[IRCA] WHY AM STATIONS ARE DISAPPEARING

["Eric Floden" <eric.f99999@xxxxxxxxx>]

I saw this at the Northwest Broadcasters website.  (I have a hard copy of
the paper at my desk but had not made it to this story.)

ef
Vancouver

full story at:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080206.RAMFM06/TPStory/?query=cbc

(with great illustration!)

article begins as below

<http://ad.ca.doubleclick.net/click;h=v8/365e/0/0/%2a/g;102566815;0-0;0;1402405;1418-330/60;21009687/21027580/1;;~sscs=%3fhttp://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/>
  BROADCASTING: WHY AM STATIONS ARE DISAPPEARING RADIO SILENCE: Kingston,
Ont., is the latest city to lose its AM radio stations, but it likely won't
be the last. Tired of stagnant revenue and tiny profits, broadcasters are
jumping to the FM dial every chance they get

GRANT ROBERTSON

MEDIA REPORTER

February 6, 2008

Almost 30 years of Ray Bergstrom's life have been spent as a disc jockey on
AM radio. But the most agonizing music selection he ever made came last
month when he chose Roy Orbison's *It's Over* to be the final song played on
Kingston's 960 AM.

Oldies 960 was abandoning AM for the smoother-sounding - and far more
profitable - FM dial. The station, owned by *Corus Entertainment Inc.*,
would remake itself as Lite 104.3 FM, and in January the AM station signed
off for good, sinking into a static abyss.

It is a growing reality in the radio industry these days as broadcasters
seek regulatory permission to flip AM stations to FM, where profits and
audiences are bigger and the signal is more reliable in urban centres.

The industry has seen the trend coming for a long time, but Kingston is
ahead of the curve. When Oldies 960 jumped, so did the other two AM stations
in town. For the first time since the dawn of radio there, AM is off the
air.
 "For people like me who grew up in the sixties and fell in love with AM
radio, it's the death of something near and dear," Mr. Bergstrom said as he
programmed adult contemporary tracks for Lite 104.3's afternoon show.

Bittersweet in so many ways for the industry, since most broadcasters see
little future in AM outside of the largest urban centres where news, talk
and sports stations find success, but music formats struggle to make a
profit.

Most of Canada's biggest radio broadcasters have either been approved to
flip at least a few of their AM stations in certain markets, or are awaiting
clearance to do so. Some other small Canadian cities, such as Thunder Bay,
have also seen the AM dial fall silent.



< snip > go to URL for rest of story
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