Ford to drop AM radio in new vehicles

[harshness]

The point is whats on AM radio...Scroll through that dial....Big money has invested to own most all AM stations they need to convince people there poor ideas is what will help you!

Large corporation ownership is a problem with FM (Audacy) but I don't see it as much in the AM band.

The stations with an axe to grind seem to have a presence in both bands.

Stations that are substantially automated probably aren't worth talking about when it comes to detailed local emergency information.

 

[harshness]

Here's the link...

https://www.insideradio.com/free/af...cle_75a60dde-6d72-11ee-b521-1793c2154e21.html

You munged the link with your emoji. I fixed it above.

 

[N5XZS]

Thanks Harshness!!

 

[harshness]

For every well-run station, there are thousands that struggle.

Topographical constraints are a much bigger issue that can't be easily solved by changing the format of the data in the carrier. The AM station I listen to regularly has been reduced to 1000 watts (both day and night) to protect other stations. I can't receive them at 8 miles and must stream it instead.

 

[navychop]

This is another opportunity for an Elon Explosion.

 

[N5XZS]

Yes, Elon is so unpredictable, such a roller coaster ride!!

 

[AZ.]

Large corporation ownership is a problem with FM (Audacy) but I don't see it as much in the AM band.

The stations with an axe to grind seem to have a presence in both bands.

Stations that are substantially automated probably aren't worth talking about when it comes to detailed local emergency information.

AM is far worse, and now they have bought up 250 Hispanic channels now.(so far)

 

[radio]

I personally think FCC should force AM broadcasters go to pure digital MA3 mode just like FCC did with analog NTSC TV broadcasters back in 2009 and just get over with!

Now, the big questions. The first one I ask before the "numbered ones" is ….'WHY?' How would it benefit you, your community, or your local broadcasters, let alone the industry. Please explain your position.

Then...

1) Do YOU own the equipment to enjoy this VERY hypothetical "switch" to digital?

2) How many people do you think do?

3) Bet you didn't know that while the government paid consumers to get "converter boxes" they don't even pay BROADCASTERS for any of the equipment they mandate for emergencies. ...thus, another question, How many AM stations would you like to see go dark? WE, the license holders would decide whether or not we would "go digital." An ANALOG new AM transmitter of just 5 kilowatts now tops over 50 THOUSAND dollars. It was 45 THOUSAND when I bought mine with insurance money in 2005. Do you really think that LOCAL stations, operated by people who live and work in your community are going to convert? Or ….will they just throw in the towel and sell their land? The government will NOT step in to assist broadcasters. There is no "bailout" for mandates for us....there is no "manufactured money" for us.

4)Even if a local broadcaster switched to all digital, Ideas like you suggest mean advertisers drop like flies, when THEY can no longer hear their ads which have kept their station on which they advertise and IN WHICH THEY BELIEVE for it's local content going. Your suggestion is more of a headstone for local AM radio than a suggestion.

5) Say all you want about compatibility with the current "HD Radio" receivers. They're dead or dying in awareness and availability. New ones are NOT out there, old ones were not well marketed, most owners of them don't even know what HD really IS, they think it's "High Definition."

Your scenario does not work for the FCC, (losing money they charge we, the licensees of stations) ...nor does it work for broadcasters, nor for communities with local AM stations, and MANY larger companies that only operate their AM stations because they already own them, and put them on the "asset" page...not because they WANTED them. They would alos likely shut DOWN many signals. It's a scenario best buried. NOW.

 

[radio]

Really, you pay for your band space? I thought that was assigned, in exchange for serving the public interest. How much do you pay?

I remember GM cars back in the 70s having terrible AM reception to the point it wasn't worth trying to use it. Part of it I believe was their decision to eliminate the aerial by embedding antenna wire in the windscreen. AM can be good but old-school technical effort has to be kept up rather than shirking those costs and relegating it to a "who cares" dustbin. Is that kind of essential excellence for AM "worth it" anymore to the public? I believe that question is long settled- it ain't. This could also to some extent apply to FM.

I absolutely loved AM in the 70s when WLS ruled. I have absolutely loathed what it became and has come to, and I do believe it has been co-opted as a tool of ideology that has culminated in insurrection. That of course isn't the format's fault, but we need to map out the future and decide whether it's a part of it, as well as whether it still serves the public interest.

We pay DEARLY each year!

