I dont know enough about the radio industry to have any guess why this is but there does seem to be a big difference depending on the market you live in.
I have a large number of AM options. Far too many devoted to some culty or sports nonsense but there is talk and music also including some stations broadcasting on both AM/FM.
Most of these are local but not all of them. Someone above mentioned something like “AM goes 100+ miles.” Definitely the “+”, Im nearly all the way to Canada and I used to regularly listen to a station from Missouri.
“AM goes 100+ miles.”
Those clear channel stations go for hundreds. WWL in New Orleans has been picked up in Europe.
Radio waves propagate differently based on frequency. The am broadcast band transmissions at certain times of year and most often at night can travel great distances. I recall my dad saying that in ww2 he could listen to the Des Moines station some nights while on Midway.
I have listened to hundreds of stations from around the globe.
Not mentioned here is 50 years ago it was determined that the hf/lf radio spectrum would be the first to recover after an EMP nuc detonation.
Cell towers for your cute little pocket toys?? Sure!