In
WorldRadio (the west coast ham radio rag published on newsprint), John B. Johnston, W3BE, retired chief of the Rulemaking Division of the Private Radio Bureau of the FCC that used to be in charge of ham radio rulemaking matters, publishes a monthly column on RULES & REGS. The column is basically Q-A format, with Johnston sometimes inserting his own comments as a "W3BE-O-GRAM."
You may recall that Mr. Johnston seemed to pursue a consistently anti-AM policy throughout the 20+ years he was involved with FCC rulemaking. He first gained notoriety within the AM community when he advocated eliminating AM, in the guise of "deregulation," under the mid-1970's bandwidth proposal in Docket 20777 (somewhat similar to the proposal that ARRL is currently discussing). Later, he was a strong defender of the 1990 AM power reduction, and typcially replied to objections from the amateur community by putting a spin on his response in such a manner that totally evaded whatever issue was brought up.
The June 2005 issue of WorldRadio just came out, and most of the Q-A's are about Field Day and who can and cannot operate a given licensee's station, but this one is interesting:
Q: How can we rid our HF bands of AM?
A. That would require an amendment to Section 97.3(c)(5), at least.
W3BE-O-GRAM: That would be much harder done than said.