Many thanks to Andrea Borgnino for pointing out this article in today’s New York Times regarding one man’s quest to save AM radio from impending noise (QRM):
The digital age is killing AM radio, an American institution that brought the nation fireside chats, Casey Kasem’s Top 40 and scratchy broadcasts of the World Series. Long surpassed by FM and more recently cast aside by satellite radio and Pandora, AM is now under siege from a new threat: rising interference from smartphones and consumer electronics that reduce many AM stations to little more than static. Its audience has sunk to historical lows.
But at least one man in Washington is tuning in.
Ajit Pai, the lone Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, is on a personal if quixotic quest to save AM. After a little more than a year in the job, he is urging the F.C.C. to undertake an overhaul of AM radio, which he calls “the audible core of our national culture.” He sees AM — largely the realm of local news, sports, conservative talk and religious broadcasters — as vital in emergencies and in rural areas.
“AM radio is localism, it is community,” Mr. Pai, 40, said in an interview.”[…]
Continue reading the full article on the New York Times website.
Herbert Hoover was a Republican and the founding genius of modern American broadcasting regulation. Having said that, I think we all ought to see what Commissioner Pai brings to the table for discussion before casting aspersions.
LMAO. A Republican?! His own party is slashing government funding in every known corner of the Fed. As much as I welcome saving shortwave radio, I think this effort will be yet another right-wing failure.
Call me a cynic, but the MW band is the preferred habitat of the ultraconservative religious right. Is it surprising the lone republican on the FCC is trying to preserve his party’s natural environment?
I welcome any preservation efforts made on the behalf of the MW band, as that was where I cut my DXing teeth almost half a century ago, but I have to question Mr. Pai’s motives.