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Old October 1st 07, 03:00 PM posted to rec.radio.shortwave
David David is offline
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First recorded activity by RadioBanter: Jul 2006
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Default HOW MANY people listen to Distant (100 mile) AM at night?

On Mon, 01 Oct 2007 04:54:21 -0700, Roadie wrote:

On Oct 1, 6:54 am, SFTV_troy wrote:
How many AM DX'ers are there?
How many nighttime AM listeners are there?



Two very different questions. The first one has no answer, but is
lilkely quite small. The number of nighttime listeners is
porincipally their local audience and the counts are likely available
from Arbitron or the radio station in question.


Does anyone know the official numbers? Has the FCC tracked it? I'm
looking for a reliable source.


The real question is whether radio stations really care about geting
an inconsistent signal to non-local listeners on nighttime AM. The
inability to provide a consistent signal coupled with advertising that
is usually local in nature would seem to indicate that non-local
listeners are not much of a concern to AM stations.

Radio stations are supposed to operate in the public interest. If
people like Dwardo had their way all radio would cease transmitting at
7 PM because the advertising drops below the breakeven level. All 50
kW stations would cut their power by 3 dB to save money on electric
bills and all would run syndicated talk radio because those ASCAP fees
cut into the bottom line and it's much cheaper to pay a hatemonger.