NYT article on saving a.m. radio

[satkinsn]

It's been front page on the web site all day today.

s.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/09/us/a-quest-to-save-am-radio-before-its-lost-in-the-static.html?hp

 

[Lavane]

Where I live its very difficult to tune in an AM station, not that there aren't any just as close as FM stations, they just don't come in. I live in the Sierra mountains. Even though there are lots-O-trees, Mountains and such in the way I can still pickup many FM stations. But you can't get a single AM station that isn't mostly static.

 

[jsisk]

That last time I listened to AM radio was probably 40 years ago. WCAO in Baltimore.

 

[mhardy6647]

Heh, I rather literally grew up listening to WCAO (600 kHz AM, belonged to the Plough Corporation...).

I've been indulging in my secret fetish, AM DXing, a bit lately now that the weather is getting cooler. Yeah, there's virtually nothing worth listening to, but I still enjoy listening to a far-distant station... especially when it's a blast from my own past (e.g., WBAL 1090 AM, also from B-more).

 

[palmharbor]

Sirius Radio made AM and FM as viable as cassette players. They are DEAD.
Where I am its all spanish broadcasting, right wing talk (the sky is falling)
and religious talk for those who are in training for their own tv show where
they can pull in some better cash

 

[finnbow]

It's all about the lone Republican on the FCC trying to keep AM radio alive for the sake of conservative talk radio/Rush Limbaugh as stated within the article. It's not about saving AM radio for its usefulness in any realm other than partisan politics.

I'm personally indifferent as I listen to neither AM nor Talk Radio.

 

[mhardy6647]

Sirius Radio made AM and FM as viable as cassette players. They are DEAD.
Where I am its all spanish broadcasting, right wing talk (the sky is falling)
and religious talk for those who are in training for their own tv show where
they can pull in some better cash

Well, let's see. Listening to AM is free. Listening to FM is free. Sirius XM costs me money.

In all fairness, my then-new car (in 2010) came with 6 months (which ended up to be more like 9 months) of free Sirius. I enjoyed it and picked up the subscription for 12 full months. Resubscribed after that for 12 more, and they mucked up the billing... long story short, it was pretty clear they were rather passive aggressively trying to get me to commit to a 'long term commitment' by linking to a CC or bank account - "no fuss, no bother, you'll forget you're committed to pay us money essentially forever!" instead of taking payment by a good old paper check from a good old brick and mortar bank... so I dumped 'em.

They pester me regularly to resubscribe. Eff 'em.

I listen to NPR, college radio, or CDs in the car (or just enjoy singing to, and for, myself).
I did enjoy the Grateful Dead channel...

 

[nj pheonix]

Sports radio from NY is broadcast in AM and FM but comes in much better in AM by me. ( I am a ways away). Also all local major sports broadcast on AM . Maybe if the medium dies it will move to FM. More likely taken over by Satellite so they have another way to squeeze us

 

[Wigwam Jones]

If I had music in my car, I'd never be able to hear myself screaming obscenities at other drivers.

 

[jsisk]

Heh, I rather literally grew up listening to WCAO (600 kHz AM, belonged to the Plough Corporation...).

I've been indulging in my secret fetish, AM DXing, a bit lately now that the weather is getting cooler. Yeah, there's virtually nothing worth listening to, but I still enjoy listening to a far-distant station... especially when it's a blast from my own past (e.g., WBAL 1090 AM, also from B-more).

Then you might remember their jingle?

WCAO, Radio Six-O, where the beat goes on.

 

[mhardy6647]

I remember too many inane things

I remember a Sunday night public affairs program they (Plough) used to run called Hi, Neighbor and its theme music

Hi, Neighbor, hi Neighbor!
Whaddya know and whaddya say?
Hi, Neighbor, hi Neighbor!
Throw your worries away...

Yeah, from ca. 1970

I can also remember all of the big AM hits in the late summer of 1970 (which is when I started listenin' in earnest...on my RCA beanbag AM transistor radio)...

 

[tybrad]

I've been indulging in my secret fetish, AM DXing, a bit lately now that the weather is getting cooler. Yeah, there's virtually nothing worth listening to, but I still enjoy listening to a far-distant station... especially when it's a blast from my own past (e.g., WBAL 1090 AM, also from B-more).

Yep. This is my seasonal interest in AM as well. I use either my longwire loop/horizontal rhombic, or the internal ferrite with my Select-A-Tenna. Snagged Quebec from Baltimore within the past two weeks.

 

[transmaster]

If you have the room one of the best receive antennas you can use is a wire antenna know as a Beverage Antenna below is the wiki on the design. I have used what would be a beverage style antenna consisting of barbed wire fences as long a 7 miles in length hooked to a general coverage receiver they worked fantatically well.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beverage_antenna

 

[amptramp]

We have decent AM - but only two stations. Funny 820 is a comedy channel and CKOC 1150 is a light rock music channel. Both stations are in Hamilton but are received easily here in Mississauga (I am about two miles west of Toronto).

I used to try AM DX and have logged about 135 stations. There were some remarkable skips: One night the noise floor seemed to just drop out of existence and I picked up KFI Los Angeles from Toronto.

I thought that would be my best until one night I tuned to 800 CKLW in Windsor, adjacent to Detroit. It was one of the premiere rock stations in Canada and also the wealthiest with its Detroit listeners. There was carillon music playing. At the end of the piece, the announcer came on and said that this was the carillon at the Hague and the program was carried by Radio Bonn.

 

[AnalogDigit]

I still listen to WGN and WBBM radio in Chicago. Sometimes the sports station AM 1000. There is still some good stuff out there.

 

[mhardy6647]

I have a Select-a-Tenna (the one with a jack to 'hard-wire' if desired) as well as an amplified Ameco antenna/tuner (I think it's Ameco model TPA) Each was picked up inexpensively at the NEARC antique radio fleamarket at some point.

EDIT:

1. I guess the Selec-a-Tenna has gone the way of the passenger pigeon :-(
2. This is the Ameco - looks like it is still in production(?): http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/sw_ant/1512.html

PS. NEARC is comin' up soon, for those of you in Northern New England!
www.nearc.net

 

[KentTeffeteller]

Sadly, the Select-A-Tenna is no longer made.

 

[mhardy6647]

FWIW, my current DX 'volunteer' is a very unprepossessing Eton/Grundig/Tecsun S350, courtesy of my favorite local emporium

http://www.etoncorp.com/en/productdisplay/grundig-s350dl-field-radio

Yeah, something of a bottom feeder, but other than the lack of a BFO :-( it's compact, handy and easy to use for a quick evening spin around the dial before bed.

I rather like it - although I'll agree with others in noting that the feel of the tuning dial is pretty clunky... a slow and even touch seems to work best

 

[nailer]

Back in the day WCAO = bubble gum. :thmbsp:

 

[mhardy6647]

Top 40 all the way, they were.

In my college years, there was a fabulous rock and roll AM station in Baltimore, WAYE (860 AM). It was a dawn-to-dusk "peanut whistle" station - they had to go off at night to make room for a clear channel station (from Canada, if memory serves).

As a completely gratuitous and irrelevant aside, my father was a broadcast engineer at WAYE for a while in the 1950s...