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AM radio more popular in Canada than the U.S.?

5K views 17 replies 11 participants last post by  LONSat 
#1 ·
Just a hunch I have based on a recent trip I took to the North East US. While driving around the Boston, Hartford and New York City area I noticed what seemed like very few AM stations for such a densely populated region. The FM dial seemed as crowded as you expect but the AM was surprisingly light?
 
#4 ·
The situation in northern Ontario for AM radio is dire. I have a cottage up there and have watched all the Thunder Bay AM stations turn FM with subsequent loss of coverage area. A good antenna will pick up about 16 FM stations in the Thunder Bay area; about half of them are from Hancock/Houghton/Ironwood/Ontanagan/Baraga/L'anse in Michigan(91.1 WGGL/93.5 WKMJ/97.7 WOLV/98.7 WGLI/99.7 WIMI/101.1 WNMV/102.3 WHKB/104.3 WVCN/105.7 WCVP). The rest are from Thunder Bay. On the AM band you can hear about 10 AM stations but every single one of them is from the United States...all the Canadian outlets have converted from AM to FM. Most AM outlets are from Duluth Minnesota (560 WEBC/610 KDAL/710 WDSM/850 WQRM/970 WDUL); one from Wassau Wisconsin (550 WSAU); and the rest are from Houghton/Hancock/Ironwood Michigan (590 WJMS/920 WMPL/1400 WCCY). The United States is still supporting AM stations in smaller markets on the border; Canada has basically given up on AM Radio here. That leaves strtetches in Northern Ontario (like on the roads from Thunder Bay to Kenora or Fort Frances) where there are dead zones of no radio coverage at all, either AM or FM, which did not used to be the case with AMs longer reach. Once outside Thunder Bay you can hear a low power AM station relaying the CBC when you get to Ignace (CBES at 690 AM which relays CBC radio from Thunder Bay with a measly 40 watts of power!)...but from then on it is quiet till you get to within range of the super powerful AM stations out of Winnipeg that actually pentrate deep into Northwestern Ontario and are audible around Dryden (680 CJOB/990 CBW).

VA3SAJ
 
#5 ·
okmrbh said:
While driving around the Boston, Hartford and New York City area I noticed what seemed like very few AM stations for such a densely populated region.
The big activity in conventional radio broadcasting in the USA seems to be on the FM dial from what I've been reading, and AM is being choked of programming, it would seem. This is because many/most new cars have HD Radio-capable tuners. For station owners, rather than running separate FM and AM radio stations, many have opted to run the latter as "subchannels" of the former using HD Radio. I've seen this happen a lot lately in the SeaTac area, such as main channel programming augmented by a second channel and sometimes even a third carrying something like talk radio or ethnic programming. As for HD Radio on the AM band, it is turning out to be a bit of a washout due to uncontrollable factors of that band that the Ibiquity IBOC modulation just cannot handle well.

Here in Canada when you get away from the metropolitan areas the AM dial can get quite sparse until the night-time when the atmosphere allows us to hear far-away stations. I vividly recall times when I've scanned for the next CBC Radio transmitter when the present one is dying out, only to find it again, whether AM or FM. When you cross time zones westward it is interesting to catch the first hour of a two or three hour program all over again. ;)
 
#7 ·
I wouldn't say AM is more popular here in Canada.

Myself, I avoid AM whenever possible...and only use it to listen to Blue Jays games as it's the only way for me to receive radio game coverage.
 
#8 ·
Popular was probably the wrong word to use in this case. Hitting the scan button on my car seemed to have produced fewer am stations than you get in the GTA. Could have been terrain or circumstance I suppose but it was just something I was quite surprised by.
 
#10 ·
Popular was probably the wrong word to use in this case. Hitting the scan button on my car seemed to have produced fewer am stations than you get in the GTA.
I would think the same is true of any terrestrial radio service.

The other variables at play are tuner sensitivity and antenna gain. It seems to me that most car antennae are optimized for the FM band.
 
#9 ·
AM Radio

Should be used for News/Talk/Sports formats.Audio quality sufficient and much more range.It would also free up space in major cities FM band.Our regulator failed to see this and allowed CBC radio 1 onto FM band.
 
#13 ·
Should be used for News/Talk/Sports formats.Audio quality sufficient and much more range.It would also free up space in major cities FM band.Our regulator failed to see this and allowed CBC radio 1 onto FM band.
Hey Rob, with the advent of flat TV panels, LED lights (indoors) electronic appliances and the plethora of gadgets connecting to the grid with poor AC transformers, there's little hope the AM band will ever be viable again. Find yourself a portable (or pocket) radio with batteries and walk around your own house (or neighborhood) and see for yourself (or rather hear the level of RF noise across the AM band).

Moreover, in the era of tight economics, broadcasters, at least here in Montreal, are often limiting AM to 1 or several Kilowatts with a small vertical as the radiating antenna (better at skywave than groud wave).
 
#11 ·
The other variables at play are tuner sensitivity and antenna gain. It seems to me that most car antennae are optimized for the FM band.
Speaking of this, where are car antenna located now. I notice most don't have the traditional antenna so I assume the FM is built into the back window? The AM one is mounted in the radio itself the way it is on a regular portable type radio?

I've always found most car radios pretty selective and sensitive compared to my "in house radio's" this changed a bit when I purchased the Grundig Traveller ii and now the Sangean pr-d18, both pretty much have car like reception in my experience.
 
#12 ·
You're right....the rear window. Disguised as part of the defroster grid. Some radios have the FM in the rear window, and a small AM antenna behind the radio itself in the dash assembly.
 
#14 ·
Really CBC needed 12 FM repeaters to replace One 50KW AM signal in Southern Ontario.News/Talk Radio is mostly car listeners where AM works best.1KW wont cut it on AM in a big city.
 
#15 ·
I was getting tired of the small coverage of FM radio stations when driving through southern Ontario, so I started listening to AM Radio because it had farther coverage. I usually listen to CFRB 1010, and find their AM coverage is actually impressive. I don't want to see the AM band die but I do think its still a great band for talk radio, news and sports. I also noticed at night I will sometimes hear interference especially when near hydro lines and pick up 1010 WINS which I believe is from Manhattan.
 
#16 ·
I'm not sure if its the frequency or the stations power or a combination of both, but am 740 seems to carry the farthest of the local stations. I've heard the signal clearly during the day well into New York state and Pennsylvania and as far as Kingston ( I think) in Ontario.
 
#17 ·
I have reported here at Digital Home in the past that in all of Nova Scotia there are only 5 AM stations left, and 4 of them belong to the Maritime Broadcasting System, and 3 of those are located in the Annapolis Valley using the call letters AVR (Annapolis Valley Radio). The AVR stations play country music. CKDY 1420 AM in Digby, CKAD 1350 AM in Middleton, and CFAB 1450 AM in Windsor.

The other 2 AM stations are in Sydney: CJCB 1270 AM, also a Maritime Broadcasting System station, also plays country music, and 1140 AM is a CBC 1 station.

The once very popular AM frequency is almost a thing of the past here.
 
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