Re: [IRCA] IBOC battle begins

[Russ Edmunds <wb2bjh@xxxxxxxxx>]

--- Scott Fybush <scott@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> 
> I hate to be this negative, but it seems to me that something's
> happened 
> to AM radio in just the last decade or so. With the exception of a
> very 
> small number of stations (WBZ is one of them, actually; WGN, WSM, KGO
> 
> are a few others), just about nobody on the AM dial is offering
> anything 
> truly local in the overnight hours, or even late evenings.

*** This is absolutely true, except I think it's longer than a decade. 

I could be simplistic and place the blame on "corporate radio" or
politics, but those are only two of a number of factors. But looking at
an even bigger picture, and taking Craig's Wal-Mart analogy into
account, this is a symptom of massive changes in the entire structure
of American business and economy.

Everywhere, the big are getting bigger at the expense of the small and
also at the expense of the publc/consumer, and they're doing it with as
much help from the government as they can get or buy. And in many
cases, even though these changes are at the expense of the consumer,
many consumers go along in their own apathy and do nothing while other
do the same out of resignation and defeatism. "You can't fight City
Hall"; "You can win against the big corporations" or whatever.

However, lest I digress any further into socio-politics or economics, I
would also dispute the notion that there are so few local stations
providing at least a reasonable level of local service, particularly in
the overnights. I hear them regularly on the graveyards and some of the
regional channel while I'm trying for DX. They're there. No, they're
not doing local service 24/7, and they do feature network and/or
syndicated programs, and some come from satellite, but in between there
is local news, weather, public events and so on.

It is unfortunate for those who would aspire to work in or to remain in
the industry, but stations can and do manage to still serve their local
publics without having local air talent on every shift. The economics
of the business in many places simply don't permit that. 



> 
> And while I'm being very careful not to insult Craig's own client 
> stations (he's got to put food on the table, too, after all!), one 
> wonders how many other satellite-fed AM signals could disappear from
> the airwaves tomorrow with hardly anyone noticing.

I'm going to be guilty of crossing over into another thread from
another list, but this is exactly the same question being asked,
although in different words, about the multiple-overlapping
proliferation of religious FM translators - when you're 3, 4, or 5 deep
in the same programming on that many frequencies all listenable on a
car radio in one place, that's a problem, and the answer to Scott's
question is the same here -- probably nobody would notice losing some
of them, and given how many competing translator networks there are
programming similar programming to essentially the same audience....



Russ Edmunds
Blue Bell, PA ( 360' ASL )
[15 mi NNW of Philadelphia]
40:08:45N; 75:16:04W, Grid FN20id
<wb2bjh@xxxxxxxxx>
FM: Yamaha T-80 & Onkyo T-450RDS w/ APS9B @15'
AM: Hammarlund HQ-150 & 4' FET air core loop

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