Let's Save the AM Band
Guy Wire Says It's Time to Reorganize AM's Family Living Arrangements
By Guy Wire
Guy Wire, Radio World's masked engineer, is the pseudonym of
a well-known radio veteran. Opinions are his own.
 FCC
adoption of standards and rules for HD Radio is expected sometime
later this year.
NRSC-5 was recently adopted during NAB2005 and is the culmination
of many years of work by the NRSC subcommittee on DAB. It no doubt
will be substantially adopted by the commission for both FM and
AM services, including AM HD nighttime operations.
The industry is for the most part applauding this seemingly long-overdue
event, especially for FM. But many are still fearful of serious
interference fallout when AM HD is widely deployed full-time.
We've heard that a few subcommittee members were pressed gently
after voicing their reservations, to ensure the NRSC-5 standard
could pass unanimously. There have been ongoing concerns about reduced
coverage, especially at night and during critical hours, caused
by adjacent-channel interference from the AM HD side carriers. These
land squarely on the first adjacents and have been demonstrated
to cause elevated noise interference in second- and even third-adjacent
channels, especially on wider bandwidth receivers.
THE INTERFERENCE DILEMMA
Based on results from their own studies, Ibiquity has long maintained
that any perceived nighttime HD Radio interference to stations from
strong adjacent channels is not going to be a big deal. They say
only a few isolated cases will experience significant skywave-to-groundwave
interference. Quite a few smaller-market AM owners would disagree.
The more significant problem, which Ibiquity does acknowledge,
will be interference to the secondary and skywave coverage areas
of clear-channel stations. This will be manifested as holes in areas
where previously useful analog reception will be wiped out by groundwave
signals of smaller-market stations that light up AM HD operations
on nearby channels.
Very little is known about how well HD Radio reception will perform
in most interference-limited situations, especially skywave reception
for clear-channel stations that reach significant audiences. That
little secret worries some NRSC members.
I have long maintained that opening up AM HD Radio for all stations
at night will precipitate more problems and formal interference
complaints than Ibiquity is suggesting will likely occur. We'll
learn over time how well the FCC's proposals for negotiated digital
power reductions will work.
Ibiquity and the NAB completely support the notion that deploying
AM HD full time will serve the greater good to accelerate AM into
a higher-quality digital future despite any potential loss of coverage
for many stations.
THE TRUTH
Both parties are more than willing to let the interference chips
fall where they may. Unfortunately they continue to ignore the underlying
symptoms of a very sick patient and insist on administering a new
wonder drug that may induce crippling side effects more than it
promotes healing and recovery. At the root of the AM illness are
simply too many signals causing too much interference in a channel
spacing scheme that allows stations legally to encroach into their
neighbor's space. All other broadcast services are allocated with
guard-band protection between adjacent channels.
Many respected engineers have long observed the AM band is already
a disaster at night, choked with noise, interference and colliding
signal wreckage on most channels. Only a few signals in most markets
provide reliable wide-area coverage in most regions of the country.
There is a suspicion, held by quite a few of us, that some of the
interference is being generated by smaller-market stations that
are required by license to drop power radically at night or switch
to limited-coverage directional antenna patterns, but have chosen
to "forget" to switch from day to night mode. Many have
DA systems that are woefully out of spec due to negligence and lack
of maintenance. Too many have been getting away with such blatant
illegal operations for very long periods of time, knowing that FCC
field offices are under-staffed and under-budgeted to be able to
deal with it.
The sad reality about the AM band is that there are only a few
stations in most markets that are truly profitable or that can deliver
significant listener support. The full-time 50 kW powerhouses will
probably always enjoy solid ratings and revenue performance. Almost
all rated markets have at least one AM talk or news/talk station
that delivers full-time market coverage and can compete near the
same level with most FM stations.
After that, sports and maybe a foreign language station or two
usually struggle to hold their own. At the bottom of the AM food
chain are all the rest - mostly automated religious or satellite-fed
"repeaters" that make little or no money and get full-time
life-support from sister FM stations. Quite a few fail to crack
or just barely make reporting minimums to be rated in Arbitron or
other surveys.
If it were not for consolidation, many of these stations would
have gone dark long ago. Owners keep them alive in hopes HD Radio
will increase their value and music formats might again someday
be competitive on AM. At a minimum, they are holding out for some
religious or ethnic operator to buy them so a profit on their original
investment can be made. But values of AM stations that do not enjoy
full-time facilities or cover their markets adequately have languished
for a long time.
With the explosion of the Internet, satellite radio, portable MP3
players and iPods - and, very soon, cell phones that can stream
live content as well as multichannel FM HD Radio - the mass-media
playing field has become highly fractionalized.
THINNING THE HERD
The growth and proliferation of infotainment choices is making
AM radio's chances for regrowth and long-term success more problematic
than ever. It is already causing deterioration of values of marginal
AM facilities in many markets. The introduction of multichannel
programs on FM HD will undoubtedly accelerate that deterioration.
If there is a viable future for the AM band, it will be dependent
on a sweeping initiative to clean it up and thin the herd so that
the stronger members can improve and become better prepared for
survival. It's the best way AM HD enhancements can be effective
for stations that can claim or will be able to secure solid full-time
coverage in their markets.
