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."
"NO commercials" was the rallying cry for cable television, if you'll recall. It worked, and virtually everyone signed up. Now, there are commercials, the difference being that the cable companies now get people to actually pay for them.
Do you think satellite radio will be any different?
Well there you have AM radio in a nutshell! ;-)
It's dead like Fred and none too soon.
The Mexicans allow some of their stations to use much higher power than US stations are allowed.
That's how I first heard Wolfman Jack on XERF from Del Rio (I believe) back in the 60's and 70's.
talk radio doesn't get any better in stereo :>)
"Also why our cellphone technology is behind most of the world."
Our cellphone technology is not behind most of the world.
When Europe mandated GSM 15 years ago, the digital technology - spread across europe WAS superior at the time.....CDMA developed in the US trumped it..... The European version, recognizing it was better, modified it so that they could continue to mandate a specific flavor that would not be compatible with US-based CDMA.
So, lesson is that gov't mandates of technology rarely have any benefit, and in the happenstance that some benefit accidentally appears, it is short-lived.
We still have several competing interfaces, but all modern cell protocols are derived from Qualcomm's CDMA patent portfolio to some degree.
Digital Radio will come when it is ready for the US market.
You must have missed the part where I wrote that these on board stations are FM, not live, just a mix of MP3's etc coming from computers.
Land-based FM stations don't exist offshore. The only live radio out there is AM. The FM's and the TV stations can't make the trip out there.
Our ship's long range communication (other than satellite) is via single side-band AM radio and getting a thousand miles at 2182 khz (standby and calling channel) is duck soup. The VHF FM radios will let you talk to nearby ships but forget about a land link on them unless land is within sight or darn close to it.
"ah - so deska. Emergency support from outside of the disaster area."
Case in point, the Loma Prieta earthquake in the Bay Area. The only stations on the air were AM stations, that we could get, and were our primary source of news for quite a while. I remember sitting outside the restaurant where I worked, listening to an AM radio someone had, and hearing the Bay Bridge had fallen.
That night, I listened to (I think) KNBR, and the hosts there calm people down, what an incredible job they did. Hooked me on them ever since!
The Soviet solution to the northern coverage problem was the Molniya orbit.
They would launch communications satellites in highly elliptical orbits, such that they would spend most of each orbit sweeping high above the arctic before making a quick and low swoop over the antarctic.
My daughter hates it as much as she hates the big old earphones (must be an entire inch in diameter!) and that plastic thing that goes all the way over my head. (And she thinks I'm getting rid of it because I got a shuffle for Christmas.)
TS
TS
Captive audience for Limbaugh & crew?
How dreadful! I'd sooner listen to expansion joints aging.
Howie Carr is the man. Rush is good from time to time. Glenn Beck needs to give WWIII a rest and go back to moron trivia.
Boston sports talk is often good as well.
AM is the only broadcast I'll listen to. I have all of the sattellite content on my MP3 player. News and talk are the only service provided by radio.
We keep the good stuff, like Rush Limbaugh on AM, to ourselves on the bridge.
Had an XO for a while who liked to play rap in 'ye olde wheelhouse' but I advised him to confine that stuff to his own ears and he took the advice.
Who Knows!There's always a possibility that the subscriber will be paying more for the programming or watching more commercials.What matters is the programming being carried and what kind of audio or visual experience your having.
The way AM radio is right now unless the programmers do something to their broadcast signal quality a programming they will disappear.They will be forced to change.
You have said it more eloquently than I ever could have. Any station can play music, but if you want to hear some actual thoughts, it's gonna' be on a talk station and most of them end up on AM because that form of transmission is perfect for talk.
I can remember going through the Yucatan straits while listening to Phil Hendrie on KFI in Los Angeles (AM 640 khz). That's gotta' be at least 1500 miles.
Beats the crap out of listening to an old Barry Manilow song or "Oops Upside Your Head" on one of our on board FM outlets.
Probably for the best.
Isolate the ignorance, don't let it spread to the hands that actually work.
A couple actually did, and the remainder held off until the market flopped, well, failed to materialize, for AM stereo.
Who'd have thought I would encounter s "sea lawyer" on this forum.
That pretty much explains it all.
Wow. You're as much fun as a barrel of monkeys. You sure set me straight. Thanks for the helpful opinion. I'll stop listening to Howie Carr right now.
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