AM Radio

[cpzilliacus]

N.Y. Times: A Quest to Save AM Before It's Lost in the Static

The digital age is killing AM radio, an American institution that brought the nation fireside chats, Casey Kasem's Top 40 and scratchy broadcasts of the World Series. Long surpassed by FM and more recently cast aside by satellite radio and Pandora, AM is now under siege from a new threat: rising interference from smartphones and consumer electronics that reduce many AM stations to little more than static. Its audience has sunk to historical lows.

But at least one man in Washington is tuning in.

Ajit Pai, the lone Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, is on a personal if quixotic quest to save AM. After a little more than a year in the job, he is urging the F.C.C. to undertake an overhaul of AM radio, which he calls "the audible core of our national culture."  He sees AM – largely the realm of local news, sports, conservative talk and religious broadcasters – as vital in emergencies and in rural areas.

[agentsteel53]

local news, sports, conservative talk and religious broadcasters

quite possibly my four least favorite things to listen to.  throw in modern country music, commercials, and station identification and we've got the seven plagues.

[thenetwork]

local news, sports, conservative talk and religious broadcasters

quite possibly my four least favorite things to listen to.  throw in modern country music, commercials, and station identification and we've got the seven plagues.

In the Colorado/4-Corners area, you can throw in many many Spanish stations, including the 100,000+ watt blowtorches from South of the Border as well.  There is one AM in particular that comes in at night from Arizona (?), 660 AM on the dial.  The station is predominantly country, but every 3rd song or so is Native-American music/chants.  Most of the commercials are in English, yet most of the announcing is done in native tongue (not sure what tribe, though).

[agentsteel53]

I generally don't mind Mexican or Mexican-American music.  I don't seek it out, but it isn't an instant channel-switcher like "you're listening to KPOO, brought to you by Carls Jr, and that one song about the tractor being sexy.  remember, Jesus loves you, but wishes you'd stop fucking other dudes.  have you looked into tractors?"

[Dr Frankenstein]

Montreal has a continuous traffic and weather channel on 730 AM, which I tune into a lot when I'm driving near or in the city (or other often-congested areas in Québec). And unlike what is usually found in the U.S., it's not an obsolete pre-recorded message looping forever but live hosts that continuously look at cameras, telemetric data and take in tip calls.

Hockey used to be on that channel until they moved it to 98.5 FM.

[FightingIrish]

The AM band really sucks nowadays. Yeah, it's mostly sports, religion and right-wing propaganda. No wonder it's dying.

When I was a kid, listening to AM at night was a blast, with great music stations like WLS, CKLW, WABC and others on the dial with local personalities and most importantly, a pulse. Now, every station on the dial at night is playing the same syndicated talk shows, either flamethrower GOP agitprop or UFO talk. The only signs of locality tend to be baseball games, but many of those are moving to FM signals. There aren't many distant AM stations that sound unique nowadays. The only ones I can really think of are WSM, a CBC station out of Winnepeg (?) and a rather quirky oldies station out of Toronto. Plus, there are the all-news stations like WBBM in Chicago and a few talk stations that are live and local, like WGN and WCCO. Other than that, they all sound the same.

And perhaps I'm a bit old school, but a lot of 50s-60s oldies (and a few 70s) sound better on AM radio. Berry Gordie used to have the Motown output mixed to sound best on AM.

[SidS1045]

As a broadcast engineer for 40+ years, Commissioner Pai is to be applauded for taking an interest in this.  But he's swimming upstream and fast approaching the dam.

The biggest problem AM has now is the FCC's lack of enforcement of Part 15 regulations, which refer to electronic devices that can emit radio waves and interfere with radio reception.  Often you'll see a sticker or an imprint on a consumer electronic device saying that it's "compliant" with Part 15, but these days manufacturers appear to be either not bothering to test the equipment or just attaching the sticker without testing.  Either way noise levels from computers, lights, medical machinery, LED traffic signals, etc., are increasing, and as a result AM reception isn't nearly as clear as it used to be.  An AM signal transmitted at a certain power level now covers roughly 33% less area than it would have, say, 50 years ago, just because of all the noise.

