AM Radio Stations

[stereofisher]

After years of poor AM radio, I have rediscovered how good a decent AM radio pulls stations. While FM rules does anyone listen to music on AM. The bigband station from Toronto Canada is fun at 740. The oldies station in Buffalo WKRW?? at 1520 is fun too. Running my Zenith Inneroceanic tonight instead of my big system.

Eric

[Jeffhs]

At least you still have music stations on AM in your area. I live in a small town some 35 miles east of Cleveland; the AM stations from the city are almost all talk now (except for very short music programs on two stations--only an hour or two long on each station). One of those stations, a 0.5-kW pipsqueak in a suburb of Cleveland, used to be all oldies, but about three months ago it switched to 99.9 percent talk. I gave up on that station as soon as it switched; it's just as well, as their signal isn't meant to reach my area anyway--at least not at night. The Cleveland station plays good music when its program is on, but I live in an apartment building where the noise levels are often so high good AM reception is next to impossible, even on my 1963 Zenith K-731, which is usually pretty good when it comes to sniffing out weak signals.

Because of these reception problems and the absence (for the most part, except for the two short music programs I mentioned) of music programming on AM radio here (not to mention the signal strength from the Cleveland stations, AM, FM or TV, is not that great in this area, with most Cleveland stations except the big 50kW operations [at least one of which doesn't even run 50kW at night] fading into the noise after sundown), I have just about completely given up on AM. Most (as in 99.999 percent) of my radio listening these days is to FM stations (the rest of my music listening is to CDs, cassettes and cable music channels), which I think still have fidelity of sound far superior to even the best AMs; remember, AM frequency response only extends to about 6,000 Hz, give or take (and the low end is even worse).

BTW, the foregoing is probably why AM stereo broadcasting went belly-up a while back. The so-called "local" AM station here, which is actually in the next town south of me by about five miles, used to be community programming/top-40, but they now simulcast a classical FM which is not heard here by virtue of a strong country-western station 200 KHz down the dial. The AM station applied for and received a 24-hour license; eventually, it was going to install an AM stereo transmitter as well, but the latter didn't pan out. So now, what's coming from the town 5 miles to the south of here? A low-fidelity AM simulcast of an FM radio station that plays serious music. Come on already! Serious music (i. e. classical) was not meant to be broadcast over low-fidelity monophonic AM radio. The company that operates WQXR-AM and FM in New York must have realized this early on, as WQXR-AM is now the New York area's Radio Disney affiliate. New York's classical music now is broadcast over WQXR-FM, where it should be.

I wish the broadcast group which operates the classical FM in Cleveland (which isn't even in the city--the transmitter is some 50 miles west of town, in another county yet; no wonder it doesn't reach this far east, even without the interference from the station 0.2 MHz down the dial) would realize the foregoing as well, and free up the AM station so it can be a local service operation, as it once was. The FMs owners have at least one alternative: to put up a low-power FM translator on top of a tall building in one of the few cities of any size in this area (there are no major cities here; the largest city in this entire county is about eight miles southwest of me).

I wonder why they didn't think of that before they took over (and I do mean took over) this area's only local AM radio station. The only thing I can come up with that makes any sense is that the station's ratings may not have been very good the last few years, so the owners decided to simulcast the classical FM over its 0.5kW AM signal instead. I can only wonder how many people actually listen to that simulcast.

The reason Cleveland's classical FM is broadcast over an out-of-area station today is that the station's owner, for reasons I have never understood (and have given up trying to), thought, about three years ago (!), it would be best to put a music station (not classical) on 95.5, where the Cleveland classical station used to be. The man obviously did not stop to think that, by broadcasting his station's classical programming over a station 50 miles away, and just next (on the FM radio dial) to a country station that drowns it out in fully half the area, he has effectively lost half his listening audience. It makes about as much sense as when the area's only oldies AM radio station dropped the music and went 99.999 percent talk three months or so ago--but I guess that's business. AM stations are mostly talk in most cities anyway these days, so such a move doesn't surprise me in the least.

