Jeffhs
Super Member
asynchronousman said:... That the local 5kw heritage station got taken over by somebody that hates empty talk entertainment and turned it into a full-service outlet with really GREAT music. ....
Many of the AM stations in Cleveland are operated by Clear Channel (which has also converted many if not most of its operated stations to talk), and the little 500-watt oldies station 20 miles west of here that switched to talk three weeks ago is operated by a company that obviously cares more about the economics of radio than programming. (One small station about 20 miles south of here actually went silent on June 1 this year because of one failed format after another.) Broadcasting companies program their stations with what they think will draw the most listeners at the least cost to the company, which is why the station I mentioned above went to 24-hour syndicated talk and the Cleveland stations are now all talk. Their management decided they would probably get tons more listeners in this day and age (resulting in more money for the company) by firing all or most of the live air staff and programming the stations from satellites (at least two stations in Cleveland have done this already; the all-sports station has had satellite programming for several years, and what used to be a big band/standards station now programs 24 hours of syndicated talk. The one remaining big-band/standards station on FM, located about 15-20 miles from here and with its antenna atop the tower for a major Cleveland FM station, while still using live air staff during the day, is automated from about 9 p.m. until the high school that operates it begins classes at 8 or 9 the following morning).
I don't think we are going to see a reversion to what AM radio used to be, at least not in the near future. I have very fond memories of the days of CKLW, WHK, WKYC1100 (now talk radio WTAM), WGAR-AM (now religious talk WHKW) . . . and other 50kW powerhouse stations I used to listen to at night from New York--who can forget "The Time Machine" and DJs the likes of Cousin Brucie, Don Imus, etc. on old 66WNBC, now sports talk 66WFAN, not to mention the great top-40 sound of 77WABC, the top-40 days of Chicago's 89WLS and WMAQ 670 [yes, the Chicago station now known as "The Score" was formerly 50kW "67Q", WMAQ-AM--it had several different formats during its last 30 years under NBC ownership before being sold to Emmis Broadcasting several years ago] and countless other powerhouse AMs that boomed across the country after local sunset?
The FCC did away with the so-called "clear" channels on the AM broadcast band some twenty years ago, and as I said, the major broadcasting companies, Clear Channel among them, seem to think their operated stations will do better with talk formats (and no local personalities to speak of, except to read the news during rush hours).
Memories and nostalgia are great for short periods of time, but people who insist on living in the past 24 hours a day are not normal. Change is a way of life, in radio as in everything else. I realize this, which is why it does not bother me that my AM radio reception here is so bad. When the last AM station in my area switched to talk earlier this month, I simply quit listening to AM and started listening to FM and cable music channels--and have been ever since.
I don't have a thing (well, very little, anyhow) to do with AM anymore. As I mentioned in my post, it would not and will not bother me one bit should every AM station in Cleveland go digital tomorrow. I simply look at the current shift of most AM stations to talk and satellite programming (and eventually digitizing the actual broadcast signal) as a change the broadcasting companies felt had to be made in order for them and their stations to remain competitive in the 21st century.
ASM, you mentioned my being a ham radio operator. Yes, I am, and have been since 1972 when I was 16 years old. My favorite mode of operation in the amateur bands is CW--continuous wave Morse code. Many if not most newer hams consider this mode obsolete in this age of the Internet and the relative ease of getting on the air using SSB, not to mention the hue and cry over the use of CW keyboards and keyers rather than straight keys. I do not consider CW obsolete--never have, never will. I do use a paddle and keyer in my present station, but I still read the code in my head and am able to copy it longhand if need be. In my early years in the hobby, all I had was a cheap Radio Shack straight key; this was also how I learned to copy code--by listening (there were no home computers in those days). I also upgraded my code copying speed to 13WPM for the General Class exam by listening, nightly for no less than one month, to W1AW, the American Radio Relay League's headquarters ham station. No computers were used to read the code; I copied it all in my head and wrote it down by hand until my speed was a solid 17 WPM. I passed my General exam in June 1985, almost 20 years ago, with a 90-percent score as a result. At no time, I say again, did I ever use a computer or other electronic code-reading aid to help myself get to that 17-WPM point. No, I did it all by hand and in my head, which is more than I can say, probably, for most new hams being licensed today.
