Monday, January 27, 2025

Vancouver Radio: AM Stations In B.C. Are Going Dark


Depending on who you talk to, the death of AM radio may be inevitable, or greatly exaggerated.

On Feb. 24, CKNW 980 will move down the dial to 730, citing its stronger signal strength.

In a media landscape dominated by podcasts and streaming, and promotion moving to social media, only a hardy few believe AM radio stations will survive, according to The Vancouver Sun.

Broadcast analyst David Bray called the cuts a “bloodbath”.

76-year-old Brian Antonson, who was an on-air host at CKNW in the late 1960s, believes AM radio will survive the current downturn. “Radio has changed, it has different challenges, but driving home I’m listening to NW,” said Antonson.

AM radio might be steaming toward the iceberg, but the value of the medium, and what saves it, might just be the service it provides in the event of some similar unforeseen catastrophe.

AM radio is still considered vital to public safety. During the Maui wildfires of 2023, AM radio provided essential, life-saving information when cell service and the Internet went down. In Canada, emergency alerts are automatically broadcast on radio as a fail-safe if cellular networks go down.

Radio infrastructure is more reliable than digital networks for disasters, according to the United Nation’s International Telecommunications Union. Unlike cell services, it’s also free.

“People need radio for information,” said Gordon Lansdell, 82, a former on-air host, and longtime radio historian running the VancouverBroadcasters website.

AM’s transmissions have gotten consistently worse over the years, said Lansdell, because of their narrow bandwidth and growing interference from things, such as building development and overhead power lines that cause overlapping signals, resulting in interference or static.

The sometimes spotty reception on AM stations made it more useful for talk radio, but talk formats are more expensive than music formats to run. “Talk radio requires producers, people to find stories, weather, traffic reporters, a whole newsroom,” said Lansdell.

Bray, the broadcast analyst, said the cuts to radio are “very sad.”

“Radio continues to have very strong reach, but revenues are down. Bell dropped 45 stations saying they didn’t see a future in the medium,” said Bray, 71.

According to the most recent numbers from Numeris, 83 per cent of Canadians over 12 years old hear some radio every day. “Streaming and Spotify and AI are all playing a role,” said Bray.

Many newer cars, including Teslas, don’t even include an AM radio, although in the U.S. Congress is fighting to regulate the inclusion of AM radio receivers in cars as a matter of public safety.

For Bray, AM isn’t just about information. “It’s community. It’s touchy feely. People want something local, they want to relate to their local people. They aren’t part of the family, but you feel an affinity, like family,” said Bray.

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