More sports on FM: WIP(AM) to simulcast on 94.1

[Bob Nelson]

On Mon, Aug 22, 2011 at 4:42 AM, Martin Waters <martinjwaters@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>Many of us who hang out on this newsgroup are still interested in AM radio, but the public -- more strongly the younger the people are -- just doesn't listen to AM radio, period. It doesn't matter what's on or how good the signal is. To the average person, just the fact that it's in mono makes its sound quality extremely inferior to FM.

Yes, the sound quality and interference found on AM is literally a
turn-off to them. Before, one could generally say music stations were
(mostly) on FM, while AM had news, talk, sports, ethnic, and
religious, for the most part. Yes, WJIB has relaxing music and WMKI
has Radio Disney for the young, teens. and 'tweens, and those are
exceptions (in that case there are young people tuning to AM for that
but eventually they switch to CHR music stations on FM--in fact they
probably already listen), as are "True OIdies" stations. But more and
more, with news, talk,
and sports stations migrating to FM, the "spoken word" is finding a
home on FM, too (often at the expense of a music station--recall that
96.9 was beautiful music and then smooth jazz before the switch to
talk;
98.5 was a music station, etc.

While powerful AM stations can reach far, especially at night, the
interference can be a real hassle. I've mentioned the
near-impossibility for me of hearing WRKO, WEEI, and WBZ at work. How
about the times when I'm driving and high tension wires cause
headache-inducing sounds on WRKO (Rt 128 nr Peabody),
WXKS AM (Rt 22/128 interchange in Beverly), and so on. Then there's
signals that have to power down or switch direction at sunset...Howie
Carr jokes about WRKO not going far west of Kenmore Sq. after dark.
A bit of an exaggeration, but true in some respects.
WEEI's signal problems to the west and some other directions led to
the establishment of sister stations
mostly on FM (105.5, 103.7, 96.3) and in once case on AM (1440), and
the necessity of putting Red Sox
games on a bunch of other signals for all those times when WEEI can't come in.

The bit about "formats not found on FM" is what I was saying about
WJIB (relaxing), WMKI (children's),
and the various ethnic and religious outlets.

>>Your average person is horrified if they drive past a utility  pole with an improperly grounded electrical transformer or drive beneath a 500 kv electrical transmission line, etc., and hear a few seconds of nasty-sounding interference. And most of them quit ever turning on AM radio back in another century.

As I mentioned above, this happens quite often and the proliferation
of high tension wires and various gadgets and machinery, etc., doesn't
help.