Did AM radio sound better than it does now?

I started wondering this recently. I have a box set of New York Philharmonic broadcasts and many were recorded right off the air by amateur enthusiasts. Some sound downright wonderful, plump and even dynamic. AM radio I hear sounds nothing like this.

I know that the AM section in radios now is an afterthought which might be part of what I'm hearing. Were all those tubes on the receiving end helping that much?

Thanks,
Dan C

 

Sure they were!!

I have some reels of tape that I recorded in 1973 off a tube Am/FM console we used to have. They sound AMAZING, even tho they were made on a Lafayette Recorder that wasnt high end by any mans. Full Bodied, rich sound. Compressed, yes, because ALL Radio Stations did that, and still do.

 

It depends what you're listening on. I have a very old Knight kit tube tuner (with tubes missing, evil laugh) that will totally suprise you as far as the AM band. I had to make sure the selector wasn't slipping or maybe I had the wrong band tuned in.

The FM portion of it wasn't that sensitive, and wasn't all that loud either. AM comes through (most any channel) like an FM broadcast! Great dynamics too. You would not believe it's AM.

I have several tuners that are solid state, and althoughthey perform very well, AM radio is NOT the strongest suit in the deck, for obvious reasons.

A lot of older audio enthusiasts are falling in love with AM radio again. There was a great article in AudioXpress' Nov 2002 issue that delt with just this, and also recommended different powered loop antennas.

AM is great. At 9PM, I can drive around town and on a misty night, I can hear New Jersey, New York stations clearly. AM does the distance with very little power. Many of them DO have to cut power by 1/3 or so at night for this reason. The atmosphere carries AM at night very quickly.

 

Dan,

AM Radio is actually capable of reasonably good fidelity but, there are problems with both Tuners and the Broadcasters themselves (processing).

I have a ca. 1957 Heathkit Tube AM Tuner. This is a wide band tuner and with a strong signal and a good sounding broadcast station, the sound is actually quite surprising.

Bob

 

Without knowing the technical details, I think so. But I think it may have more to do with the quality and strength of what AM radio broadcasters had back then. Now it's all done on the cheap, and all the effort is put into FM.

 

Grant,

Back in the 1950's and 60's most AM transmitters were tube based which yielded a warmer, fatter sound than today's solid state transmitters. All that aside, there was a growing trend in the 60's to add compression in order to make stations sound louder. This was especially true of lower power AM stations or stations with a highly directional signal pattern who were attempting to extend their night-time coverage areas as Urban areas grew in geographic size. The big non-directional 50Kw stations were/are less inclined to add the compression at the transmitter in order to sound louder - they did/do not have to. My Father worked as Broadcast Engineer in Radio from 1939 until his retirement in 1985 so, I grew up with this stuff.

Back in the 60's and 70's even FM stations were less processed than they are today.

Bob

 

Very interesting history, Bob. I remember the processing that WROV AM used to do; I first learned what a Volumax sounded like when I worked at that station. One second's pause in my spiel and I heard the hiss coming up like a steam engine!

WROV was a 1kw day / 250w night operation. Conelrad restrictions, my boss told me. At night he called it a "walkie-talkie on a stick." But the signal was clean, clear, and strong. Not stereo, but I bet the response was pretty flat up to about 8k. They had a wizard engineer and a very old tube transmitter. We were housed in a set of Quonset huts!

 

Gardo,

My Dad's station was 1290khz, 5Kw 24 hours a day, Directional - different patterns - Day and Night. The Nighttime pattern looked like a shotgun straight North over the city. He tinkered with the sound so it sounded good but was still loud without over processing. The key was modulation versus compression - driving the transmitter, just right. As I was growing up, I used to go to transmitter site and help him as his willing assistant. The adjustments that he made were, at best, delicate I would say. Some stations were so compressed that when the DJ breathed, you thought the whole station was going to sucked right out through the microphone! Somehow my Dad was able to avoid this type of over-processed sound.

Thanks for sharing your experience!

