I was driving on one of Northern Ontario's lonely roads yesterday at
5:30 am. No traffic and all there was to do was plod along and watch
for moose. Moose are road-colored, weigh a ton, and like to stand
invisibly in the middle of the road. It is not good to hit a moose:
they demolish cars, derail trains, and last winter, knocked a Greyhound
bus into the ditch. Being bored, I switched on my AM radio. The radio
stations at that time of night are mostly from the US as many Canadian
stations have migrated to FM. From 530 to 1700, every channel is filled
with something at night, but the clear channel stations are the only
ones useful; I tuned in 760 WJR but got only noise. I tuned in WBBM 780
same thing. Then I went to 770 WABC-clear as a bell. The noise didn't
sound like the usual power-line rasp but it was rather like gently
falling rain.
I knew it couldn't be IBOC interference because promoters on this
very website have assured us that the sidebands were so weak that they
wouldn't bother disant listeners. Well, I have news. They were lying
through their teeth. WCCO 830 Minneapolis took out 820 and 840, 700
WLW Cincinatti took out 690 Montreal and 710, 1180 WHAM took out 1170
and 1190, and 1110 took out 1100 and 1120. These were identified
before morning fade-out. The most irritating point is that the stations
that were obliterated were clear channel stations that one can listen
to in the boonies. Most of the stations were about 600 miles away. If
IBOC grows, they will all be taking out each other and leaving drivers
to sort through 1400 to find a station. However, they are profit
maximizers and hix in the stix don't count in their metro-zone
demographics. Will this be the death of am radio?