Is AM radio dead?

[Conflicted]

With research consistently showing that large amounts of people 25-54 never even turn on an AM radio, is the medium dying?

I personally am beginning to question if radio with its current (and insane) sustainability model is dying.

A recent figure I heard quoted was that radio has profits of more than 40% R.O.I. annually. Apparently that's not good enough for the industry giants Wall Street shareholders... but no wonder people like Kent Frandsen hold on!

In years past, it's probably been about 2 now, I've heard that radio has a 55-60% profit margin. Maybe one is for news/talk based formats and the higher figure for music stations. Obviously a station like "Jack" and "My" is almost pure profit after paying for studio space, a transmitter, an engineer to maintain that transmitter as needed and a programmer to load and traffic assistant/receptionist to create playlists as needed. Salespeople work on commission after all... It seems like you could really run a radio station on about 5 individuals:
A general manager/programmer
A receptionist/office assistant/traffic director (part time )
An engineer (probably on-call for the ultimate savings)
A production director/board operator (part time )
A salesperson (or staff)

Maybe this is some of my cynicism coming out, but I've been through three tumultuous deaths of stations, two of which were music formats.

[CAwasinNJ]

Another thing to keep in mind is that with consolidation, you can get one person to do the job that a half dozen did before. That increases the economies of scale and could help keep marginal stations afloat. It also decreases the number of independent voices any given area has, the cluster has to make sure not to tread on the territory of their clustermates, etc. Personally, I'd rather see the free market do its work.

But to get back to the original question.... There's a chicken and egg paradox. Are people not listening to AM because there isn't as much compelling about it, or is there not as much compelling because people don't listen as much? One possible saving grace for AM might be digital hybrid signals. iBiquity's IBOC isn't the answer though. The destructive nature of the digital sidebands just isn't going to work. There are alternatives though. The Kahn digital system doesn't interfere with adjacent channels and still has the advantages of being both digital and analog, and if you believe his literature actually increases analog reception range. last I heard, KDYL was running that system, and i can't tell any destructive interference from it at all. The question would be, how good does the digital signal sound? I have no idea. I've never even heard an aircheck. But if nothing else it's a proof of concept that you CAN have a digital AM signal with an analog one and not trash everything for 30kHz in either direction.

[David]

Part of the reason AM radio has been dying over the past 20-25 years is due to the fact that most AM/FM radios have lousy AM tuners with poor sensitivity and selectivity. I recently purchased a Sangean PR-D5 on Amazon, and the quality of the sound from AM stations is simply amazing. The quality of the Sangean makes one really appreciate how good AM radio can sound with a decent receiver. Of course, with a price tag of $65.00-$80.00 depending on which on line retailer you buy from, you really have to enjoy AM radio to be willing to invest in a quality set like the PR-D5. But the Sangean is one of the few radios I own that does an effective job of filtering out IBOC hash, so to me it's worth the money. I can actually hear WCCO without KUTR's IBOC splatter, a feat that few radios I own can accomplish.

Oh yes, let's not forget Clear Channel's idiotic move of limiting the bandwidth of their AM signals to 5 kHz--which does a great job of making the sound quality of CC AM stations akin to two tin cans and a string.

[dxstuboy]

Aug 1, 2008 2:06:06 GMT -6 David said:

Part of the reason AM radio has been dying over the past 20-25 years is due to the fact that most AM/FM radios have lousy AM tuners with poor sensitivity and selectivity.

I can attest to that. My girlfriend has one of those Ihome radios for her ipod and the AM side of the radio can't even receive locals like KDYL or even KNRS very well. She lives in the center of Salt Lake and can't hear anything on AM except KSL.

On the other hand, I own a clock radio that I've had since 1992 and that sucker can receive distant stations at night close to my Grudig, albeit lacking bandwidth switches .

As far as AM dying, sadly the people of my generation (who are in their 20s like myself) likely don't even know what an AM radio is. They were (like me) raised on FM only. I however, love AM and hope to never see it die.

[dolt]

I think, therefor I AM.

[CAwasinNJ]

Badum-PA!

It's true. I've heard airchecks of AM stereo (C-QUAM) stations on a wideband receiver and they're comparable to at least middle of the line FM stations in terms of fidelity. But there's a chicken and egg problem there too. Why spend the extra money on fidelity on the receiver when most of what's on AM is talk, and why put a music station on AM when the receivers all sound like you're listening on the telephone?

Do you think it might work if AM music stations started distributing their own high end radios? Sell it on air at or just below cost and recoup the money with increased ad revenue. Maybe you could even include a custom dial with your logo pointing right where your dial position is, or something like that. Write off the added expense as promotion.

[dspete]

My view is this!! If HD Radio works out, Sorry Guys AM Stereo has no chance of coming back.... way too much money being invested in the HD thingy, And if you have given a listen to a AM HD Station which most of you probably have I think it could make a comeback with music formats becuz it comes across as a mid-sounding FM station just a little worried about the range. But other then Talk Radio Am is pretty much dead but Bonneville must be thinking this also since in every market they are in they have moved or simulcasts it's top AM station now on FM. People want sound clarity. Also with Ipods and cars now coming with USB plugs built in and SAT RAD it tough to run a very bad sounding AM station... Oh yea the only thing keeping AM around is Rush and Hannity.

[seattlefollower]

Aug 2, 2008 0:56:16 GMT -6 dxstuboy said:

Aug 1, 2008 2:06:06 GMT -6 David said:

Part of the reason AM radio has been dying over the past 20-25 years is due to the fact that most AM/FM radios have lousy AM tuners with poor sensitivity and selectivity.

I can attest to that. My girlfriend has one of those Ihome radios for her ipod and the AM side of the radio can't even receive locals like KDYL or even KNRS very well. She lives in the center of Salt Lake and can't hear anything on AM except KSL.

I have the same problem with my Sirius radio dock. It has the s--tiest FM tuner I've ever seen in my life. They must've made about 100% profit on the unit. It can't filter interference, receives only the station closest to me. It is horrid. The AM side? Surprisingly a *touch* better but we have few strong AMs out here.

[CAwasinNJ]

Maybe the Sirius just wants to say they have an FM tuner, but they don't want you to actually use it?