And they want the FCC to get out of their way. Twenty-five AM broadcasters have submitted comments to the FCC regarding proposed rule changes that would make it easier for AM signals to be broadcast in HD. Here are the highlights from their letter…
In the new rules, the FCC is proposing to allow any AM station to be able to broadcast, without further FCC authorization, in an all-digital mode using an HD Radio MA3 mode as set out in the NRSC-5-D standard.
AM broadcasters have asked for the following:
- That any AM station that desires can broadcast without further FCC authorization in an all-digital mode using an HD Radio MA3 mode as set out in the NRSC-5-D standard (as opposed to the current hybrid AM analog-digital mode).
- That AM all-digital operations be allowed both day and night at current power levels. (There are some advocating for a lowering of AM all-digital power because the all-digital signal will cover more area – it is ridiculous to cripple technology just because it is more efficient).
- That the regulatory procedure for transitioning to AM all-digital be as simple and efficient as the current notification procedure for hybrid AM digital operations; and,
- That any decision by an AM station to operate in an all-digital mode is discretionary and reversible, so that no station is required to operate in an all-digital mode, nor is any station who chooses to do so locked-in to that mode of operation.
You can read the entire 17-page letter, and who signed, it HERE.
The NAB has also filed comments supporting the changes.
Are these broadcasters really arrogant and foolish enough to think that AM audiences are going to rush right out and spend 3 to 500 dollars to purchase new receivers? It’s not going to happen. Such a plan will ensure losing some 80% of the listening audience right off the bat. That number would not be expected to improve for some 10 years before such receivers become ubiquitous in new cars.
AM is already dead and dying. HD radio has failed to deliver on its promises, especially for those at distance from the antenna.
Sure, let’s go ahead and put the final nail in the coffin for AM radio
I appreciate the comments from Phil G. on the subject of AM, HD, DRM…. As for Roy Radio’s comments, the decades-long prolonged, protracted issues with AM programming, is by no means limited to the major networks and syndicators (which are owned by major networks), nor are they rooted in these companies typically being headed up by so-called “old white males”! I am in that specific demographic group, “old” now after having been kept off of the air for three and a half decades, while “great talents” like pied-piper (pre-influencer) Stern…have become billionaires by pandering to teenage boys and young “adult” men! The podcast curators are also favoring the same ilk as the networks customarily do. Truth is not something that is valued in broadcasting, podcasting…nor are talent, passion, originality, genuineness, nor even humor. It’s all a very closed game, unless those who have decision-making power happen to know and like you…and/or imagine that dollar signs are associated with any given prospective “talent.” No, it’s not “rigged,” but, it is a mess. Broadcasting, like life, is not fair.
And the desperate AM owners rush to drink the digital Kool-Aid. First, they cannot change the laws of physics. Mediumwave radio is prone to nighttime skywave propagation and phase shifts that interfere with the decoding of the digital signal. The European DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale) system performs better in such an environment…but, as is the case with digital television and the old AM stereo systems, the Americans selected the wrong system. Second, how many listeners have home radios that are capable of receiving AM digital? Third, are all these owners who signed the FCC petition eager to pay boatloads of cash to iBiquity as that company triple-dips to get royalties? IBiquity charges royalties to transmitter manufacturers, receiver manufacturers (for which the consumer ultimately pays), and license fees to stations that want to use the so-called “HD Radio”. People, forget about these whiz-bang cure-all schemes to “improve” AM radio and instead push for better analog receivers…and put on better programming. No matter what the transmission scheme, people may be getting a little sick of political rants and quack infomercials. Is “HD Radio” really the salvation of AM radio? Or is it just another electronic Edsel?
Phil is right. Bulletin to AM station owners: AM is deader than dead. Period. An AM station right now is like telephone company land lines, 15 years ago.
“One way” mediums like broadcast radio (and TV) are done. The tsunami trend and consumer preference is INTERACTIVE mediums, where the consumer picks and chooses their content, decides what time they are going to watch or listen, and often has the ability to interact with that content.
Content is a key word here too. And major radio station operators now subjugate the criticalness of content to their priorities of debt servicing and enriching their top executives.
The current day radio accepting of “content” as being the one-way (non-interactive) distribution of a voice-tracked Ryan Seacrest (or numerous other lesser-known voices) in multiple markets, is so far off the mark and irrelevant to today’s content preferences,
that it’s like Christopher Columbus setting sail and assuming that the Earth is flat!!
That’s what happens, when you have old (predominantly white male) “leaders” (not really)
as the top as Executives in radio right now…. They base their thinking on their egos, their own compensation, and worst their assumptions and mindsets based on their 30 year or longer history in the business, which is nothing but an impediment to forward-thinking.