We're currently renting a 2012 Chevy Sonic and when I tuned to the am band I thought I was listening to my sell phone. No, it was much worse than that! Radio manufactures should be required to make a better product!
mp3RadioGuy said:I’ve been reading about the demise of AM radio since 1980, and 32 years later were still talking about it.
They said more than 6 years ago that Plasma TVs and desktops PCs would be history…they still flourish.
The amazing thing is that in many markets AM radio is still king in both ratings and billing. I believe that 6 of the top ten billing stations in this country are AM.
Now what happens when all the boomers and their children are gone is the big question???
ChiefOperator said:Yes, it is sad to listen to most AM receivers. I audio quality in my Toyota is almost painful. As you know, AM on a quality radio can sound quite good, almost "FMish."
It's too bad that manufacturers look at the AM band as an afterthought. There's no doubt that folks would listen more if AM didn't cause their ears to bleed.
I'm surprised they even include AM anymore on new car radios. Its just a matter of time before its out the door.
As far as it goes, in the last few years, I've listened to very few AM radios that were of quality enough to actually enjoy, and add to that all the hash and Ibuzz and it only seems to be hastening the demise of the AM band.
WNTIRadio said:Look at the top billing stations in a lot of top 25 markets. Top rated too. You'll find that a lot of them are still on AM.
WNTIRadio said:The 50kW flamethrowers aren't going anywhere. It's the small stations that will migrate to FM status through translators. The handwriting is on the wall for that, but it will clean up the band and allow fewer, but higher powered, stations.
WNTIRadio said:I drove from western NJ to Cape Cod last week, and listened to the Yankee game on 880 the whole way up. No FM will do that for you.
Aren't all tuners with FM also required to have AM as well? The only exception that seems to exist is for Walkman-type battery powered portable radios, such as those little handheld Insignia HD tuners Best Buy was selling.nocomradio said:I'm surprised they even include AM anymore on new car radios. Its just a matter of time before its out the door.
WNTIRadio said:Cellular networks will not replace radio. There is only so much bandwidth. Imagine drive time and 1,000,000 people are streaming a station... going to crash the network! Each stream is a separate stream to an individual listener, not very efficient. And satellite has leveled off in subs... there has been no growth at Sirius/XM in the past few years.
satech said:Aren't all tuners with FM also required to have AM as well? The only exception that seems to exist is for Walkman-type battery powered portable radios, such as those little handheld Insignia HD tuners Best Buy was selling.nocomradio said:I'm surprised they even include AM anymore on new car radios. Its just a matter of time before its out the door.
WNTIRadio said:I see some people driving around with earbuds... they should be pulled over immediately. How unsafe is that??
KeithE4 said:satech said:Aren't all tuners with FM also required to have AM as well? The only exception that seems to exist is for Walkman-type battery powered portable radios, such as those little handheld Insignia HD tuners Best Buy was selling.nocomradio said:I'm surprised they even include AM anymore on new car radios. Its just a matter of time before its out the door.
I don't think there's ever been a law requiring a particular radio band. This isn't like the 1960s All-Channel law that required TVs to have UHF as well as VHF. FM-only radios have always existed, going back to the old WW2-era 42-50 MHz band.
That's what the NRSC bandwidth and pre-emphasis standards were supposed to address: to give receiver manufacturers a set of specifications to work with when designing AM tuner sections. But alas, it arrived about a decade too late; despite a big marketing push by the NAB, the "AMAX" receiver standard never caught on, except for the GE Superadio III, Sony SRF-42, Denon TU-680NAB, and some OEM car radios.radiorob2.0 said:Bad AM sections are actually a response to the marketplace and reducing product returns. Radios that able to produce bandwidth were returned due to noise complaints on AM. Reducing the bandwidth lowered the number of radios that were returned.
satech said:That's what the NRSC bandwidth and pre-emphasis standards were supposed to address: to give receiver manufacturers a set of specifications to work with when designing AM tuner sections. But alas, it arrived about a decade too late; despite a big marketing push by the NAB, the "AMAX" receiver standard never caught on, except for the GE Superadio III, Sony SRF-42, Denon TU-680NAB, and some OEM car radios.radiorob2.0 said:Bad AM sections are actually a response to the marketplace and reducing product returns. Radios that able to produce bandwidth were returned due to noise complaints on AM. Reducing the bandwidth lowered the number of radios that were returned.
It also doesn't help that to cut costs, many tuners run the AM audio through the FM MPX decoder chip and 75 uS de-emphasis, making an already narrowband tuner sound both narrowband and muffled on AM!
The NRSC 10 kHz bandwidth limit was a compromise between those who wanted to preserve full 15 kHz audio on AM, and those who wanted to cut the bandwidth down to 5 kHz to eliminate all overlap between next-adjacent-channel stations. Ultimately, 10 kHz bandwidth eliminated overlap between second-adjacent channels, which did go a long way towards reducing the "monkey chatter" that listeners were complaining about, and yet is still wide enough for music to be enjoyed with adequate fidelity on a wideband receiver.radiorob2.0 said:NRSC-2 was a facepalm, it was mandatory for the broadcasters but voluntary for the receiver manufactures. The AM's that were able to have true high end now had the artificial high boost and sharp roll off.