[a fool in paradise]

And from elsewhere on the web:

Is AM revitalization a cover to force an all-digital transition?
Posted on April 17, 2013 by Paul Riismandel

http://radiosurvivor.com/2013/04/17/is-am-revitalization-a-cover-to-force-an-all-digital-transition/

[Da Coyote]

The AM bandwidth is around 1 MHz...not much use for the types of bandwidth needed for cell phones/etc.

Plus, mod/demod for AM is infinitely easy. And...receiving a signal requires only wire, a headphone, and a crystal diode. (Yup, cell-kids, it’s the ultimate in simplicity - but beyond your texting abilities. Well, beyond most of you anyway.)

[Pearls Before Swine]

Interference to AM radio is common from switching power supplies used in most electronic equipment. Your AM radio will often work better in your car than in your home, because you are further away from the sources of interference.

Cellphones operate at much higher frequencies. Any internal switching supplies they have operate at very low power, so they are not the source of AM radio interference.

[central_va]

This is political, the leftist want to squash talk radio. This is a veiled attempt. Don’t be suckered.

[Terry L Smith]

The feds want AM radio to die, so that more eyes become glued to their darn Politburo TV programming. Those of us who were raised with the radio on top of the refrigerator, and always turned on, except when, in those days, -a- TV show that was liked, was being broadcast. I still listen to radio, whether broadcast or internet based, more than I watch television. I'm not dumb, as I was 125 out 0f 630 seniors in my high school class. I'm not queer, and most of television shows on the MSM are, so that's out. So, I listen to radio, and do one other thing that is almost forbidden, these days: I read books in print. I was a columnist for the regional newspaper, (that means there, Ms. Jeannette, that I can write cursive), until they started inhabiting Barry Obama's alimentary canal. I have since retired from all that. In all this, I do remember the big yelling about those broadband lines, that the FCC told everybody to "shaddup", and went forward with, anyway. I live rurally, so that doesn't happen here. On my S350DL Grundig (Chinese Tektun), I can pick up Denver AM at night, but nothing from the East for too far a distance. Shortwave radio is still a good turn or two, but getting Celtic music from a pirate radio in Ireland, was a hoot. Now, getting schooled on the how-to's of shortwave radio, from an old USAR-retired sergeant, now broadcasting from Havana, of all places, on shortwave frequencies, in clear English, was interesting!

[bigbob]

Pretty much pseudo-science BS, about what you’d expect from the MSM/NYT.

True, the switching power supplies that have been forced upon us as part of “going green” emit all sorts of RF noise, but it’s manageable unless you’re in a really weak AM signal area. Computers and lots of other stuff make far worse, the bigger problem is that all these unintentional emissions are supposed to be be mitigated by the manufacturer, and the FCC does nothing to enforce their weak, self-adminstered rules.

There are many who’d like to force AM into a digital transition but there are better reasons not to. Not the least of which is obsoleting the entire installed base of radios back to the early 20th century, and in a time of emergency, our national interest is far better served by a radio transmission mode that can be picked up with a razor blade and piece of wire vs. on that requires millions of transistors in a costly and power-hungry digital decoder IC.

I call BS on it.

[eartrumpet]

My last three new pickups have had increasingly bad AM radios. If I am in the mountains they get fair reception, but once I get next to a power line, there is huge static. I don’t remember power line static 30-40 years ago.

[Rage cat]

I guess the FCC isn’t happy with how long it’s taking the old man to die, so they are wanting to take a big old needle full of Strychnine and put it right in a main artery to speed up the process.

Making obsolete every radio receiver that has been made in the last 100 years. Are they out of their mind?

Digital transmission on a crowded band that is ill suited for such transmission system. Are they out of their mind?

They know dang well what will happen. Just like they knew dang well what would happen with the digital TV transition.

I am sorry FCC, we don’t want your medicine. AM radio has lasted a 100 years, and it will probably last another 100 without any help from you.