AM Radio bright future

[4 Shure]

Unfortunately, AM radio is as doomed as rotary dial telephones.
Indeed, each market MIGHT have ONE AM station in the Arbitron Top 10 ... and that's usually the ONE
with the BIG signal and a heritage in news or a sports franchise.  Have you noticed how many "AMs" have started simulcasting on FM?  Remember the days when we felt we were "wasting" an FM signal
by dumping our AM programming on FM?  Look how many stand-alone "AMs" are putting on FM translators!
Indeed, there ARE major market "AMs" that ARE top revenue producers.  We seek THEM for news, sports, and talk.
Inside THOSE stations, even THEY are pondering, "Isn't there a way we could do THIS on FM, too?"

Talk to ANYONE under 30 and they only have a VAGUE recollection or understanding of
what AM radio is!  They're NOT listeners.  FUTURE of AM radio?  A definite oxymoron.

I grew up on AM radio.  Was INSULTED when at my first job in the business was asked
to host a daypart on the co-owned FM station.  What did I do wrong?  Why was I being
demoted?  This was 1969.  A dinosaur era of evolving technology.

Times have changed.  FM is the player today ... and even THEIR cards are on a shaky table.
Satellite?  Internet?  WiFi?  Cellular?  All part of the FUTURE for SMART earth-based, already-licensed RADIO broadcasters.

Sure, I long for the GREAT days of KQV, WIXZ, CKLW, WLS, WCFL, and other suppliers of the music and entertainment of my generation.  But, they're gone.  Thankfully, they survive as a GREAT, lasting memory.

Let's FOCUS on how the successful stations of TODAY can be guaranteed a place of listenership for TOMORROW.  When someone MUCH SMARTER than ME figures THAT out, please alert the media!  I'm placing a sad (but realistic) bet it WON'T be via AM radio.

(And, PLEASE!  Do a MUCH BETTER JOB than what was done for QUADRAPHONIC and HD Radio.)

[Boss Radio]

Along those lines, I'm reminded of how insulted O'Brien and Garry were when they were "demoted" and moved to FM to make room for Bogut on WTAE in 1983.

[FreddyE1977]

Those stories remind me of the late Douglas Edwards, CBS newsman, member of William L. Shirer's famed War Correspondent team, and a popular fixture on radio.  In 1948 CBS management informed him that he was being transferred over to anchor the daily newscasts on their recently launched venture, CBS television.  If I may paraphrase an interview he gave about this event years later...

"I thought, what a crummy break!  Here I am, well-established on radio, growing audience, my career is going well, and all of a sudden I get shunted off to this silly toy where I'll never be heard from again".

[Mike Sheridan]

FM is dying, AM is dead. That's all folks!

[Boss Radio]

Correction: FM is committing suicide.