well its official

[newhallone]

I have two local am stations one is talk radio and the other was playing Music of your life. Which wasn't too bad. Sure it repeated a little and a few clunker songs. Sadly they switched to Americas best music and I now get nauseous from all the bad Disney soundcraps. So now I have to wait till dark sets in to listen to am740 Toronto. I guess I will have to get started building a transmitter.

[Dave1384]

Originally Posted by mhardy6647

WBZ is alive and well... news/talk (mostly news); they do it much better than most AM stations with that format. I listen to 'em on the drive in to work regularly.

I get 'em at night. Whatever became of David Brudnoy?

Originally Posted by Rodzilla

the last AM station in my city of approx 350,000 signed off this week..the local AM band is now officially a vacant wasteland.i virtually never listen to AM but it seems strange and worth noting as the end of an era nonetheless

Was that the one around 1070?

[OvenMaster]

Originally Posted by Dave1384

I get 'em at night. Whatever became of David Brudnoy?

Passed away in 2004: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Brudnoy

[Jeffhs]

The migration of hit music from AM to FM has been going on at least 25 years. It's to the point now where AM radio in most cities is talk, sports and/or religion, with few if any music stations. One of the best AM music stations I listened to after all the AMs in Cleveland went to talk formats was WKBW in Buffalo, New York. They even had a former top-40 disk jockey from Cleveland (Jack Armstrong), who had been on at least two Cleveland stations in the 1960s. I remember him best on the former WIXY radio (1260, now WWMK Radio Disney), and later 50kW WKYC-1100 in Cleveland (now newstalk WTAM), from 1965-'74. I'll never forget how he used to scream at the top of his voice "Big Jack YOUR LEADER!" every chance he got. It amazed me that he didn't lose his voice from all that yelling.

When WKBW (KB-1520) finally went all-talk a couple years ago, they let Armstrong go; where he wound up, I may never know. Maybe he found work at a little 250-watt station in a small Southern town; that wouldn't surprise me, as he did work for at least one station in the Carolinas after leaving Cleveland. However, since most big-city stations today are automated, the demand for live DJs is not as pressing as it was in the '50s through the end of the 1980s, so I think Armstrong may well have retired after he was fired by the Buffalo station.

Add to this the fact that many of the few live DJs there are left will voice-track their shows on several different stations, and we now know why AM radio is dying a slow death in most of the US--and the FM stations in those areas, especially those FMs operated by Clear Channel and CBS Radio (which, combined, own some 90 percent of all American FM radio stations) are following suit as well. Clear Channel operates, among others in the Cleveland area, the "classic hits" (what was formerly referred to as oldies) station, and it would not surprise me one bit if their one afternoon DJ, who seems to be on the air almost continuously from three p. m. until midnight, is live during the first four hours of his program and voicetracked the rest of the time.

I don't listen to the station (or any Cleveland FM station) much anymore, preferring, rather, to listen to Internet radio (which has a much wider variety of music than today's terrestrial FM or AM stations) and my own music collection, so I'm only guessing, but I think a lot of their programming after the jerks on the morning show (Lanigan and Malone, 5:30-10am weekdays) leave the air (thank heavens they are off the air for the day by the time I get up in the morning) may well be voicetracked or otherwise automated, as the DJs do not give time checks as they once did, and the comments they make on the air (what little they are allowed to say between songs) are not, by and large, IMHO, worth listening to.

Commercials? The classic-hits station, probably like all stations today, runs seemingly endless strings of those obnoxious things several times an hour, which is one reason I don't listen to the station much these days. I have never actually counted how many songs this station (or any of the CC/CBS Radio O&Os--owned and operated stations--in Cleveland) actually plays in an hour; however, it might be an eye-opener if I did so some day. As a stab-in-the-dark guess, however, I would say most stations in this area play perhaps 30-40 minutes of actual music, if that much (!), with commercials filling in the other 20 minutes or so.

Sheeeesh! I know radio stations need to run a certain number of commercials an hour to stay on the air, but for crying out loud, this business of running strings of them every hour is too much. The day the FCC decided to deregulate radio broadcasting was the day that agency made a huge mistake, IMO, and when commercial radio started going down the drain as well.

