"David" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 27 May 2006 11:59:34 GMT, "IonSpot" wrote:

IBOC will be just another failed attempt to "save" AM radio. AM radio
died
decades ago as a viable medium.
In 1985 I was in the industry and at that time CQUAM AM Stereo was gonna
save AM Radio. It didn't and IBOC won't.

In about five years we'll be listening to WIFI on our walkmans and car
radio's.


Rush Limbaugh and ethnic saved AM.

Urban legend.

Rush did not start generating big numbers until the early 90's. What saved
AM was a combination of factors....

1. Repeal of the Fairness Doctrine, allowing more agressive talk radio.
2. Several big companies, like Jacor, Clear Channel, ABC and Infinity
supported news and talk on AM.
3. Most FMs, after programming deregulation in the 80's, dropped most news
and content for music and entertainment. This allowed AMs to be unique in
offering news and content.

By the late 70's, the big Black stations were on FM. So this sector did not
help AM. And Spanish language stations started moving to FM in the very
early 90's, to the point that, as an example, today there are less than 2
shares of Spanish listening on AM in LA and 27 shares on FM. Hispanics don't
use AM much at all, unless ther eis no alternative.

Religious broadcasting did help make marginal AMs viable, though.

The real issue is that a huge percentage of urban located AMs do not cover
the entire market. Some were licensed before the suburban growth of the US
after W.W. II, and others are just bad facilites. In washington DC, there is
not one station that fully covers the entire metro on AM, for example.

Interestingly the AMs with good signals have always been successful.