The Federal Communications Commission will allow U.S. AM radio station owners to convert their stations to all-digital HD Radio transmissions if they choose to do so.
The commission voted unanimously in favor today at its October open meeting.
Industry observers will be watching to see if any owners large or small take this step. All HD Radio receivers in the market are capable of receiving the MA3 signals; but making this switch would end analog listening on the given frequency.
RADIO WORLD
Lou Robbins — Admin/Editor | Airchecks
KTOY | KVAC (WA-1974) | KDFL (WA-1975) | KTTX (TX- 1976) | KWHI (TX-1976) | KONP (WA-1977) | KBAM (WA-1978) | KJUN (WA-1983) | KRPM (WA-1984) | KAMT (WA-1986) | KASY (WA-1988) | KBRD (WA-1989) | KTAC (WA-1990) | KMTT (WA-1991) | KOOL (AZ-1994)
Will digital AM stations have sky waves and ground waves and still interfere with each other? Will some be directional? Will there still be daytimers required? What are the advantages besides higher fidelity?
Will there be additional channels for each station? AM 850 HD2, HD3?
Thousands of new channels and still no room for my perfect oldies station!
If AM stations start dropping their analog signals, we can have fun tuning in more out of town stations at night – at least for awhile.