I could not believe what happened to Cleveland's Music of Your Life station a few years ago. The format was on a 10kW day/5kW night station for years; then, when the FCC decided to give AM stations the option of increasing their day or night power (or both), with directional antennas if need be, the Cleveland station immediately applied for and received permission to raise its daytime power to 50kW. The night power was and still is 4.7 kW. However, shortly (very shortly) after this station increased its power, it dropped the Music of Your Life format and replaced it--with ESPN.

The MoYL format then disappeared for good from the radio dials (AM and FM) in northeastern Ohio--well, I guess it's not quite that bad, although it is as far as commercial radio stations in my area are concerned. There is a small FM station operated by a school district in Geauga County, Ohio, however, about 20 miles south of where I live, that plays big band and 30s-50s standards. The station is WKHR-FM, 91.5 MHz, and the station has an excellent signal everywhere in Lake and eastern Cuyahoga counties of Ohio; they also have an Internet audio stream at www.wkhr.org for folks listening over their computers at the office or at home (the stream sounds excellent when listened to on a good stereo system), or who live in areas the station's over-the-air signal does not reach. The only things I wonder about with that station are their student DJs, all of whom are far too young to remember any of the music they play over that station; after all, just about every track played over WKHR was recorded decades before these young people were born.

I can't help but wonder if these kids aren't all but bored to tears, having to listen for hours to music (through headphones in the studio) that is almost certainly decades older than they are. I wouldn't be surprised if, at the end of their air shifts, these kids immediately turn on their car stereos to the loudest FM rock station they can find (or they plug in their iPods to their car stereos and run the volume so high the thing can be heard outside the car for blocks around, with the windows closed), for the ride back home; after all, today's commercial FM radio stations play music today's teens and young adults can relate to. I honestly do not believe high-school or college radio DJs are required to listen to their school's radio station exclusively, after hours, as DJs at commercial stations often must because of possible problems with conflicts of interest, advertising restrictions, etc. if they listen to any other local radio station than the one for which they work--even after these folks are finished for the day or on weekends. Hmmmm.

[MarkAnderson]

I managed to pull in a grand total of 2 AM stations just now. Sad.

I did just hear Chicago's "You're the Inspiration" on FM.

Now paying, " Love Will Find a Way"......Pablo Cruise?

[MarkAnderson]

Now, America's "Ventura Highway"...

[mhardy6647]

Originally Posted by OvenMaster

Passed away in 2004: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Brudnoy

His immediate replacement has also since passed away. Having that slot at WBZ is apparently akin to being keyboardist for the Grateful Dead (or drummer for Spinal Tap).

[Einar72]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Cruise

Never thought I'd miss the sappy sound of 70's E-Z listening, but after listening to current stuff I suppose it wasn't so bad after all. I used to have these guys mixed up with Player (Baby come back).

BTW, the bumper music I'm listening to on a podcast as I type this is Bruce Cockburn's If I had a rocket launcher.

[Arkay]

I can't pull in many AM stations here (except at night, when I get mainland Chinese ones almost like pulling in shortwave!), but I recently learned that the main AM station I like to listen to --probably the best of the few English-language stations here-- is actually broadcasting now in AM STEREO! I have to rig up an AM stereo receiver, to give that a listen!


On the sad side, there are subtle (and not-so-subtle) signs that the government has insidious plans to either shut down or greatly alter the station and its management, probably because it is a free-speaking station that is perhaps more outspoken on certain issues than the Mainland Central Government is comfortable with. Not exactly censorship, but clearly there are some behind-the-scenes struggles and differences of opinion about the station, and I fear for its longevity in any form that I'll want to continue listening to. But so far, they remain a decent station and a visible token reminder that we live in a "one country, TWO systems" environment here. The government cannot and will not be too obviously seen to be doing anything too harmful to the station, as it would hurt their image and the image of Hong Kong, perhaps too much... but they will patiently and persistently try to accomplish their ends in more subtle (if not devious) ways, no doubt.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by Arkay

I can't pull in many AM stations here (except at night, when I get mainland Chinese ones almost like pulling in shortwave!), but I recently learned that the main AM station I like to listen to --probably the best of the few English-language stations here-- is actually broadcasting now in AM STEREO! I have to rig up an AM stereo receiver, to give that a listen!

