Here are more of the latest letters to the editor of Radio World. Submit your own at [email protected].
Fix EAS First
Hi Paul,
I read that many people want AM Radio in their cars because it will give them emergency notifications.
From a practical standpoint (and maybe I’m confusing issues) whenever there is a National EAS Test, it seems like its riddled with failures. Year after year!
In my opinion, we need to straighten out all the National EAS Alerts before we can argue the point of AM Radio being an emergency notification service.
Based on the various arguments about AM Radio, it seems that the best solution is to create a noise-free modulation system that radio station owners can implement easily/cheaply. Maybe have the federal government pay for the upgrade?
Auto manufacturers can install a receiver that will switch to the new noise free format or receive the Amplitude Modulation … kind of like the FM band does.
At this moment, however, we are just rattling our cages and not getting much done … which has been typical of AM improvement and AM stereo etc., and we all know what happened to those ideas.
– Dave Dybas, Senior Broadcast Engineer, AM Detuning
Look for AM Here
There are nearly 1400 of these Traveler’s Information Station (AKA Highway Advisory Radio) AM Stations that are relevant to automobile users only! These are not simulcast on FM!
Travelers’ Information Stations Search | Federal Communications Commission (fcc.gov)
Site / Frequency / Market Search Results (fcc.gov)
Hard to believe these haven’t been mentioned in the AM Automobile discussion!
– Rolf Taylor, Rocket Engineering and Consulting
Change People’s Perception
If we want to get anywhere with preserving and promoting AM radio, we have to start by changing the perceptions — both by the public and by the manufacturers.
Bill DeFelice’s outstanding website hobbybroadcaster.net has a forum devoted to radio receivers “costing more than a combo meal” (in other words, very affordable). If you click some of the links that lead you mostly to Amazon, [there are] beautiful pictures abound of radio receivers enthusiastically embraced and used by people at least 55+. There are older couples dancing to music on the radio, retired gentlemen on park benches presumably taking in talk programming … and heaven forbid the receiver should have shortwave capabilities; that’s when the copywriter takes over and sells the SW band directly and exclusively to the elderly.
Seriously. Go to Amazon and look for radios under the brands PRUNUS, HanRongDa, ZHIWHIS and others. Us silver-haired devils seem to be the target consumer. Radio is for everyone. Why push it only to us seasoned folks?
– Alan Peterson, retired radio producer, Williamsburg, Va.
