Nice try, but no dice for this Show Low ancient modulation operator:
https://radioinsight.com/headlines/...e-only-via-translator-gets-quickly-shot-down/
https://radioinsight.com/headlines/...e-only-via-translator-gets-quickly-shot-down/
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Dump the AM and keep the Translator?
- Thread starter DrAkbar
- Start date
https://www.rbr.com/rewind-108-kvsl-no/
Another article on this. Nice try, but no cigar says the FCC.
Another article on this. Nice try, but no cigar says the FCC.
The AM is a Class D. Revenue is most likely driven by its FM translator. So how much does it cost to keep the AM going? 5kw day/87 watts night. Mother Hubbard could tell them by showing the power bill for Lumberyard 14~Forty. If the Show Low operator values the translator, then keep the AM running.
C
CAVEMANager
Guest
Supposedly the reason for turning off the AM is to see if the station can make as much money using just the translator. To get the answer to that you need look at Canada where for years AM stations have been going off the air and in most cases being replaced with FMs that have much less coverage. The operators don't seem to have much interest in putting the AMs back on the air.
That said, there's still no answer to the question of how you can revitalize AM stations by moving them to FM.
That said, there's still no answer to the question of how you can revitalize AM stations by moving them to FM.
For most Ancient Modulation stations with translators, the answer is yes.
It would happen south of the Canadian border as well. That's why there's interest (misguided in our opinion) in lifting ownership caps in smaller markets to prevent the inevitable.
They really don't move...it's the content that moves to FM. But your point is Media Hut worthy as the marketplace has spoken. It's the FCC that's not listening.
There's an analogy to this in the world of gambling. In several states, horse and dog tracks have been allowed to offer casino gambling -- sometimes just slots and video poker, sometimes a full range of games -- on premises on the condition that they keep offering a certain number of horse or dog racing programs every year. Most of the time, the patrons ignore the racing completely and less than $30,000 gets wagered on-site on a typical card (technicality: many of these places also offer their races via simulcast nationwide, but the originating track keeps far less of the simulcast dollar than it does of the dollar bet on-site.). So the owners have, logically, started asking why the heck they need to put on this animal show out back -- a show that's far more expensive to run than setting up rows of slot machines -- when nobody's interested in betting on racing anymore. In Rhode Island, the government listened, and the Twin River dog track and casino became just the Twin River casino. West Virginia seems to be on its way to phasing out racing, too, at the track/casino operators' request.
So uncoupling an unpopular mandated gambling operation from a gambling operation offering what its customers really prefer to bet on is possible, at least on the state level. That may offer hope that someday the FCC will also allow AM/translator operations to abandon the AM band that listeners abandoned years ago.
There is a big difference between most of the AM stations in Canada that applied for FM migration and a difference in the way Canada handled the slows, decades long move of a high percentage of AMs to FM.
First, form most of the last century, Canada licensed new stations only when a need for another station or a new station existed in a market. Over many decades, new stations had to show that existing services would not be hurt by a new station. So Canada, area by area, population center by population center, had fewer stations than the US, where the only criteria for new stations was "will it fit on the dial".
And Canada, as a rule, did not license daytimers with, I believe just one or two exceptions in the whole nation. Canada did not licensed absurdly directional stations that did not even cover all of their home markets at night. And Canada did not fully populate the FM band, either. So when it became obvious that AM was in decline, Canada had a low AM station count, an uncrowded FM dial and the ability to give full metro or regional coverage on FM when an AM was "traded in" for it.
And, most of all, Canada had a policy of encouraging a migration to FM, not of "revitalizing AM". Canada has long known that AM was the inferior service, and they took steps to preserve the heritage of many stations by allowing them to move to FM in nearly all cases. Our FCC for some reason thinks that cadavers can be brought back to life by giving them a tiny new body... a low power FM... when this belief is neither logical nor reasonable. And to top that off, the FCC requires that the cadaver has to be kept around, whether it is viable or not.
They've sort of regulated themselves into a corner on this one. The problem is they set up radio as a public-private partnership. What happens when the private partner discovers its losing money providing the service to the public? They need to find a way to encourage private businesses to lose money. That's what this was meant to do. But in some cases there's not enough money in the translator to cover the expense of the AM.
And to add to the misery, there are a bunch of highly directional and/or very low power translators attached to AM stations. Look at the mess on 96~one - one signal goes to the NW, the other goes due East. If you find yourself in the middle (central Phoenix) good luck listening to just one. But the fav of Los Buckeye Boyz is the flame thrower that'll be paired with KPHX...3 watts licensed to Paradise Valley. YIKES!
This right here is the folly that is "AM Revitalization."
While you can't fix the noise from all of the cheap power supplies we all use now that trash AM reception, you can fix the overcrowding of the AM band by turning off signals.
But the translator rule says you have to keep cluttering up the AM to be allowed to run a micro FM signal.
By the time we're done, we'll make both bands difficult to listen to and call it progress.
C
CAVEMANager
Guest
Both bands ARE difficult to listen to but I don't know who is calling it progress. The FM band was created about 75 years ago and not one new channel has been added in that time. But the thinking seems to be that you can authorize an infinite number of FM stations with no drawbacks. All those translators cause massive interference to existing stations. In many cases the older stations don't care because the interference doesn't affect their revenues. Nobody is looking after the radio listener who can no longer hear the stations he used to enjoy.
