Posted on 12/30/2006 9:02:48 AM PST by kiriath_jearim
Radio broadcasts on medium wave will end within a few years if a powerful coalition of commercial radio interests has its way.
Ofcom, commercial radio's regulatory body, will launch a debate in the coming months on the future of radio.
Many predict that it will result in the end of AM broadcasts as we have known them since the days of the Home Service and Light Programme.
The growth of digital broadcasts, either on radio, over the internet or through digital television, has left commercial AM broadcasts with only 3.8 per cent of the national audience this year.
While the BBC remains on the sidelines — the vast bulk of its weekly Radio Five Live audience of 5.7 million still listens on AM — leading figures in the commercial sector are determined to sound the death knell of medium wave.
The commercial stations are having to face up to the dwindling numbers tuning in to AM stations as people opt for FM broadcasts or, increasingly, the higher quality of digital broadcasts.
"The current AM licences are up for renewal in 2011 and 2012," an Ofcom spokesman said yesterday. "The question we have to address is whether or not these stations will be commercially viable by then."
Fru Hazlitt, the chief executive of Virgin Radio, is an outspoken critic of AM.
"We pay huge amounts of money to Ofcom for the AM licence," she said. "Within the next year or two we should switch it off. It just isn't worth it."
Andy Duncan, the chief executive of Channel 4, predicted that, over the next five to 10 years, AM and FM listening would wither away.
Capital Radio bosses have also been calling on the Government to set a date to switch off both AM and FM.
Not everyone agrees, however, that AM is a dead duck. Emap, whose Magic AM has been relaunched nationwide, believes there is still a place for medium wave.
Ofcom said it hoped to begin a wide consultation over the future of AM.
"There could be much more effective uses for this spectrum — it could be used for community radio," the spokesman said. "The growth of digital at the cost of analogue cannot be ignored."
Scheduled for Extinction List:
AM Radio.
NPR
Newspapers.
CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC.
DU
Yep, Old Europe is that different. In the US Rush Limbaugh will keep the AM broadcast alive in spite of Air America. Hahaha.
Seems unlikely unless the FCC gets greedy or Pelosi and McCain finish off free speech.
I agree with you. But the MSM and the dems in power will see the demise of Err Amerika as the demise of AM here and will want to auction the band width for digital communications for garage door openers. Rush's success, amongst others, will be seen as an abberation and will ignore it for the trend facing liberal and MSM radio. If they can't ressurect the fairness doctrine, the looney left will say it is deteriorating market conditions just to shut down talk radio.
We listen to AM at work, since it is the only thing that will penetrate the metal building we work in. FM is limited in building settings (unless you have internet access or an external antenna)... thus will be limiting to the common worker during working hours.
Finally, AM is the only source of talk radio locally. Conservatives beware...
AM spreads farther than FM by several factors. England is smaller than the north american continent. They apparently don't need long distance communication in the world of George Orwell.
AM radio in the US does not need to pay license fees to the government, unlike the UK
AM radio provides a useful service during large scale emergencies. When local FM stations are knocked off the air, powerhouse AM stations can be pulled in by portable radios, particularly at night. After Hurricane Katrina, many victims in the affected areas were relying totally on AM radio for information for weeks. Likewise, when all of the emergency services towers were knocked down, police were using AM radio to broadcast messages to their officers in the field.
they need a Rush Limbaugh.
AM dies first, FM next-satelite radio is the future.
The Brits are just far ahead of us when it comes to digital radio adoption. The UK government chose a completely new method of broadcasting quite a long time ago (5-10 years) that uses different frequencies and is not backwards-compatible with old-fashioned AM and FM. As a result, most of the country now has high quality digital radio using receivers that don't cost much more than than regular ones. There's just no reason for the average Brit to keep listening to AM and FM any more when they can get the same stations in much higher quality via digital radio.
Here in the US, on the other hand, we are just now barely beginning to adopt digital radio, and only in the largest cities. And most of the radios cost more than $500 each. Why? Because the National Association of Broadcasters (essentially a union for rich radio station owners) spent years and years "persuading" Congress to block digital radio tooth and nail until they were able to come up with a backwards-compatible system that they and they along would have iron-fisted control over. It will probably be at least another two years before the average person will even be able to afford the new radios, but that's okay, since it will probably be three or four years before more than one or two of your local stations will even get around to offering a digital signal.
In no Western European country
(or Canada, for that matter)
would Rush Limbaugh be permitted to broadcast.
In most of them
he would be jailed under 'hate speech' laws.
AM will never die in the US. It's too easy to make a profit off of a little station, particularly now in the age of syndicated programming.
ping
I think it's geography. One clear channel AM station would cover England like a blanket, even a few 5,000 Watt candles will do nicely. In this country there are dozens of more or less independent identifiable AM markets. Texas or California each have more than the UK.
Radio is a bigger world than people want to believe. Sure the internet is the mix. I'm a ham radio operater and I talk on my allowed frequencys, listen on AM(medium wave), shortwave broadcasts on AM shortwave,and use my computer. Radio is not going away because many more people use it than more can imagine. I say this about television, Since I've been in radio I may watch TV when I fall into bed and my wife turns it of because I fell asleep. Radio uses you mind television makes you a zombie.
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