"Frank Dresser" wrote in message
...


The question seems to be -- what do people want? The mass market didn't
support FM back when it was the new and improved radio.

FM only "worked" when the FCC mandated a cessation of simulcating, in the
late 60's. New formats popped up left and right, and people liked them and
got radios.

I think there's a
good case to be made that increased interference is driving people away
from
AM,

AM has been relatively stable for about 15 to 18 years. What has hapened is
that the decent signals, which are very few in each market, have developed
viable talk and spots offerings, and the remainder of staitons have found
small niches to serve, predominantly religious or brokered in the larger
markets... even a few music foormats like standards and gospel get some
numbers and some sales on AM.

The determination of AM listening is the local groundwave signal. Even going
back 2 decades. scant listening to out of market signals was measured, even
in rural areas. This is because FM was highly built out, reaching most every
corner of the US with multiple signals.

and a reasonable first estimate might suggest that AM IBOC numbers might
more or less balance FM's, with similiar programming. So, maybe it
improves
AM fringe reception, and a few listeners switch from a FMer to an AMer.

There is no fringe usage, anyway. (meaning that probably less than a tenth a
percent of AM listening is to staitons not home to the local makret). Even
truck drivers now have XM, so the skywave coverage is actually a negative
(it comes back down and creates an interference zone with groundwave) rather
than the positive it used to be.