Its the market you live in, its still like old times in Los Angeles on many of the stations. I dont see analog radio going away, HD is not growing its declining and unlike TV there is little reason to go digital. There was huge monetary incentive for tv to go digital. Over the air radios primary market is automotive, that why its declining in rural areas. No need for requests when you can pull up any song you want to hear on your phone.
The FM band is only 20 mhz, thats like 3 analog tv channels. There really isnt the push to grab and sell of that spectrum like with the tv channels. AM works very well in a market like LA for range and coverage. I should talk about this in a video
SHANGO! Wow! Nice to see you here! Commercial crappy shit radio is dead. Fuck the ads. Its all cesspool. All money. Radio stations don't give a shit what we want to listen to. Let them die already!
It's a real shame. Here we have a perfectly good source of media which in more ways than one is better than a modern cellular device and it's being squandered. A dream I have is to own my own AM station and play hits from the 50s through the late 70s and early 80s. I'm only 15 so if you think AM is bad now, think how bad it'll be in 10 or 15 years. I don't care how bad it will be, I'm on a mission to save analog broadcast like I'm sure all of you are.
A lot of pirate stations ARE gong on the air. The problem is, most of them ARE illegal, and ol' Fox Charlie Charlie is a FEDERAL agency. Getting caught running a pirate station is flirting with some hefty fines, and possible seizure of your expensive equipment.
Don't even get me started about how shitty radio is today.Other than when I'm car pooling into work in someone else's vehicle, I NEVER listen to commercial radio anymore. But, I agree with every point made here.
The other day, I was talking to a friend about radio broadcasting stations. I remember when lots of stations on both Am and Fm played music all the time because I'm 40 years old. lol What think would be cool is to have a portable AM station to broadcast at classic car meets. That way, instead of just having oldies blasting through loud outdoor horn speakers. You could just turn on your stock AM radio in your car just like they used to do at car meets back when those cars were brand new. I would play oldies Rock N' Roll from Elvis to The Beach Boy's. Down here in Picayune Mississippi where I live, We have Classic Car meets such as Cruising The Coast and many others. I hear you live in North Mississippi somewhere. Maybe one of those day's I can pass over and we can EOL some Chinese Crosley junk. I've been looking for some to buy next to nothing but those pieces of crap are being put up for sale as a used idem for $45.00. Yet the real ones are going for $15.00 go figure.
I just wanted to leave a general comment about your channel. Thank you!!!!!! I have been messing around with electronic repair since I was 8. it's always been self taught and a lot of trial and error. Between you and Shango066 over the last 6 months I have learned more about the right way to do things, tips, tools, and techniques in this time from you guys than I have in the last 40 years. I love the rants, humor and general easy to follow format you present. You are great at describing things in a easy to learn format for the novice or advanced hobbyist. Thank you for being a mentor to me and increasing my knowledge to where I'm much more proficient and professional in my repairs. I can not thank you enough and I hope to laugh and learn through many more of your videos to come.
I loved the 1970s at nights when I'd tune in "top 40" stations on AM from all over the country - WABC in NYC, WKBW in Buffalo, WLS and WCFL in Chicago, etc., and it was all live and local DJs. It's all gone now......
It was also fun to see how many of those clear channel stations you could pick up. My prize catch was KFI Los Angeles in my hometown of Darien, CT, 35 miles east of New York City using my GE P-780 portable radio.
Dave Hughes I wasn't born in the 1970's, because I was born in 1978 where WABC was still Top 40 in its existence along with WNBC-AM also had music on there. On FM, there was WCBS-FM was oldies, WXLO was "99X" was Top 40, WPLJ and WNEW-FM were rock, at night if you're in New York City, WKBW was the only AM station in Buffalo where it had a 50 KW skywave signal at night, but sadly, WLS and WCFL from Chicago cannot received its nighttime coverage signal, because it just clashed 1010 WINS and WCBS-AM, the two iconic all news radio stations. And WMCA was doing talk radio after giving up Top 40 in 1970.
I grew up in the Philadelphia area, and we had two great "top 40" stations - WFIL Famous 56 and Wibbage 99 WIBG. But they were pretty much regional outlets. And, yes, CKLW was a maginificent station. The Big 8......
I toured WFIL and WFIL-TV 6 (Now WPVI) in 1967. They were in a building near WCAU back then which I understand has been since torn down. WIBG 990 was a Canadian clear frequnecy so they had to reduce power to 10KW at night (50KW daytime). The beamed their signal over the Atlantic Ocean at night and were heard as far away as Norway.
James Will Down here it's more like 15-20 songs on repeat. I threatened to jam their transmitter, it gets my nerves. Ever fancy working 12 hours with the same shit playing over?
Good video, just picked up a vintage am/fm transistor radio by GE, the antenna broke when I put it up but it still works, good find for $1 at a local Goodwill. We have a local FM station 95.7 that plays 70s/80s/90s music, I love that station and it's the only station I listen to. I also got a vintage Micronta transistor checker, info online claims it's from Radio Shack, I need to learn how to use it but I think it'll be useful for me. anyway, good video! Wholeheartedly agree with you
There is an AM station on the Illinois side of the St. Louis area that still plays real oldies. KZQZ AM 1430, licensed to St. Louis, Missouri. 50,000 watts daytime with an East to west directional pattern, and a 5000 watt nighttime signal, with a figure 8 pattern.
Back in the early 70's, I helped build a local radio station, 1090AM WBAF, in Barnesville, Georgia. We had to make logs for the next day and we had to follow it to the minute. Everything was done manually, and it was a pleasure to be a part of the station. Since then, the builder/owner has passed away, but his son now runs it. It was fun to listen to the finished product of hard work. A few months ago, I gave away all my ham gear to a young man who was starting a radio club for kids. I really enjoy watching your video's and watching you repair the older gear.
Where I live we have one live DJ radio station, no commercials, no computers, huge variety of music, and if you want one, you can get a shout out on your birthday!!
What Radiotvphononut is describing is exactly what Australian community radio is today. I'm a former presenter on such a station. I was known as "Doc" because a) I knew the music I featured, and b) I knew my way around a studio mixing desk and ancilliary gear. So contrary to the Buggles' 1979 claim, Video DID NOT kill the radio star! He's alive and well and you can hear him on AUSTRALIAN community radio!
I have fond memories living in a rural farming county in n.e Fla. and listening to WAPE "The Mighty 690" with real life d.j.'s playing all the latest hits of rock n' roll and r&b. A great era.
I own a part 15 radio station and i run it manually and play good music. Sure is a shame that radio is owned by these big massive companys and the music variety is all random
I had that satellite radio like say 20 years ago. And even they would repeat the same crap every 3 or 4 hours. At least on some of the rock stations and the active rock stations that I listen to. That's why I like to listen to those decent college stations like we have in the Chicago area. You know there's still some good radio but you have to just dig for it.
Sounds like the former CBS-FM in New York - the same 100 or so oldies over and over and over and over and over and over again. Of course, now they've even abandoned that music and consider 80s & 90s stuff "oldies".
FM radio between 88 MHz to 92 MHz is still pretty good as it was allocated to non-commercial stations. So there's niche content from college stations and public broadcasting. WERS in particular stands out and they stream over the Internet as well.
The 1996 Telecommunications Act was peddled as a way to get consumer choice for cable, but what it really did was make it possible for mega mergers, meaning you have a handful of companies that own all but a handful of radio stations across the country. So it's not only consultants, it's the bean counters who are making a lot of decisions and edicts that result in massive job cuts and few interesting listening stations, especially when it comes to music stations.
I attended a Broadcast Pioneer's of Philadelphia event a few months ago. One of the comments, heard privately, was about a mid-Atlantic (remotely programmed) station, which apparently had a log-in problem with the programmer (believed to be located in Tennessee). It took almost fifteen minutes to switch from their T-2 line to a Cable/DSL backup, which included about three minutes of programming destined for an Illinois station.
thaddeus mcgrath I have just been using a 100 foot antenna wire strung tree to tree and i use a 1957 hallicrafters sw radio, but a 100 foot outdoor wire seems to work fine.
Nowadays you dont even find very many am stations that even play music at all let alone repetitiously like they do on fm. Theyre either now talk radio or multicultural (non english) programming. Its a shame. I remember when i was a kid some of the best songs that I ever really liked was played on an am radio station, and not to mention the fact that maybe its just me, I dont know but seems to me that even just the sound quality of these am receivers nowadays basically sucks compared to the radios of of lets say even just 25 years ago (early to mid 90s).
As I keep reminding myself, the problem with “vintage” radios and receivers is that they do not receive VINTAGE broadcasts. What is on the radio today is not worth listening to. So sad
That radio in the beginning of the video was my first radio as a boy. My grandfather gave it to me. It took 4 "C" cells as i recall. He would by me the Everready with the blue and yellow label and the cat with the glowing eyes as i remember. Lots of birdies. Probably needed the input filter replaced. As we all say at times, "I wish I had kept it." Happy New Year 2020 and God Bless.
The brief blurb at around 8:20 was a country song, not gospel. Don't remember the group, though. I usually only listen to the radio while driving. I believe KAJA (97.3) here in San Antonio, TX still has real DJs, though I could be wrong. They can sometimes be seen around town, especially during rodeo season, but they've made appearances at other events as well.