I think some day AM radio may go completely silent, as many local stations have done already. The FCC is already starting to auction off certain frequencies in the FM and UHF TV spectra; who's to say AM won't eventually be next? The transition from analog to digital TV, scheduled (if the FCC has its way about it) for 2006, is only the tip of the iceberg, with some FM stations already broadcasting so-called "high-definition" signals (technically known as IBOC, a technology which might revolutionize FM radio, as digital HD will revolutionize TV, if it catches on).

It's the way of the market place. AM radio has become specialty oriented--and that's OK with me. Here in Baltimore, and in most large markets, one will find stations dedicated wholly to one of the following: religion, sports, straight news, business/stock market, C&W, oldies but goodies, and talk. Our oldies station is great. On Sunday, e.g., they play Sinatra for several hours. I heard that they are even going to 50KW. AM may yet be heading the way of the dinasaur, but around here at the moment it's thriving. . . Happy listening.

[Chad Hauris]

Jeff, you may not be able to receive them, but WAKR, Akron is Adult Standards music, as is WJMP in Kent. At my parent's house in Ohio I could also receive 830 AM, WKTX Cortland, which was music the last time I was there.

Around where I live, especially in the more rural areas, are adult contemporary and country AM stations. It was a rare experience to eat at a restaurant in Fort Stockton, TX. and hear the latest hits playing on an AM radio!
Here are the music AM stations in this area:
1390, KHOB, Hobbs, N.M. Oldies/Adult Standards
860, KFST, Fort Stockton, TX. Adult Contemporary
1250, KSEM, Seminole, TX. Country
1360, KACT, Andrews, TX. Country
630, KLEA, Lovington, N.M., Adult Contemporary
1270, Colorado City, Tx. Country
1400, KBYG, Big Spring, TX. Oldies/Spanish
1490, KBST, Big Spring, TX. Talk, but with some Adult Standards.

[TRC]

I "love" AM radio. There's just nothing like hearing oldies over AM.
Berry Gordy for example, recorded songs to sound good over a car radio.
And Adult Standards..? AM.
The old radio serials. Remember hearing those late at night..? AM radio.....
When this stuff first aired.. much of it was over the AM band..!

Low Fi..? Sure. But even to this day.. (or night..) I sleep with the radio on.
And what band is it on..? AM! conversation and music.
The Atmospheric noise (atmospheric whistling..) I DO find quite annoying..
but other than that.. for the most part.. I enjoy AM radio.

TRC

[asynchronousman]

Sure it's annoying...it's also one of the most quaint and comforting ( if not humanizing) part about it. The total charm is that you listen to your town in the day and the rest of the land at night...one great big atmospheric "show and tell". The magic of distant listening is the hook and the treat. It's what got me hooked on AM at age 4. Getting stuff we are not expecting to hear, and it doesn't sound logical at first, is what got many of us interested in the physcality of the universe to start with, the electronics concepts, fixing these feeble, broken boxes and making the "sing", measure, save the history of life!

Not to mention help your neighbors and find a place in your world.

That noise is welcome here if not always appreciated.

There are no natural sources of frequency modulation in our universe (although forms of phase modulation are abundant) that I'm aware of.

Steven

[glen65]

I remember drifting away from AM after CKLW changed their format.
Here's a little history.
http://www.thebig8.net/

Thats when I started listening to more FM. I started listening to
98.5 G98 WGCL out of cleveland. Then those guys change their
call letters along with some of their programming. Now I just kind of
listen to whatever comes in good and sounds half way decent.

[TRC]

asynchronousman.. I have to agree with you about the noise.. When I said "It"s is annoying.. I was referring to the SEVERE whistling itself.. not the "other" noise. I like the way you said what you did about AM. There's even a nostalgic romanticism about AM. The noise included.

The stuff I used to listen to growing up.. the radio serials.. Wolfman Jack.. the music.. some of that just doesnt belong on FM. I mean.. radio serials on FM..? Digitally remeastered for CD..? C'mon.. No.. some of that stuff goes hand in glove with AM. That's what some of it was designed for.. (with certain exceptions..)

I could probably be a little more clearer on my explanation..
but its been a real long day.. and I'm tired.