AM stations that program mainstream music formats can’t compete with FM. Nobody listens to AM for music anymore. When an AM simulcasts on an FM translator, 99.9% of their listeners are tuned to the FM translator. Many AM stations owners are only keeping their AM operational because it gives them access to FM. After a listener hears the audio quality of the FM, they will NEVER go back to crappy AM.
I see a future of AM’s downgrading to their lowest power possible. Why send out 5,000 watts when you can send 250 watts and keep your translator at full power within 25 miles of the AM. Seems like a waist of electricity doesn’t it?
Additionally, advertisers generally don’t support AM. Even AM’s with an FM translator don’t matter to an advertising agency because, from the agency’s city, all they see on their data is a little AM station but don’t realize that that AM has a popular station on the FM dial. The AM station is invisible.
The FCC says it’s their intention to revitalize the AM band… how? The only 2 things that would “save” AM are:
1. Go digital. But IBOC has been around for about 16 years and only a small percentage of people have HD Radio. It’s obvious the public is not interested in it. It would be 20 to 40 years before everyone has an HD radio at this pace. Plus, the licensing fees for stations to go digital makes it very difficult.
2. Move all the AM’s to a higher band. But, it would take another 20 years. Nope.
As an AM station owner, we need help now. I would give up my 5,000 watt AM any day for a 250 watt translator.
I see a future of AM’s downgrading to their lowest power possible. Why send out 5,000 watts when you can send 250 watts and keep your translator at full power within 25 miles of the AM. Seems like a waist of electricity doesn’t it?
Additionally, advertisers generally don’t support AM. Even AM’s with an FM translator don’t matter to an advertising agency because, from the agency’s city, all they see on their data is a little AM station but don’t realize that that AM has a popular station on the FM dial. The AM station is invisible.
The FCC says it’s their intention to revitalize the AM band… how? The only 2 things that would “save” AM are:
1. Go digital. But IBOC has been around for about 16 years and only a small percentage of people have HD Radio. It’s obvious the public is not interested in it. It would be 20 to 40 years before everyone has an HD radio at this pace. Plus, the licensing fees for stations to go digital makes it very difficult.
2. Move all the AM’s to a higher band. But, it would take another 20 years. Nope.
As an AM station owner, we need help now. I would give up my 5,000 watt AM any day for a 250 watt translator.
The largest markets just don't have the room for every AM to grab an FM translator. And in a market as large as Phoenix, you need multiple translators to hit most of the listeners (ask KQFN). As you can see from the UHF TV spectrum repack, the FCC does not want to increase any broadcast band. They can't resist the money from wireless/broadband companies. Something needs to be done with AM radio. They stuck ASU football on the Big 620 tonight, and it's not as pleasant to listen to as when they have 98.7 available. I could have just hooked picked up the stream from the phone and listen to it in crystal clear MP3 quality, and it would have been a better experience.
A cash for clunkers offer from the FCC would definitely thin the herd. Even if Sports Parkinglot 6~Twenty had a translator, how many listeners could pick up a 250 watt or lower signal? Streaming audio on a smartphone is the way to go.
Or simulcasting 620 on an HD2 signal (since I'm one of those lucky few with the HD radio in the car). But, Bonneville Phoenix has a policy to turn off analog delay and lower the HD power on 98.7 during sporting events (even during away games, where "bring your radio to the game" isn't much of a thing), so that may not work.
They're not allowed to. IIRC, the requirement for selling spectrum and collecting money from the cellphone companies was written into Federal law. And there's no place else to put TV or an expanded broadcast band. Most of the UHF and microwave spectrum is under control of the Federal government, the FCC won't reallocate 76-88 MHz from TV 5 & 6 to FM, and moving the aircraft band at 108-136 MHz for an expanded FM band is an absolute no-no. And why allocate a new band when receivers don't exist, few people buy radios of any kind, and it'd take a couple of decades for this band to find an audience even if they did start buying radios again. Maybe.
KTAR 620 isn't audible or just barely audible in much of east Mesa, Gilbert, and the rest of the far-east Valley. I can't hear any AM stations inside my house in NE Mesa except for a very weak and almost unlistenable KTAR. Outside, it's much better, but most of the locals are still weak. You can thank home construction practices of the last 35 years (stucco and other grounded chicken wire-based exteriors) for that. Throw in TVs, PCs, wall-cubes, and the like, and you have little or no AM reception in the house when the transmitter is more than about 20 miles away.
As far as the ASU game went, it was streamed via TuneIn, but one had to jump through hoops to get it. The KTAR stream had ESPN Radio, as they don't have streaming rights to any of their teams, save for the Coyotes (the NHL allows flagship stations to stream their games for free). DirecTV subscribers like myself were also SOL since they don't carry the Pac12 Network.
The other issue is few electronics manufacturers are making radio-only devices, and the brick & mortar store outlets for radios have disappeared. The radio of today is called the Amazon Echo or the Google Home. They are internet-only radio stations, with no antenna to pick up AM or FM signals.
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