I can remember almost to the day when radio died for me. It was when clear channel bought up the local radio stations. The DJs left, the commercial load greatly increased, and the playlist got a lot shorter. The commercial load is what really did it for me though. For fun I listened to the radio about a month ago, and the 11 minute(!) block of ads/"news" made it totally unlistenable. With MP3 players being so ubiquitous these days, you'd think radio stations would get on the ball. Even the "morning zoo" (bob and tom) used to be awesome. until clear channel came and ruined it. Now it's just a multi-hour ad for some random comedians that will be playing at some random venue in some random city in the US somewhere. With a bunch of fake laughs added.
that's one thing you didn't discuss about the reason for radios demise radios of course have to depend on advertisers advertisers want younger demographics unfortunately older format radio does not draw the younger demographics so programmers have to resort to formats that reach the younger demographics it's very sad
Yes, that's true. Unfortunately for them, the younger generations are hooked on MP3 players and youtube and streaming radio for their entertainment fix. I am not sure how the younger generation sees radio, but a lot of kids I know don't even own radios any more. They run around with ipods and smart phones and listen to music that way. I wonder how long AM/FM radio will continue to exist in the US. Norway shut off all their FM stations and are solely DAB, obsoleting every FM radio in the country. Not a good thing in the case of an emergency.
Enjoy your viddies..I do a lot of restoration vids too, and have a huge wall of sound with 50 units displayed...I think the internet and satellite hurt radio a lot.,..cheers
I can't even listen to radio any more. It used to be the radio in my car was on all the time. I didn't need to stinking tape deck or CD player - there were three or four stations I could listen to. Now - forget it. I'd sooner drive in silence than listen to the radio. Fortunately, I added an audio-in connection to my factory radio, repurposed an older smart phone into an MP3 player, loaded it with my rather substantial collection of music (in a wide variety of types), and never hear a commercial, a lame deejay 'joke', or any of that bullshit. Radio's dead, as far as I'm concerned. It makes me sad, because it used to be awesome, but what passes for 'radio' today... ain't.
Nice rant! I just want to say about your rant, is that the stations that we have here is WGNY-FM's "Fox Oldies" and WBPM. They're continuing to do battle, because of competition. WBPM also plays a lot more 70's and the rest of the 80's with a little bit of 60's music just like WCBS-FM from 10 years ago when the station returned when it is now Classic Hits rather than oldies due to "Jack's" poor ratings after giving up the oldies from 2 years before. And then WGNY-FM's "Fox Oldies", it does sounded a lot like WCBS-FM circa 1982 and 1983, but they mixed it in with some classic rock elements along with a few classic hits to go with the oldies. When I hear Led Zeppelin, Jetro Tull, The Who or any other rock artists that are playing on an oldies station, it's not a great fit. The rest of the format is okay, but they're playing the same 200 oldies songs over and over and over and over again. Thanks to "Fox Oldies" playlist at: wgny.tumegenie.com If you look at the playlist, it is way too small, for example, WGNY-FM has a playlist of 200 or 300 songs instead of 10,000 songs. WLNG on the other hand has about 10,000 songs with live DJ's rather than voice tracking. WGNY-FM are all voice tracking except for mornings with Bob O, but I like Bob O and Joe Manglass, because they're terrific jocks, and even does voice tracked. Up in Albany, there's WROW's "Magic 590/100.5", but it sounds way better than "Fox Oldies", it has the same exact songs that "Fox Oldies" does, but they throw in a few soft AC and Middle of the Road standards on there instead of playing harder rock. I also remember back in the glory days of Top 40 radio, WABC and WMCA are very successful Top 40 stations in New York City that dominated the market. It has terrific jocks. On WMCA, they had Joe O'Brien, Harry Harrison, Jack Spector, Ed Baer, Gary Stevens and B Mitchell Reed. Those were the best jocks back when they called it the "Good Guys". WABC on the other hand had Herb Oscar Anderson, along with such excellent jocks like Dan Ingram, Bruce Morrow (aka Cousin Bruce), Chuck Leonard, Ron Lundy, and other great jocks from that era. The music presentation was excellent for Top 40 stations. When the 70's came in, FM was a new thing, prior to that, WOR-FM was a successful Top 40 station from the Drake era where they're competing with its AM counterpart WABC. Later on, WXLO was still competing with WABC at the time when it was "99X". By 1971, a small AM Top 40 station in Hackensack, NJ called WWDJ was still battling out WABC at the time until 1974 when it flipped to religious. When the 80's came in, WABC flipped to talk and then CHR started to popped in, and then there was WCBS-FM when it was a very successful oldies station since it first started in 1972 and it was a staple for an oldies station in New York City playing 50's, 60's and 70's oldies. And then in the 90's, all of the stations were still in gear, and then, when it reached the new millennium, it went down the tubes. Thanks to computers and shortened playlists, all of the stations in the New York City area went down the drain. In today's world, the music on regular radio are still going downhill, internet stations are still popular and the oldies format lives on. Thanks to Rewound Radio and Sirius/XM's satellite radio like "50's on 5", "60's on 6" and "70's on 7".
They don't play them anymore. I have my other channel for airchecks. Go check these out. They have a bunch of Hudson Valley radio airchecks as well along with NYC and many more, along with classic CBS-FM when it was oldies. And speaking of which, Dan Ingram has passed away since June 23rd. I will plan on posting Dan Ingram airchecks soon. ua-cam.com/users/musicradio77prime
AM is all talk around here. We still have a few FM stations with live DJs but even they have cut back. Many others are automated. My listening tastes are album oriented and not mainstream so I rarely tune in anymore. The heavy handed audio compression some stations use has taken the dynamics out of the music. That killed it for me.
Here in Ottawa Canada we only have talk on AM, no music.. & on FM band the Damn automated Jack fm system drives me nuts. Don't listen to any radio anymore. HDR (IBOC) will be the last nail in the coffin.
Yeah that's the thing I don't like about radio now. Playing the sames songs over and over gets so annoying. Me as an old soul. I love different variety of old music from the 50s all the way to the 1980s. I like to hear some obscure music from those era's. And all the good disc jockeys pass away and of course three of the best ones are Casey Kasem, Wolfman Jack, and Shotgun Tom Kelly. Those were cool DJ's. Music has also gone down hill too. I hate mumble rap crap, and the new stupid pop stuff. It's just not music to me.
So true and its only gotten worse! Here in Wales UK same story, local station has about 30 songs, djs sound real but they work 7 days so I wonder about that. I toured CING bluegrass station in Hamilton in 1978. Phoned in in 2008, soon as I mentioned bluegrass they cut me off. Then Corus shut the station down.
Music of Your Life and other similar formats disappeared from the Sacramento market back in 2005. Mostly talk radio, hispanic and other ethnic stations. One station in Yuba city 40 miles north of here does play 70s hits, but it reduces power at sunset and fades in and out. Several of my AM radios have RF amp stage to pull in distance stations and phono inputs, so I can plug in my RCA 45 player. Also, have AM/FM table radios. At least there is some music worth listening to on FM and I built a low powered Ramsey FM transmitter from a kit. Next on the build list is an AM transmitter kit. A seller of tube radios at a local antique store uses a Ramsey AM transmitter to broadcast 40s music from Sirius radio to the sets.
I do understand what you are talking about. I grew up in Jackson in the 60s and worked as a weekend DJ at WJDX-FM. They mostly played elevator music on FM back then and the only reason for having an FM stations was to support subcarrier broadcashting of Muzak. When I moved to Waco TX on 67 I worked for 2 years as a camera man on a local TV station then became an engineer at a oldies FM station for several years before it was sold to a Spanish buyer who did not care if he made it into the ratings book because he would get most of the grocery and liquer store business by default being the only Spanish language station in town. Now there are 3. Clearchannel/iheart ownes the remaining 5 stations both am and fm. I now swll burgular alarm systems and cctv equipment and desogn home theater systems. Jim WB5OXQ (amateur radio call)
You’re right about “Brown Eyed Girl.” I cannot believe how often that one gets played! Interestingly I heard “Childhood’s End” by Pink Floyd playing in a restaurant a while ago. Imagine that, a restaurant with better music than an oldies station. MOD pizza streams its music and they’re pretty good as well with a wide of 60s through 90s music...
It stunk when WRNO switched from classic rock to politics, and also when WLTS became WWL's simulcast. I also miss WTKL Kool 95.7. Local radio has really jumped the shark. 🦈
I look forward to your rants,I learn something new,and it saves me money.more rants please .what I mostly listen to on A M is kfi,talk radio .on F M I listen to 99.9 and k earth,101.1.the rest not so much.Riverside ,just outside L.A. 40 to 50 miles I think.
You hit the nail on the head, radiotvphononut. It's getting where even satellite and internet radio are like that. I listen to a lot of classic rock. Luckily, I have a decent classic rock station in my area.
My thoughts and feelings are with you my friend. I thought radio listening was a way of pulling us all together, not anymore I guess. Germany comes to mind, when I heard that parade music..... much respect to you.
Yep, have to agree! On the AM dial in my city, all talk. One is an agriculture farm station and when the markets close for the day, they play the classical country music, but you know that it's all done by a computer. You never hear a DJ, weather forecast, time of day, that sort of thing. Lots of repetition on the songs too.