Aside from its technical limitations, those who are programming AM stations appear to have given up trying to program something which will compel listenership.  The 3,497th iteration of "Obama is ruining this country" gets a little bit old after a while.  AM's audience is now age 55 to death, not a desirable demographic for advertisers because older people are much more difficult to persuade via advertising.  Because radio is a business, the lack of advertising on AM stations is a significant factor in its eventual demise, if nothing is done.

Some say the answer is to convert AM radio to digital broadcasting.  This brings along its own set of problems.  The FCC, in a complete abdication of its responsibilities to the public, has approved a system of digital broadcasting which is completely in the hands of a single corporation, which receives hefty continuing payments if you use their system (and if you want to be broadcasting in digital, you have no choice).  That system generates its own noise, on top of all the other noise sources on the AM band, and is prone to drop-outs when other noise sources, such as lightning, show up.

I'm not ready to say that AM is dead just yet (many of the top-10 stations in the US are AM), but Commissioner Pai's efforts are probably in vain.

[Henry]

I've read that Mr. Pai also wants the AM stations to adopt the same HD Radio technology that most FM stations have, even though this has already been achieved through HD2 and HD3 substations of the FM stations. Also, music is not the only thing that has jumped to the FM band, as sports and talk have proven over the last few years.

Nearly all English-language AM stations have given up playing music, and even a third of the 30 Major League Baseball teams now broadcast on FM. AM, however, remains the realm of conservative talk radio, including roughly 80 percent of the 600 radio stations that carry Rush Limbaugh. Talk radio has helped keep AM alive.

[Billy F 1988]

Not likely to happen since we are in the advent of XM-Sirius Satellite Radio.

[Scott5114]

Is there really a need for AM to exist anymore? Radio as a whole has been contracting for a long time due to the introduction of other mediums.

[Crazy Volvo Guy]

As a broadcast medium?  Probably not.  As a two-way radio medium?  Yes, absolutely.  I was just yakkin' on 27MHz AM earlier today, as I do most days.

[NJRoadfan]

Sad because C-QUAM AM Stereo broadcasts with the right processing and a decent wideband tuner sound fantastic. A few air checks:

The last time the FCC put any effort into AM was in the early 90s when they finally made C-QUAM the required AM stereo broadcasting standard. The industry also released the AMAX guidelines for tuners. I have one of those tuners (Denon TU-680NAB) but sadly no local AM Stereo stations to listen to.

Way better than the IBOC crap they are (were?) pushing. Its pretty much impossible to get a lock on an IBOC broadcast on clear channel AM stations here in the NYC area. Plus the sideband interference kills DXing.

[SidS1045]

I've read that Mr. Pai also wants the AM stations to adopt the same HD Radio technology that most FM stations have, even though this has already been achieved through HD2 and HD3 substations of the FM stations.

Thus my reference to "digital."  That's what HD Radio is.

AM, however, remains the realm of conservative talk radio, including roughly 80 percent of the 600 radio stations that carry Rush Limbaugh. Talk radio has helped keep AM alive.

And who's listening to Rush?  The 55-to-death demo, almost all men.  He has almost no measurable audience in the most desirable 25-to-54 women demo.  As Rush's audience starts to age out, his numbers, already shrinking in some markets, will tumble.

[agentsteel53]

what talk radio do women aged 25-54 listen to?  NPR?

whenever I've been in the car with a woman driver, it's been very infrequently NPR, and about 95% of the time some kind of music.

[Big John]

what talk radio do women aged 25-54 listen to?  NPR?

whenever I've been in the car with a woman driver, it's been very infrequently NPR, and about 95% of the time some kind of music.

That is why there are very few talk radio programs geared towards women.  The money is going to the music stations they listen to.

