Yes, let's make tuning FM on all but good car radios so difficult that we lose all portable (including cellphones with the radio chip), in home and at work listening nearly impossible. We might reduce the contour overlap protection slightly, but not eliminate the protections. I have seen cities with a full power FM every 2 channels, and it ain't pretty.
How do we determine that and how do we fence in signals? And remember, radio is not reviewed by Metropolitan Statistical areas or CMSA's by the FCC. It is reviewed usiing Nielsen's Metro Survey Areas, determined by use of a market's signals vs. use of another market's signals, commute patterns, etc.
How would you deal with very important and successful stations like WKXW in Trenton? It is rated in 8 different radio markets and is the principal spoken word station of all of Jersey that is not part of the Philly or NYC metros.
The idea is unworkable: for example, the very flat Houston market is so big that you need 100 kw at 2000 feet to cover it for indoor reception, but those big signals cover a lot of out of metro real estate for car reception. Or LA, where covering the coastal metro requires mountaintop sites and grandfathered facilities. But they also cover at least parts of 3 other MSA's (IE, Victorville, Ventura).
The CSA and CMSA are devices created by the OMB. They do not fit radio signals. The Nielsen MSA areas do. That is why the FCC chose to use Nielsen market definitions.
Non-starter. This can not be done without severely limiting second and third adjacent protections and causing "inability to tune" local stations, particularly when transmitters are in different locations with consequent blanketing zones.
Many AMs have sites based on where they could get land or where a directional system would work. That is not necessarily where the population is. Bad idea.
Same issues with second adjacent protections and making the dial untunable.
Just let existing translators get protected status and let the AM go silent. The clearing of the band in such a case would allow other stations to upgrade.
When over 80% of the market has a digital receiver, called a cellphone, why do you think anyone would be interested in a new single purpose radio? Nobody buys stand-alone radios anymore (OK, a few do. Statistically, it is "nobody"). AM already has 10 kHz bandwidth in analog. Putting more lipstick on the pig will just make it look slutty.
Class A1 and A2’s on established would become allocations that protect what signal they have.
That is not the way radio is measured, bought or considered for ownership by the FCC. Any change would be highly disruptive, and does not take into account terrain. Example: Contra Costa County, CA which is divided so half is in the SF MSA and the rest falls to Sacramento due to mountains.
Not the FCC criteria because MSAs from Nielsen are based on station usage, not government statistics that have a lot to do with things that don't affect radio.