TRC

[asynchronousman]

Me too. I want a pop refill and some house pickup and a nap.

[radioactive]

The total charm is that you listen to your town in the day and the rest of the land at night...one great big atmospheric "show and tell". The magic of distant listening is the hook and the treat.

i'll have to agree with you on that!!it was that first got me hooked(collecting and listening to "boatanchor shortwave recievers)to this hobby collecting tube hi fi gear/ solidstate.although the radios have been put on the back burners and i hav'nt done any listening or dxing for awhile i hope to one day get back into it as it's a great way to relax.
chris

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by Chad Hauris

Jeff, you may not be able to receive them, but WAKR, Akron is Adult Standards music, as is WJMP in Kent.

I used to be able to hear both stations you mention (as well as both Akron FM stations and WQMX-94.9 in Medina), but I was living some 15 miles closer to Cleveland at the time. Where I live now is some 45 miles from the Cleveland AM/FM/TV stations and even further away from the Akron ones (except one suburban Akron station, as I will explain a bit later on in this post).

I simply gave up on AM altogether when I moved here; as I mentioned in a previous post, the noise level in my apartment is often high enough (even when using my Zenith K731, which is usually very good at picking up very weak signals) to mask all but the three 50kW Cleveland AMs and CKLW and WJR in Detroit. I gave up as well on a suburban Cleveland oldies station when it threw out that format in favor of satellite-syndicated talk late last year.

WKTX-AM830 in Cortland was playing oldies and standards until about three months ago, but is now a talk station. While it was still a music station, I would often put my Zenith '731 on 830 and listen to it until it signed off at sunset. I could also hear WJMP-1520 and can probably still hear it now, but since it changed its format (I think--the radio directory in the Lake County News-Herald's TV guide has it listed as standards and variety) I don't listen to it much these days.

I really don't listen to radio (AM or FM) that much anymore, after discovering Live365 (www.live365.com) on the Internet. I went to our local Radio Shack the other day and bought a cable to connect my computer's sound card audio out to the aux inputs on my stereo; hooked it up in five minutes, spent another five minutes registering with the site (to get commercial-free music on these Internet radio sites one must register with them), then set the preset buttons on the on-screen control panel to the easy-listening station (preset 1), the '60s oldies station (preset 2) and one other stream that plays nothing but the Beatles on preset 3. I left the other three preset buttons (there are six on the panel) set to their default stations.

Your list of AM stations receivable in your area is impressive. What is even more impressive to me is the number of stations you can get there in Texas which still play music. In most parts of the country, AM stations in major cities gave up their music formats some years ago, but I guess things are different in west Texas, where you are. Because of FCC rules limiting the coverage of AM stations these days (even the ones which used to be clear-channel), however, I cannot get AM reception further away from here than about 1,000 miles, using the built-in loop antennas in most of my AM radios. I have never heard any AM stations from the West Coast in my entire life (I've lived in northeastern Ohio all my life--was born and raised here), and the only time I ever heard anything on AM from the Southwest was one night about 20 years ago, when WRMR-850 [now sports WKNR] was off the air for maintenance. The station was KOA-850am in Denver. I have yet to hear anything from the big stations in Phoenix, Dallas, Houston, Albuquerque and, as I mentioned, any station on the West Coast. If I had an outdoor AM antenna oriented to that part of the country, I might have a shot at hearing Salt Lake City, Phoenix, even Los Angeles 50kW AMs if the conditions were right. However, living in an apartment, I absolutely cannot have any kind of outside radio or TV antennas, so DXing is out for the most part. Even my amateur radio station uses an indoor antenna because of that restriction (that and the fact it doesn't work well--probably because of the aluminum siding around the second floor of the apartment building where I live).

