The Power of the A.M.
What cheap dependable technology has been around for over a century and still influences our culture? Good old A.M. Radio.
Their Electronic Base
A.M. Radio is the home of the political talkers; you’d need to be in a media blackout to not know who Limbaugh, Beck and Hannity are. Maybe you have heard George Noory’s late night supernatural talk. Many of these commentators have crossed over to cable television, but their base remains the place they all started, A.M. Radio.
Critical Content Scheduled
AM delivers bread and butter content, news, traffic, weather and sports. If you’re late for work, the traffic and weather is critical content. Every eighth minute update.
The Young think AM is boring, talk only and bad fidelity for music. If young folks are listening to AM, it’s because they learn to use traffic and weather to get to work on time.
For the old folks, AM is a way to connect with those that think like them, a audio water cooler where political opinion forms the emotions of the gullible / governable. If so-and-so says the sky is green, the sky is green.
Plus, some folks get a rush out of yelling their opinion out through the national magic talkin’ box.
Magic Randomness(r) of late night dial twiddling -
The First Surfing Device
A.M. Radios were the first widely available media surfing device. Even a cheap A.M. Radio can receive stations from thousands of miles away. Sitting around the kitchen table late at night twirling the dial slowly to hear stations from another state or maybe even another continent. Lying in bed with a portable radio tuned to a station 500 miles away like it’s next door. Foreign languages, time shifted syndicated programming, and of course the distant / local traffic, weather and sports. Space compressed through atmospheric interference.
Real Cheap and Real Good
A.M. is perhaps the cheapest electronic communication technology you can buy, with battery operated (barely) radios available at cut-rate stores. A functional A.M. Radio can be had for less than five dollars. There is a large variation of builds, for the cheapest portable to a fine install in a new car. Powered by small batteries, AC or handcrank. Ubiquitous, functional and informative.