The FCC issues an 8 year license and we pay "Regulatory Fees" every year of that license period based on our signal's population, yes, even AM. Yes, our FM translators, Yes, our Studio-Transmitter Links. You really need to read up on this, all of which can be found on the FCC's website. "Serving the public interest?" Long gone out of style with the big companies. It's not even required in sign-on and sign-off announcements for stations that still do that. Nowhere do we HAVE to do it, as long as our mandated quarterly reports are submitted to the FCC website on time, printed duplicates put in our physical public files, and making sure they are "there" if someone from the public asks for them. Those of us who DO, (serve the public interest) with live programming in small towns, paying our own reg. fees, music licensing for over the air, music licensing for streaming, bandwidth for streaming, buying our own EAS boxes mandated by government, buying the UPDATES TO THE SOFTWARE in those boxes also mandated by government, and still trying to make a living, train young talent, and serve our listeners have ENOUGH on our plate without AM "digital" becoming the buzzword that "Digital" did for other media. AM can sound just as good as FM when processed properly for it's intended terrestrial area. AM can be stereo. Let the markets decide what works and what does not. If an operator fails, so be it. We are businesses. We risk our livelihoods every day by what we put on the air and the perception of the same from the public. It boils down to TRUST, AVAILABILITY, and MARKETING of each individual station by the public, and the station operators.

And, as an AM operator for 20 years, and 36 as an announcer, I'd also appreciate it if you would not accuse AM radio of being ANY part of "culminated insurrection." You should be THANKFUL that your local stations are allowed to broadcast what they want and that the FCC does not step in to any programming decisions beyond the occasional consumer complaint. We are not told what to broadcast, only to broadcast with decency. The roster of AM broadcasters is NOT to be all lumped into the same box and labeled. There's plenty of great local operators who do fine work in their communities, and some of those communities ONLY have AM as an option. Don't blame the "AM band" for the mentality of idiots in our country....AM is NOT the cause.

 

[harshness]

AM can sound just as good as FM when processed properly for it's intended terrestrial area. AM can be stereo.

Neither of these "features" can be obtained using standard radios that mortals can buy today. There's also the issue of multiple standards.

Streaming fixes that for the most part but for me, it actually makes the AM jock's tendency to firewall the faders all that much worse as the sound is distorted going into the encoders. Amplitude isn't everything.

 

[Phil T]

I have a couple radios that can tune AM Stereo. My 2018 Nissan Murano and a Sangean tabletop.

Denver has several AM stereo stations all owned by Crawford broadcasting. I do enjoy KLVZ 810 which is a oldies format.

Last year I took several car trips across the country. Didn't hear any AM stereo stations east of the Mississippi. KSL Salt Lake City is/was a 50,000 AM stereo station I received in Wyoming, Montana and Utah. Strange because they are news/talk and I don't really know what the advantage is for that format.

 

[radio]

I have a couple radios that can tune AM Stereo. My 2018 Nissan Murano and a Sangean tabletop.

Denver has several AM stereo stations all owned by Crawford broadcasting. I do enjoy KLVZ 810 which is a oldies format.

Last year I took several car trips across the country. Didn't hear any AM stereo stations east of the Mississippi. KSL Salt Lake City is/was a 50,000 AM stereo station I received in Wyoming, Montana and Utah. Strange because they are news/talk and I don't really know what the advantage is for that format.

The overall quality of sound, if AM is properly STEREO processed will help the overall sound, even that of human voice. You'll notice the stereo in the "bumper" music between segments, IF it is in stereo. Stations can turn on the stereo "carrier" without providing stereo content. I'm guessing that the Sangean of which you speak is an HD set? HD sets CAN decode AM stereo in some cases, but the full bandwidth of sounds low to high is often squelched down to the lower ranges. My Sangean HDT-1 plays our station in stereo, but it's digitally delayed and much more "muddy" than a "real" dedicated AM stereo tuner.

AM stereo, if properly installed and maintained makes a station very conscious of their entire "Air chain" of audio and maintaining it's full integrity. Any "skeletons in the closet" must be found and removed to keep the station sounding Stellar.

 

[harshness]

Any "skeletons in the closet" must be found and removed to keep the station sounding Stellar.

If only other station operators were 10% as dedicated as yourself...

 

[TommyT1]

- Most people I know under 40 could not tell you how to turn on the FM, let alone AM radio in their cars, nor could they tell you what format any local radio station is.

- My current car (22 Audi) makes a half-a**ed effort at AM. It has one, but the reception is awful.

- In my area, and I think this is typical across the country, all of the AM stations that have a serious format have been given an FM repeater. The problem is the FM repeater has about a third of the power of a regular radio station. Its fine, in town, but fades much more quickly and does not get out to the suburbs.