Same here in the UK in 2023 . AM is almost extinct . FM is dominated by constant modern pop , rock and rap . Where I live we do just have one local FM station that plays old music and mature live djs . Not sure how long it will last though . They are struggling for the finance to keep going . I listen mainly to an MP3 player connected to my 1950s console radio . At least that way I can choose what I listen to .
WDCB (FM) just outside Chicago. Jazz and Blues 24/7. Real announcers (cut above "DJ"'s) who know the music AND are active in the local jazz/blues scene. Stream on the internet.
I find the older I get the less tolerant I get with radio. AM is almost useless these days, all that's left is sports and mindless religious nonsense. Together with all the interference from computers and other electrical stuff, AM is finished. FM has dozens of stations still, 99% of which sound exactly the same, full of adverts. I was going to say that I don't own a single radio any more but I noticed my AV amplifier had both AM and FM. I don't think I have EVER switched the radio section on in 5 years! All I can say is thank goodness for internet radio. If you cannot find a station to listen to in fair to very good quality, then you are probably already dead! My choice of radio is the BBC (mostly radio 4) intelligent, wide range of content and most important, NO mindless adverts. Years ago I transferred all my CDs (many 100s) to Apple lossless files on my PC. Nice, at times to put it on auto pilot and let it play.
BBC = British Bradcasting Comunist propaganda. You sir are out of date and out of touch with reality. AM bcb radio is great where I am in Southern California
I can't agree with you more! The only good station worth listening too in my area is 90.3 WHRO which plays 24/7 classic music and they have very good programming. The rest of the stations are pretty much garbage. If they are any good, then they are way too repetitive and after a few days to a week I am sick of it. I heard from a guy at a work who does a local blues show on one of the school stations, tell me that the record companies are so greedy that stations can't afford more then 500 songs which causes the repetitiveness. I miss the radio of the 90s when there was good programming and DJs. It's a real shame. I'm going to have to build a low power AM and FM transmitter so I can play the music I love through my radios when I restore them. When ever I go to thrift stores I buy loads of DVD, VHS tapes, and CDs. I guess I will have to modify the radios on my older cars to have an AUX input so when they do destroy FM, I can at least plug in an external source and listen to what I like. Being an "audiofool", I cannot stand digital media such as MP3. My ears are very sensitive in the high frequency ranges and I can hear the compression very well to the point it's like finger nails on a chalk board! CDs are OK, but I have heard MP3 type compression on the radio when everyone switched over to digitized formats. At least with CD, the music still had that musical feel too it. Modern digitized formats just feel and sound bland to my ears. Worst is when stations start to EQ their source which makes it sound even worse on the receiving end. There is a station in my area called 96X, and they boost the bass and treble so the mid range is very lacking and sounds God awful on the receiving end. Radios have tone controls and EQs so 96X, PLEASE do everyone a favor and send the source out FLAT to the transmitter! It seems that no one understands what headroom is anymore and they compress the heck out of everything so there is no soft levels and peeks in the music being broadcasted. Radios have volume controls on them so headroom can be used properly. ;-)
We, in germany, lost AM entiely years ago, all station had been shut down by law, to free up the AM bands for new electronic plastic junk and let the electro-industry lower their standards for switched mode power supplies, as without AM radio they can pollute that frequency band with their poorly filtered DC-outputs, their cost savings are only 1-2cents per unit...but they convinced our politicians they go bankrupt within months if the government hold on to these standarts. Also, most likely, the FM will go away by 2025 as far as i know, for just the same thing and DAB (our new useless radio format), also it failed by now, but they simply won´t give up and released the all new fancy DAB+ pretty much the same thing, but on other frequencies, just to let us buy new receivers. But also it doesn´t work, people instead keep using the FM and also still buying FM (car) radios. But i also think that the industry will put more force on that in the short run...as there´s more margin in that stuff. So it´s very likely we loose FM sooner... But i´m prepared. i´ve several AM and FM (stereo) low wattage transmitters, bought over the years in order to let my radios play what i want, without needing to change/alter anything on the radio itself. Also i run some TV modulators for my pre-digital S/W types.
The 40s, 50s, 60s, 70, were the golden age of live AM radio and then in the 70s FM stereo became the norm because of better fidelity and being installed in cars, but it was still with live DJs. Times change and the development of portable music in cars and carry around devices meant less interest in radio. Music on the old AM car radios was pretty low-fi, the move to stereo sound from FM and cassettes and CDs with good speakers made listening to music in a car a lot more enjoyable. Since you can now listen to radio via satellite or internet, using broadcast radio is of declining interest. I do miss the rock-n-roll days of the goofy DJs, the contests, the Top 40 tunes, etc. but I actually prefer all the options we have today. Fortunately I live in a town with a little AM station that plays music from the 40s to the mid 60s that sounds just fine on my Firestone Air Chief in monophonic magnificence. But I enjoyed this episode. 👍 Cheers.
we have a local radio station that play 60, 70, 80, and 90 music. it has all request lunch and weekend, Turntable Tuesday were listeners bring in they records to be play with all the pops and crackle. Friday is all 80"s
Keep the videos coming always enjoy them even the rent they're my favorites. Jackass is on eBay the way they can let somebody use your product unboxing and send it back to you and you have to eat it
Here in Adelaide South Australia in the 70's and 80's like 5KA and SSA FM used to play the whole album off a particular Artist. Now the same 10-15 songs played every hour. That's why i only listen to my local Community Radio, where there is bugger all repeating the same old songs!!!
And speaking of stations, I started listening to KSRF's "K-Surf" and I listened to "Disco Saturday Night" every Saturday from 10 PM until 3 AM the next morning if I'm on the east coast where I live, and 7 PM until midnight on the west coast. I can listen to disco right up until the wee hours. Thanks to "Shango066" for giving me a plug on one of his videos. I can listen to disco and classic dance music from the glory days of Studio 54, WKTU's "Disco 92" and WBLS where Frankie Crocker brought to the table.
Where are you located? I share all your sentiments completely. I’m in Kingsport, or stinksport rather. I had a good friend, radio dj our of whitesburg Kentucky and he had a very good show on 88.7. Wiley Quitoe was has radio name, otherwise known as Jim Webb. He was the last real dj I know. I could use some equipment, as you say, non eBay stuff. I’m originally from Wise Virginia and I don’t know any collectors around here. In fact all the radio phono nut old timer friends of mine are pushing up daisies now.
I know of only 2 stations on FM in my area that play classic music but the thing is they play 70's and 80's songs and they songs same exact song. hearing the song over and over again it ruins the song for me they mostly play Elton John, Micheal Jackson, The Eagles songs. I know one station that only play's two Beatles song Let it Be and Here comes the sun thats it. I mostly listen to AM but theres station one that has DJ's and has the news and plays songs from the 40's to the 80's or so. I listen to an online station called Rewound Radio that's decent the plays oldies from the 50's to 70's but seems like they play mostly 60's and 70's but I don't mind much. they have Djs and actually do song requests and a few other things and they have no commercials at least it's something.
I live in Connecticut. This happened to a local rock station we had in Hartford, 106.9 WCCC FM. It had been live local, and independently run for over forty years. Then in august of 2014, the station was sold, to a national syndicated religious station out of California. Klove, All of the Djs were fired. Now the station has no local personalities or other employees working there. It's all run by a computer system 3000 miles away. As far as I know this was done because of corporate greed. Now this station has no dedicated listeners, and is complete crap. That's why I went to Sirius.
Yeah, I'm afraid Shango066 is right...most kids nowadays don't even listen to the radio, they just pull the song they wanna hear up on their smartphone and plug speakers into it & listen that way. Speaking of which, my friend David had an internet radio channel that featured stuff from the 40's through the 90's and he used all tube equipment right up to the digital converter to send the "signal" out over the internet. But, funding ran out for his station, too & it's now defunct.
I remember the local classical station (a commercial one) switching from classical to some kinda modern crap. formatchange.com/1051-wqrs-flips-from-classical-to-modern-rock-the-edge/ Fortunately, the library and most of the staff were able to take over an educational station and come back as a listener supported station.
I totally agree with every thing you said. In Winnipeg the A.M. stations are mostly talk radio or sports. We have one Punjab station and one classical station. On fm all the big stations use autoplay with the same songs maybe 500 repeated over and over. We have one small oldies station CJNU which plays a mix of 40's radio plays and easy listening.CJNU at least uses retired seniors to live broadcast. Hard to find 50's or 60's rock, soul or pop anymore on AM or FM where I live. Such a shame. Last time we had a station that played early rock exclusively was about 20 years ago.
It seems no matter what the format of an FM radio station, they do the same thing -- have a couple of hours worth of songs in "heavy rotation" and swap a few songs in and out of that set every week. I'm in Huntsville, AL and it seems no matter which format -- Top 40, Classic Rock, 50's/60's oldies (we had one mid 90s through early 2000s when they switched to 60's/70's which just was not the same). Even the classic country station near Hartselle, AL was doing that. There is plenty of old music to play and I've never known why stations do that. I have a very large music collection and can make a superior playlist compared to this type of station.
