dying AM radio

(AM) Radio is a fad, it won't last.
TV is going to kill radio
FM radio is going to kill AM radio
The internet is going to kill radio.
For 90 years people have said that AM is on it's death bed and yet it's still here, and as David pointed out, only a few AM's have handed in their licenses, and those were either stations that shouldn't have been licensed in the first place, or had very bad facilities.
It is still here, and will be for a while. When over 90% of people in the United States and Canada still listen to radio on a weekly basis, and that number is the same now as it was 14 years ago, it brings a Mark Twain quote to mind.
There have been some FMs that have also gone silent. We had one in Ottawa that went silent in October. It's not likely to come back, and maybe a signal challenged FM will move to that frequency. None of our AM's will be flipped.

mimo said:

(AM) Radio is a fad, it won't last.
TV is going to kill radio
FM radio is going to kill AM radio
The internet is going to kill radio.
For 90 years people have said that AM is on it's death bed and yet it's still here, and as David pointed out, only a few AM's have handed in their licenses, and those were either stations that shouldn't have been licensed in the first place, or had very bad facilities.
It is still here, and will be for a while. When over 90% of people in the United States and Canada still listen to radio on a weekly basis, and that number is the same now as it was 14 years ago, it brings a Mark Twain quote to mind.
There have been some FMs that have also gone silent. We had one in Ottawa that went silent in October. It's not likely to come back, and maybe a signal challenged FM will move to that frequency. None of our AM's will be flipped.

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The thing is though, there are a couple of new wrinkles, that didn't exist before. "Read my lips, no new radios!"(I think I've used that before but I kind of like it.)It isn't compatible with new technology. You can't get a usable AM antenna into the space and it's just a matter of time until there aren't any other types of receivers. This is the first time I'm aware of with no mass appeal format and without that, I don't see the large companies holding on to their AM properties. If they all become foreign language(other than Spanish)and religion, I don't think they'll get much support from the NAB.

semoochie said:

The thing is though, there are a couple of new wrinkles, that didn't exist before. "Read my lips, no new radios!"(I think I've used that before but I kind of like it.)It isn't compatible with new technology. You can't get a usable AM antenna into the space and it's just a matter of time until there aren't any other types of receivers. This is the first time I'm aware of with no mass appeal format and without that, I don't see the large companies holding on to their AM properties. If they all become foreign language(other than Spanish)and religion, I don't think they'll get much support from the NAB.

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Exactly!

Going to post an ON-topic reply with some anecdotal evidence about a station that I once worked for. The station was last known as WFUL, in Fulton, KY. It was a very small station serving the TWO westernmost counties in Kentucky, and probably two of the most rural. Combined population of these two counties is probably in the very low five-digits.

This station did several things right, and several things wrong. One that they did right is that they were hyper local. They had a program called the "Livewire," and while it was as boring as all get-out to me, it was probably a lifeline to all the communities that it served. The dj called the town halls (or fire stations, or whatever) of all the very small communities in these two counties, and asked for any news from these communities. ("What have you got for me, today?") Usually the dj and the contact person at the local fire hall knew each other, and these conversations went live right over the air. Sort of like two old friends talking to each other.

They also had all the usual typical programming that you would have from small-town AM stations, like high school sports and church programming. And they were the local affiliate for University of Kentucky basketball.

What did they do wrong? They did not have any website (that I was ever able to find), no Facebook page, no streaming, and no FM translator, or even attempt at getting an FM translator that I was ever aware of. Some FM translator availabilities in the area went to another station in that area that I had also worked for. Even their listing in the broadcasting yearbook listed their demo as 40+. Even that was probably optimistic, but the kiss of death, either way.

This station had a lot more going for it than some similar stations that I am aware of that are trying to hang on. They had a good strong signal, at least when I worked there, and could be received anywhere within about a 50-mile radius. They were not near any major metropolitan area (even Paducah is an hour away), so no real competition there. It was the ONLY homebased station in either of those two counties. Other stations have COLs in those counties, but their coverage is much more regional in nature, because they serve a larger listening area.

I have no idea what ultimately happened to that station, because I have not lived in that area in over 20 years. But I am aware that the last owner of that station surrendered the license, so that station is likely gone forever. One other station that I worked for, which had even less going for them, went off the air for a couple of years in the mid-'90s, but returned under new owners and format(s), and even has at least one FM translator now.

I've worked for a few of these "hyper-local" stations. All of them are now computers in closets hooked up to a dish and a tower. Not only is "hyper-local" boring to you and me, it's boring to everybody except a handful of people who always seem to be listening and calling in, and of course, to the people who regularly get on the radio to promote something (especially their egos). These stations finally die when local merchants realize that their dollar-a-hollar spots aren't really generating much business.

