At some point, the selectivity of FM receivers will become an issue here. The FCC has created this problem, and they could help solve it by demanding manufacturers improve the FM receivers currently sold. Of course that would help the hundreds of millions of receivers already in the marketplace.
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How To Fix AM Radio
- Thread starter DrAkbar
- Start date
At some point, the selectivity of FM receivers will become an issue here. The FCC has created this problem, and they could help solve it by demanding manufacturers improve the FM receivers currently sold. Of course that would help the hundreds of millions of receivers already in the marketplace.
DrAkbar
Star Participant
Yup, drain the swamp. And once that's done, then rinse and repeat on the FM band.
landtuna
Walk of Fame Participant
Ak-U-Bar has a good point. For the vast majority of radio music listeners it has become a mere bag of shells to download your personal music library. No commercials, no yakkati DJ's, no PSA's, ID's or time and weather. Just the music you love and nothing you don't. I therefore see music radio gradually slipping, slipping, slipping away and the remaining stations broadcasting what cannot be re-created in the home: sports talk and live sports, news/talk and religo-nonsense. Some of these may also go away via the podcast route. Virtually all the 20-30 somethings I pay attention to already do this. If they are listening at all it is to music services like Pandora and not OTA broadcast radio. Most carry their music library around in their phones. They don't need radio at all, just an amplifier.
Unless radio figures out a way to reverse this trend (and gets gubmint cooperation to implement the solution) they will go away gradually - like POTS. And the Buckeye Media Hut of Broadcasting and Other Electromagnetic Transportation will fade into the dusty western sunset along with the Turbo Gremlin and its exclusive two-camel power plant.
Unless radio figures out a way to reverse this trend (and gets gubmint cooperation to implement the solution) they will go away gradually - like POTS. And the Buckeye Media Hut of Broadcasting and Other Electromagnetic Transportation will fade into the dusty western sunset along with the Turbo Gremlin and its exclusive two-camel power plant.
That would be great, assuming the FCC moves away from only staffing with lawyers, going back to some staff engineers. Most of the engineers who understand how radio works, or what terms like "selectivity" mean, retired years ago. Those positions were since replaced my lawyers.
DrAkbar
Star Participant
So my fate in life is linked to that of Ancient Modulation? After putting up with Nurse Jeff, driving a real P.O.S.vehicle, living in Buckeye, and 16+ years of writing this crap for the enjoyment of no more than 20 readers. I should be like the Old Gringo - retired in Prescott and yelling at the kids to get off my desert landscaping. But no, like AM radio I'm going down for the count, delving deeper into the murky morass of ignoble insignificance.
hmmm..sounds about right. YIKES!!
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Hey, look at the bright side; technically American Motors is now a brand of Fiat!
landtuna
Walk of Fame Participant
I really hate to let you know that the Honorable Old Gringo ditched the friendly confines of Prescott, AZ for the dusty enclaves of SoCal's Inland Empire some time ago. What prompted his move is unknown although the common opinion is that the checkout lines in his neighborhood Walmart were too long. Now the only long lines he tolerates is yearly at the Smokem If Ya Got Em concert.
All is not lost Dr. Ak-U-Bar. The Phoenix metro is gradually expanding westward along I-10 and should reach Buckeye most any time now. Buckeye will then become an official 'burb of Phoenix with flights of F-35's roaring overhead and a miserable commute into the downtown area (no wonder you work from the hut). Also, not to forget that Gremlin is rapidly becoming a one-of-a-kind and I hear Jay Leno might be interested and willing to pay the big bucks for it. Easy retirement in Buckeye. And, you can always revive that old career as a writer for KOY's Bill Heywood sho......oh, wait. <nevermind>
So, as the setting sun drops slowly behind the White Tank Mountains we hear the dulcet voice of long-time radio host Dr. Ak-U-Bar ranting away on tawk radio having not discovered that Nurse Jeff unplugged his mic 16 years ago and is now using the transmitter to cook grilled cheese sandwiches.
Ah, but the Palm Springs metro is not... definitely not... part of the high-smog, high-unemployment and high-crime Inland Empire. In fact, we erected an entire mountain range to show people that we are separate! And those 10,000 foot high peaks were harder to build than the great pyramids of Egypt. Fortunately, Jerry Brown, renowned for never finding a boondoggle he would not put money in, financed the mountains and even built us hundreds and hundreds of windmills to boot.
The Coachella Valley does have its benefits, such as "Oldchella" two months ago where I found you could get satisfaction while putting another brick in the wall. And we have the great Stagecoach festival and the original Coachella extravaganza, too. And it makes my occasional drive to the office in LA a lot shorter than the 8 hour commute from Press-kit.
Bob Hope would be proud!
DrAkbar
Star Participant
YES Indeedy, it has Indio. The only town that makes Blythe look good along I~Ten.
Perhaps Gov Moonbeam can divert some of the billions being wasted on a high speed choo-choo twain to decommission those Ancient Modulation sticks littering the barren landscape in the Coachella Valley. That'll make way for more tilted windmills, which he is inclined to battle.
MarioMania
Star Participant
I just don't know, I think FM translators for AM is hurting AM
Listeners will go to FM, That's how I view it
Listeners will go to FM, That's how I view it
DrAkbar
Star Participant
...for many Ancient Modulation owners, the feeding frenzy for translators is nothing more than a scrap to a hungry dog. They may think they're at parity with other full power FMs, but they're not and never will be. Let's see what the new pro-radio FCC Commish can do. But one thing's for certain, Ancient Modulation will never be Yuuuge again!
They are, in most cases, already there.
Sammi Brie
Star Participant
Speaking of new FM translators, K298CK (KNUV) is now on the air, if Radio Fórmula floats your boat.
One amazing thing is that the local commercial breaks actually don't line up with the breaks out of the network. I was listening to a story when they butted in with two minutes of local spots. Three minutes later, Fórmula had a full station ID (XERFR) and two minutes of Mexico City-area commercials including a boatload of electoral PSAs.
One amazing thing is that the local commercial breaks actually don't line up with the breaks out of the network. I was listening to a story when they butted in with two minutes of local spots. Three minutes later, Fórmula had a full station ID (XERFR) and two minutes of Mexico City-area commercials including a boatload of electoral PSAs.
DrAkbar
Star Participant
Their coverage map looks like a cow patty plopped down over Deer Valley: http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/patg?id=K298CK-FX Well after all, Tolleson is a farming community.
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