AM radio has a long history of serving diverse communities, particularly those in rural and underserved areas. It has been a vital source of information, news, and entertainment for many minority communities, including African Americans and Hispanic Americans. This topic was raised again during NAB CEO Curtis LeGeyt’s fireside chat with Univision Los Angeles’ Gabriela Teissier.
Following his address, Radio Ink got the opportunity to ask LeGeyt whether there is any conversation in Washington that AM radio’s removal from autos is racially discriminatory. It was mentioned that iHeartMedia’s Black Information Network (BIN) has been purchasing AM stations across the country, which highlights the importance of AM radio for minority communities.
LeGeyt noted the NAB’s role in lobbying and protecting these voices and streams of information, admitting, “There are a number of diverse communities that are uniquely served by AM radio, and we are committed to telling that story to Washington policymakers.”
I work for two AM radio stations and two fm’s, with regular programming serving the South Florida Hispanic market. One of them is number one in the Miami am dial, talk is not dead, and you can’t talk in the fm’s . No repetition in the AM dial who serves the community in so many ways. Can’t believe this movement is happening in the car business started by one company because it made interference with their electrical $30,000 plus battery…. AM’s have a big place in radio, and the time spent listenership is about 2:45 hrs, compared to FM’s. Billed once more than one millón in a year, not bad for anAM station
There are exceptions such as your stations, good for you, but overall the listeners, especially younger demos, long ago abandoned the senior band. It is not in a growth cycle. FM is a decade or two behind but facing the same situation. There is nothing inherent in AM that gives it higher TSL than FM. Spoken word can have very good TSL on AM or FM. The last time our small market in southern Oregon had ratings was about 7 years ago, and total AM listenership was 14% among 7 market grade AM sticks. My station was 10 of that 14%. I assure you that time has not improved those shares of AM penetration. The AM goes off the air, nobody calls. The FM and HD and translators or stream go off and I hear about it pronto. In a few weeks the AM will go dark and there will be some who miss it, but not enough to make a new $3-400,000+ AM site “pencil” in today’s media landscape. I wish it were different, but that’s reality.
No matter the race or ethnicity of AM listeners, what would it cost for the manufacturers to keep the AM band in their car radios? A 25 cent IC chip, a couple of I.F. cans at maybe 50 cents each, and a couple of lines of code in the microprocessor that drives the radio/sound system?
Of course the broadcasters have to keep their end of the deal. The ethnic stations generally seem to be making money, as do the ones airing paid religion. The others need to make an effort to put better programming on, including music geared to older listeners that you don’t hear on FM anymore. Sports programming is also a good moneymaker for AM. We have an all-sports AM station in my market that augments its syndicated programming with local and regional events programming. And it makes money. But nonstop political rants, shady real estate deals, and shows featuring quack remedies just don’t hack it. And, Congress, please do two things: Pass an All-Channel Radio Act like the one passed for television in the early 60s and force the FCC to clean up the RF spectrum by enforcing Parts 15 and 18 of its rules.
Silly.
Why are we putting black and brown people back to the 70’s when AM radio was King?
As if black and brown people can’t evolve and flip on FM radio? Like they are stuck in the past.
Silly conversation.
but if the owners of the am station cant afford to add a fm transmitter thats the problem. i know a lot of owners and its day by day for them. so to me its a everybody problem
I keep hearing about this thing called AM radio. What is it?
It’s a thing that most college and sports teams use to broadcast their games.
Here we go again. Putting a racial label on a news story SELLS. Every TV network and station inserts the word “racial” and it’s an automatic watch for a lot of people and will get those valuable “clicks” on Facebook or any other news page. Dumping AM is at least a moron move, but labeling it as a racist move is insane. Sure brings in the dollars though…
Stop it, stop this mad speculation that AM radio problems are really a cover for wayyyycism. We are about to let our AM news talk go dark after almost 100 years on the air, having moved entirely to FM and streaming. Electrical noise and interference (thanks Fcc) changing tastes and newer tech pushed this. I got into broadcasting on an AM station in 1980 and it was dying then, too. Rush Limbaugh and talk gave AM another 30 years of life it otherwise would not have had. I love the band, but with rare exception it’s the most challenging business model around.
I agree, I too got into radio broadcasting about 1974, through an FM station albeit noncommercial; Commercial came in 1980 when I got hired at a local 500 watt daytimer.
What moron thinks removing AM radios from the cars is racially motivated?! Aren’t these the same idiots who first celebrated this because they thought it would hurt conservative talk?
AM removal would also hurt what is primarily conservative talk radio.