Is AM music doomed for good?

[Max]

In having lunch today with my brother-in-law, who grew up in Louisville, we were discussing the increased ratings for WAKYOnline and he made a comment that with the proper marketing he thought AM could be revived. While he has never had radio experience of ANY kind, it is a nice thing to think about and with the idea that all things are possible, it is conceivable that if you had the talent and energy of WAKY/WKLO circa 1960-1978 the image could be recreated. However, as we have discussed multiple times in this forum, I don't think you could get people to switch back to AM. At least not in this area. The majority of adults 35-60+ today grew up in the AM era, but I just don't think that will happen. I think any success would be short term and based totally on curiosity.

What are some of your thoughts??

[Ben Pflederer]

Max, Oldies 50's - 60's AM has been revived in Chicago from a start-up, within the past 2 years and the ratings have gone up slowly but surely. The station is at 1690 KHz, so the skywaves and interference take over the 10 KW Day, 1 KW Night. They brought back a heavy hitters from the old WLS & WCFL days.

www.realoldies1690.com/main.html

They are also streaming programming on the web. Bill Bailey's former associates Larry Lujak and Tommy Edwards do the morning drive, til 10 AM Central time.

Is AM radio doomed for good? No Way! Sometimes oldies sound better on AM anyway, where memories were really made. ;D

With all the stations in Chicago competing, you would think that at least 1 AM in Big Lou could do it. Anyone coming out of retirement?

[bruiser]

There is an oldies station at 940 on the AM dial. It must be all of 25 watts or something, as even my Superadio has a problem with it.

[Max]

I posted on my Facebook page today that, while in Downtown Louisville today, I was surfing the AM dial...HUNGRY to find music on AM and was rewarded to find KOOL 1570 WNDA out of Clarksville filling the AM airwaves with the AM sounds of Top 40 when it was MUSIC! Music by Earth, Wind & Fire, Orleans, Boz Scaggs, The Foundations...ALL of which sound great and so much better IN THE CAR and ON AM! Wonder why that is? There just seems to be a wall of sound when you listen on AM and, though it was raining today, I felt like I was listening to WAKY back in my youth! I could tell that it may have been voice tracked and several of the spots were generic PSA type you would hear everywhere...but this is a good thing for AM! With stations like WSM (Nashville), WBRT (Bardstown) and KOOL 1570 (Clarksville), it ain't over yet for AM, nor is AM necessarily all news/talk!
www.indiana1570.com/home

[badmisterkitty]

We have some AM music here in Bardstown on WBRT, while a few years ago in San Francisco, CBS Radio, entering phase 3 in their legendary call letter revivals (phases 1 and 2 being the return of WCBS-FM to 101.1 and WXRK to 92.3), decided to bring back the KFRC call letters on AM. The new 'FRC-AM plays an oldies format.

[Max]

Great to hear, Mr. Kitty. And I'm well aware of WBRT's quality format...their GM is my former boss and they are one of my presets, along with WSM. I have not given up hope for AM! I love surfing the AM dial!

[badmisterkitty]

Did I forget to mention that Detroit has CKWW for AM oldies? Nashville also has AM country on WSM. Surprisingly, I can get the latter's signal well at night, even though I live in Bardstown. Crap, at night, I can even get WLS, which is in frickin' Chicago, Illinois!

[bruiser]

DXing the AM band has been a hobby of mine for many years. The big 50KW stations are still out there. It's the current radios that are weak. My guess is most of them do not have any amplification stages on the AM side. Picking up the 50KW stations at night is a function of skywaves and the ionosphere. I have a couple of radios that get a decent signal on WSM in the daytime. I can forget about WLS in the daytime.

[Max]

Don't mean for this post to be a negative one, but this post today on Radio Daily News unfortunately sums up alot of our shared feelings:

"Once, not long ago, radio (AM stations AND FM) was special. Always entertaining, radio found new music and DJs told us about what the news was. Always, radio made listeners wonder, and it's hard to accept how far radio has fallen"-Radio Daily News 3/30/10

[dudewalker1]

Bill bailey and I were talking on the phone and he said he wanted us to go back to an AM station with the WAKY call letters. I doubt that it could happen but I would be willing to give it a try with the Duke of Louisville. Sounds like fun but then again WAKY was always fun.
Dude Walker

[Max]

That would be so great, Dude! I am also waayyyy past due visiting Bill again! May take him up some of my artwork for him to critique!

For you and the Duke to be back on AM radio would only be something to hope for and a dream come true, or should we say, a dream repeated!

[bruiser]

I'd listen.

[Chad]

I don't mind AM radio for music but then I grew up with it that way (although I did listen to WLRS 102.3 FM quite a bit as well). I have a CC Radio Plus from C. Crane Company with the twin coil ferrite AM antenna and it does a great job but you really can't pick up much when the sun is up. There is just to much interference these days that did not exist 20 or 30 years ago. I still DX at night though and can pull in 77 WABC from New York. The problem now is that almost every station has the same show on so there is really no point in DXing.