Radio, a commercial station. Otherwise, I was a frequent listener of WCBS-AM 880 of New York City. I might still check WTIC-AM 1080 of Hartford for the occasional news update, but that's infrequent.

740 is jammed locally. Our local 740 was once a respected station but was only a daytimer back then. Now it has nighttime service and doesn't do anything except broadcast hate speech under its current owners.

[MikeTheActuary]

I do not recall the last time I listened to terrestrial broadcast radio.

I downgraded my SiriusXM subscription about a year ago, and I'm on the verge of canceling it due to disuse.

With my phone feeding me music, podcasts, and audiobooks, with apps providing traffic-influenced navigation, and with just about every program I might be interested in listening to over the air being available at my convenience in podcast or streaming form....why would I want to listen to broadcast radio?

(Amateur radio is another story altogether.  )

[tchafe1978]

I still listen to AM radio mainly for sports--listening to the Brewers since I don't have cable or satellite to watch them, and my favorite sports talk programs. Unfortunately I live in a rural area where it is near impossible to listen to anything on AM at night. The local station that carries the Brewers is less than 10 miles away, yet its night signal is so weak it fades out less than 5 miles from the station. I don't have much luck getting in high powered stations from further away either, like WTMJ, at night. My guess is it has something to do with the hilly topography of southwest Wisconsin.

I do however listen to FM radio quite a bit. My favorite music stations are always on. I like hearing the variety of bands and hearing about new bands on the radio that I don't get if I just listen to my own CDs all the time.

[bandit957]

Even FM has declined. I don't listen to AM at all anymore, but the only thing I still listen to on FM is 'American Top 40' reruns from the '80s on WGRR.

[abefroman329]

Even FM has declined. I don't listen to AM at all anymore, but the only thing I still listen to on FM is 'American Top 40' reruns from the '80s on WGRR.

Those are interesting. Thanks to one ep, I learned that Eat It by Weird Al was once a Top 40 hit. It was a total surprise, I always assumed he had a small but vocal cult following.

[Rothman]

"Beat It" was Michael Jackson.

[Big John]

^^Yes.

Eat It was the Weird Al song.

[Road Hog]

I used to listen to KTCK 1310 for sports talk until they added a simulcast on 104.1 FM, then they moved to a better signal at 96.7. I'll tune in the AM only on the rare occasions when I'm east of Dallas out of FM range. Otherwise I'll flip to WBAP or KRLD for news/weather/traffic just briefly.

[abefroman329]

^^Yes.

Eat It was the Weird Al song.

Fixed.

[SP Cook]

I never listen to FM at all.  While most of the AMs around here now have FM "translators" their range is less than the AM, so I lose them quickly outside town.  I am not a big music person, but have no interest in commercially supported music stations.  Not when I can listen to the specific genre I want on SXM, or to a recording of the specific song I want.  The only other thing on FM around here are preachers, and NPR's odd mix of begging, far left conspiracy theories, and market rejected, yet somehow important, music genres.