Yes, I do miss those wonderful days of clear-channel 50kW AM radio when one could hear stations halfway across the country on, say, 1000 KHz. Stations such as all-sports WMVP (ex-WCFL and WLUP-AM), all-news WBBM, 89WLS, et al. in Chicago, for example, still make it as far east as Cleveland, but the days when these 50kW giants could go coast-to-coast ended when the FCC changed the regulations regarding the so-called clear channels. OTOH, however, I realize nothing stays the same; if one waits long enough, things will change. There is nothing to be done about changes, in radio or in any other field. If you don't like the loudmouths on national talk radio, as I said above, there is always FM and Internet, satellite and cable music. The cable-TV music channels are commercial-free (except for the occasional EAS [Emergency Alert System] test or alert, when the digital cable box force-tunes itself to the key EAS TV channel in your area).
The satellite music services from XM, etc. are also free of commercials, but you pay a fee for the service; the same applies to Internet music. (Cable music channels are commercial-free because you pay for them as part of your digital cable service, even though they are not itemized on your monthly bill.) But these fees are a small price to pay, I think, for 100-percent commercial-free music. The cable, Internet and satellite music services, not to mention our own music collections (as I mentioned in my previous post) are very popular alternatives to the loudmouth, jabber-jaw talk programming now heard coast-to-coast on all but a very small handful of local "mom and pop" 0.5kW or less (often daytime only) AM stations.
I see a day coming eventually when most radio listening (to music and variety programming) will be via cable or the Internet, with the AM broadcast band being reassigned to another service or done away with entirely, and most FM stations being digitized or done away with as well as satellite radio in cars becomes more and more popular, as it eventually will. (Many new cars today are being equipped with Sirius satellite receivers; XM's "Roady" portable satellite receiving system, which can be moved from one vehicle to another with ease, is gaining popularity as well, and home kits to adapt these mobile satellite receivers to work through home audio systems are also available.)
This all might happen sooner than we may think. The FCC is already planning to auction off UHF TV channels 61-69 for HDTV (in 1970, it reassigned what once were channels 70-83 to other services, the most popular of which these days are cellular-telephone carriers). This will force the remaining UHF TV stations to move to lower channels (if they are currently operating on channels above 60, as some stations are today, such as Detroit's CBS 62), go off the air and to cable exclusively (as several stations have done already), or cease all operations (again, as one station in, IIRC, Missouri did last year rather than convert to digital).
"The wired city." As I said in a previous post, this is not a science-fiction scenario--not anymore, anyhow. Most cities (and even small towns, such as the one in which I live) today are in fact wired for cable, with most cable companies, Comcast being one, converting their old, outdated analog cable systems to full digital. Comcast is in fact 100 percent digital, offering 200+ video channels, video on demand, 30+ digital CD-quality music channels and so forth. This is a far cry from what cable used to be, but again, that's progress. Many TV viewers have abandoned their old antennas in favor of cable or DBS, again especially in small towns, another example of how the "wired city" concept is changing the way America watches TV, and eventually how we listen to radio.
The day may come (in fact, I think, from reading posts on the subject in these boards, it is very close now) when home music listening will be exclusively over cable or Internet connections, or to personal CD/cassette music collections. FM radio may be relegated to a mobile listening medium, but even that listener base is bound to be eroded badly by satellite radio as the latter becomes more and more widespread. Satellite radio might even mean the end of FM radio as we know it today, as bent as the FCC seems to be on auctioning off entire bands of radio frequencies. I personally do not listen to FM radio as much as I once did, despite the fact that Clear Channel (the company that owns and operates my favorite oldies FM station) has declared that its operated stations will air fewer commercials (and the air staff will talk less between music segments) per hour than they did before the new ruling went into effect. This policy took effect, IIRC, earlier this summer.
Nice try, CC, but the new rules came too late for me. I still listen to the oldies station after midnight when it is automated, but at other times I either listen to my own tapes and CDs or Comcast CD-quality digital music. These are not at the mercy of broadcasting companies, commercial rules, etc., thank goodness. They are, however, the future of home entertainment.
I would not be surprised in the least, I'll say it again, if satellite/Internet/cable music and CDs/cassettes spell the end of commercial radio eventually, at least as we know it today. (I apologize if that last statement strikes a sour note in those of us here on AK who make our livings as broadcasters, but we have to face the fact that AM radio is not what it used to be and never will be again; FM, unless digitized or otherwise vastly improved from what it seems to be now, may be legislated out of existence if the FCC decides to change FM broadcast standards to full digital from the analog system which has been in place since the late '40s. They will do it with TV in little more than a year from now; can FM radio be far behind?)