The End of AM Radio

This is mostly a blog about film photography and old cameras, but I occasionally write about radio because that’s where I started my career. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, I worked as a disc jockey at a number of radio stations in Upstate New York and later, in Phoenix, Arizona.

My very first paying radio job was at a small, daytime only 5000 watt AM station in Owego, New York. The station also simulcast its programming on FM. Owego was a small town, less than 20,000 people, on the banks of the Susquehanna River. We were what was called back then a full service radio station playing adult contemporary music, news, public affairs, even live high school sports. There were a half dozen disc jockeys, a two person news department, copywriter/traffic director, a full time engineer and several salespeople. That’s a pretty decent size staff for a small town radio station and I am not sure how it penciled out, but we all got paid each week and the two local owners lived a pretty decent life. A lot of people in town listened to and depended on the station to get their news and information. I remember doing a live remote at a feed store and enough people showed up to clean me out of station t-shirts and free movie tickets.

There were little stations like that in lots of towns in those days and big powerhouse stations too, like WABC in New York City, WLS in Chicago, KFI in Los Angeles and others. The AM band was alive with music in all formats, talented announcers, jingles and tons and tons of commercials.

For some reason, this morning on the way to work, I did something I haven’t done in years. I switched the car radio over to AM and tuned across the dial, wondering what I’d find. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. Like most big cities, San Francisco has a news/talk station-KCBS. KNBR is all sports. Legendary KGO switched its format to sports/gambling a while back. I listened awhile to those big three and noticed a proliferation of ads for firms that provide relief to people who are behind on their taxes, treatment for erectile dysfunction and companies that buy houses in most any condition. None of the advertisers sounded local. As I scanned from 540 up to 1700, there was a mishmash of fading and staticky signals; mostly talk, a couple of religious stations, two Spanish language stations and one in Chinese. The bright spot on the dial was 1530 KFBK, a station out of Sacramento. They had a live and local morning show, traffic, weather, news and commercials for car dealers and local businesses. The station had a clean, clear signal and all of the content was well produced. In a major market, in morning drive, only one station compelled me to listen for more than a minute or two. Only one sounded live, local, fresh, engaging.

I get it. AM radio is a 100-year old technology. FM is better. Satellite even better with no commercials. Some of my co-workers listen to podcasts on their way into work. Audacy, the third largest radio company in the US just filed for bankruptcy. Auto manufacturers are talking about not even putting an AM radio in cars anymore. And I’m not sure how many commercials for ED drugs and tax relief it takes to keep paying the electric bills for a 50,000 watt AM transmitter. I don’t think AM is dead, but it’s certainly dying. And that makes me misty.

Growing up in the 1960s and 70s, all I ever wanted to do was work on the radio and I feel very lucky, I guess, to have been part of radio when it was live and vibrant and healthy. I follow a few Facebook groups where grumpy old radio dogs like myself reminisce and someone posted this picture of a disc jockey, headphones on, playing records, probably at nine o’clock at night and probably on AM.