well its official

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by 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.

Ah! So that's why I never saw many (or any) AM stereo receivers during what was supposed to have been the system's heyday. Thanks for the info. I was thinking of home stereo systems that might have had tuners equipped for AM and FM stereo reception; there were few if any of these ever produced, that I was aware of at the time.

BTW, before the present U.S. stereo FM system was approved, there was a quasi-stereo broadcasting system known as "AM-FM stereo" in the late 1950s and early sixties. Under this system, two radio stations, one AM and one FM (usually operated by the same media group, but there may have been exceptions), broadcast both channels of a stereo music source--records, mostly. The system, from what I have read about it, worked, considering the state of the art at the time, but not very well. AM-FM stereo had major drawbacks, the worst of which being that listeners would lose fully one half of the stereo program if they were out of range of or could not receive, for any reason, the AM or FM stations carrying the broadcast. Another attempt at "stereo" broadcasting of television sound, before the advent of stereo television as we know it today, was to carry one channel on the TV station's own sound carrier, with the other being carried by a local FM station.

I understand, from reading a recent post by another AK member, that the above-mentioned method of quasi-stereo broadcasting was used, possibly on an experimental basis, to simulate stereo sound during NBC's "Friday Night Videos" music-video program in the mid-1980s. However, the show went off the air a few years later, and NBC's stereo experiments ended with it.

Television stations and networks began broadcasting true stereo sound, however, about 1986, the year NBC began stereo transmission; CBS and ABC followed suit shortly afterward. The NBC station in Cleveland began carrying stereo audio that year and has been doing so ever since, although it was not the first TV station in this area to broadcast in stereo; the first Cleveland station to transmit full stereo sound was the then FOX affiliate in Cleveland on channel 19, which was carrying stereo sound (and was probably the first television station in northeastern Ohio to broadcast in stereo) since it first signed on in 1985.

The state of the art continued to evolve, until it reached where it is now--5.1-channel Dolby digital surround sound which, as I understand it (I have a bookshelf stereo system that will work as a surround sound system, but I presently don't have and probably cannot get, because of the system's age [nine years], the extra two surround speakers), adds realism to TV programming heretofore unheard of. In other words, if you think (for example) a bomb going off on a TV program or movie sounds scary on a standard TV with its dinky little 5" (or smaller) transistor-radio speaker, it may well scare you out of your wits if you were to hear the same bomb going off in 5.1-channel Dolby digital surround, especially if the sound system has a 100-watt-plus amplifier.

[NowhereMan 1966]

Here in Pittsburgh, WAMO-AM (860 kc) and WAMO-FM (106.7 Mc)went dark. Thewy were the only Black owned radio stations here in Pittsburgh. The AM side played classic soul while the FM side played rap and hip-hop. I checked the frequencies with my Grundig G6 Aviator, I'm picking up a French station from Canada on 860 kc and 106.7 Mc is silent.

[electroking]

Originally Posted by NowhereMan 1966

Here in Pittsburgh, WAMO-AM (860 kc) and WAMO-FM (106.7 Mc)went dark. Thewy were the only Black owned radio stations here in Pittsburgh. The AM side played classic soul while the FM side played rap and hip-hop. I checked the frequencies with my Grundig G6 Aviator, I'm picking up a French station from Canada on 860 kc and 106.7 Mc is silent.

What you're getting is the French CBC station in Toronto, possibly the
only high power AM transmitter still operated by the CBC, although
they have a few small 1 kW AM repeaters here and there.

[NowhereMan 1966]

Originally Posted by electroking

What you're getting is the French CBC station in Toronto, possibly the
only high power AM transmitter still operated by the CBC, although
they have a few small 1 kW AM repeaters here and there.

I posted my observations on a local, Pittsburgh TV/Radio website (www.pbrtv.com) and I was told the same thing. I'm surprised the Canadians kept the French side of the CBC on the old AM band.

[electroking]

Originally Posted by NowhereMan 1966

I posted my observations on a local, Pittsburgh TV/Radio website (www.pbrtv.com) and I was told the same thing. I'm surprised the Canadians kept the French side of the CBC on the old AM band.

CBC has four networks, two French and two English. Almost all of the
transmitters of the four networks are now FM (historically 'Radio 1'
was on AM and 'Radio 2' on FM), but as I noted a few AM transmitters
remain, such as this one in Toronto. The transition to FM, at least
here in Montreal, took place in 1998. The two old Montreal AM
frequencies (690 and 940 kHz) were reassigned to commercial all news
stations (French and English respectively), but the station on 940
kHz recently switched to an oldies format, claiming insufficient revenue.
We have a few other AM stations remaining in Montreal, including
a multilingual one (1280 kHz), one for the Haitian community and
a few others. Good DXing!

[sprman55]

Here in Nashville AM radio is alive and well.Many stations you can listen to.1560,todays best hits days,1470, blues saturday only,1200 big band days ,860,olidies music,days,790 1960 to 1970s days.1270 easy listing 1960s days,610 big band saturdays only daytime.WSM is still going strong.2 new AMstations came on in the last 2 years near here.A few closed down in the last 5 years .FM going strong here .Sprman55 : )

[NowhereMan 1966]

Originally Posted by sprman55

Here in Nashville AM radio is alive and well.Many stations you can listen to.1560,todays best hits days,1470, blues saturday only,1200 big band days ,860,olidies music,days,790 1960 to 1970s days.1270 easy listing 1960s days,610 big band saturdays only daytime.WSM is still going strong.2 new AMstations came on in the last 2 years near here.A few closed down in the last 5 years .FM going strong here .Sprman55 : )

I can get WSM at night. I think around your area, there is a religious station, 1530 kc I think, that comes through here, Pittsburgh, at night.