One of the more frequent concerns voiced by smaller AM owners is
the cost burden of adding HD Radio and the attendant updating of
transmission systems that will be required. Many will simply not
be able to afford it. That could be incentive enough for some to
sell out and take a loss. But the band would be better served if
most could simply go dark, turn in their licenses and receive some
form of meaningful compensation, perhaps from other station owners
who would benefit by then being able to expand their own coverage
areas.
With so many mass media choices out there in markets of all sizes,
we have long passed the point of concern that the loss of a local-market
AM radio station somehow endangers the citizens of that market from
being adequately and properly served with public interest programming.
The provision in the rules that a certain minimum number of licensed
radio signals must be preserved when facilities are deleted or relocated
has become an anachronism in most cases.
AM IMPROVEMENT REINVENTED
For this idea to germinate and grow, the commission needs to freeze
all AM facilities' additions or changes and then modify the rules
to enable the cleanup. If HD Radio interference mitigation is allowed
to be bilaterally negotiated, the opportunity for stations that
can reasonably improve their market coverage and service should
be allowed to buy out lesser facilities without FCC rules restrictions.
But they shouldn't be held up for inflated prices by owners who
sense a captive opportunity. Such transactions for this new kind
of AM improvement need more help and incentive than just simple
buyouts.
A marginal AM station with little public service value and a tiny
audience is not likely to be missed if it is bought out of existence
by other interests who have a better chance of improving service
of another station that can reach a larger audience. The commission
has long wrestled with the challenge of AM improvement. The rules
changes intended to deliver on this goal, like granting local channels
1 kW full time and the nighttime 10 percent "ratchet clause"
reduction, have actually been counterproductive in most cases.
INCENTIVES FOR GOING DARK
Various ideas would help entice owners of marginal AM stations
to give them up at reduced prices if they could also be rewarded
an additional benefit of value. A 100 W or even 1000 W LPFM station,
where rules permit, could be awarded to them as partial compensation.
Part of the sale proceeds paid by a benefiting AM station owner
desiring to improve his station could go back to the government.
Such transactions would essentially become a form of spectrum exchange
and reallocation.
For group owners and stations in larger-sized markets, the government
could award a substantial tax certificate to those willing to surrender
licenses of nonproductive AM stations. Tax certificates worked pretty
well to help foster increased minority ownership of media outlets.
Certainly owners of marginal and under-performing AM stations feel
the discrimination of Mother Nature, but also that of more rapidly
advancing technological improvements for other media, and the more
inflexible and restrictive FCC regulations that govern their service.
Almost all AM owners are deserving of some special treatment.
For AM HD Radio to do well both day and night, the band needs to
look more like it did around 1950, just before the explosion of
new allocations started compromising interference-free listening.
AM's golden age ended about then as TV began to flourish, but it
continued to enjoy radio dominance for another 30 years until FM
flourished.
For the past 25 years, AM has struggled against great obstacles,
including vastly higher ambient noise pollution, the loss of AM
stereo and the introduction of so many new forms of competing media.
Without all-news and talk radio, it could have easily succumbed.
A BETTER BAND
The present inventory of AM stations could probably be cut by almost
half and few would notice the loss of real service not available
elsewhere. With the aid of the computer models developed for Ibiquity
to characterize AM coverage and interference profiles, coupled with
Arbitron surveys, a comprehensive study could be commissioned to
provide a detailed analysis of which stations would be likely candidates
for going dark and which provide the highest levels of interference
reduction.
Points could be assigned to such stations according to the level
of interference reduction they would generate if they were permanently
retired. The higher the point total, the greater the tax certificate
amount. The higher the point total, the higher the power of an LPFM
facility would be awarded. This would aid such AM station owners
in deciding if turning in their license would make economic sense.
As more stations go dark, the ones that remain will benefit as
the band becomes less populated. Eventually, many stations would
reclaim wider area groundwave and skywave coverage that was previously
lost or unattainable and that will certainly deteriorate further
if the status quo is maintained. Services now carried by AM stations
in the smaller markets that serve small audiences could be replaced
by LPFM stations in many areas of the country. In the more densely
populated areas, enhanced coverage by the remaining AM stations
could take up some of the slack of lost services. Certainly by the
time multichannel FM HD Radio penetrates most markets, the fear
of any loss of service will be moot. That technology is developing
very rapidly and may be implemented sooner than many in this industry
expect.
It's time to reorganize the family living arrangements for the
senior radio band. Continuing to house and feed the nonproductive
welfare recipients is jeopardizing the health and future of the
employed breadwinners. The industry cannot do this without the government's
help. A good brainstorming session at NAB with industry leaders
from all sectors to jump-start the initiative is overdue. Many more
enabling ideas are certain to emerge.
This modest proposal should produce winning results for all parties.
Some enlightened soul at NAB should take my lead and get it moving.
They might eventually become known as the savior of the AM band.
If the industry can't find a way to clean up AM now, we might as
well go back to my original idea to postpone deploying AM HD Radio
until HD receivers become widely used on FM and then convert the
entire band to all-digital all at once.
We would only hope it survives that long.
RW welcomes other points
of view. E-mail to radioworld@imaspub.com. For Guy Wire commentaries,
see main Guy Wire
page.
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