Years ago before wifi, digital OTA TV, and 5G phone service were the norm, I could listen to AM radio morning, day, and night. 580 WCHS came in crystal clear. AM 680 WKAZ-AM came in super strong during the day. (Night was a different story, as they are forced to turn their power due to regulations which favor 50,000 “clear channel” stations as with 680 WPTF out of Raleigh, NC.)

Night listening of AM radio has been one of my favorite pasttimes for years. Back in the day when I first discoivered AM DXing, I listened to WOWO (primarily for the Fort Wayne Komets games in the old IHL), WRVA out of Richmond (primarily for Coast To Coast AM), WGN Chigago, WSM (now one of only two AM stations which are prinarily music-oriented), and WSB out of Atlanta (primarily for the Atlanta Braves as well as “Wrestling With Jim Ross”).

Shortly after the advent of wifi broadband as well as the ATSC 1.0 digitial TV format, I noticed that reception of my favorite “clear channel” stations and some local AM stations was not as good as it used to me. I really didn’t think much of it at the time.

A couple years ago, I pluggin in my Soiny ICF-9650W AM/FM tabletop radio in the living room. I was blown away at the performance of the radio, and I also noticed it was pulling in AM stations very strongly, giving 650 WSM such a great fidelity sound that I thought it sounded like FM quality. In addition, I hooked an AM transmitter to my phone and played Rock 92 from tuneIn, and the Sony radio produced such an AMAZING high fidelity sound over AM that it rivaled some FM stations. Also, the Sony ICF-9650W pulled in a lot of “clear channels” and made them sound great. Thanks to pulling in WGN, I was able to discover a Chicago-area hard rock band called Last Generation who performed live from the WGN studios. In addition, WGN allowed me to enjoy listening to the Blackhawks and the White Sox.

However, my local TV market has switched from ATSC 1.0 to ATSC 3.0, and now AM reception is horrible. It’s as if governments and corporations are trying to deliberately destroy the AM radio market.

If that were the case, then why?

It all boils down to politics.

Back in the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan’s FCC commissioner did away with the “Fairness Doctrine,” an oppressive rule which said if you allowed somebody to have a radio show where they espoused their political beliefs, they were required to have a guest or co-host with opposing political beliefs.

Before the Fairness Doctrine had been repealed, AM radio stations primarily had a music format. Others has news. However, music was the primary format.

Shortly after the Fairness Doctrine was repealed, AM station owners determined that it would save them money if they abandoned the music format (they have to pay licensing fees and royalties for all songs) and switch to a cheaper format: talk radio and news.

When I was growing up, 580 WCHS was Charleston’s oldies music station, and because WCHS has a pretty strong signal for the area, it reached a wide audience. Shortly after the end of the Fairness Doctrine, the oldies format moved to 107.3 FM, and 580 WCHS began an all news/talk format, with the nationally-syndicted Rush Limbaugh Show as its flagship program. To this day, 580 WCHS’ primary shows include MetroNews Talkline with Hoppy Kercheval (mornings) and Dave Weekley (afternoons), the Dan Bongino Show, MeteoNews Sportsline, Red Eye Radio, and America in the Morning, with Kim Komando on weekends. For over 50 years, WCHS AM has also been Charleston’s home for Cincinnati Reds games.

680 AM WKAZ was Charleston’s local country music station during my youth, using the call letters WCAW. Since then, it has changed formats like people change their underwear. It has been an oldies station, a “singers and standards” station (featuring music from people such as Frank Sinatra), and even an affiliate of Bloomberg Radio. As I write this, WKAZ-AM is once again back to a country music format and is acting as a repeater for 107.3 WKAZ-FM.

Ok, sorry for digressing. Now, why are the government and huge corporations working in tandem to destroy AM radio?

Because corporate liberals hate free speech.

During the years of the Bush Administration, liberals were throwing a bitch fit over “GOP shills” – Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, etc. – serving as propaganda mouthpieces for the GOP and Bush. Truth is, people like Limbaugh and O’Reilly were not GOP shills. They were shills for the neocon establishment who allowed 9/11 to happen on purpose – as called for in Project for a New American Century – as a pretext to invade the Middle East to appease their Zionist Israeli overlords.

You see, Democrats and Republicans are one and the same. They all serve the same lobbyists. They all serve the same global elite. They all serve to be lapdogs and Zionist shills. (I have frequently seen many Democrats claim that they support Palestinian rights in one breath, then with another breath claim that anybody who opposes, criticizes, or even mentions Zionism is an anti-semite.)

In 2004, liberals united and created a new syndicated radio network called Air America. It featured a “who’s who” of fake progressives such as Thom Hartmann, Stephanie Miller, and Randi Rhodes. From the onset, ratings for Air America were dismal, and by 2010, it was gone.

Shortly after the Democrats gained a majority in the House and Senate in the 2006 mid-term elections, many fake progressives called for the House and Senate to draft legislation which would have made the Fairness Doctrine the law of the land. Such laws were never given much consideration, as such a law would have violated the First Amendment. (A law which says “you must grant free speech to the opposing side, or you are not allowed to talk” would have run afoul of the First Amendment which prevents government from infringing on the freedom of speech.)

Now that liberals and fake progressives have discovered that the Fairness Doctrine would have been thrown out by today’s current Supreme Court which has a conservative majority, they have moved on to Plan B: the planned destruction of the AM radio spectrum.

I have seen many news articles and videos which have called for a forced digital conversion of AM and FM stations. A forced digital radio conversion would be a very bad idea. Why? Because of all the millions of vintage AM-only and AM/FM radios in homes and shops.

Not everybody would know how to add a digital conversion kit to an old vacuum tube AM radio or even a transistorized AM/FM radio. And not everybody is handy with a soldering iron.

So what would happen to those vintage AM-only and AM/FM radios if there were indeed a forced digital radio conversion?

Just about all those vintage radios would end up thrown in the trash, causing the plastic cases to pollute the ground and the environment.

As it currently stands, the reception quality of AM radio has taken a HUGE nosedive in the wake of 2.7GHz/5.4GHz wireless broadband, 5G cellphone service, and ATSC 1.0 and ATSC 3.0 digital OTA television. Add to the fact that people’s home and now using much more electricity than before thanks to super-powered gaming consoles from Microsoft and Sony, and AM radio is being treated as technology’s Fredo Corleone and a redheaded stepchild all rolled into one.