[Jeffhs]

There is a local AM station about five miles from me, more or less, that should have (IMHO) signed off and thrown in the towel a couple years ago. The station began as WPVL on 1460 kHz in 1956, and was a top-40 station most of its life through about the late 1990s. It was still top-40 in 1998, but by the end of the decade things changed dramatically; the station dropped its music format in 2002 or so and began simulcasting a Cleveland classical FM, then, after a couple years, it dropped the simulcast, was sold, changed its call sign, and is now an automated black-gospel station that sounds awful; overmodulation, hum on the signal--and it is on their signal, as I listened to it on several different radios, even battery-powered transistors, and still heard the hum--and other distortion that is not allowed, under any circumstances, on the signals of any commercial AM or FM radio station. Doesn't the FCC care about AM radio anymore, or are they waiting for most AMs (except perhaps the big 50kW all-news stations) to go silent so they can reassign most of the AM broadcast band to some other service?

I really don't know why the local station here is still on the air. IMHO, I think the FCC should have cited its owner for overmodulation, hum and other signal problems, or else revoked its license. Maybe the FCC did cite them for these violations, but the station's current owner may be a company operating on a shoestring budget that literally cannot afford to upgrade their transmitter or repair their current one, although there was talk of installing an AM stereo transmitter when the station was retransmitting the Cleveland classical music FM. The stereo conversion never came to fruition, however, and the simulcast ended a year or so later. Then the monkey business started: the sale of the station, the new owners (who do not seem to know the first thing about broadcasting, given the horrible quality of the signal) changing its call sign and format almost immediately after assuming control, and so on.

[radiotvnut]

I guess it must be a trend for AM gospel stations to sound like crap. The ones here sure do. The southern gospel station here is somewhat OK; but, the three black gospel stations - good grief! I can get better sound quality out of a one tube "phono oscillator". One of the black gospel stations is operating out of a dumpy trailer and his equipment is less than perfect, as in most of it is worn out and needs to be replaced. I got an old Russco turntable from this station and when the owner found out I was into electronics, he thought he could get me to do his repair work for next to nothing.

From what I hear, the FCC doesn't really get involved unless a bunch of people complain. I doubt the people around here that listen to the types of stations that I mentioned above are not concerned about sound quality.

[AUdubon5425]

Speaking of tolerating poor sound quality, I was servicing an arcade game in a neighborhood bar tonight - they have one of the last three 45rpm jukeboxes in service through my company (Rowe R-92 or thereabouts.) The record that was playing sounded muffled - like there were thick blankets over the speakers. I went to the bartender and offered to check & clean the needle, but he said it sounded just fine to him. Maybe he just has severe hearing loss and can't tell, I don't know.

[sprman55]

1530 here is a talk show .Many gospel stations here .Being the bible belt and all that,then you have tons of country stations.Night time here are many talk shows on AM from all over .1600 to 1700 has a few good stations,1690 at nite here is Chicago playing old stuff blues ect at nite comes in nice.Just rasied my ant and cleared away branches and replaced my ground.Ready for winter AM DX now.Sprman : )

[Kingfisher]

The various comments on this thread confirm my suspicions, that AM radio will go the way of newspapers in this country. In about 20 yrs, there will only be FM radio because people get music, news and info. from other sources (internet, TV, XFM, etc.). Most tube radios and stereos I buy have FM band because I want to keep using them into the future. Though I am not much of an AM radio fan, I can see how something would be missing if there were no more AM band. Radio would never be the same without it. It also will devestate the radio collectors who love firing up their restored Philcos, Zeniths, RCAs, Grundigs, etc.

[radiotvnut]

We'll all have to obtain a small AM transmitter if/when AM goes away. Some of us already have such a thing so we can hear music, instead of the usual chatter, on our AM radios.

[Sandy G]

That's it. Time to haul the Boatanchors down to the kerb, so's the Garbage will pick 'em up...Buh-bye 1955 Collins R-390A...So long, '54 Collins R-389....Adios, Rohde Und Schwarz EK-07...Been nice knowin' you fellers...(grin)

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

That's it. Time to haul the Boatanchors down to the kerb, so's the Garbage will pick 'em up...Buh-bye 1955 Collins R-390A...So long, '54 Collins R-389....Adios, Rohde Und Schwarz EK-07...Been nice knowin' you fellers...(grin)

I wouldn't be in such a hurry to get rid of your Collins, etc. boat anchors just yet. As I understand it, shortwave in the US isn't going to disappear any time soon; just standard AM broadcasting. Just think of what an outcry there would be from ham radio operators in this country if SW were legislated out of existence, and the ham bands reallocated to other services (the latter has happened on a very small scale here with part of the 220-MHz band, and could eventually happen with six meters as well, but to the best of my knowledge, all nine high-frequency ham bands, and most VHF-UHF bands, are still allocated to the Amateur Radio Service and are still in use). With over 640,000 amateur radio licensees in the US alone, the FCC probably wouldn't hear the end of it (if they reassigned the amateur frequencies, especially HF) for quite some time.