Well, I guess that's one drawback of living in an apartment. The no-outdoor-antennas rule is probably universal throughout the country, so if you live in an apartment or even a condo you are pretty much stuck with cable TV and local AM/FM radio (and one or two other music sources, as I will explain in a moment). With cable you get what the cable operator offers for your chosen service package (including the "must-carry" channels such as TBS, TNT, CNN, WGN, etc. and the local broadcast TV stations in your area), no more and no less; the radio reception in your area is entirely dependent on how your apartment building or condominium is built. If you live in a building wrapped in aluminum siding, your chances of getting any kind of decent AM, FM or TV reception are slim unless you have cable TV or satellite service, both of which offer digital music channels in most areas these days, and then there are the thousands of Internet radio stations, many of which have better programming than today's local AM or FM radio in major cities. I've been listening to Live365 almost exclusively since registering with the site the other day; I have to say, I have never enjoyed listening to music (other than my own collection of CDs and cassettes which is growing by leaps and bounds, as I am a member of BMG Music Service in Indianapolis, Indiana) more than I do now. No commercials, no DJs on many stations, just music all the time. This is radio at its best (and the future of radio listening at home or in the office at work), IMHO.

Can the day be far off when Internet radio becomes the preferred music medium, eventually putting many if not most radio stations off the air? I am speaking here of FM music stations, not news or news/talk AMs (the latter are still extremely popular with people who depend on them for news and weather while commuting to and from their workplaces).

I think even FM music stations will be around for some time, as people still listen to them in their cars (those who don't have Sirius or some other mobile satellite radio system). However, I think that's where the bulk of FM radio listening is done these days--in cars and trucks, on the go. Internet and satellite radio, not to mention digital cable music channels, are slowly chipping away at the listener bases of many stations as far as at-home listening is concerned. It's the future of radio, whether the stations like it or not. It may not put standard radio out to pasture entirely, but since Internet radio has become extremely popular these days and is becoming more so every day, we can be sure of one thing: Terrestrial AM and FM (broadcast) radio, and the manner in which many people listen to radio nowadays, will never be the same again.

[asynchronousman]

Boy, I hate to hear how you seemed to have slipped to the bottom of that river of yours. My only serious solution is to move to Indiana or North Dakota and get out of a crappy siding salesman's wet dream. Ohio is stealing your soul. Honest. It doesn't sound like you are happy anyway being there. Cut and run and WANDER as they say in Indiana. My former apartment was made with vinyl, but the violence and grief made it.hell. I almost stopped a fight that had a gun and two knives and three people crashing the college party with warrants. I live in a 64 year old rundown house now. Landlords are still a pain but I am FREE and HAPPY here.

Take care.

[Chad Hauris]

In this rural area of Texas, a couple factors help boost AM listenership in the more remote areas...1 is that the terrain is very flat and even a 250 watt AM signal can travel for 50 miles or more. 2 is that in some areas there are only a couple of radio stations receivable...such as a country station on FM and and adult contemporary on AM. Satellite radio however may provide some competetion for these stations.

Personally I listen to just about 1 radio station, KCHX 106.7 (adult contemporary). I would listen to the station I work for (KOCV 91.3FM)...but it does not come on air till I come in and turn on the transmitter! So the car radios pretty much stay on this one station. The AM stations I mentioned can be somewhat weak where I live (although they are receiveable) so I don't often listen to them in the car. Sometimes on Sundays a talk station (KWEL 1070, Midland) will play music and I will listen to it.

I recently got Direct TV satellite service (there is no cable available where I live) and I listen to the music channels it provides at home.

I really don't think there is much of any commercial potential for internet radio. There is really no way to make money off of it.
There have been so many restrictions placed on it that's a lot more trouble than it's worth for many broadcasters. It seems however to be used more by amateur broadcasters (not as in "ham" radio but people just broadcasting music for fun).
Satellite radio however may have some commercial potential as an alternative to conventional broadcasting.

[Shain]

Yep, I still listen to AM. Lots of it in the car.

When I was a kid, at night, I would listen to AM, and keep track of all the stations I could receive.
Got the best reception a night as I recall, depending on atmospheric conditions.
Kept a running list of stations. I remember having a book listing all the AM stations in the US. Don't recall where I got it.

I built a one tube kit radio, and had a wire antenna strung from my window, over to the garage, and to another pole, so formed a big triangle. I could get stations all over the US, and could pick up Mexico. (I lived in Kansas at the time)

There was a powerful AM station in Chicago, that I could get pretty much all the time.

