Is AM All-Digital Right for Your Station?
It could be if you are ready for the needed investment in time and effort
BY RICK GREENHUT ⋅ RADIO WORLD
The author is director of broadcast business development for HD Radio intellectual property holder Xperi.
There is an important AM digital comments filing approaching on Monday. That means it is time to get serious about all-digital AM broadcasting.
And that means that with all you may have heard recently about the pros and cons of going all-digital with your AM station, it’s about time for some plain talk about what kind of AM station this conversion could potentially benefit, and where it might not yet make financial sense.
First, in the interest of full disclosure, as a 50-year broadcast veteran with a large collection of working antique AM radios, I have to admit to mixed feelings about any AM station dropping their analog signal for all-digital. I was that kid in the Midwest who grew up listening at night to WABC in New York, WCFL in Chicago, KDKA in Pittsburgh, WLW in Cincinnati, WOAI in San Antonio and so many other 50 kW clear channel stations.