You are so right. Radio stations today are just business, not really into the physical interaction with the equipment . I remember when the weather stations had human voices, instead of computerized voices. Even Real Rock Radio in St. Louis play the same songs over and over. Let me be guest DJ. Let me choose some different songs. Unless the audience prefers the limited "favorites".
I'm not that old, but I remember radio in the 80's and 90's having more diversity and actual DJ's. Around the end of the 90's everything started dropping off and music itself started becoming complete trash. I gave up on AM/FM radio and started listening to online radio stations or just mixing my own playlists. Even places like Spotify and Pandora have went down hill in recent years. I use to be able to log on to either of them and find music I've never heard before, but now they have either gave up licensing music they think no one wants to hear or have started pushing RIAA bands more. I miss being able to call up my local station, requesting a song, then shooting the crap with the DJ while they loaded up music. I imagine it was even cooler in the 70's.
I agree about the downfall of much of AM (or FM) broadcast radio, in many markets. The problem is that many are owned by big broadcasting chains whom, rather then giving the audience what they want, use a corporate "cook book" to program their stations. In Canada it's even worse because they have "Canadian Content" rules that they use to program the station, as well as the corporate programing "cook book", there is only so much Joanie Mitchell and Anne Murray one can stand, especially when they play the same songs three or more times a day. It's rather stupid because even taking Can Con rules into account there is still a huge variety of songs that they never play. One thing that I cannot stand on AM radio are these phoney talk shows that are basically hour long infomercials, pedaling real estate, or retirement plans, or whatever, it borders on fraud. Another that I can't stand are the sports-talk stations, what a waste of kilowatts and bandwidth! Hours and hours of discussion about hockey, baseball, or fill in the blank games that have already been played and won or lost, and yet there is a network of stations broadcasting this crap, it must be a tax write off? On the other hand I have been hearing more music stations on AM lately, there is one classic country station, and one pop/jazz standards station that I can pick up from Washington state.
Something worst happens here, no more am radio stations, just fm and all that they play is the biggest trash avaliable, but at the end at least i have a really good record colection, with classical and rock music from 50's, 60's, some 7" with all the good songs from that era, at least this..
I know I’m late for this video but I’m really young and love listening to records and old attack’s I live in Indiana there is no classic station just country that sounds like rap and rap there is no good fm or am station if u got Pandora that’s your best choice if u want to listen without that many adv
Yes, radio was nice to listen to in the old days. Not any more. What aggravates me no end here in CA is the mile-a-minute garbled "disclaimers" that follow some commercials.
It's all about the Benjamins! Grew up listening to the 50kw rock and roll stations from the east to the mid west. Just upgraded Mrs. RW's car and the radio had sattelite and HD radio built in. Never had either before. Listened to both, but was less than impressed with either one. The content of sattelite was OK, but the fidelity was not nowhere as good as analog FM. Digital sub carriers seem to like current AM stations. I'ts a race to the bottom! RW
It all started with ' "drake chenault" hit parade seventy' (a YT search will turn up some samples). Back then, the robot voices sounded faker, but it helped relieve the "content panic" that ensued when the FCC banned simulcasts in 1967.
Maybe an AI version of Wolfman Jack would work. Guess what! They’re using AI for putting the old DJ’s back from the dead. Dan Ingram, Ron Lundy, Chuck Leonard, Ed Baer, Harry Harrison, Joe O’Brien, Alan Freed, Charlie Greer, Roby Yonge, Frankie Crocker, and many more who were deceased years ago might be coming back in AI form.
I agree with you 100,000 percent !!! I would like some of them to go back to the old days between late 1950's to 1975 ish or so !!WABC out of New York was a big favorite of mine during the Early 1960s to the 1975 or so D.J. like Cousin Brucie Bruce Morrow and Dan Ingraham and a few other fella's there, plus a few local stations like WGNY out of Newburgh N.Y I remember when the North East Blackout happened about 1965 I was listening to Dan on WABC shortly after 5;00pm when my lights started to dim out and 15 minutes later they went out completely, Dan was saying on the radio how the records began playing slowly for a while just before everybody on the east coast lost electric !!! Nice old studio mixer by RCA you got there !! I'm salivating just looking at it!! HA HA nice find there !!
Yup, That's my era too! This is why I do my own BETS-1 station in Canada(Toronto) to keep on the radio what I grew up with and I have my "own station" to listen to. With old jingles and everything and so many songs that it goes 24/7 and the same song may be heard once every 4 days or longer. I do go through a compressor though to get to near the volume of the other stations and provide protection from over modulation. I'm on 90.7 FM in Toronto Canada.
Its the same here in the UK. Business in general across the board is the same. I'm expecting Am to dissapear anytime, and no doubt they'll blame it on digital.
Here in DC, lots of stations are still just as good: all live hosts, plenty of variety, at least 7 news stations I can name off the top of my head, and even live nighttime hosts on some stations
Sad but true. Local AM is dead around here except for "talk radio" or taking a feed from a FM station. And "HD" radio is going to be forced down our throats just like "digital TV." And now they are going to change frequencies for TV are changing .
The only radio station I listen to is WNAS the high school station. They have a 12,000 song playlist and carry local high school sports too. Commercial radio is a sad state. Same old 300 songs over and over. I'm guessing we're about the same age. I'm 43 and have seen the radio industry go to crap over the last 20 years.
920 am KVEC here in San Luis Obispo, California is still a local radio station owned by a big corporation. I think the big corporation got the hint to leave this station alone. It's mostly local news, local talk show and Rush Limbaugh show. Our area is mixed bag of center, left and right wingers, so the station reflects the diversity. We have a show on car repair( locals call in with their car problems) and a old time re-run radio show on Sundays. Back in the 1990's, when the station ownership changed, the entire programing changed and 2 things happened: outraged locals and low ratings. The station brought back their format and added couple great local programs. One program they should have is a swap meet on the air, such as, locals wanting to sell or buy tools, vintage furniture, radios, etc.
I miss the old station that i use to listen on shortwave in New Orleans years ago. WRNO . but it all the due of the powerful Dollar bill that is killing local radio stations. Fire Djs and have computers run it. I use to work for a AM station here in Michigan, And the owner would not have a computer in the building,she had file cabnets full papers. It shocked us when the he bought CD players and had them installed,becouse people wanted the new county . Way to easy to que up a CD I love records and tape. and the sound of bacon frying. Also before i forget the Que burns at the beginning of a track on a LP. Miss it. thanks for the great videos.
I miss those days of local AM for sure, they are pretty much gone for good, no one wants to hire talent anymore, it is cheaper to use canned music and DJs. We still have a few FM stations that simulcast on AM and they do have a few live DJs but the music on one of them is that 500 crap rock songs of all time, I can pretty much tell you what they will play next. BUT they do have some local live bands that they play a few times month. The other station still has DJs and plays a much better selection, they are a locally family owned operation and have been in the area since the 1940s. My dad actually worked for them back in the mid 50s. I have two part 15 transmitters setup and play my own music now, at least I get what I want to hear on the radios.
I too have made the switch from vintage radios to vintage record players, and for the same reason you did---there's just not much on the air nowadays worth listening to. And I believe you are correct when you say that analog AM will be gone, probably sooner than later. There will come a day when tuning across the AM band will be met with nothing more than static.
Its the market you live in, its still like old times in Los Angeles on many of the stations. I dont see analog radio going away, HD is not growing its declining and unlike TV there is little reason to go digital. There was huge monetary incentive for tv to go digital. Over the air radios primary market is automotive, that why its declining in rural areas. No need for requests when you can pull up any song you want to hear on your phone.
Plus with HD radio, the signal has to be perfect or it glitches out, like digital TV.
The FM band is only 20 mhz, thats like 3 analog tv channels. There really isnt the push to grab and sell of that spectrum like with the tv channels. AM works very well in a market like LA for range and coverage. I should talk about this in a video
did you see where some FM stations here in LA were sold, seems they aren't making a profit. I think there were 6 or 8 of them.
SHANGO! Wow! Nice to see you here! Commercial crappy shit radio is dead. Fuck the ads. Its all cesspool.
All money. Radio stations don't give a shit what we want to listen to. Let them die already!
A-MEN
It's a real shame. Here we have a perfectly good source of media which in more ways than one is better than a modern cellular device and it's being squandered. A dream I have is to own my own AM station and play hits from the 50s through the late 70s and early 80s. I'm only 15 so if you think AM is bad now, think how bad it'll be in 10 or 15 years. I don't care how bad it will be, I'm on a mission to save analog broadcast like I'm sure all of you are.
I think IF all the analog radio stations go down, there will be a lot of pirate stations going up later on.
A friend of mine has already done that in Illinois.
A lot of pirate stations ARE gong on the air. The problem is, most of them ARE illegal, and ol' Fox Charlie Charlie is a FEDERAL agency. Getting caught running a pirate station is flirting with some hefty fines, and possible seizure of your expensive equipment.
There needs to be a massive pirate radio movement
Don't even get me started about how shitty radio is today.Other than when I'm car pooling into work in someone else's vehicle, I NEVER listen to commercial radio anymore. But, I agree with every point made here.
