• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

How To Fix AM Radio

DrAkbar

DrAkbar

Star Participant
Here at the Buckeye Media, we're seldom flooded with calls from desperate owners of Ancient Modulation stations axing the Nurse and me what they can do to save their dinosaurs. "..FM translators...relaxed FCC rules...better equipment, etc.." are some of the suggestions bandied about. We have a different take, which is visually displayed in three easy steps: https://youtu.be/cRFBab-OteQ Step 4 is to remove remaining debris and hang a For Sale sign on it.
 
Oscar Madison said:
Don't save it. It's too late. Shut it down.
Click to expand...

And replace it with what? Another ham band (OK, I and many other hams would put it to good use. :D )?

Sorry, but despite the number of countries reducing or eliminating its use, it's still allocated as a world-wide broadcast band. I don't see that changing. It'll take action by the ITU to change that, anyway. Also, in a country the size of the US, there will always be a few hundred Ancient Modulation stations that will make at least some money.
 
Duplicate post -- please delete. No idea how that happened.
 
frankberry said:


And let the owners of all these AM stations lose everything?
Click to expand...

All investment involves risk. If they wanted their money safe, they should have put it in the bank, munis or T-bills. Anybody who has owned an AM station for less than 20 years, should have seen this coming and chose to make a bad investment. Anybody who has owned a station longer, probably got their money back long ago and chose to keep flushing money. They had a chance to cash out when Clear Channel and other mega-owners were on buying binges. I shed no tears. Besides "loose everything?" I doubt AM radio is the only asset of these owners.

When I-75 opened, how many owners of restaurants and other small businesses along US-10 and US-23 went out of business? It happens.
 
Oscar Madison said:
Don't save it. It's too late. Shut it down.
Click to expand...

There are presently plenty of AM stations making good profits.

They tend to be good technical facilities in larger markets and local stations in smaller towns and communities.

The ones that are not doing as well are more often daytimers or stations whose facility does not do an adequate job of covering the market they are in.

None of this is motive for shutting the AM band down. Let market forces handle the stations that can no longer thrive, and let the others last as long as they find a reasonable rate of return.

In fact, there are over 300 rated market AM stations in the US billing over $1 million dollars. That is about the number of AM stations with good enough signals to serve their communities adequately.
 
DavidEduardo said:



None of this is motive for shutting the AM band down. Let market forces handle the stations that can no longer thrive, and let the others last as long as they find a reasonable rate of return.

Click to expand...

Exactly! There is no financial reason or motivation for the government or any industry source to call for the shut-down of the AM broadcast band. The band itself is completely useless for any form of modern digital communications and for all it's faults, still has enough "Boomers" and "Gen-X" age listeners.
 
Market forces (so called) don't work very well. Never have, never will.
Especially, since radio is a government-protected oligopoly in which competition is minimized and beneficiaries are given free use of the spectrum - not even former (and token) public service requirements.
If you really want "market forces," allocations should be auctioned, paid for, with no right of automatic renewal (after three or five years, hold another auction).
 
Kelly A said:
Exactly! There is no financial reason or motivation for the government or any industry source to call for the shut-down of the AM broadcast band. The band itself is completely useless for any form of modern digital communications and for all it's faults, still has enough "Boomers" and "Gen-X" age listeners.
Click to expand...

Why not put the LP's on the AM instead of the FM? Now might be a good time to start migrating LPFM's licensing to the AM band, and I'm inclined to think Trump's FCC will do just that.
 
Oscar Madison said:
Anybody who has owned an AM station for less than 20 years, should have seen this coming and chose to make a bad investment.
Click to expand...

Tell that to Lotus Communications, who recently paid $3m more for KFWB in Boss Angeles than the present owner purchased it for eight months ago! Not a bad return on investment. Doubt they'll surrender the license and walk away....but there are plenty of other Ancient Modulation owners not as lucky and may have to do that.

indieradioguy said:
Why not put the LP's on the AM instead of the FM? Now might be a good time to start migrating LPFM's licensing to the AM band, and I'm inclined to think Trump's FCC will do just that.
Click to expand...

YIKES. That would NOT make AM great again!
 
DrAkbar said:
Tell that to Lotus Communications, who recently paid $3m more for KFWB in Boss Angeles than the present owner purchased it for eight months ago! Not a bad return on investment. Doubt they'll surrender the license and walk away....but there are plenty of other Ancient Modulation owners not as lucky and may have to do that.
Click to expand...

In that particular case, they're going to use the frequency to program to a minority who is desperate for any kind of service, even if the audio quality is bad. That's what AM owners have to do, and why so much of the dial is "unlistenable" to most people. AM was popular when there was no other option. Once other options became as easy to receive, people chose better audio quality. But when they have no choice, they're willing to put up with crap.

The problem with the AM revitalization plan created by the FCC is it's giving AM owners access to something they didn't buy, which is FM spectrum. That's unfair. I've never supported this translator idea, and I agree with those who say it's adding more clutter to an already crowded FM band. But the history of the FCC has been to take something that's successful, and ruin it. That's what they did over 30 years ago with Docket 80-90. This is more of the same.
 
Oscar Madison said:
Especially, since radio is a government-protected oligopoly in which competition is minimized and beneficiaries are given free use of the spectrum
Click to expand...

Except that the government has basically stopped protecting the spectrum. In fact one Commissioner has suggested turning over policing of pirates to the licensees. The government in this case has simply become a money-collection device. And the spectrum use is NOT free. There are charges imposed by the government over its use. They were just increased this year.
 
TheBigA said:
But when they have no choice, they're willing to put up with crap.
Click to expand...

A founding principle of the Buckeye Media Hut!

I've never supported this translator idea, and I agree with those who say it's adding more clutter to an already crowded FM band.
Click to expand...

True dat. And the FCC won't be satisfied until FM is just as junked up as AM. Soon there'll be more stations on the dial than Starbucks locations in the Valley!
 
Last edited:
DavidEduardo said:

The ones that are not doing as well are more often daytimers or stations whose facility does not do an adequate job of covering the market they are in.
Click to expand...

That would describe every AM station in metro Phoenix at night. Not even KFYI and KTAR put a clear signal into the far east valley.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.
Back
Top Bottom