As noted in many previous posts, I am convinced that no amount of fiddling with arcane rules or tweaking technical regs will ever save the AM broadcast band. Despite the fact that most of us baby-boomers grew up on AM radio, that whole side of over-the-air commercial broadcasting has been soundly whipped by FM. And new challengers for aural attention--satellite, digital, in-car broadband, and more rapidly developing technology--have only hastened the service's inevitable demise. It is beyond being on life support.
Now, an influential group has a rather dire but eminently practical suggestion for the new administration on what to do with AM: kill it. Euthanize it. Put it out of its misery. But do so in a humane and fair way.
Read the article in INSIDE RADIO and you'll see what the group's thoughts are. I wholeheartedly agree.
Oh, and though I'm not sure which other radio-frequency services might have desires for 540 khz to 1700 khz, but we Amateur Radio operators sure would like to have some more room for our experimentation, public service activities and just plain fun.
One thing is for sure. With us on those frequencies, there would be more listeners than the current users have in most cities.
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