A more concrete proposal surfaced today from the FCC on how to save AM radio. One of the ideas is to get rid of the failing stations by offering a tax credit for voluntarily turning in your AM license. The idea is if you get rid of the unviable AM stations, the remaining stations could increase power to cover a bigger area and more people.<\/p>\n
Another idea being floated is to convert the channel 5 and 6 FM bands (just below the existing FM band) and encourage the AM stations to move there. The problem with that is people would need new radios. The AM expanded band (1610-1700 kHz) still has no traction, despite being allocated to “fix” AM radio in 1993 and radio receivers required to receive those frequencies since the 1980s.<\/p>\n
The troubling part of this dialog which flows right out of the reality that the NAB controls the FCC is the notion that the FCC should make decisions based on preserving the “value” of an intangible FCC License and insulate license owners from bad business decisions. Another problem is a tax credit only has value if you are making a profit.<\/p>\n
I’m thinking Townsquare Media would love this plan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A more concrete proposal surfaced today from the FCC on how to save AM radio. One of the ideas is to get rid of the failing stations by offering a tax credit for voluntarily turning in your AM license. The … Continue reading