) writes:
Back in the 1950's almost any cheap little transistor radio I owned that
had five or six transistors could at night time pick up some radio
stations in New York City and Denver and Detroit and Minneapolis and a
radio station in either (I forget which city now) Los Angeles or
Sacramento.
cuhulin

But one of the immediate problems is closer stations getting in the way of
distant stations. A local station will block the use of that frequency,
unless you wait till it goes off the air for some reason. Same if KDKA
is booming in. The problem of receiving distant stations can't come
into play until you can eliminate closer stations.

Michael