Report: Substandard AMs Should Be 'Terminated'

Engineering consultancy Hatfield & Dawson says the FCC should extend its AM revitalization rulemaking to accommodate additional proposals, according to a published story from RadioWorld.

In comments filed with the FCC that are due this week, H&D makes several suggestions.

Perhaps the most bold is that the commission should ask Congress to provide a tax benefit to licensees who voluntarily elect to request license termination.

“This would encourage the licensees of some substandard AM operations to discontinue them,” writes H&D, noting that a large improvement in AM service appears unlikely unless “there is a large reduction in the numbers of stations, and such attrition should be encouraged.”

“Community coverage” requirements are inappropriate in the context of 21st century demographics “and should simply be eliminated. Even when these requirements were first adopted they were difficult to justify,” according to H&D, promising to give further details in its next filing.

Protected AM allocations should be based on noise level -1mV/m if not 2 mV/m groundwave for all station classes, suggests the engineering consulting firm. “The really significant problem for AM stations is not interference, it is the vastly increased electrical noise level ever since rural electrification,” writes H&D, which adds that modern use of switching power supplies, computers and computer-controlled devices “has merely exacerbated the problem. This is why many countries have higher power limits than the U.S. and why Canada allowed more than 5 kW for stations on regional channels.”

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