AM Radios

[Jeffhs]

AM DXing is almost pointless, except for the thrill of hearing stations hundreds of miles away from one's home. Who wants to hear the same syndicated talk shows they can get on a local station from a station 500+ miles distant? That's what AM radio has become--the same old talk programs on almost every station on the dial. There are some very rare exceptions, such as low-power oldies music stations in small towns and religious broadcasters, to say nothing of the big all-news stations in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh. For the most part, IMHO, the AM broadcast band isn't worth listening to anymore. Most music stations are now on FM.

I see a day coming in the not-too-distant future when the AM broadcast band will be reassigned to other services, not unlike the reassignment of analog TV channels. The programs now on AM stations will likely move to FM or to the Internet, if they haven't done so already. I understand there are many places in Canada where there are no more AM stations; most AM programming has been moved to FM, although there are still a few AM talk stations, such as CKLW in Windsor. But even that one may eventually abandon its 800 kHz AM dial position and move to FM as well. Sounds like something that should have been done in the U. S. a long time ago.