Calling up town halls, firehouses and cop stations only gets what they want you to know and what they think is news (they are terrible judges). Totally worthless.

FredLeonard said:

I've worked for a few of these "hyper-local" stations. All of them are now computers in closets hooked up to a dish and a tower. Not only is "hyper-local" boring to you and me, it's boring to everybody except a handful of people who always seem to be listening and calling in, and of course, to the people who regularly get on the radio to promote something (especially their egos). These stations finally die when local merchants realize that their dollar-a-hollar spots aren't really generating much business.

Calling up town halls, firehouses and cop stations only gets what they want you to know and what they think is news (they are terrible judges). Totally worthless.

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This is one of those times where we agree. Local is good. Nothing BUT local isn't. Sitting in a studio doing nothing but taking calls from the same 5 people giving their opinion on the new softball field or the some local political scandal is TERRIBLE radio. Not only are those 5 people usually wrong, but they end up saying something that the local politician, who also buys time on the station with his day business doesn't like.

I've seen it way too many times. Hosts burn either burn every bridge in town and run the station into the ground revenue-wise, or hosts do entire shows of callers talking about their favorite place to get pizza, which is only interesting to the callers.

I've owned two hyper-local small town AM's within the past seven years in different parts of the same state. Both AM's were profitable, supported local employees and served their communities. And they continue to do well for the owners I sold them to (was my time to retire.) There's no problem finding local advertisers, and no, we never charged "a dollar a holler."

I am tired of all the generalized AM radio bashing on here. Yes, some AM stations are not successful. And some are.

I have personal knowledge of a medium-sized market AM in my state that's billing an average of $ 120,000 a month. Operating expenses are about one-third of that each month. Hardly a "dead" AM station.

I will repeat what I wrote earlier on this board: Some AM stations are dead. Some AM stations are making money and serving their audiences.

Take AM radio stations on a case-by-case basis. Don't paint the entire AM broadcast dial as "dead" when quite a few AM stations that I have personal knowledge of are serving their communities and making money.

FredLeonard said:

I've worked for a few of these "hyper-local" stations. All of them are now computers in closets hooked up to a dish and a tower. Not only is "hyper-local" boring to you and me, it's boring to everybody except a handful of people who always seem to be listening and calling in, and of course, to the people who regularly get on the radio to promote something (especially their egos). These stations finally die when local merchants realize that their dollar-a-hollar spots aren't really generating much business.

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Big deal, the first FM station that I ever worked for was also a computer in a closet. So what does that prove?

Far worse were those stupid "swap and shop" programs, ESPECIALLY the ones where they put the callers on the air! The first station that I ever worked for had one of those programs, and it ran for 30 minutes a day. Not enough calls to fill all that time, so the PD had a record album of old bluegrass music playing in the background, so he would pot that up between calls. The egomaniac who ran the second station that I ever worked full-time for actually REGRESSED into those stupid call-in swap-shops. I quit that station rather than go through that again.

Calling up town halls, firehouses and cop stations only gets what they want you to know and what they think is news (they are terrible judges). Totally worthless.

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That is why you have TV stations who go in there and cover that type of news. If anything happens, rest assured, the locals AREN'T going to keep you from being able to find out about it.

I suspect that a lot of the local "news" were just obits, and yeah, you could get that from the local funeral home as well.

There is now a Super Wal-Mart across the road from where that station used to be, and I suspect that the PROPERTY on which that station sat was worth more than the station. Interstate 69 will be coming through there in a few years, and this property is within seeing distance of the nearest exit.

Ravens said:

This is one of those times where we agree. Local is good. Nothing BUT local isn't. Sitting in a studio doing nothing but taking calls from the same 5 people giving their opinion on the new softball field or the some local political scandal is TERRIBLE radio. Not only are those 5 people usually wrong, but they end up saying something that the local politician, who also buys time on the station with his day business doesn't like.
I've seen it way too many times. Hosts burn either burn every bridge in town and run the station into the ground revenue-wise, or hosts do entire shows of callers talking about their favorite place to get pizza, which is only interesting to the callers.

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The egomaniacal GM of the station that I mentioned above hosts such a program during what passes for morning drive in that small town, and it is SIMULCAST over both the AM and FM stations, as well as the translators for both. (Told you he was an egomaniac!)

