Future of AM in Europe

[Omer]

Please check this thread out and see if someone has any idea how they can be helped!

http://www.radiomuseum.org/for ... italy.html

[CannotRegisterMan]

Hi to everyone,
I am from Germany, and I see the time coming, that FM-converter with
AM output signals will be the only way to listen on old radios.
Austria has no more AM station !
I can`t think positiv, because the industry sees a big market for hole
Europe, when everyone needs new car and home radios, because FM
will be digitalized in several years, too.

[Omer]

If I'm not mistaken, you are now living in the "Eurozone"....you still have Prague, Bratislava, Budapest, and many other places to listen to!

Be vocal, and let everyone know in Europe media, government, and society about what an AM-less Europe would be like!

In the US, we use to have many"clear channel" broadcast stations, but lost a few due to changes in FCC rules. KFI in Los Angeles used to be clear channel. now, the only clear channel station on the West Coast is, KGO, in San Francisco. Because of this radio station, The CCrane Company, http://www.ccrane.com/radios/a ... index.aspx ,made a special radio so that KGO listeners can receive them at night!

I'm sorry that Eco frauds in Europe AKA here in the US as Eco nazis have caused the demise of radio in Europe! Our Eco frauds ( the Sierra club and other ilk) are only allowing our forests to get destroyed by uncontrolled burning of national forests ( Yellowstone) and forcing us to use dirty energy (coal) instead of nuclear energy.

They would never dare to touch AM radio, because they know that if they lose that media forum, they could lose half of their media voice!

[exray]

Solution would be to pay more taxes to give life support to the dinosaur. In the countries of Europe much MW broadcasting is typically government subsidized and their old-time intent was to regionally export their culture, news interpretations, etc. a few hundred miles across the border. In the recent decades many countries have allowed 'free' broadcasting but if the listener base is no longer there with solid national programming then it doesn't work.

Same thing is happening in the US, albeit at a slower pace because we don't have the language barriers every 500 miles and we still have corporate sponsors that keep MW alive...although that benefit remains debatable.

A war story that comes to mind...I e-helped an old fellow in UK get his old Philco playing again. We did so successfully but he commented that he hadn't listened to an AM radio since the sixties. 60 miles outside of London he could only hear 3 or 4 stations. From a Yank perspective thats unheard of because 60 miles away from NY or LA or any major city in the states if you can't hear 20-30 stations then the radio is broken.

Omer, since you are now in LA, how would you characterize MW radio versus what you had in Bosnia? Why do you hear 50-60 healthy local stations versus your home environment?

[Omer]

Wait a second! Los Angeles is, and always has been my home envronment!

Sarajevo is one of the places I lived in Europe during the eighties, including Brussels, Rome, and Munich.

The answer to your question is, "commercial radio"! You will notice that in the States, "public radio" is broadcast on FM.

As long as you keep news, talk, and commentary on AM, you have a viable market. I'm not sure that the truckers still listen to country on AM, but driving the distance on the desert plain, there is nothing as good as having that one friendly radio station keeping you comapny during the night!

[N0BST]

The truckers are getting their entertainment from satellite now. As for an AM-less Europe, I'd say it'll be a lot like South Africa under apartheid. The various "homelands" of the black tribes were allowed to have FM radio, but not AM. Since they couldn't listen to any distant broadcasts, their information could be very controlled. They were never exposed to another point of view.


Scott Todd

[Curt Reed]

Very true, Scott! Just another of the sneaky things that are encroaching on people slowly, but surely. One world rule? That is all I will say because it can turn political in a hurry.
Curt
_________________
Curt, N7AH
(Connoisseur of the cold 807) CW forever!

[Guest]

Hi Curt,

I don't think there's any political overtones behind the slow decline of AM. Even if AM is lost, satellite radio and internet provide much better world-wide coverage (at least outside of a few censored countries) than AM or SW ever did. So there's no loss of opportunity to get information from just about anywhere these days.

That's not to say I wouldn't like to see AM back to where it was 35 years ago, with many small towns having their own local programming on 1 kW to 5 kW stations. That was a wonderful era that only exists in our memories now.

[Tom Albrecht]

That was me. Somehow the firewall and antivirus stuff on my computer has decided that allowing me to remain recognizable to ARF is dangerous to my computer! Now if I could only figure out how to control this stuff...

By the way, one thing I've noticed for at least a week now is that the Forum is really fast! Hope saying that doesn't jinx anything.
_________________
Tom K6VL

[Curt Reed]

Yes, Tom, it has been working fine for me also. Do you have Norton anti-virus? I have and it runs its scan each week and just finished up about an hour ago for this week. Everytime it does its thing, it deletes my cookies for this forum. It does not affect the other forums I have on my desktop, just this one. So I have to remember to re-login and click on the "remember me" and I am all set for another week of ARF. So I think some problems may be from a persons anti-virus program they are running.
Curt
_________________
Curt, N7AH
(Connoisseur of the cold 807) CW forever!