- In my area, which does not have a large Hispanic population (Spanish language material often is on AM), the only AM stations of any merit are one with ESPN Radio and one with Fox Sports radio and one with Bloomburg stock quotes (all of which are on SXM or streaming) and two talk stations, one national talkers that are also on streaming, and one with mostly local talkers and the local baseball team. Other than an occasional ball game I never even think about AM.

Sounds like Cincinnati

 

[radio]

Maybe just convert into low power licenses free hobby broadcast band if no wants to use this frequency that's is too noisy in the 21st century world?!

You're WAY over-generalizing this. There are many successful broadcasters on the AM band, success measured by the fact they still have advertisers who are patronized by listeners, who stay "tuned in" because they like the audio product. It's still quite viable. Maybe not where you are, but you're not doing my industry any favors by generalizing, either. UNEDUCATED people read posts like yours and instantly believe it. The curse of the web when facts are not properly presented.

 

[Mister B]

I have noticed that several music AM stations in both Tucson and Albuquerque sound "hollow and tinny" on their FM translators. This is especially true with 50,000 watt KDRI in Tucson which I always enjoy while driving from El Paso to Yuma. I am always tempted to switch to the FM version on 101.7 while actually in Tucson but quickly switch back to 830 AM.
Do broadcaster send a separate feed from their studio to both the site of the AM and FM transmitters (usually in different locations) ?

 

[Juan]

There is an app called " tune in" that integrates with Apple car play and android auto that will allow you to stream most am stations at better quality than if you received them over the air...the app also has a built in tuner if you want fm digital or am stations the old fashioned OTA way

 

[telstar_1]

Is the AM band at any jeopardy from being desirable enough for mobile communications for FCC to auction it off, like with the TV spectrum?

 

[harshness]

Is the AM band at any jeopardy from being desirable enough for mobile communications for FCC to auction it off, like with the TV spectrum?

At 1.16MHz all in, the band isn't wide enough to fight over.

 

[radio]

There is an app called " tune in" that integrates with Apple car play and android auto that will allow you to stream most am stations at better quality than if you received them over the air...the app also has a built in tuner if you want fm digital or am stations the old fashioned OTA way

Not correct on some of the above statement. .
1) Quality of streaming depends JUST LIKE OVER THE AIR on how much attention is paid to HOW the sound is delivered to the carrier. If a "raw" sound was sent from the control room, there would be no AGC (automatic gain control) for leveling the audio, nor any other processing that gives you what you "expect" from your loca station. In our case, at WION you DO hear exactly what is on the air, as we send our AM STEREO product from a tuner in my office into a sound card, encoded, and sent to Live 365, which then distributes it to others like Tune-In Radio.

2) Their "tuner" to which you refer is really NOT a tuner. No "app" you download can magically create a real tuner that uses the AM and FM airwaves directly. For a tuner to be "real" it has to have an antenna to match the frequencies you wish to tune and the circuitry to TUNE AM and FM. The only thing Tune-In does is perhaps LOOK like a tuner and let you set favorites. You are simply selecting a digitally streamed feed from a station that LOOKS like the old-fashioned way. It's just to appease looks. An AM tuner needs AM capability. No tablet, phone, or device you use tune-in on unless it's a combined WEB AND AM/FM DEVICE can do that. There would need to be physical circuits and selectors for that to happen.

2a) Tune-in builds on broadcasters' work by re-transmitting our streams and inserting THEIR commercials, quite a few at startup. Annoying to say the least, and...when a broadcaster chooses a certain plan, those commercals can come at ANY time in the listening stream, not when the station takes it's own natural breaks, losing you continuity of content, and losing the station listeners. Stations who opt to NOT have commercials inserted pay a higher rate for streaming than those who allow the "third party" spots. It's why we had a skill developed for Amazon that is for our station only, and why we opt for the "no inserting commercials" in our monthly package.

3) Finally and most importantly: Streaming costs stations MONEY. Streaming is NOT available everywhere and cannot subsitute for an over the air signal in many places in the USA. Here, in Michigan, along I-96, there are places between Lansing and Detroit where even Verizon's signal drops, and you cannot access digital information which is needed to assemble any stream. It is NO substitute, and should not be considered in the same league as an "over the air" signal. If this is used as a crutch for pulling AM from dashboards then, the damn companies that pull us OUT of their dash can start paying my music licensing and bandwidth fees to provide this "free" service to you, the listener. Period. It's a shifting of cost to even PROPOSE that streaming is a substitute for free radio in a car, and that cost gets shifted to your BROADCASTER.