The other day, I was talking to a friend about radio broadcasting stations. I remember when lots of stations on both Am and Fm played music all the time because I'm 40 years old. lol
What think would be cool is to have a portable AM station to broadcast at classic car meets. That way, instead of just having oldies blasting through loud outdoor horn speakers. You could just turn on your stock AM radio in your car just like they used to do at car meets back when those cars were brand new. I would play oldies Rock N' Roll from Elvis to The Beach Boy's. Down here in Picayune Mississippi where I live, We have Classic Car meets such as Cruising The Coast and many others.
I hear you live in North Mississippi somewhere. Maybe one of those day's I can pass over and we can EOL some Chinese Crosley junk. I've been looking for some to buy next to nothing but those pieces of crap are being put up for sale as a used idem for $45.00. Yet the real ones are going for $15.00 go figure.
When i was listening to jazz on a local fm station, i remember that i heard a computer courser click before the song started.
I just wanted to leave a general comment about your channel. Thank you!!!!!! I have been messing around with electronic repair since I was 8. it's always been self taught and a lot of trial and error. Between you and Shango066 over the last 6 months I have learned more about the right way to do things, tips, tools, and techniques in this time from you guys than I have in the last 40 years. I love the rants, humor and general easy to follow format you present. You are great at describing things in a easy to learn format for the novice or advanced hobbyist. Thank you for being a mentor to me and increasing my knowledge to where I'm much more proficient and professional in my repairs. I can not thank you enough and I hope to laugh and learn through many more of your videos to come.
I loved the 1970s at nights when I'd tune in "top 40" stations on AM from all over the country - WABC in NYC, WKBW in Buffalo, WLS and WCFL in Chicago, etc., and it was all live and local DJs. It's all gone now......
It was also fun to see how many of those clear channel stations you could pick up. My prize catch was KFI Los Angeles in my hometown of Darien, CT, 35 miles east of New York City using my GE P-780 portable radio.
Dave Hughes I wasn't born in the 1970's, because I was born in 1978 where WABC was still Top 40 in its existence along with WNBC-AM also had music on there. On FM, there was WCBS-FM was oldies, WXLO was "99X" was Top 40, WPLJ and WNEW-FM were rock, at night if you're in New York City, WKBW was the only AM station in Buffalo where it had a 50 KW skywave signal at night, but sadly, WLS and WCFL from Chicago cannot received its nighttime coverage signal, because it just clashed 1010 WINS and WCBS-AM, the two iconic all news radio stations. And WMCA was doing talk radio after giving up Top 40 in 1970.
There was also CKLW from Windsor, ON that had a fantastic signal at night in the NYC area that had top 40 and live DJs.
I grew up in the Philadelphia area, and we had two great "top 40" stations - WFIL Famous 56 and Wibbage 99 WIBG. But they were pretty much regional outlets. And, yes, CKLW was a maginificent station. The Big 8......
I toured WFIL and WFIL-TV 6 (Now WPVI) in 1967. They were in a building near WCAU back then which I understand has been since torn down. WIBG 990 was a Canadian clear frequnecy so they had to reduce power to 10KW at night (50KW daytime). The beamed their signal over the Atlantic Ocean at night and were heard as far away as Norway.
5000 songs to 300? Don't you mean 10? Seems like i hear the same song every hour. That's why I stopped listening to radio.
James Will Down here it's more like 15-20 songs on repeat. I threatened to jam their transmitter, it gets my nerves. Ever fancy working 12 hours with the same shit playing over?
I know what you mean.
how do you jam a 50/100kW transmitter?
It's like hearing a jukebox playing over and over again.
Good video, just picked up a vintage am/fm transistor radio by GE, the antenna broke when I put it up but it still works, good find for $1 at a local Goodwill. We have a local FM station 95.7 that plays 70s/80s/90s music, I love that station and it's the only station I listen to.
I also got a vintage Micronta transistor checker, info online claims it's from Radio Shack, I need to learn how to use it but I think it'll be useful for me. anyway, good video! Wholeheartedly agree with you
There is an AM station on the Illinois side of the St. Louis area that still plays real oldies. KZQZ AM 1430, licensed to St. Louis, Missouri. 50,000 watts daytime with an East to west directional pattern, and a 5000 watt nighttime signal, with a figure 8 pattern.
Back in the early 70's, I helped build a local radio station, 1090AM WBAF, in Barnesville, Georgia. We had to make logs for the next day and we had to follow it to the minute. Everything was done manually, and it was a pleasure to be a part of the station. Since then, the builder/owner has passed away, but his son now runs it. It was fun to listen to the finished product of hard work. A few months ago, I gave away all my ham gear to a young man who was starting a radio club for kids. I really enjoy watching your video's and watching you repair the older gear.
An 80s station should be able to go 10 days without repeating a song, and that would be if they stuck to just the top 40 hits of the decade.
AMEN brother I feel the pain of today's music as well.
Where I live we have one live DJ radio station, no commercials, no computers, huge variety of music, and if you want one, you can get a shout out on your birthday!!
one of my college professors was one of those radio market consultants, and yes his attitude was "I know better than you".
What Radiotvphononut is describing is exactly what Australian community radio is today. I'm a former presenter on such a station. I was known as "Doc" because a) I knew the music I featured, and b) I knew my way around a studio mixing desk and ancilliary gear. So contrary to the Buggles' 1979 claim, Video DID NOT kill the radio star! He's alive and well and you can hear him on AUSTRALIAN community radio!
I have fond memories living in a rural farming county in n.e Fla. and listening to WAPE "The Mighty 690" with real life d.j.'s playing all the latest hits of rock n' roll and r&b. A great era.
I own a part 15 radio station and i run it manually and play good music. Sure is a shame that radio is owned by these big massive companys and the music variety is all random
I had that satellite radio like say 20 years ago. And even they would repeat the same crap every 3 or 4 hours. At least on some of the rock stations and the active rock stations that I listen to. That's why I like to listen to those decent college stations like we have in the Chicago area. You know there's still some good radio but you have to just dig for it.
That's What I Say About My Bluetooth &
My CD Collection. I Dont Need Apple Music Pandora Or Spotify.
There’s UA-cam Music where you can hear some music on there.
I like when the local "Classic Rock" station states they are going to play A Deep Cut, and it turns out to be Magic Bus by The Who!
You just described WLUP "Da Loop" and there repetitive 50 song classic rock playlist that has not been changed in the last 30 years.
Sounds like the former CBS-FM in New York - the same 100 or so oldies over and over and over and over and over and over again. Of course, now they've even abandoned that music and consider 80s & 90s stuff "oldies".
FM radio between 88 MHz to 92 MHz is still pretty good as it was allocated to non-commercial stations. So there's niche content from college stations and public broadcasting. WERS in particular stands out and they stream over the Internet as well.
The 1996 Telecommunications Act was peddled as a way to get consumer choice for cable, but what it really did was make it possible for mega mergers, meaning you have a handful of companies that own all but a handful of radio stations across the country. So it's not only consultants, it's the bean counters who are making a lot of decisions and edicts that result in massive job cuts and few interesting listening stations, especially when it comes to music stations.
I attended a Broadcast Pioneer's of Philadelphia event a few months ago. One of the comments, heard privately, was about a mid-Atlantic (remotely programmed) station, which apparently had a log-in problem with the programmer (believed to be located in Tennessee). It took almost fifteen minutes to switch from their T-2 line to a Cable/DSL backup, which included about three minutes of programming destined for an Illinois station.
Sometimes on shortwave, i can hear rock music on the lower end of the band.
I too been scanning the shortwave bands for pirate radio and am stations and cannot pick up squat. Any suggestions on what type antenna?
thaddeus mcgrath I have just been using a 100 foot antenna wire strung tree to tree and i use a 1957 hallicrafters sw radio, but a 100 foot outdoor wire seems to work fine.
Nowadays you dont even find very many am stations that even play music at all let alone repetitiously like they do on fm. Theyre either now talk radio or multicultural (non english) programming. Its a shame. I remember when i was a kid some of the best songs that I ever really liked was played on an am radio station, and not to mention the fact that maybe its just me, I dont know but seems to me that even just the sound quality of these am receivers nowadays basically sucks compared to the radios of of lets say even just 25 years ago (early to mid 90s).
As I keep reminding myself, the problem with “vintage” radios and receivers is that they do not receive VINTAGE broadcasts. What is on the radio today is not worth listening to. So sad
94.5 HD radio here plays a lot of 70's music that I have never heard, it's not just the hits. I like HD Radio it works great in my city.
Do you have a stancor pm/pc-8404 or equivalent?
I'm trying to fix an old radio that has a shorted transformer.
thanks
That radio in the beginning of the video was my first radio as a boy. My grandfather gave it to me. It took 4 "C" cells as i recall. He would by me the Everready with the blue and yellow label and the cat with the glowing eyes as i remember. Lots of birdies. Probably needed the input filter replaced. As we all say at times, "I wish I had kept it." Happy New Year 2020 and God Bless.
The brief blurb at around 8:20 was a country song, not gospel. Don't remember the group, though. I usually only listen to the radio while driving. I believe KAJA (97.3) here in San Antonio, TX still has real DJs, though I could be wrong. They can sometimes be seen around town, especially during rodeo season, but they've made appearances at other events as well.