Interesting. AM stations here in the US were experimenting with stereo transmission about twenty years ago (there was at least one AM stereo station in the Cleveland, Ohio area at the time), but the idea never caught on. I remember one all-news station in Chicago in the late '80s (WMAQ-AM 670, now WSCR ESPN sports) that was also transmitting in AM stereo, but they gave up on that experiment as well when they were sold and changed their format several years later.

I don't know if AM stereo receivers are even available new-in-box anymore; if they are, you may be looking quite a while before you find one, except perhaps on the used market (i.e. eBay or Craigslist). At least that's how it stands here in the US. I have yet to actually see an AM stereo receiver up close, although I saw ads for them here and there in ad flyers in my Sunday newspaper, etc. when the system was finally approved for use by US radio stations.

BTW, I'm amazed that Hong Kong has few if any AM radio stations. It may be, as it is here in the US, that FM radio in Hong Kong is more popular by far than AM these days--forcing many AM stations off the air or to run automated formats, as several AM stations in my area near Cleveland, Ohio have done over the last few years. Two examples: The local AM station here (actually about five miles from my apartment) was a fairly good local news and music station until a year or so ago, when it was sold and the new owner switched it to nearly 100-percent syndicated satellite programming; the same happened to a station near where I grew up. The latter was also a music station for 40-odd years, but its owner recently decided there was more money in talk radio, so five years ago or so that station was flipped from oldies to 100-percent satellite talk.

The foregoing is a very sad commentary on the state of United States AM radio in the 21st century, but unfortunately the owners of those stations care only about their bottom line (read money), so they have decided in most cases, of necessity, to flip their stations from music to talk. (Most stations, in fact almost all 50kW stations, in U.S. major cities are now talk, news, sports or religion.) Even that isn't enough to save some very small local stations from floundering; many such stations have been forced off the air due to financial difficulties, problems maintaining aging equipment and towers they cannot afford to replace (this actually happened to a station some 20 miles south of here about five years ago), and so on.

U.S. AM radio is not the powerhouse it once was; in fact, it is but a shadow of its former self these days. It wouldn't surprise me if some day all AM stations here either left the air entirely or moved to FM, leaving the AM broadcast band all but quiet as a mouse--except at night, when one might hear a few stations from other countries. The big money these days is in FM and Internet radio, so I think AM's demise may be a lot closer than we may think.

[LCC0256]

Just checked on my C Crane Radio to find out EXACTLY how many local AM stations we have left in the Augusta GA area there are 7.. i feel fortunate. They are all either sports, talk or Christian music. I just hope my old radio collection will not be useful for only window dressing for my children and grand children due to the fact that AM goes completely extinct...I want to know if all broadcasts eventually are transmitted digitally will it be impossible to receive those stations on old radios? I guess someone will invent a converter that could be routed wirelessly to all radios in a home so that everyones collection can still receive broadcasts ? (if in fact the AM is still in use 40 years from now...)

[Sandy G]

That's it. I kwit. Gonna start haulin' my Boatanchor collection down to th' street, to let the Garbage guys haul away....






BTW, I have a large bridge in a major northeast population center that I would like to sell, as well...

[amptramp]

Jeffhs, if you are looking for AM stereo, this was mainly used in car radios. I have found several of these from the late '80's and they did give some stereo separation and it was free of the multipath that you get on FM near large skyscrapers. But there were four formats vying for supremacy and by the time Motorola C-Quam won, there was no market. ESPN and talk radio does not need it. The biggest local station that went stereo used Khan-Hazeltine independent sideband modulation which few people built receivers for.

The only local AM station worth listening to is 1150 CKOC in Hamilton. It features mainly late 50's to early 70's pop and rock.

[Einar72]

Originally Posted by LCC0256

Just checked on my C Crane Radio

It will be interesting to see if the Chinese government or the American consumer would be more upset if digital AM broadcasting was made the standard by CONgress (like in '96 establishing HDTV). We can always use our old radios for doorstops, while we cough up money we don't really want to spend for some new, obsolete-proof rigs. With a nod from the boardrooms (or pool-sides) here, the factories over there could start producing new equipment and be selling them to us before we even could complain.

[LCC0256]

Brilliant observation Einar72 & if one really thinks about all of what you are pointing out... it is so very sad....not only with respect to our hobbies but the fact that the Chicoms are taking over without having to fire a shot....