[hbelkins]

All of which begs the question, why has liberal talk radio always crashed and burned spectacularly, while conservative talk radio has done quite well?

I have my theories, but would be interested to hear others' thoughts.

[agentsteel53]

All of which begs the question, why has liberal talk radio always crashed and burned spectacularly, while conservative talk radio has done quite well?

extreme conservatives are authoritarian.  they feel united listening to a mouthpiece who riles them up with propaganda.

extreme liberals are anarchist.  they feel rebellious doing their own funky shit in small groups.

[SidS1045]

All of which begs the question, why has liberal talk radio always crashed and burned spectacularly, while conservative talk radio has done quite well?

I have my theories, but would be interested to hear others' thoughts.

There are two reasons:

1) Liberal talkers did not do entertainment, they did politics, and listeners don't like being lectured to.  Conservatives learned early on that in order to grab audience and keep them, they had to be entertaining.  Sad to say, Rush et al. have abandoned that approach, and their audience numbers are starting to suffer for it.

2) Liberal talkers, in most markets, had to settle for lower-powered signals.  The 50kW "blowtorch" signals had been taken up by conservative talkers before the liberals came along.

[Billy F 1988]

All of which begs the question, why has liberal talk radio always crashed and burned spectacularly, while conservative talk radio has done quite well?

I have my theories, but would be interested to hear others' thoughts.

There are two reasons:

1) Liberal talkers did not do entertainment, they did politics, and listeners don't like being lectured to.  Conservatives learned early on that in order to grab audience and keep them, they had to be entertaining.  Sad to say, Rush et al. have abandoned that approach, and their audience numbers are starting to suffer for it.

2) Liberal talkers, in most markets, had to settle for lower-powered signals.  The 50kW "blowtorch" signals had been taken up by conservative talkers before the liberals came along.

At least the low numbers to me convince me that they need to shut the hell up and move on to podcasting. This kind of shit has become a dying breed since the 90's. It used to be less news, less talk in that case, and more music. Not this time. Liberal politicians have since convinced themselves that if they can bloat themselves up in front of their so-called audience, they get more popularity. "Hey! I'm Glenn Beck! Listen to me! Listen to my show!" Like, uh huh. Like, yeah? Haven't we heard of this bullshit before? Obviously. That's all AM is ever good for nowadays. The FCC may as well tear down the AM transmitters since Sirius and XM have moved into satellite radio and these morons seem more keen to this field of radio than the AM stuff. Don't be surprised to see AM go bye-bye real soon. FM is pretty much all we got in this radio business.

[agentsteel53]

At least the low numbers to me convince me that they need to shut the hell up and move on to podcasting. This kind of shit has become a dying breed since the 90's. It used to be less news, less talk in that case, and more music. Not this time. Liberal politicians have since convinced themselves that if they can bloat themselves up in front of their so-called audience, they get more popularity. "Hey! I'm Glenn Beck! Listen to me! Listen to my show!" Like, uh huh. Like, yeah? Haven't we heard of this bullshit before? Obviously. That's all AM is ever good for nowadays. The FCC may as well tear down the AM transmitters since Sirius and XM have moved into satellite radio and these morons seem more keen to this field of radio than the AM stuff. Don't be surprised to see AM go bye-bye real soon. FM is pretty much all we got in this radio business.

what's the quote from that judge in the Adam Sandler movie which goes something like "I feel stupider for having read all that."

[brad2971]

As a broadcast engineer for 40+ years, Commissioner Pai is to be applauded for taking an interest in this.  But he's swimming upstream and fast approaching the dam.

The biggest problem AM has now is the FCC's lack of enforcement of Part 15 regulations, which refer to electronic devices that can emit radio waves and interfere with radio reception.  Often you'll see a sticker or an imprint on a consumer electronic device saying that it's "compliant" with Part 15, but these days manufacturers appear to be either not bothering to test the equipment or just attaching the sticker without testing.  Either way noise levels from computers, lights, medical machinery, LED traffic signals, etc., are increasing, and as a result AM reception isn't nearly as clear as it used to be.  An AM signal transmitted at a certain power level now covers roughly 33% less area than it would have, say, 50 years ago, just because of all the noise.

