You have to remember that FM is much less prone to noise and interference. AM can be affected by light dimmers and especially flourescent lights, and reception is likely very poor in office buildings. Modern AM radios are usually fairly poor. The C. Crane radios are fairly good, but for real AM reception try one of the old boatanchors, they are unsurpassed in tone quality and reaching down and separating distant stations.
The C. Crane radios are fairly good, but for real AM reception try one of the old boatanchors, they are unsurpassed in tone quality and reaching down and separating distant stations. I got your boat anchor right here (actually, its in pieces in my basement, waiting on a couple of tubes):
R-390A