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AM on FM
Back in the early days of FM, when AM radio ruled the roost and an FM radio was still a rare commodity, many station owners simply simulcast their AM station’s programming on their FM stations. In the...
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Garrett Wollman's Radio Tower Quest
WLS Radio Tower Photo Copyright 2004, Garrett Wollman from The Archives@ BostonRadio.org. Fandom is an amazing thing and thanks to the Internet it’s easier and easier to find like-minded obsessives...
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AM on FM Begins Oct. 1
After rendering the AM dial a garbled mess after sunset by cramming in too many stations along with space-hogging HD signals, in 2007 the commercial radio industry came a-calling to the FCC with it’s...
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Recording Radio for Fun, Games and Posterity
I started reading the Professor’s detailed travelogues of his AM and shortwave radio band excursions back when he was writing for WFMU’s Beware of the Blog. After he quit contributing to BotB I...
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That Next License Is Going to Cost You
While we commonly accept that broadcast stations and, especially, their licenses to broadcast have a market value, for most of US broadcasting history there was no direct cost to obtain that license....
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College Radio 101: UW-Parkside Station Learns When You Need a License
The University of Wisconsin-Parkside’s student-run station WIPZ has apparently been on the air since the early 1990s, broadcasting on AM, then FM and online. The station has never had a license,...
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The Aesthetics of AM Radio
When was the last time that you tuned in to AM radio to listen to music? Although I’m a huge evangelist for the ongoing importance of terrestrial radio (especially non-commercial radio), the AM slice...
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The Avenue Offers Chicago a New AM Music Format
One night last week I was tuning around the AM dial here in Chicago before going to sleep when I happened upon a station playing a nice, but unusual mix of vocal jazz standards. The music set was...
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AM Radio Goes Bollywood
KLOK's South Asian Format I really like the idea that someday soon there will be a radio revolution and the FM dial will once again be returned to passionate music-loving DJs playing an eclectic mix...
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HD Radio on AM – Not worth it
Where is the beef? Not on AM HD Radio. One of the supposed advantages of HD Radio is improved fidelity over analog. As I observed in my listening test of HD on FM, there’s almost no real improvement...
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Music on AM: Rebel Radio
I’ve known about this station for well over a decade now. As a metalhead living in Central Illinois I’d occasionally travel north to the Chicago area or Milwaukee to see concerts and encounter banners...
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Radio industry journal acknowledges problems with AM HD
Following on the heels of my unimpressive AM HD radio listening test last week, industry stalwart Radio World magazine published a report that comes to terms with the fact that “AM HD radio has...
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Classic Super Radio is available again
RCA Super Radio III Having a nice radio with sensitive tuning and pleasing sound can really make the radio listening experience that much more enjoyable. Thanks to Herculodge I’ve learned that the...
View ArticleThar be pirates on AM, too!
Radio World recently posted a brief item about three notices of unlicensed operation to three different persons that the FCC issued in Portland, OR to what is apparently the same station operating on...
View ArticleUnlicensed AM broadcasting a little safer than FM
Last fall I wrote a post on unlicensed broadcasting on the AM band in the US. The impetus was reading an article on a rare FCC action against a station in Portland, Oregon, which caused me to track...
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Pacifica’s KPFK to try unlicensed radio
On the heels of my post about FCC enforcement of “legal” low-power AM broadcasting, I learn that Pacifica plans to jump into the LPAM arena. The plan is for Pacifica’s Los Angeles station KPFK to...
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Radio Caroline Pursuing a Legit License
On the heels of Radio Caroline’s 47th birthday last week, the New York Times published a story reporting on the outfit’s attempt to garner an actual license to broadcast in the UK. Caroline is...
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86-year-old WDOD Shuts Down and Turns AM License Back to FCC
Packing Up Radio History (Photo Taken at KUSF by J. Waits) I know a lot of people who would love to have a terrestrial broadcasting license, so it seemed odd to me when I read about a Chattanooga...
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Music on AM: The untold story of Tucson’s Power 1490
The late 1980s were a turning point for AM radio in the US, as music gave way to the rise of talk. By the 1990s most of the music on the AM dial was limited to old time country and easy listening;...
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University of Colorado’s College Radio Station Radio 1190 to Revamp
Radio 1190 An article in the Colorado Daily last week announced that changes are afoot at University of Colorado’s college radio station KVCU-AM, popularly known as Radio 1190. A re-branding effort...
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Is AM revitalization a cover to force an all-digital transition?
Will the industry try to force an HD radio upgrade on the AM band?We received a couple of comments on my post about the revitalization of AM radio pointing to pieces that make convincing arguments...
View ArticleWill the Gray Lady’s attention energize AM radio revitalization?
This week the New York Times moved AM Radio into the mainstream consciousness with a story about FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai’s ambition to save the oft-forgotten broadcast band. There’s nothing new in...
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1965: the year the FCC helped FM radio take off
Here’s a broadcasting policy history question. Who said this? “Obviously it is a waste of valuable spectrum space to use two frequencies to bring the same material to the same location.” Believe it or...
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The Eton Mini Grundig Edition Is My New Travel Companion
One of life’s little pleasures is tuning around the radio dial late at night before drifting off to slumber. I especially enjoy this while traveling, touring foreign radio dials, encountering strange...
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