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| Randy Michaels |
Over the years, The AM band has become sensitive to every product we plug in the wall giving it added buzz, crackles and other assorted sounds that instantly turn off the listener now living in a digitally clear world.
The FCC’s plan to allow AM stations to retain power at night, therefore causing interference with those big booming Class A’s, has gotten many of you riled up. Randy Michaels knows his stuff when it comes to the AM band. RadioInk asked him to break out of his shell and give his opinion on what the FCC is about to do. Here’s part one of what he had to say…
RI: What are your thoughts on what you see the FCC doing to these signals?
Michaels: I think many at the FCC don’t understand the physics of broadcasting. Unfortunately the commissioners do understand the politics of broadcasting. Allowing some stations to have big coverage and allowing other stations to have less coverage seem somehow unfair and un-American. But the fact is, the AM band can’t hold the number of stations we have now. By great measure, new stations that have been created in the past many years have caused more interference than created service. The FCC was created to stop the interference that was so prevalent in the early 1920s, and they did a great job for years. What the FCC doesn’t understand is that by breaking down the Clears, they are going to destroy far more service than could be created because Clears are going to make a mess of those channels. Even at relatively high power, you’re going to have small service areas, small islands of service in a sea of interference. If they proceed, this will put the majority of the American landmass outside the reach of interference-free AM at night. In your city, you will get AM, but out in the country, you will have to go to FM. I think it’s crazy. The physics of the band, given where it is, sounds like a good idea, but for many reasons, it’s not."
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