Your browser is out-of-date!

Update your browser to view this website correctly. Update my browser now

×

AM Relevance: Remember the Listener

‘Not all operators let their AMs go to hell. Most do.’

Hamilton. ‘Not all operators let their AMs go to hell.Most do.’
One in a series of responses from readers to RW’s Sept. 1 article exploring whether AM radio is “still relevant.”

I read your article on “Is AM Radio Still Relevant?” and had to respond.

Since ’96, owners big and small “bought and bought now.” Some companies are very big, with lots of losing AMs.

The word losing starts from the top of the company. Yes, economics are tough; but if you set a game plan to win you should have not failed.

In most situations I have been involved in, and there have been many, most operators just throw some kind of net or satellite service on it, and that is it. Try to find a local newscast on big or small AMs? Public service? A joke.

If the FCC really wanted to get on each operator and looked at community service, it is not there. I visited a station recently and not one thing local was on it. Should it have been licensed? Most operators are waiting for AM to return to cash in on the money they spent. Forget it! You have let it go to the dogs and now you can find an AM to buy cheap. Why? Total neglect.

Not all operators let their AMs go to hell. Most do. Their priorities have changed because of economy. AM today can survive if the people running it put “passion” back in broadcasting.

There are many people out of jobs who would love to help you turn around your AM. Find them and let the AMs with service and community involvement return — or AM, and even FM, could be over. Remember the listener or it is all over!

Bob Hamilton is president of Hamilton Communications in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.

Close