I can remember almost to the day when radio died for me. It was when clear channel bought up the local radio stations. The DJs left, the commercial load greatly increased, and the playlist got a lot shorter. The commercial load is what really did it for me though. For fun I listened to the radio about a month ago, and the 11 minute(!) block of ads/"news" made it totally unlistenable. With MP3 players being so ubiquitous these days, you'd think radio stations would get on the ball. Even the "morning zoo" (bob and tom) used to be awesome. until clear channel came and ruined it. Now it's just a multi-hour ad for some random comedians that will be playing at some random venue in some random city in the US somewhere. With a bunch of fake laughs added.
that's one thing you didn't discuss about the reason for radios demise radios of course have to depend on advertisers advertisers want younger demographics unfortunately older format radio does not draw the younger demographics so programmers have to resort to formats that reach the younger demographics it's very sad
Yes, that's true. Unfortunately for them, the younger generations are hooked on MP3 players and youtube and streaming radio for their entertainment fix. I am not sure how the younger generation sees radio, but a lot of kids I know don't even own radios any more. They run around with ipods and smart phones and listen to music that way. I wonder how long AM/FM radio will continue to exist in the US. Norway shut off all their FM stations and are solely DAB, obsoleting every FM radio in the country. Not a good thing in the case of an emergency.
So true, your part 15 station would be awesome. I wish I lived close, we need a good oldies station here in Greenville, SC.
Enjoy your viddies..I do a lot of restoration vids too, and have a huge wall of sound with 50 units displayed...I think the internet and satellite hurt radio a lot.,..cheers
KHKK 104.1 The Hawk in Stockton, Modesto California still has DJ's. You can call and talk to them and give requests. Excellent classic rock station.
I can't even listen to radio any more. It used to be the radio in my car was on all the time. I didn't need to stinking tape deck or CD player - there were three or four stations I could listen to. Now - forget it. I'd sooner drive in silence than listen to the radio. Fortunately, I added an audio-in connection to my factory radio, repurposed an older smart phone into an MP3 player, loaded it with my rather substantial collection of music (in a wide variety of types), and never hear a commercial, a lame deejay 'joke', or any of that bullshit.
Radio's dead, as far as I'm concerned. It makes me sad, because it used to be awesome, but what passes for 'radio' today... ain't.
Nice rant! I just want to say about your rant, is that the stations that we have here is WGNY-FM's "Fox Oldies" and WBPM. They're continuing to do battle, because of competition. WBPM also plays a lot more 70's and the rest of the 80's with a little bit of 60's music just like WCBS-FM from 10 years ago when the station returned when it is now Classic Hits rather than oldies due to "Jack's" poor ratings after giving up the oldies from 2 years before. And then WGNY-FM's "Fox Oldies", it does sounded a lot like WCBS-FM circa 1982 and 1983, but they mixed it in with some classic rock elements along with a few classic hits to go with the oldies. When I hear Led Zeppelin, Jetro Tull, The Who or any other rock artists that are playing on an oldies station, it's not a great fit. The rest of the format is okay, but they're playing the same 200 oldies songs over and over and over and over again. Thanks to "Fox Oldies" playlist at:
wgny.tumegenie.com
If you look at the playlist, it is way too small, for example, WGNY-FM has a playlist of 200 or 300 songs instead of 10,000 songs. WLNG on the other hand has about 10,000 songs with live DJ's rather than voice tracking. WGNY-FM are all voice tracking except for mornings with Bob O, but I like Bob O and Joe Manglass, because they're terrific jocks, and even does voice tracked. Up in Albany, there's WROW's "Magic 590/100.5", but it sounds way better than "Fox Oldies", it has the same exact songs that "Fox Oldies" does, but they throw in a few soft AC and Middle of the Road standards on there instead of playing harder rock.
I also remember back in the glory days of Top 40 radio, WABC and WMCA are very successful Top 40 stations in New York City that dominated the market. It has terrific jocks. On WMCA, they had Joe O'Brien, Harry Harrison, Jack Spector, Ed Baer, Gary Stevens and B Mitchell Reed. Those were the best jocks back when they called it the "Good Guys". WABC on the other hand had Herb Oscar Anderson, along with such excellent jocks like Dan Ingram, Bruce Morrow (aka Cousin Bruce), Chuck Leonard, Ron Lundy, and other great jocks from that era. The music presentation was excellent for Top 40 stations. When the 70's came in, FM was a new thing, prior to that, WOR-FM was a successful Top 40 station from the Drake era where they're competing with its AM counterpart WABC. Later on, WXLO was still competing with WABC at the time when it was "99X". By 1971, a small AM Top 40 station in Hackensack, NJ called WWDJ was still battling out WABC at the time until 1974 when it flipped to religious. When the 80's came in, WABC flipped to talk and then CHR started to popped in, and then there was WCBS-FM when it was a very successful oldies station since it first started in 1972 and it was a staple for an oldies station in New York City playing 50's, 60's and 70's oldies. And then in the 90's, all of the stations were still in gear, and then, when it reached the new millennium, it went down the tubes. Thanks to computers and shortened playlists, all of the stations in the New York City area went down the drain. In today's world, the music on regular radio are still going downhill, internet stations are still popular and the oldies format lives on. Thanks to Rewound Radio and Sirius/XM's satellite radio like "50's on 5", "60's on 6" and "70's on 7".
WHVW in Hyde Park NY still carry the torch for good radio. They play 78 RPM records. They are cool.
They don't play them anymore. I have my other channel for airchecks. Go check these out. They have a bunch of Hudson Valley radio airchecks as well along with NYC and many more, along with classic CBS-FM when it was oldies.
And speaking of which, Dan Ingram has passed away since June 23rd. I will plan on posting Dan Ingram airchecks soon.
ua-cam.com/users/musicradio77prime
you are so right.So many stations around here I don't listen to anymore.Repeat the same garbage all day long.
AM is all talk around here. We still have a few FM stations with live DJs but even they have cut back. Many others are automated. My listening tastes are album oriented and not mainstream so I rarely tune in anymore. The heavy handed audio compression some stations use has taken the dynamics out of the music. That killed it for me.
Here in Ottawa Canada we only have talk on AM, no music.. & on FM band the Damn automated Jack fm system drives me nuts. Don't listen to any radio anymore.
HDR (IBOC) will be the last nail in the coffin.
radiotvphononut, I enjoy your channel. I just watched this video. Did you record repairing the 1940's Audio consloe? I'd love to see it!
Yeah that's the thing I don't like about radio now. Playing the sames songs over and over gets so annoying. Me as an old soul. I love different variety of old music from the 50s all the way to the 1980s. I like to hear some obscure music from those era's. And all the good disc jockeys pass away and of course three of the best ones are Casey Kasem, Wolfman Jack, and Shotgun Tom Kelly. Those were cool DJ's. Music has also gone down hill too. I hate mumble rap crap, and the new stupid pop stuff. It's just not music to me.
So true and its only gotten worse! Here in Wales UK same story, local station has about 30 songs, djs sound real but they work 7 days so I wonder about that. I toured CING bluegrass station in Hamilton in 1978. Phoned in in 2008, soon as I mentioned bluegrass they cut me off. Then Corus shut the station down.
Music of Your Life and other similar formats disappeared from the Sacramento market back in 2005. Mostly talk radio, hispanic and other ethnic stations. One station in Yuba city 40 miles north of here does play 70s hits, but it reduces power at sunset and fades in and out.
Several of my AM radios have RF amp stage to pull in distance stations and phono inputs, so I can plug in my RCA 45 player. Also, have AM/FM table radios. At least there is some music worth listening to on FM and I built a low powered Ramsey FM transmitter from a kit. Next on the build list is an AM transmitter kit.
A seller of tube radios at a local antique store uses a Ramsey AM transmitter to broadcast 40s music from Sirius radio to the sets.
I do understand what you are talking about. I grew up in Jackson in the 60s and worked as a weekend DJ at WJDX-FM. They mostly played elevator music on FM back then and the only reason for having an FM stations was to support subcarrier broadcashting of Muzak. When I moved to Waco TX on 67 I worked for 2 years as a camera man on a local TV station then became an engineer at a oldies FM station for several years before it was sold to a Spanish buyer who did not care if he made it into the ratings book because he would get most of the grocery and liquer store business by default being the only Spanish language station in town. Now there are 3. Clearchannel/iheart ownes the remaining 5 stations both am and fm. I now swll burgular alarm systems and cctv equipment and desogn home theater systems. Jim WB5OXQ (amateur radio call)
You’re right about “Brown Eyed Girl.” I cannot believe how often that one gets played! Interestingly I heard “Childhood’s End” by Pink Floyd playing in a restaurant a while ago. Imagine that, a restaurant with better music than an oldies station. MOD pizza streams its music and they’re pretty good as well with a wide of 60s through 90s music...
Talk radio on FM is a waste of a station. Talk sounds better on AM anyway.
It stunk when WRNO switched from classic rock to politics, and also when WLTS became WWL's simulcast. I also miss WTKL Kool 95.7. Local radio has really jumped the shark. 🦈
I look forward to your rants,I learn something new,and it saves me money.more rants please .what I mostly listen to on A M is kfi,talk radio .on F M I listen to 99.9 and k earth,101.1.the rest not so much.Riverside ,just outside L.A. 40 to 50 miles I think.
