I am surprised the new Ham equipment is so limited on frequencies. The old stuff could listen to lots of stuff. It is sad that world news has abandoned radio. I guess I have to dust off the scanner and see what is out there. I used to be able to get Baton Rouge TV form 1300 miles away but not Denver which was 50 miles away. The government destroyed AM TV when it forced everything digital.
You are correct, the old stuff did not have so many FCC frequency restrictions, get an old r390a and pump the if into a computer