AM RADIO

[desertrunner]

One of the guys I work with likes to listen to the George Noory radio show live on 640 AM. I started to follow it some as well because of the Art Bell connection.

Then I moved the dial and found KNX 1070 AM and was pretty impressed. They are LIVE 24/7, even around 2-3 AM on a lonely Sunday night. I like the fact that they are live and breaking if anything important happens. They also cover traffic and weather all over the So Cal. area. I now listen live on my home PC too.

Never thought I would actually enjoy live AM radio.

Anyone else?

[country978]

The Red Sox used to have the best radio guys. Joe Castiglione and Jerry Trupiano. AM580 in Worcester and 1440 in Boston if I remember correctly. Oftentimes the AM radio broadcast was preferable to the TV. In fact, the most famous clip of the Sox winning it all in '04 wasn't from the tv but from the AM radio broadcast with Joe and Jerry.

Of course, the Red Sox are now terrible and not worth listening to.

I can't find a clip of the end of the '04 series with the famous line "for the 1st time in 86 years the red sox are baseball's world champion" but here's the end of the Yankee series. You could go to 3:01 to hear the end of this one. As much as I now dislike the Sox play me anything from the '04 playoffs with these voices and it still gives me chills.

[country978]

I like this song

[desertrunner]

Funny thing about So Cal 1070 AM, it’s comes in pretty clear up in the foothills of Nor Cal.

Seems like AM radio could be a key when the civil war happens or the fall of society.



Druff- Please comment on this topic.

[Bilbodoggins]

Great memories of:

WNUE Fort Walton Beach FL in high school
KPOI Honolulu in the 70's
WLS Chicago various times and places. The Buckinghams doing "Meet Mr. Norm" commercials. "Chicken Man."

[BetCheckBet]

I listened to Art Bell in the 90s after learning my grandfather regulary listened. He knew most of it was BS but found it entertaining. I probably only made it through a few dozen episodes at the time. The never ending hole was toptop though. I also prefer AM to FM radio. with spotify there is little reason to listen to FM radio anymore and most of the hosts are horrible.

[Dan Druff]

I will admit I don't listen to much AM radio anymore, except to hear the Dodgers when driving.

Many people under 50 don't realize that AM was once considered very viable for music. That's because AM was the original band, and FM didn't really provide an advantage until it became capable of carrying stereo in the early '60s. AM carried a lot better, especially at night or in hilly terrain. FM did have the advantage of less interference from power poles, overpasses, etc.

Anyway, it took about 25 years for FM to completely force major stations off the AM band.

When I was a kid, a big AM rock station was "The Mighty 690", which could be found on 690 AM. Was it based in LA? No. It was actually based out of Tijuana, Mexico, in order to avoid FCC restrictions on its power. In 1983, the Rio Treaty established agreements between countries regarding the power of border stations, but prior to that The Mighty 690 had a very far range, and clear signal. I used to listen to it a lot.

At some point in the 80s, the Mighty 690 lost its audience to popular Top 40 FM stations like KIIS-FM, and it switched formats, and eventually went talk in the '90s.

WKRP, a fictional Cincinnati radio station for the popular TV show by the same name, was supposed to have been AM station playing music. The show began in 1978, and even then it received criticism for portraying a music station on AM. Despite a lot of realism in the show regarding the radio industry, the AM thing was never addressed, which is weird because one gag of the show was the incompetence of its general manager, and the station's general failures. You'd think that have been worked into the plot somehow!

In Los Angeles, AM radio is all but dead.

During the '90s and '00s, it was still viable under the talk format. However, as people started going to the internet, SiriusXM, and cable networks for their political talk shows, AM declined big time.

KFI 640 is the #7 station in LA, and is the last viable major AM station in the region. The next ranked AM station is KLAC 570, the Dodgers station, which comes up at #28. All of the other top 27 are FM stations.

Major brands have also decreased their advertising on AM stations, and now you are hearing mostly a lot of semi-scammy companies selling supplements, tax relief, solar panels, etc.

My son, who is 13, has no desire to listen to any kind of radio, nor do other kids his age. It's just a matter of time until the medium is completely dead.

[limitles]

A.M. radio preceded TV obviously and played a vital role in most communities. Providing news, weather, city council, and sports right down to the little leaguers. Still a deal in rural areas big media is a different animal that looks at the bottom line.

Numerous hall of fame news and entertainment icons cut their teeth at the only place that would have them A.M. radio. That continues today.

Btw. consider the growth of the podcast. Better by the day and more polished, it's still a vehicle that delivers
words of some sort. Often poorly produced and there for the benefit of the presenters.