How does the Chicago dial compare to radio in Europe?

[Goldilocks94941]

Indeed.  I'm not naive enough to suggest that some commercial corporate entity should lobby for long wave frequency assignments.  The economic model suggests specialized broadcasters wanting a broader reach, and noncommercial entities, could make it work to their benefit to be on an AM signal with significant skywave coverage. 

But radio, at its best, stimulates the imagination.  I've found it interesting in past years to hear hurricane warnings on WWL at night from New Orleans, and the New Years' Eve countdown from times square on WCBS, and real down home rhythm and blues years ago on WLAC from Nashville, not to mention the Opry on WSM.   
Intentional long distance listening can be fun, even magic, once you've gotten what you need from your local station.  It's a chance to travel vicariously when you can hear specialized formats that reflect a genuine sense of place beyond its immediate area.  And maybe to hear people with ideas and experiences that are different from your own little sheltered town in the Midwest. 

I've heard plenty of people over the years describe radio DXing as something that made the medium become "cool."  Seems like that's the role now for internet radio, since even AM DXing is hard to do (particularly in west coast cities, where low rated reglisious and time brokered stations with nighttime patterns now are jamming out the few 50kw signals from other cities). 

So I suppose as long as you can do a search, instead of a dial scan, to find something intriguing that's streaming on the web, with a good enough bandwidth to make it pleasant to listen to for more than a few minutes -- that seems to be the way it's gonna happen now.  And as soon as I can get reliable internet webstreaming in my car, I'm going to be among the millions listening to new things in their car that aren't just downloaded podcasts.   Just imagine.