Hope you video the rebuild on that tube 1940s peace
In Brisbane we have a AM classic hits station
You hit the nail on the head, radiotvphononut. It's getting where even satellite and internet radio are like that. I listen to a lot of classic rock. Luckily, I have a decent classic rock station in my area.
My thoughts and feelings are with you my friend. I thought radio listening was a way of pulling us all together, not anymore I guess. Germany comes to mind, when I heard that parade music..... much respect to you.
Yep, have to agree! On the AM dial in my city, all talk. One is an agriculture farm station and when the markets close for the day, they play the classical country music, but you know that it's all done by a computer. You never hear a DJ, weather forecast, time of day, that sort of thing. Lots of repetition on the songs too.
did you ever get your radio station going bro
Same here in the UK in 2023 . AM is almost extinct . FM is dominated by constant modern pop , rock and rap .
Where I live we do just have one local FM station that plays old music and mature live djs . Not sure how long it will last though . They are struggling for the finance to keep going .
I listen mainly to an MP3 player connected to my 1950s console radio . At least that way I can choose what I listen to .
WDCB (FM) just outside Chicago. Jazz and Blues 24/7. Real announcers (cut above "DJ"'s) who know the music AND are active in the local jazz/blues scene. Stream on the internet.
I find the older I get the less tolerant I get with radio. AM is almost useless these days, all that's left is sports and mindless religious nonsense. Together with all the interference from computers and other electrical stuff, AM is finished. FM has dozens of stations still, 99% of which sound exactly the same, full of adverts. I was going to say that I don't own a single radio any more but I noticed my AV amplifier had both AM and FM. I don't think I have EVER switched the radio section on in 5 years! All I can say is thank goodness for internet radio. If you cannot find a station to listen to in fair to very good quality, then you are probably already dead! My choice of radio is the BBC (mostly radio 4) intelligent, wide range of content and most important, NO mindless adverts. Years ago I transferred all my CDs (many 100s) to Apple lossless files on my PC. Nice, at times to put it on auto pilot and let it play.
Michael Beeny There's one am station where I live that still plays music. It come in best on my car stereo.
BBC = British Bradcasting Comunist propaganda. You sir are out of date and out of touch with reality.
AM bcb radio is great where I am in Southern California
I can't agree with you more! The only good station worth listening too in my area is 90.3 WHRO which plays 24/7 classic music and they have very good programming. The rest of the stations are pretty much garbage. If they are any good, then they are way too repetitive and after a few days to a week I am sick of it. I heard from a guy at a work who does a local blues show on one of the school stations, tell me that the record companies are so greedy that stations can't afford more then 500 songs which causes the repetitiveness. I miss the radio of the 90s when there was good programming and DJs. It's a real shame. I'm going to have to build a low power AM and FM transmitter so I can play the music I love through my radios when I restore them. When ever I go to thrift stores I buy loads of DVD, VHS tapes, and CDs. I guess I will have to modify the radios on my older cars to have an AUX input so when they do destroy FM, I can at least plug in an external source and listen to what I like. Being an "audiofool", I cannot stand digital media such as MP3. My ears are very sensitive in the high frequency ranges and I can hear the compression very well to the point it's like finger nails on a chalk board! CDs are OK, but I have heard MP3 type compression on the radio when everyone switched over to digitized formats. At least with CD, the music still had that musical feel too it. Modern digitized formats just feel and sound bland to my ears. Worst is when stations start to EQ their source which makes it sound even worse on the receiving end. There is a station in my area called 96X, and they boost the bass and treble so the mid range is very lacking and sounds God awful on the receiving end. Radios have tone controls and EQs so 96X, PLEASE do everyone a favor and send the source out FLAT to the transmitter! It seems that no one understands what headroom is anymore and they compress the heck out of everything so there is no soft levels and peeks in the music being broadcasted. Radios have volume controls on them so headroom can be used properly. ;-)
+ESD180 I hope that WHRO's listeners support their advertisers, otherwise your area will wind up with another ESPN or Disney station.
WHRO is public broadcasting so I think it would be safe. :-)
We, in germany, lost AM entiely years ago, all station had been shut down by law, to free up the AM bands for new electronic plastic junk and let the electro-industry lower their standards for switched mode power supplies, as without AM radio they can pollute that frequency band with their poorly filtered DC-outputs, their cost savings are only 1-2cents per unit...but they convinced our politicians they go bankrupt within months if the government hold on to these standarts.
Also, most likely, the FM will go away by 2025 as far as i know, for just the same thing and DAB (our new useless radio format), also it failed by now, but they simply won´t give up and released the all new fancy DAB+ pretty much the same thing, but on other frequencies, just to let us buy new receivers. But also it doesn´t work, people instead keep using the FM and also still buying FM (car) radios. But i also think that the industry will put more force on that in the short run...as there´s more margin in that stuff. So it´s very likely we loose FM sooner...
But i´m prepared. i´ve several AM and FM (stereo) low wattage transmitters, bought over the years in order to let my radios play what i want, without needing to change/alter anything on the radio itself. Also i run some TV modulators for my pre-digital S/W types.
The 40s, 50s, 60s, 70, were the golden age of live AM radio and then in the 70s FM stereo became the norm because of better fidelity and being installed in cars, but it was still with live DJs. Times change and the development of portable music in cars and carry around devices meant less interest in radio. Music on the old AM car radios was pretty low-fi, the move to stereo sound from FM and cassettes and CDs with good speakers made listening to music in a car a lot more enjoyable. Since you can now listen to radio via satellite or internet, using broadcast radio is of declining interest. I do miss the rock-n-roll days of the goofy DJs, the contests, the Top 40 tunes, etc. but I actually prefer all the options we have today. Fortunately I live in a town with a little AM station that plays music from the 40s to the mid 60s that sounds just fine on my Firestone Air Chief in monophonic magnificence.
But I enjoyed this episode. 👍 Cheers.
we have a local radio station that play 60, 70, 80, and 90 music. it has all request lunch and weekend, Turntable Tuesday were listeners bring in they records to be play with all the pops and crackle. Friday is all 80"s
Keep the videos coming always enjoy them even the rent they're my favorites. Jackass is on eBay the way they can let somebody use your product unboxing and send it back to you and you have to eat it
Here in Adelaide South Australia in the 70's and 80's like 5KA and SSA FM used to play the whole album off a particular Artist. Now the same 10-15 songs played every hour. That's why i only listen to my local Community Radio, where there is bugger all repeating the same old songs!!!
question is it possible to make a small am modulator to run in old car or 12 volts to plug mp3 player into
I prefer old time radio broadcasts. I have thousands of hours o it and it beats ANYTHING else available!
Good commentary. Beautiful RCA board.
And speaking of stations, I started listening to KSRF's "K-Surf" and I listened to "Disco Saturday Night" every Saturday from 10 PM until 3 AM the next morning if I'm on the east coast where I live, and 7 PM until midnight on the west coast. I can listen to disco right up until the wee hours. Thanks to "Shango066" for giving me a plug on one of his videos. I can listen to disco and classic dance music from the glory days of Studio 54, WKTU's "Disco 92" and WBLS where Frankie Crocker brought to the table.
glad to hear your going to have a part 15 station.....maybe you could put it on the internet also....just a thought...thx for interesting shows
Wait...you were a kid in the 80's and 90's?? No offense, but I honestly thought by your voice that you were MUCH older.
Where are you located? I share all your sentiments completely. I’m in Kingsport, or stinksport rather. I had a good friend, radio dj our of whitesburg Kentucky and he had a very good show on 88.7. Wiley Quitoe was has radio name, otherwise known as Jim Webb. He was the last real dj I know. I could use some equipment, as you say, non eBay stuff. I’m originally from Wise Virginia and I don’t know any collectors around here. In fact all the radio phono nut old timer friends of mine are pushing up daisies now.
I know of only 2 stations on FM in my area that play classic music but the thing is they play 70's and 80's songs and they songs same exact song. hearing the song over and over again it ruins the song for me they mostly play Elton John, Micheal Jackson, The Eagles songs. I know one station that only play's two Beatles song Let it Be and Here comes the sun thats it. I mostly listen to AM but theres station one that has DJ's and has the news and plays songs from the 40's to the 80's or so. I listen to an online station called Rewound Radio that's decent the plays oldies from the 50's to 70's but seems like they play mostly 60's and 70's but I don't mind much. they have Djs and actually do song requests and a few other things and they have no commercials at least it's something.
I wonder is there any underground Radio stations playing the music you want to listen to.
I live in Connecticut. This happened to a local rock station we had in Hartford, 106.9 WCCC FM. It had been live local, and independently run for over forty years. Then in august of 2014, the station was sold, to a national syndicated religious station out of California. Klove, All of the Djs were fired. Now the station has no local personalities or other employees working there. It's all run by a computer system 3000 miles away. As far as I know this was done because of corporate greed. Now this station has no dedicated listeners, and is complete crap. That's why I went to Sirius.
These days, I only listen to the college stations on, "the left of the dial."
