"David Eduardo" wrote in message
t...
Then the bad news is for AM... its obsolescence is now assured. I'll bet,
if
the night issue is either real or is not reparable, that a decent LA AM,
for example, has probably lost $8 to $10 million in stick value because of
the fact that there may be no future at all for them.

I still maintain that all AM plants should be sold to local owners that
actually WANT to do with the stations what is SUPPOSED to be done with them.
Serve the public interest! I would personally love to be able to operate a
station this way, with possibly a minimal profit, but in the public
interest, as a public service. And not narrowcast to only certain
demographics. Small town radio was done this way for many decades, and
obviously was able to make a profit and stay on the air.

The problem with radio in the US these days is it is done the same way the
Koreans do small businesses:

If one new business (say, a store selling cell phones) does well, then 10 or
more duplicates show up (this happens often even in this small town). Of
course, the town can't support that many cell phone stores, so most of them
end up going out of business. US radio is doing precisely the same thing: a
format does OK, so you have several stations in a market that pick up the
same format. This makes none (or perhaps only one) really profitable.