Once while I was working for him, he went to a city council meeting and got into an argument with the mayor of that small town! He recorded the whole thing and used it on newscasts for the next couple of days! I can't help but think that this had a chilling effect on the mayor ever wanting to be interviewed by anyone on that station ever again! The irony here is that this GM usually never showed his "true colors" to the community at large, but that was a glaring exception!

firepoint525 said:

The first station that I ever worked for had one of those programs, and it ran for 30 minutes a day. Not enough calls to fill all that time, so the PD had a record album of old bluegrass music playing in the background, so he would pot that up between calls.

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Jellico, Tennessee or was it Williamsburg, Kentucky? Heard that done once while driving I-75. No, wait. That AM didn't have a telephone interface and only one line into the studio. He'd take the call off-air while the instrumental was playing, pot the music down to relay the information on mic, and then pot up the music and wait for the next call.

Ravens said:

Local is good. Nothing BUT local isn't. Sitting in a studio doing nothing but taking calls from the same 5 people giving their opinion on the new softball field or the some local political scandal is TERRIBLE radio..

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Add some interviews with actors at the local (often high school) theater, a day a week where a reporter from the newspaper sits in with you and some Big band music in the morning and it sounds just like the AM station I died on, or should I say died on me.

Actually the guy doing Big band was a very talented DJ with a good following, he's dead, every listener I knew or met personally is dead, this was nearly 20 years ago.

Oh! Almost forgot the best part! When the phone would ring you could hear it over the air, yes the studio request/talk show call in line, sometimes when we had enough people around to have a call screener, it would be only one ring other wise the guy on air would just have to pick up the phone and lie it on the table. If the pot was down any caller could not be heard (think "hello. . . um hello"). Heaven forbid if the pot was up when the phone would ring BRRRING! BRRRING! Meters flat to the right.

AbsalomWasADemocrat said:

Jellico, Tennessee or was it Williamsburg, Kentucky? Heard that done once while driving I-75. No, wait. That AM didn't have a telephone interface and only one line into the studio. He'd take the call off-air while the instrumental was playing, pot the music down to relay the information on mic, and then pot up the music and wait for the next call.

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McKenzie down in west Tennessee. I don't usually mention them by name because I do not want the current owners blamed for what went on there in the early '90s. And our then-PD indeed put the callers on live.

This station sold for the princely sum of $27,000 back around 1997. (My house cost more than that!) I can't help but believe that the property (a block or two from the square in downtown McKenzie) was worth at least that. I believe that this is why many stations (particularly the rural ones) have their studios out in the middle of nowhere. They can't afford anything else. At least it keeps the nutjobs from just walking into the station right off the street. They can't find the station! (And whenever I took a REALLY stupid call at one of these stations, I just remembered that there were probably even bigger idiots out there who couldn't find out our number!)

DavidEduardo said:

Swap Shop has been a staple of smaller town radio for many decades, and can be most entertaining if done by the right DJ or announcer.

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Nothing against those types of programs. I did one myself for about a year (until they floated that live "call-in" thing on me!). I just felt like they flowed better with the announcer reading off the items that had been submitted, vs. the call-in program. The GM of that station thought that it gave more listener interaction or something. I thought it was a throwback to an earlier time, and just made us sound podunky. Not only that, but with the announcer reading from the sheet, we could obviously get more listeners' items in during the allotted time. Still allowed plenty of time for our sponsors. And we could usually read the items for two or three days before they rotated off. That way, the listener did not need to keep resubmitting lists of unsold items; maybe only once or twice a week.

The one that was interspersed with the bluegrass music should have been trimmed to 15 minutes. They just didn't have enough callers to justify the 30-minute program.

WTIC (AM) Hartford has had a weekly 2-hour swap shop Sundays at 10 a.m. for many, many years. It's called Tag Sale (Connecticut idiom for what most folks elsewhere call a yard or garage sale) and the host puts the callers on the air, just like the small-time stations in tiny markets do. Any other 50,000-watt stations still doing this?

DavidEduardo said:

Swap Shop has been a staple of smaller town radio for many decades, and can be most entertaining if done by the right DJ or announcer.

On Los Angeles' KTNQ, a 50 kw news / talker, I ran a version of it on Saturday mornings from 6 AM to 8 AM. It was called "Chistes y Chácharas" which translates as "Junk and Jokes". Callers had to tell a joke before listing the item they had for sale. Obviously, the delay was a must. But the corny jokes made it fun enough that it managed to always be in the top 5 of all LA stations every book in those two hours... sometimes #1.

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I have to admit, that sounds like fun! If you weren't selling anything, or didn't hear any items you wanted to buy, the humor angle would hold your interest. Sort of like Click 'n' Clack's approach to auto advice. I haven't heard of anyone trying that idea in English, but no reason why it wouldn't work with, as you say, the right host. (I assume the show ran on a few seconds' delay to prevent callers from slipping in "blue" jokes.)