One part of the FCC strategy to “save” AM radio is to allow each AM station a once in a lifetime chance to move an existing FM translator up to 250 miles. An FM translator is a device that takes a radio signal and rebroadcasts it on an alternate frequency, or in this case, a different radio band. FM translators are limited by rule to 250 watts, may not originate its own programming and for this type of translator must generally live inside the protected contour of the AM station. For pre-1986 AM stations that must go off the air completely at sunset, the FM Translator can stay on all night while the AM station is silent. This could be important to small town America, except most AM stations have no humans working at 2 AM.
The first round of AM stations allowed to acquire and move were class C and class D stations, the small stations you find in rural America that reach maybe 5 or 10 miles. There are currently 8,908 licensed FM translators, which were originally intended to rebroadcast FM stations, and since the George W Bush administration rebroadcast religious programming delivered by satellite.
With the initial change in policy a few years ago, and the change this year encouraging AM stations to broadcast on FM in order to “Save” AM radio, there are 1,819 AM stations rebroadcasting on FM using a low powered translator. It has been true for a long time that a full power FM station can rebroadcast the programming of an AM station. In a situation like that, adding an FM Translator would free up the FM station to do something else. FM translators do not count against ownership limits in a market.
What is changing today is that class A (50 kW clear channel) and Class B regional stations now can add an FM translator by moving a translator up to 250 miles. The going price to acquire an FM translator license is around $15,000. The hard part is finding an available FM frequency in major markets that won’t interfere with an existing FM station. In theory, this could mean stations like WABC or WOR in New York could start broadcasting on FM, but that would require an existing FM station to move or agree that they don’t care about interference.
There are currently 4,671 licensed AM radio stations, so close to half already have an FM translator. There are 73 Class A and 1,752 Class B stations that are eligible today to buy and/or move an existing FM translator license. Once this once in a lifetime move happens, that FM translator is locked to that AM station for 3 years.
If you think it odd that the way to save AM radio by moving it to FM is illogical, you are not alone.
I am curious – is there listener data that shows a preference for AM or FM? When I was younger, the preference was for FM (in my demographic) as the music was not Top 40 and had better variety. AM still had the rapid-speak DJ’s which were not everyone’s cup of tea. Today, however, I don’t see a preference other than that of technology.
I would love to save AM radio – not sure how to do it though.
If you look at the station counts by format,
http://streamingradioguide.com/internet-radio.php
it gives a fairly clear picture of the state of AM radio. Because AM doesn’t do music well (Neither AM stereo nor AM/HD got traction), music on AM is pretty rare with a few exceptions – Classic Country, Nostalgia, Oldies, and Mexican accordion music. Mostly AM is talk – political, sports, religious, Spanish, “full service” (Obits, swap shop, today in history, etc) and a smattering of ethnic (Korean, Chinese, Russian, etc)
I think a significant number have been turned off and the tower land sold to developers and they just never told the FCC
Fred – yes to the listing. I see more than 2 to 1 that FM rules. I listen to satellite for music, so I can’t say anything about FM. The local FM here I listen to is Jazz 🙂 That lets folks know how old I am.
The formats are starting to skew in a way hard to see easily. When an AM station acquires an FM translator, it is extremely common that the owner will reimagined the station as an FM station, switch to an FM music format and turn off the AM transmitter (which may not even exist any more). This whole thing was more about saving the value of AM licenses, not saving AM stations or programming heard on AM stations
This is wrong on so many levels. Doesn’t anyone in government think it strange that TV went digital in the 1990s but we still have analog AM and FM ? Other countries have gone to digital radio, some have totally eliminated analog radio in the same way that the US had eliminated analog TV.
The nation is flooded with cell phone towers and most of them are owned by third parties that lease space to the major cell phone companies on the same towers. If the FCC refuses to adopt internet technology for radio streaming, why not at least allow each of these towers to operate as low power repeaters that cover a small grid using the 100 year old analog technology they require today for AM and FM ?
One of the issues is that as soon as you mount more “stuff” on an antenna, and especially if you build a new antenna nearby, it distorts the existing signal pattern in unpredictable ways. There are several companies specializing in buying up existing radio towers to repurpose them. The tower can be more valuable than the station, especially if it is a grandfathered use in a NIMBY community. With the tower no longer owned by the station and a check in hand, they flip on the iPod playing random songs and wait until EMF comes along to buy the station…
The worst example of this was a radio station near Washington DC. The land use thugs held up approval of the transfer of ownership until they were told what the format of the station would be. Eventually, the FCC explained to them that even the FCC doesn’t have that power, and that first amendment thingy applies to even local coummunitariate committees.
Here is the starting line before the phase 2 applications hit. AM stations already could have a translator, they just had to buy one in the local area that already existed.
Salem radio, which bought up many of the former Radio Disney AM stations – has filed for 16 FM translators in major markets
I ‘d listen to more AM radio if they could build one into ipods and smartphones. I know there’s a hardware limitation; something about the size of the AM waves require a larger antenna which would make the device larger. But how MUCH larger?
Seems redundant to have an FM radio built into an ipod since FM is pretty much music and you’ve already got your favorite songs stored on the device already.
It’s not just the wavelength issue. Your typical AM transistor radio has a ferrite (iron) core wrapper in copper – the coil in combination with a condenser sets the “sweet spot” for the AM band. When an AM radio is running, it generates a heterodyne signal that leaks out. It would require shielding on top of the weight and magnetic issues. The Wifi / Bluetooth chip already tunes FM signals without needing more hardware. The problem is FM still needs an antenna. The normal workaround is to use a wire in the earbud wire
Yes…. but bluetooth earbuds are now cheap and more popular, especially for exercise or walking. I don’t see it having much of a future in terms of popularity. Good to have in the event of a local emergency and internet outages but there are better primary solutions for that.
And nobody at the radio station knows any more than you do
Sh*t ! I was counting on them to tell me who to vote for in November.