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Rodzilla · #1 07-29-2009, 06:05 AM

the last AM station in my city of approx 350,000 signed off this week..the local AM band is now officially a vacant wasteland.i virtually never listen to AM but it seems strange and worth noting as the end of an era nonetheless

compucat · #2 07-29-2009, 06:57 AM

I hope this is not the begining of a trend. I listen to AM almost exclusively. If FM went away here I probably would not miss it. I could not do without AM and Shortwave. To me that is real radio.

Celt · #3 07-29-2009, 07:10 AM

We lost one of our FM stations a few years back when they moved one town over (the second time that's happened in the past 70 years). We now have one remaining station which is both AM and FM. The AM side is limping by on an ancient WWII era transmitter and tower system with disentegrated ground planes. I figure it's just a matter of time before they shut the AM down.

mhardy6647 · #4 07-29-2009, 08:20 AM

That's astonishing.
There seems to be some weird agglomeration of radio stations going on in the Boston market -- with one or two old-guard stations moving to HD subchannels.

I don't think the future is very bright for OTA analog radio :-(

bshorey · #5 08-11-2009, 10:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mhardy6647

That's astonishing.
There seems to be some weird agglomeration of radio stations going on in the Boston market -- with one or two old-guard stations moving to HD subchannels.

I don't think the future is very bright for OTA analog radio :-(

I don't listen to much radio anymore, but happened upon WBCN this evening, and was shocked to find they're going off the air at midnight!

WBCN has been a landmark radio station for more than 40 years here in Boston, and for many years was a model for FM stations in other markets.

Ouch! The times they are a changin'..

bs

mhardy6647 · #6 08-12-2009, 07:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bshorey

I don't listen to much radio anymore, but happened upon WBCN this evening, and was shocked to find they're going off the air at midnight!

WBCN has been a landmark radio station for more than 40 years here in Boston, and for many years was a model for FM stations in other markets.

Ouch! The times they are a changin'..

bs

Nor do I (which is probably why they're all going away)...

I heard on the AM radio news (WBZ) this morning that WBCN's last broadcast song was Shine On You Crazy Diamond, which seemed pretty fitting.

Sam Cogley · #7 08-12-2009, 10:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hemingray

We have a SAM-FM at 94.3 here in Ark. There's also a Jack-FM on 93.9 coming from West Plains, MO. Both equally good stations, alongside 100.5 The Eagle (KEGI Jonesboro)

I miss having a Jack station available. Outside of one or two bright spots, this area is a bit of a radio wasteland.

Rodzilla · #8 07-29-2009, 02:02 PM

over the last couple of years we've picked up a couple new fm stations here in town as the AM stations swapped thier licenses/call letters and formats and moved their operations over to,one assumes,the more viable FM band..as irrelevent as AM has been to me,it does seem strange that there is no longer any local AM,the entire band has now been abandoned...tho i guess it does make for a pretty quiet dial for DX'ing LOL

*zenithfan1* · #9 07-29-2009, 03:56 PM

Oh no, I love AM radio. I listen to it every night and sometimes during the day. There are many great stations in my listening area, I hope they don't start disappearing here too. I hate the way things are headed in 2009

'09

Sam Cogley · #10 07-29-2009, 03:59 PM

Nothing seems to be going away around here. The airwaves are crowded.

Adam · #11 07-29-2009, 05:34 PM

I mostly just listen to AM here too. I haven't lived anywhere with anything good on FM in so many years, that over that time I've slowly sold or junked every single one of my FM radios. All I have left that gets FM are my 2 combo TV sets.

Eventually, we'll probably all have to get small transmitters for our radios, like for the TVs. Last night I plugged my computer into the ext. mod. input of my signal generator, and used it as an AM transmitter, wouldn't go more than a few feet though.

radiotvnut · #12 07-29-2009, 08:43 PM

We still have the same amount of AM stations that we've always had; but, the format is, unfortunately, not the same on many of them. We have three black gospel stations, one white southern gospel station, and two talk stations. I have picked up a few music (oldies and country) stations at night and I often listen to KMOX's "Route 66" oldies program on Saturday night.

Maybe we won't be forced into using a transmitter for a few more years, anyway.

chasaboo · #13 07-29-2009, 11:11 PM

I listen to classical music on FM, we only have the one FM classical music station left. Kind of sad really.

The only time I listen to AM is when we have an earthquake so I can figure out how bad it was.

Strange to think of no AM stations being available.

*zenithfan1* · #14 07-29-2009, 11:30 PM

Wow, I guess we're pretty lucky here between Chicago and Milwaukee. We have at least one of every format all over AM and FM even a heavy/death metal station that plays at night. I think it's still called "Rebel Radio" I was in the Detroit area of Mi recently and all there was for music on most stations was hair bands, somewhat unpopular '70s rock and country. Across the whole state. It drove me nuts and I was happy when our stations started to appear in the static. Everywhere else I've been I mostly listened to CDs and wasn't alone for the trip, the last time I searched for stations far away from home was back in '00 when I went to Vegas with my Dad, there was some pretty good stuff in most of the states we went through then.

bandersen · #15 07-31-2009, 06:22 PM

Yes, we're pretty lucky near the IL/WI border. Lots to listen too

. I tend to work on my projects late at night while listening to shows like the Twilight Zone on a vintage radio.

I'd forgotten about Rebel Radio - I think I listened to that back in the early 90s