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Originally Posted by Nolan Woodbury
Interesting discussion.
Jeff, the deregulation you mention falls right in the time period when the AM mega-stations pretty much disappeared in Phoenix. Being so close to Mexico, unregulated signals from south of the border absolutely blowtorch the airwaves here after sundown. Except for a few sports/talk stations, quality AM listening has pretty much vanished...for music anyway.
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Nolan, I live within perhaps a mile of the south shore of Lake Erie in northern Ohio, so I hear quite a few Canadian AM stations (CKLW-800 Windsor, CFCO-630 Chatham, plus several Toronto stations including CHWO-AM 740), not to mention many Canadian FMs when the band opens up in the spring, summer and early fall. However, I have never noticed these Canadian AMs taking over the airwaves in this area at night as you say the Mexican stations do in the Phoenix area. What's the difference? I know there are quite a few superpower stations in Mexico, but around here the Canadians pretty much stick with 50kW or less. I have never had one bit of trouble with any Canadian AM station overloading my radios. Those Mexican stations across from Arizona must be running well over 50kW if you say they "blowtorch" the air in the Phoenix area after dark. Are these stations even licensed, or are they pirates, on the air strictly to jam the Phoenix stations?
Since you say the Mexican stations are unregulated, I would think they are unlicensed pirates, just out to cause no end of trouble for the legitimate stations in Phoenix and elsewhere in Arizona.
As far as FM radio goes, in my area the stations play mostly rock, oldies, active rock and classic rock, probably, even likely, because Cleveland is the home of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; the last of the easy-listening stations left the air about 18 years ago. Thank goodness for Internet radio stations, which still play a good variety of music, including easy listening. My favorite Internet station in the latter category is "The Breeze" from Crown Point, Indiana, near Chicago (
www.thebreez.com), as I may have mentioned in an earlier post. I can also get easy listening and a wide variety of music on Time Warner digital cable. I don't know if you have digital cable at your house or if the cable company serving your area has converted to digital yet (TW did a complete digital conversion of all systems it owns in northern Ohio last year, including the system serving my small town), but if you do, I'd suggest running it through your Zenith console stereo (don't know if it has external audio inputs) or even your MJ-1035, which I seem to remember does have at least one auxiliary audio input. You won't be disappointed. When I had my cable box connected to my stereo, the sound was excellent. This cable service offers some 45 channels of commercial-free CD-quality digital music; there are absolutely no interruptions except an occasional Emergency Alert System test. There are no commercials and few other interruptions on The Breeze, except for recorded ID announcements every half hour or so.