AM BC in trouble?

[Steve - K4HX]

How is that different than most TV channels?   

I stopped listening to AM two years ago when WOSU (820 kc Columbus OH) gave way to another bible beater. AM is noise interrupted by commercials.

[Steve - K4HX]

By using modern modulation techniques a SSB channel can support a raw data rate of 12800 bps and wider transmissions can support proportionally faster data rates. Trials have shown that color video at 15 frames per second can be streamed on HF in a bandwidth of just 18 kHz.

http://forums.qrz.com/showthread.php?402279-80m-ham-radio-band-used-for-wideband-video-data

Seems to me, hi-fi audio would be a cinch.

With modern codecs, there would have been bandwidth galore with excellent quality -- plenty of room for rentable subchannels with niche formats, too.

[WS4B]

To be 100% honest. I am surprised not to hear more unlicensed activity on the AMBC-X frequencies between 1620 and 1700. With the dimensioned FCC enforcement due to cutbacks, pirates could have a small field day. I'm not advocating unlicensed activity, yet know the characteristics of human nature. An acre or so of land to put up an effective antenna, and one is good to go!

[K6JEK]

Music on AM!

I just resurrected a pre-war Zenith, a big console with ten tubes, count em, 1,2,3 etc. I was amused when I turned it back on for the first time after the extensive repairs and initial checks were done and music started wafting through the room instead of talk radio or commercials. Not just music but rock and roll. The song started just as the filaments heated up. It sounded like '70's rock but I didn't recognize it. How could that be? Then they started singing in Hindi. I've since grown quite fond of this station as I align and finish up the radio, KLOK in San Jose, 50,000 watts. It seems to be all India all the time. They speak English more beautifully than we homegrown Americans do and they still play music on the radio.

[Jeff W9GY]

Over the years population has moved to areas that are not covered well by the directional arrays of many stations.  The station's sales rep tries to sell air time to a prospective advertiser and the reply is "we can't pick up your station here".  Can the station be move or the pattern be changed?  Probably yes, but, tuff these days with the NIMBY attitude, cost, etc, etc... And, of course, there all kinds of competition for listeners now --- satellite, computer, you name it.