Clear channel" stations

Greg Vincent · From: Folsom, CA USA

Over on the "What drew you to country music?" thread, a few posters made reference to the old AM "clear channel" stations. What does that term mean?

GV

[This message was edited by Greg Vincent on 16 November 2001 at 08:37 AM.]

Red Kilby · From: Pueblo, CO, USA * R.I.P.

Clear Channel is a major corporation buying up ,what seems like all the radio stations in the USA. I live in Pueblo, Co. and they came in here and offered the powers that be alot of money for our local country station and oldies station on FM and the talk radio on AM. And now it is syndacated not live anymore. It sucks<<<<<. They are bad news, by the time you as the listner knows whats going on its too late, they will have done the bad deed. Take care and I hope this helps to answer your question???

Greg Vincent · From: Folsom, CA USA

Thanks Red. The posts I was referring to above seemed to be talking about the 50's & 60's era. Was this company around back then?

--GV

Brad Bechtel · From: San Francisco, CA

The FCC was established by the Communications Act of 1934, and was given the responsibility of making a "fair, efficient and equitible distribution of radio service" to the various communities of the United States. In order to meet this responsibility, and in recognition of the physical laws which govern AM radio propagation, the FCC established three basic classes of AM stations (Clear Channel, Regional, and Local), each of which operates on specified frequencies, or channels There have been some changes since then, but the main features of the plan have remained in place. Here is a quick summary of the three types of AM stations:

* Clear channels. On these channels, only one station, called the "dominant" station, was permitted to operate during nighttime hours in order to provide service to a wide area. Footnote 2. A typical clear channel station, transmitting with power of 50 kilowatts into an omnidirectional antenna, provides nighttime skywave service to an area approximately 750 miles in radius. Some examples of clear channel stations are WCBS in New York, WGN in Chicago, WHO in Des Moines and KFI in Los Angeles.

* Regional channels. On these channels several stations are permitted to operate during nighttime hours, protecting each others' nighttime service areas by use of directional antennas. As the name implies, stations on regional channels provide nighttime service to moderately-sized or "regional" areas.

* Local channels. Essentially, all stations on local channels are permitted to operate during nighttime hours with the same facilities as employed during the daytime. The nighttime service of such stations is limited to very small "local" areas by massive interference from the numerous other stations on the channel.

See the FCC's page on this for more information.

Jack Stoner · From: Kansas City, MO

WSM, Nashville was a "clear channel" station.

Greg Vincent · From: Folsom, CA USA

750 mile radius! Wow!
Thanks Brad. That's what I was after.
As a kid in Sacramento I was always amazed that I could pull in KFI on my transistor radio all the way from Los Angeles. Now I know that it's because KFI was a clear channel staion!

GV

MALCOLM KIRBY · From: Crofton, KY USA

WSM-AM is clear channel, but, it doesn't come in worth a darn in the evening hours, 75 miles north of Nashville. Kinda weird, huh? Of course I'm referring to car radio reception.

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

I used to get WSM in Baltimore real good, but that was 30 years ago. Nowadays, "bootleg" stations are regularly pushing up to 500 KW (that's half a MILLION watts!) out of Cuba and Mexico. When I was a kid, It wasn't uncommon to get stations 300 miles away on a crystal set! But today, there are more stations, stronger stations, and most of 'em stay on 24-7. Even back in the 60's, a lotta stations shut down at midnight, and some were "daylight only", and couldn't broadcast between sunset and sunrise.

Yup, the airways today are just like the highways...cluttered!

Chip Fossa · From: Monson, MA, USA (deceased)

I remember as a young kid myself, with my
little playing-card size transistor radio,
on some clear summer nights, could pick up
WWVA [I think these were the call letters]
from Wheeling, West Virginia. It was a lot
of bluegrass and country, but mostly bluegrass.
So I was picking this up in Springfield, MA.
Wheeling is probably within that 750 mile radius, tho. But I didn't know about this
radius distance until now. To me, as a dumb
kid, pulling in this far-away station was like landing on another planet.

Interesting thread on radio. I still love radio. I like hearing my favorite songs on radio, actually, more than on my home sound system. When I hear them on the radio, I know that the rest of the world may be listening to and digging the same thing I am, at the same moment. On my home system, with no one around but me, the music sometimes
almost feels wasted....there oughta be more ears hearing this stuff. Oh well...FWIW.

ChipsAhoy

[This message was edited by CHIP FOSSA on 17 November 2001 at 09:12 PM.]

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

Kudos, Chip! That's a very profound statement in your last paragraph.

Sunny Callen · From: Las Vegas NV USA

Brad - Excellent answer!

Paul Graupp · From: Macon Ga USA

Chip; I want to put a Mega-Ditto on that comment as well. Nice thinking !!

Regards, Paul

Chip Fossa · From: Monson, MA, USA (deceased)

Thanks Donny & Paul.
This Forum is so unreal. It opens up long-lost and forgotten thoughts, sometimes.

I can remember, also, actually calling up some friends [as young kids] and saying, "Hey..
put on WDRC or WHYN or WMAS" or whatever, when a great tune was coming on over the air waves.

