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In Reply to: RE: This is fascinating. posted by Michael Samra on April 12, 2017 at 15:39:49
Back before NRSC 2 was enacted, we routinely swept 30Hz - 15KHz on our AM transmitters, and transmitted full bandwidth. On a wideband radio, with a good signal, it sounded nearly as good, some thought as good, as mono FM.
These days, you're lucky if you have AM in your car radio, and luckier if it passes more than 2KHZ...a sad state.
jD
Follow Ups:
AM/FM is pretty much a local medium. I never understood why a national company would take over a station, preprogram it to any station USA and add commercials to the point of "why am I even listening".
I used to listen to AM radio when it was "local". And the same with FM. They had stations on Long Island that had what you would call today, a cult following. Big FM bought them all, put on the same top 40 on all the stations and guess what. No one was listening.
The stations lost their uniqueness and individuality, aka the reason a person would tune in an listen to them.
This is a true story. I couldn't stand listening to the same Billy Joel songs over and over again in my car. Added a CDP and satellite radio. A few years later, for kicks I turned on the FM and what are the friggin odds that the SAME exact Billy Joel song was playing.
we had a decent local station in Chicago - WXRT. Sold (several times?), ended up CBS corporate; fired or demoted the expensive old timers, including the long time programming director.
a friend from out of town came back home to visit over Christmas, was looking forward to decent radio and was greatly disappointed to find, in her words:
"corporate pop folk for soul-less, conformist hipsters. If I hear the Strumbellas one more time..."
They're a bit better now, but still pretty bland. I mostly listen to a local public radio jazz station now
WXRT was an excellent station, Terri Hemmert, Leslie Witt, Lin Brehmer...
Terri and Lin are still there; Lin seems to be the promo "personality" focus now. Leslie passed away last year, Frank E. Lee retired, Tom Marker forced out (reduced to part time, Monday night Blues Breakers), Norm Weiner demoted from program director then quit...
Used to hear EVERYTHING worthwhile there, at least once in a great while. Now, the foundations from the '60's-'80's never get airtime. Used to be an education in rock. Now it's the latest "adult alternative" over and over, with 15-20% more advertisements and one or two very popular "oldies" per hour. Once or twice a week something older that is really interesting.
Sad.
It's sad what they did to AM.I would love to be turned loose in that station's part's bin for a day. Can you imagine all those Collins,Gates,and Western Electric goodies.That would be a 24/7 orgasm.
"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong" H. L. Mencken
And Microphones and spare tubes and...
Can you imagine the electric bill per hour using a transmitter at 500,000 watts? The input watts is much higher too.
Where does a station even get the money for all that equipment?
Jim,the advertising revenue of the day and the outreach of that station would more than take care of that station's revenue but today,I really wonder how they would survive.Most of these stations have a sister FM station or are online which keeps them relevant but in that case they wouldn't the horse power of 500k watts. Like Al said,can you imagine the microphone collection in that place?
"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong" H. L. Mencken
Based upon 55% transmitter efficiency and other station power requirements 500KW output would cost $150 an hour based upon 15 cents per KW per hour. That is $3600 per 24 hours broadcasting.
In that area,a couple ads more than pay for that because of the station's reach. Anymore tho,I'm not sure with so many new advertising mediums.
"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong" H. L. Mencken
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