Yeah, I'm afraid Shango066 is right...most kids nowadays don't even listen to the radio, they just pull the song they wanna hear up on their smartphone and plug speakers into it & listen that way. Speaking of which, my friend David had an internet radio channel that featured stuff from the 40's through the 90's and he used all tube equipment right up to the digital converter to send the "signal" out over the internet. But, funding ran out for his station, too & it's now defunct.
I remember the local classical station (a commercial one) switching from classical to some kinda modern crap. formatchange.com/1051-wqrs-flips-from-classical-to-modern-rock-the-edge/
Fortunately, the library and most of the staff were able to take over an educational station and come back as a listener supported station.
I totally agree with every thing you said. In Winnipeg the A.M. stations are mostly talk radio or sports. We have one Punjab station and one classical station. On fm all the big stations use autoplay with the same songs maybe 500 repeated over and over. We have one small oldies station CJNU which plays a mix of 40's radio plays and easy listening.CJNU at least uses retired seniors to live broadcast. Hard to find 50's or 60's rock, soul or pop anymore on AM or FM where I live. Such a shame. Last time we had a station that played early rock exclusively was about 20 years ago.
It seems no matter what the format of an FM radio station, they do the same thing -- have a couple of hours worth of songs in "heavy rotation" and swap a few songs in and out of that set every week. I'm in Huntsville, AL and it seems no matter which format -- Top 40, Classic Rock, 50's/60's oldies (we had one mid 90s through early 2000s when they switched to 60's/70's which just was not the same). Even the classic country station near Hartselle, AL was doing that. There is plenty of old music to play and I've never known why stations do that. I have a very large music collection and can make a superior playlist compared to this type of station.
You are so right. Radio stations today are just business, not really into the physical interaction with the equipment . I remember when the weather stations had human voices, instead of computerized voices.
Even Real Rock Radio in St. Louis play the same songs over and over. Let me be guest DJ. Let me choose some different songs. Unless the audience prefers the limited "favorites".
I'm not that old, but I remember radio in the 80's and 90's having more diversity and actual DJ's. Around the end of the 90's everything started dropping off and music itself started becoming complete trash. I gave up on AM/FM radio and started listening to online radio stations or just mixing my own playlists. Even places like Spotify and Pandora have went down hill in recent years. I use to be able to log on to either of them and find music I've never heard before, but now they have either gave up licensing music they think no one wants to hear or have started pushing RIAA bands more. I miss being able to call up my local station, requesting a song, then shooting the crap with the DJ while they loaded up music. I imagine it was even cooler in the 70's.
I agree about the downfall of much of AM (or FM) broadcast radio, in many markets. The problem is that many are owned by big broadcasting chains whom, rather then giving the audience what they want, use a corporate "cook book" to program their stations. In Canada it's even worse because they have "Canadian Content" rules that they use to program the station, as well as the corporate programing "cook book", there is only so much Joanie Mitchell and Anne Murray one can stand, especially when they play the same songs three or more times a day. It's rather stupid because even taking Can Con rules into account there is still a huge variety of songs that they never play.
One thing that I cannot stand on AM radio are these phoney talk shows that are basically hour long infomercials, pedaling real estate, or retirement plans, or whatever, it borders on fraud. Another that I can't stand are the sports-talk stations, what a waste of kilowatts and bandwidth! Hours and hours of discussion about hockey, baseball, or fill in the blank games that have already been played and won or lost, and yet there is a network of stations broadcasting this crap, it must be a tax write off?
On the other hand I have been hearing more music stations on AM lately, there is one classic country station, and one pop/jazz standards station that I can pick up from Washington state.
Something worst happens here, no more am radio stations, just fm and all that they play is the biggest trash avaliable, but at the end at least i have a really good record colection, with classical and rock music from 50's, 60's, some 7" with all the good songs from that era, at least this..
I know I’m late for this video but I’m really young and love listening to records and old attack’s I live in Indiana there is no classic station just country that sounds like rap and rap there is no good fm or am station if u got Pandora that’s your best choice if u want to listen without that many adv
Yes, radio was nice to listen to in the old days. Not any more. What aggravates me no end here in CA is the mile-a-minute garbled "disclaimers" that follow some commercials.
It's all about the Benjamins! Grew up listening to the 50kw rock and roll stations from the east to the mid west. Just upgraded Mrs. RW's car and the radio had sattelite and HD radio built in. Never had either before. Listened to both, but was less than impressed with either one. The content of sattelite was OK, but the fidelity was not nowhere as good as analog FM. Digital sub carriers seem to like current AM stations. I'ts a race to the bottom! RW
It all started with ' "drake chenault" hit parade seventy' (a YT search will turn up some samples). Back then, the robot voices sounded faker, but it helped relieve the "content panic" that ensued when the FCC banned simulcasts in 1967.
KCUF Yeah we need variety good video Sir
Travis
Bring back wolfman jack and his 50k watt station just across the border...✔ He used to squash everyones stations 😂
T Stelle 250 kW?
Maybe an AI version of Wolfman Jack would work. Guess what! They’re using AI for putting the old DJ’s back from the dead. Dan Ingram, Ron Lundy, Chuck Leonard, Ed Baer, Harry Harrison, Joe O’Brien, Alan Freed, Charlie Greer, Roby Yonge, Frankie Crocker, and many more who were deceased years ago might be coming back in AI form.
I agree with you 100,000 percent !!! I would like some of them to go back to the old days between late 1950's to 1975 ish or so !!WABC out of New York was a big favorite of mine during the Early 1960s to the 1975 or so D.J. like Cousin Brucie Bruce Morrow and Dan Ingraham and a few other fella's there, plus a few local stations like WGNY out of Newburgh N.Y I remember when the North East Blackout happened about 1965 I was listening to Dan on WABC shortly after 5;00pm when my lights started to dim out and 15 minutes later they went out completely, Dan was saying on the radio how the records began playing slowly for a while just before everybody on the east coast lost electric !!! Nice old studio mixer by RCA you got there !! I'm salivating just looking at it!! HA HA nice find there !!
Yup, That's my era too!
This is why I do my own BETS-1 station in Canada(Toronto) to keep on the radio what I grew up with and I have my "own station" to listen to. With old jingles and everything and so many songs that it goes 24/7 and the same song may be heard once every 4 days or longer. I do go through a compressor though to get to near the volume of the other stations and provide protection from over modulation. I'm on 90.7 FM in Toronto Canada.
I grew up in England and remember radio in the 70s & 80s was a pleasure to listen to, much more entertaining.
Its the same here in the UK.
Business in general across the board is the same.
I'm expecting Am to dissapear anytime, and no doubt they'll blame it on digital.
Here in DC, lots of stations are still just as good: all live hosts, plenty of variety, at least 7 news stations I can name off the top of my head, and even live nighttime hosts on some stations
Sad but true. Local AM is dead around here except for "talk radio" or taking a feed from a FM station. And "HD" radio is going to be forced down our throats just like "digital TV." And now they are going to change frequencies for TV are changing .
The only radio station I listen to is WNAS the high school station. They have a 12,000 song playlist and carry local high school sports too. Commercial radio is a sad state. Same old 300 songs over and over. I'm guessing we're about the same age. I'm 43 and have seen the radio industry go to crap over the last 20 years.
Chad Quick WNAS New Albany? Heeeeeeey neeeighbour!
purpleravenstar howdy there. Yes it's the only terrestrial radio station worth listening to
920 am KVEC here in San Luis Obispo, California is still a local radio station owned by a big corporation. I think the big corporation got the hint to leave this station alone. It's mostly local news, local talk show and Rush Limbaugh show. Our area is mixed bag of center, left and right wingers, so the station reflects the diversity. We have a show on car repair( locals call in with their car problems) and a old time re-run radio show on Sundays. Back in the 1990's, when the station ownership changed, the entire programing changed and 2 things happened: outraged locals and low ratings. The station brought back their format and added couple great local programs. One program they should have is a swap meet on the air, such as, locals wanting to sell or buy tools, vintage furniture, radios, etc.
I miss the old station that i use to listen on shortwave in New Orleans years ago. WRNO . but it all the due of the powerful Dollar bill that is killing local radio stations. Fire Djs and have computers run it. I use to work for a AM station here in Michigan, And the owner would not have a computer in the building,she had file cabnets full papers. It shocked us when the he bought CD players and had them installed,becouse people wanted the new county . Way to easy to que up a CD I love records and tape. and the sound of bacon frying. Also before i forget the Que burns at the beginning of a track on a LP. Miss it. thanks for the great videos.
I miss those days of local AM for sure, they are pretty much gone for good, no one wants to hire talent anymore, it is cheaper to use canned music and DJs. We still have a few FM stations that simulcast on AM and they do have a few live DJs but the music on one of them is that 500 crap rock songs of all time, I can pretty much tell you what they will play next. BUT they do have some local live bands that they play a few times month. The other station still has DJs and plays a much better selection, they are a locally family owned operation and have been in the area since the 1940s. My dad actually worked for them back in the mid 50s. I have two part 15 transmitters setup and play my own music now, at least I get what I want to hear on the radios.
I too have made the switch from vintage radios to vintage record players, and for the same reason you did---there's just not much on the air nowadays worth listening to. And I believe you are correct when you say that analog AM will be gone, probably sooner than later. There will come a day when tuning across the AM band will be met with nothing more than static.