I just loved the notion that, 'jee', maybe this song, with it's great melody and storyline, is getting out to the world. It really gave me a thrill. And still does.

Thanks fellas...I just know, you know, what
I'm getting at.

ChipsAhoy

[This message was edited by CHIP FOSSA on 17 November 2001 at 09:07 PM.]

[This message was edited by CHIP FOSSA on 17 November 2001 at 09:09 PM.]

Jerry Hayes · From: Virginia Beach, Va.

I listen to the Grand Ol' Opry every saturday night on the way to the gig and it comes in pretty clear here. I live in the Norfolk/Portsmouth/Virginia Beach are of Southern Virginia. Sometimes we'll get a little interference if the weather's not too good. I can't get it on my stereo at home but in my car or van it comes in loud and clear. I remember when I was a kid there were stations with transmitters in Mexico like XER B or F, I forgot which in Del Rio Texas. Also there was one in Rosarito Beach Mexico which came from a San Diego Station. I think they had 250,000 watts or something like that!

------------------
Have a good 'un! JH U-12

Bill Hamner · From: Hueytown,AL USA

Jerry,
XERF in Del Rio. I remember it well.
Bill

David Weaver · From: Aurora, CO USA

Here is a link to a lengthy and informative discussion that was held earlier this summer.
http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum10/HTML/001337.html

There is a lot of good information about this very subject.

Best Regards

------------------
Sho-Bud Pro II Custom, Sierra Artist S-10, Fessenden S-10, Session 2000

Gary Harris · From: Hendersonville, TN, USA

Yes, WSM AM is a clear channel station. Over the years they clearly state this fact several times a day. Radio stations that are clear channel stations must perform a service for their listeners. This is my understanding. Just music is not good enough. The service that WSM performs is information about farming for...you guessed it, farmers. They have market reports, the subject being grains and animals. Kind of boring for us city slickers but important to the most important class of people in this country, again the farmers. May God bless them.

Tim Rowley · From: Pinconning, MI, USA

Speaking of clear channel AM stations, we have always been able to receive a number of them up here in northern Michigan, such as WBZ, WLW, WLS, WWVA, WRVA, KXEL, KYW, CHUM, etc. I listened to all of these stations, and others, as a boy. WSM from Nashville TN generally comes in very clear late at night (but not always, last Saturday night it didn't come in at all). Sometimes WLAC from Nashville will come in when WSM won't. When I was a young man back in the early 1970's I used to drive around at night and listen to WWL from New Orleans on my car radio, it came in very well. So did WBAP from Fort Worth and both of these 50,000 watt stations are a lot farther away than 750 miles.

Probably part of this good reception was/is due to the factor of AM "skip" in which the signal is reflected back to earth by the ionosphere (hope I'm sayin' that right). The "skip" principle also applies to Citizens Band radio which is also an AM signal. It used to be, and may still be, that certain renegade CB'ers with powerful (and illegal) linear amplifiers and large beam-type antennae could be heard all over the nation late at night via "skip".

The old tube radios from the 1930's and 1940's really seem to pull in the clear channels. My late mother's old mid-1940's Setchell-Carlson radio will receive about anything east of the Mississippi and a couple of stations farther west as well, and it has that good old deep tone. I just received a wood-cabinet Montgomery Ward table model of early 1950's vintage which also shows good promise once a few repairs are made and some defective tubes are replaced. It has the spring clip for hooking up an external longwire antenna for more "reach". Too bad that most modern radios aren't set up to receive long-distance AM signals like the old ones were. A good clear old-fashioned AM signal will travel a lot farther than any FM signal, and has a certain pleasantness to it that is missing from the typical FM sound.

Just running off at the mouth again...

Tim R.

Chip Fossa · From: Monson, MA, USA (deceased)

WWWOOOWWW!!!
This radio stuff is just great! You cats
know your stuff.

Rich Paton · From: Santa Maria, CA.,

Broadcast automation & market-targeted program analysis ruined radio, both AM & FM, starting in the early/mid 1970's. Along with this came the mentality of "Radio doesn't sell records; it sells tires". MTV then hammered most of the remaining coffin nails down. Ironically, MTV also ruined itself. Its first year or so featured lots of well thought out, artistically savvy videos. But that didn't last long. Probably due to the same reason TV shows went down the tubes...when the commercials became more expensive to produce than did the shows themselves, kaboom. A music video can easily cost 10X as much as recording the single cut of the "music" itself.
Our local PBS FM station has Jazz from 11:00 PM until 6:00 AM. It's automated, but with contrived "DJ" chatter programmed in. This sounds contentious, especially when you factor in the pompous, social elite tone of voice of these phoney PBS "DJ"s.
It's about as inspiring as a sack full of wet mice.

Gary Harris · From: Hendersonville, TN, USA

First of all let me say that I know very little about electronics. A few years ago I bought a new radio for my car and I was very dissapointed with the AM pickup. I took it back to the store and was told that the manufacturers focused more on the FM side of the radio than the AM, meaning the FM side was more important to them than the AM Side.
When I was a kid, we had a Tru Tone radio sold by Western Auto. It had a great sound and I loved it.