Aside from its technical limitations, those who are programming AM stations appear to have given up trying to program something which will compel listenership.  The 3,497th iteration of "Obama is ruining this country" gets a little bit old after a while.  AM's audience is now age 55 to death, not a desirable demographic for advertisers because older people are much more difficult to persuade via advertising.  Because radio is a business, the lack of advertising on AM stations is a significant factor in its eventual demise, if nothing is done.

Some say the answer is to convert AM radio to digital broadcasting.  This brings along its own set of problems.  The FCC, in a complete abdication of its responsibilities to the public, has approved a system of digital broadcasting which is completely in the hands of a single corporation, which receives hefty continuing payments if you use their system (and if you want to be broadcasting in digital, you have no choice).  That system generates its own noise, on top of all the other noise sources on the AM band, and is prone to drop-outs when other noise sources, such as lightning, show up.

I'm not ready to say that AM is dead just yet (many of the top-10 stations in the US are AM), but Commissioner Pai's efforts are probably in vain.

Those 55-death people advertisers so disparage are very much a low-cost audience. Pure profit for Rush Limbaugh, and he doesn't have to do much to get that old fuddy-duddy to keep the dial locked in. Though one gets the impression if non-ClearChannel stations start coming to the conclusion that they can keep that elderly audience entertained at a fraction of the cost Limbaugh charges for his show, Limbaugh would be heading to an early retirement.

[brad2971]

All of which begs the question, why has liberal talk radio always crashed and burned spectacularly, while conservative talk radio has done quite well?

extreme conservatives are authoritarian.  they feel united listening to a mouthpiece who riles them up with propaganda.

extreme liberals are anarchist.  they feel rebellious doing their own funky shit in small groups.

And both are quite fine with the idea of the rest of America turning their noses at them. One of the nastier scourges of the last 20 or so years has been the "profitability" of Politics as Entertainment. Rush Limbaugh was the godfather to all of them, from Keith Olbermann to Sarah Palin to Rachel Maddow. And frankly, Politics as Entertainment is about 4-5 years away from its economic grave, and it'll likely take AM radio with it.

[SidS1045]

The FCC may as well tear down the AM transmitters since Sirius and XM have moved into satellite radio and these morons seem more keen to this field of radio than the AM stuff. Don't be surprised to see AM go bye-bye real soon. FM is pretty much all we got in this radio business.

SiriusXM is not going to supplant AM or FM radio anytime soon, probably never.  It's a niche product, and most of the radio audience is not going to pay for something they've always had for free (or so their reasoning goes), regardless of the multitude of formats on satellite that AM and FM can't provide.  They've been on the air since late 2001, but to date have managed to have only 25 million subscribers.  Just to put that figure in perspective:  That's the equivalent of one week's listenership to all-news WINS/New York.

OTOH, there are perhaps several dozen AM stations that have succumbed over the last 20 years or so because AM radio transmission requires a lot of land, and that land is often much more valuable than the radio station is.  AM transmission requires that wires be buried in the earth and radiate out from the base of each tower, to a length equal to the tower height.  Even a single tower installation can take up a few acres.

[SidS1045]

one gets the impression if non-ClearChannel stations start coming to the conclusion that they can keep that elderly audience entertained at a fraction of the cost Limbaugh charges for his show, Limbaugh would be heading to an early retirement.

It's already headed in that direction because Limbaugh is becoming just like the liberals he so despises:  strident, screaming, lecturing and a one-trick pony.  Early on he was an easy listen because he refused to take himself too seriously.  Not anymore.  The classic case of someone who believes his own PR.

[Scott5114]

Becoming? Ever since I have heard of the man I have associated "strident, screaming, lecturing" with him.

He also doesn't do himself any favors when he periodically goes too far and spooks the advertisers.