"Eric F. Richards" wrote in message
...

IMHO, the IBOC debacle will be as harmful to AM radio as the
elimination of clear channel designations.

The clear channels continue to exist. The Roman numerals used to designate
them changed to letters, but other than that WABC and WGN and KFI et. al.
are still 50 kw non directional clears.

The change is that few listen to the clears outside the local groundwave
coverage area any more. There are FM signals in all but the most barren
parts of the US, and there is little listening to AM at night anyway.

Some bureaucrat with the
heart of a calculator is going to wonder why ad revenue is dropping,
all the while looking at unchanging numbers massaged to fit his faulty
model his coverage area.

Radio revenue is increasing faster than inflation. The former I-A and big
1-B clears without exception are billing leaders in their markets and are
increasing in revenue because their local signals are strong, not much
affected by interference and they have good talk based programming. WBZ,
WTIC, WGY, WHAM, WSB, WBT, WSM, WGN, WBBM, WSCR, WHAM, WLW, KDKA, KYW, WABC,
WFAN, WCBS, KMOX, WWL, WOAI, WBAP, KRLD, KOA, KSL, KOB, WFAB, KFI, KNBR,
KGO, KNX, KIRO, WHO, WCCO, etc. are all among the nation's highest billers.