AM radio on FM stations

[freeradical]

I've noticed that AM talk radio stations are making their way to FM stations. There's one AM station here, KFBK in Sacramento that now has a counterpart on an FM station. It's part of the iHeart system whatever that means. Anyhow, last night I happened to tune into this station, and "Coast to Coast AM" was on. This seemed kind of weird to me because part of the "charm" of listening to a radio show that features UFO believers, conspiracy theorists, and other assorted crackpots was that on a low power night time AM station you'd have to play with the tuning to keep the signal from fading out. This always seemed so appropriate for a show like this.

[cbelt3]

What you're actually seeing is the Global Hegemony being exercised by Clear Channel Communications.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clear_Chann...unications

In order to reduce costs and keep competition out, they simulcast the same programs on AM and FM stations all over the place. I bet most of you have at least one or two radio stations that is effectively an 'ipod playlist' station, possibly with a synthesized female voice that may 'announce' the music that was just played.

They, and others of their ilk, have sucked damn near ALL the creativity and expression out of radio. I hate 'em.

I too miss the days when my hand-built crystal receiver with it's associated 100 foot long wire antenna looped around the ceiling of my bedroom could pick up Wolfman Jack's shows, or weird Pirate Radio signals from Mexico at night.

[pRICE cUBE]

There were many times while driving in rural desert areas where I would get a kick out of listening to Coast to Coast AM since it was the only thing on and I didn't feel like listening to the iPod.

[Paul F.]

Paranoia aside, I think ONE aspect of the AM to FM change (and it's happening here to an extent too) is transmitter equipment costs and broadcast power.

Friend of mine who works for one of the local TV stations (same company owns one of the local radio stations...) talked with the local engineer and he was saying that their transmitter equipment was so old that there were no spare parts available, except a few scrounged used and squirreled away. Also that in order to upgrade, the cost of a new FM transmitter (talking the radio station here) was cheaper than a new AM transmitter - so they would likely go FM if their AM transmitter finally fails or they upgrade.

[cbelt3]

Paul F.. not paranoia, strict economics. What you may not know is that FCC licenses are not 'free' and are sold at a band and power level. For a radio station to 'switch' from AM to FM requires that they purchase an FM slot for their market. They're not cheap.

Any station that plans to switch due to 'lack of equipment' is putting out some significant cash.

[freeradical]

pRICE cUBE wrote:
There were many times while driving in rural desert areas where I would get a kick out of listening to Coast to Coast AM since it was the only thing on and I didn't feel like listening to the iPod.

The funny thing about Coast to Coast AM, was that they used to slip legitimate scientists into the mix occasionally. Sometimes you had to listen for awhile to figure out what was what. In any case, it was pretty entertaining.