THE SLOW DEATH OF THE AM BAND!

When I was growing up, most of my listening was on the AM band. That's where most of the music was, as well as the news and sports. WRKO 680 and WMEX 1510 fought their hardest to get the top 40 youth while WBZ 1030 and WHDH 850 combined full service radio with music, talk, news and sports. And then there were the daytime stations: WCAS-AM 740, which was a top 40, then a folk station. WILD-AM 1090, which was the only urban station in the Boston area and played soul and disco music. WJDA-AM 1300, which served the South Shore with nostalgia and information. WHIL(later WWEL) at 1430, which broadcast specialty programming such as oldies and ethnic shows. And WLYN at 1360, which was mostly music and news.
However, in the 1960s, there was a prediction that FM Radio would rule the airwaves. When WVBF, WBCN and WROR came along with rock and roll, including long versions of songs, top 40's days on AM were numbered. Also, later on in the 1980s, some daytime stations began to broadcast well into the night by filling their blocks with sports or ethnic programming. Some stations developed a niche format-serving Hispanic and Greek communities, among others, with foreign language programs.
And since the 1970s, FM radio has all but destroyed the music genre on the AM band with specialized formats of top 40, Hot AC, alternative, hip hop, etc. Most of the DJs we grew up with are either dead or retired.
When AM Stereo came out in the 1980s, people thought that it would save music on the AM band, but because there were 4 different formats, it never caught on. AM Radio turned to talk hosts like Rush Limbaugh, Art Bell, Larry King, Dr. Laura and Rev. Al Sharpton for their ratings rush. Meanwhile, some stations began doing brokered time programming.
I remember growing up in Boston listening to the radio at night and picking up radio stations from Chicago, New York Montreal, Detroit, Albany, New Haven, Toronto and other cities along the Northeast corridor. You got to hear stuff that you wouldn't find on your own radio station here in Boston. However, many of these AM stations are no longer on the air, especially in Canada, where small cities and towns are seeing their radio stations leave the band. Three CBC clear channel stations-two in Montreal and one in Moncton-no longer broadcast on their heritage frequencies. And Nova Scotia doesn't have any stations on AM.
So many AM radio stations are now simulcasting their broadcasts on their FM sister stations, like WGY up in Schenectady and WBBM in Chicago.
HD Radio was supposed to be a "savior" to the AM band by offering crystal clear FM type broadcasting, but it interferes with other stations. WBZ's HD signal, for example, destroys the analog signals of their New York, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh stations. Also, Radio Disney Boston's HD signal at AM 1260, causes interference with WESX in Salem and WJDA in Quincy, which makes them unlistenable.
With the baby boom generation reaching retirement and the influx of both legal and illegal immigrants, most radio stations are turning over their time to ethnic audiences. Once local radio stations, WJDA and WESX now offer programming in Spanish and Portuguese, most of which is very good(if you can hear it through Radio Disney's HD hishash. WJIB(the old WCAS) now plays the beautiful music format that was pushed off the air by corporate owners. And of course, there's WUNR 1600, which broadcasts in over 20 different languages(the bulk of it in Spanish) to serve the needs of the immigrant communities. (I used to listen to WUNR overnights for their Super 16 urban programs during the week, and Kenny Mayer on Sunday nights).
Somehow, the AM band is dying a slow death as most people of my generation switch to FM radio(which is mostly voicetracked jukeboxes) or to the internet(which has unbridled freedom for music). Satellite radio, once the crown jewel of listening, has fallen off the wagon. When they were seperate companies, XM and Sirius satellite radio's music channels had freeform formats. Now that they've merged, they've become the Clear Channel of Satellite. (They've even got a number of their stations on the systems.)
I wonder if by the end of this decade, maybe sooner, AM radio will cease to exist. That's something worth thinking about...NOT!