AM still is well followed. One of the highest rated to stations (AM or FM) in Omaha is a powerful (50,000 watts?) KFAB (AM) Been on air since the 30s I think.
Has talk shows, and about every other type of programmimg. Just well established as "the" leader.

It's the station you turn to for emergency info in case of tornado, has school closing info in snow storms, etc. Has the liscense for Nebraska football broadcasts, and NE basketball.

For music, there's no comparison to stereo FM. Even the oldies are better on FM.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by stereofisher

The oldies station in Buffalo WKRW?? at 1520 is fun too. Running my Zenith Inneroceanic tonight instead of my big system.

Eric

The Buffalo station is WKBW 1520. WKRW is the callsign of a translator station for NPR station WKSU near Akron, Ohio.

I have heard the Toronto big band station on 740 (it comes in here all the time on my '731 but not on a small replica cathedral in my bedroom [but the cathedral set does get CFCO 630 in Kent County, Ontario--go figure] or my $10 clock radio...oh well).

At least in Canada the AM dial still has some music stations in large cities, though some are going to talk, just as they are in this country. Case in point: CKLW in Windsor, Ontario dropped its music format some time ago (remember those wonderful days of "The Big Eight" in the '60s and '70s?) and is now a news/talk station targeting Windsor, ON and Detroit, Michigan (although the station has a very strong signal all along the south shore of Lake Erie from Toledo, Ohio east to at least Buffalo, and of course in the Detroit area).


Those older Zeniths are great for AM DXing. I'm not familiar with the Interoceanic model, but I have a 1963 Zenith K731 that will bring in stations all across the AM dial at night using only its built-in loop antenna (they didn't call those sets "Long Distance" for nothing). This set is great for in-state AM "DXing" in the daytime as well; from where I live I can hear stations from Youngstown, Ohio (close to Pittsburgh), Conneaut and Ashtabula, Ohio (50+ miles from Cleveland, on Lake Erie), Buffalo, New York, et al. and many Canadian stations. My 1980 Zenith H480W clock radio doesn't do half as well in the daytime, and a $10 clock radio on my nightstand in the bedroom is lucky if it gets the stronger Cleveland stations during the day (it gets the 50kW ones, but as for the smaller 5kW and weaker stations, forget it). In fact, most of my AM radios, including the AM tuner in my stereo system, will receive the local station 5 miles away (on 1460 kHz) on that frequency and also at 560 kHz--900 KHz down the dial! This happens all the time, not just in the daytime when the station runs 1 kW (it cuts its power in half at night to 0.5kW, probably with directional antenna, but the problem is still there even at the reduced power level; this is probably because I am so close to the transmitter).

I have many CDs with the music CKLW played during its heyday as "The Big Eight"; when I listen to them (I have one on now) it reminds me of those days when every major city in this country and Canada had at least one powerhouse top-40 station. I used to live in a suburb of Cleveland, where there were all sorts of top-40 rock stations on the AM dial when I was growing up in the '60s and '70s: CKLW from Windsor, WKYC-AM (1100, 50kW), WGAR-AM (1220, 50kW), WIXY (1260, 10kW day/0.5kW night now, but just 5kW days/nights thirty-five years ago), WELW (1330, 0.5kW, daytime only in '60s-'70s), WHK (1420, 5kW). That's all changed now, though; all those stations are talk these days, except for 1260 (now WWMK, Radio Disney).

The only oldies station in Cleveland these days (since 1981, anyhow) is on FM: WMJI, "Majic" 105.7. Liking oldies as I do, I keep my stereo on that station when I'm not listening to oldies or easy listening on Live365 on the Internet.

Wow. How times have changed. Thank goodness for music services such as BMG in Indy and others where one can still get oldies CDs, not to mention Internet radio and cable music channels. These services are helping to keep the oldies from sliding forever into oblivion, as more and more oldies AMs are abandoning the format for talk, sports, etc. (as WCKY in Cincinnati did at the beginning of this year).