Bob

 

Steve,

Cool and very interesting. My Dad always said that adjustment of the sound of an AM station was more of a art versus an FM station because of how the transmitter behaved and because of the phase adjustments, etc.

Bob

 

WROV was 1240khz, and its pattern changed at night, too. What was the deal with Conelrad and the power restrictions? The science of AM power regulations was always pretty arcane to me.

I wish I had some airchecks of my golden AM summer--at least, from the END of the summer. I started out pretty grotty, but got better quickly under the tutelage of Bart Prater, the Wizard of Rock. He was a Billboard Medium Market "Best DJ" in the mid-70's. Truly a genius. Some of his one-liners were astonishing.

"That's the Who, on Mark Eden Records, with the Magic Bust."

And he had a voice to die for. Not big, deep pipes, but a great baritone with terrific presence and a slight rasp.

But all the jocks sounded terrific on WROV. That signal made 'em all burnished and powerful.

 

Gardo,

The reason for the power restrictions at night is sky wave conditions and the FCC regs on protecting other stations coverage areas for non-interference. 1240khz is considered by the FCC to be a local channel and therefore with set day and night power levels - meant to only cover the market being served. For instance, 1290 is a Regional channel. The regs are different with regard to power but, protection of other stations is still required.

I worked at the station as a part-time weekend DJ for 6 years - on the all-night shift. Thankfully, the format was Top 40!

Bob

 

Thanks. I'm still not sure what the precursor to the Emergency Broadcast System had to do with it all, but your local/regional explanation makes perfect sense.

Any airchecks from your Golden Days?

 

Me, too. Nothing like it for excitement and "theatre of the mind" (and glands, on occasion ).

 

Gardo,

I do not understand the EBS connection but, I do know the FCC regs. Certain stations were designated as EBS stations for their markets but that had nothing to do with reduction of power at night, to the best of my knowledge.

I did have air-checks but they self-destructed over the years, sadly!

Bob

 

You probably wouldn't like it much now. Pop music radio is mostly done on computers, and the DJ usually doesn't even get to hear the whole record, just the intro and ending. <SG manfully refrains from commenting about the music...>

 

To answer the original posters question:

Yes!! I do believe AM sounded better when it was tube based.

Listen to these recordings of a 1961 radio broadcast and decide for yourself:

http://www.wrr101.com/headlines/kats_karavan.shtml

 

I really don't think AM radio sounds bad given the better suited playback. That Knight Tube tuner I have is more like an AM decoder because NOTHING sounds like that. Nothing I've ever owned.

But my interest in AM is strictly talk formatted. True though, the signal is helplessly compressed anyways.

One of the stations I used to work for was most tube oriented than any station I was at. Their FM and AM transmitter was =all= tube. When the announcers would talk, if it was quiet enough, we could hear the humming from the signal out of the optimod.

They still run an AM signal simulcasting the FM. It's an albatross they wear around their neck, because 3 radio groups can't get rid of an already licensed AM tranny. Still, people used to call as far as Toledo. "How's Cape Cod?" I bet they aren't even watching the plate settings after dark.

We had an engineer that I still see occasionally. Skip. One tall order of Cherokee Native American. A genius. He still smells like smalls or cigars. His bloodline is very forgiving of tabacco use. The place where the tower still sits has a large room in concrete that hums and blows like an air hanger. Lots of power, and only in a bog in Orleans Mass.

 

Yup. Sadly most radio is automated. At night the voice you hear on the radio is really home in bed, having recorded his/her show during the day. One local radio guy flat out told me "I hate it. It ain't radio". But it is now.
Dan C

 

Yup. One day, my show was 5 hours long. The next, it was 20 minutes long because they moved in the automation. It takes literally 15-20 minutes to do 5 hours. You move in and out of breaks only, like a time machiene blazing through the hours.

The DJ hears the last part of each song, does segues, moves onto the next one. It simulates what will go on hours later. It works, and now radio doesn't have to be a mindless job, because it IS now a mindless job.

 

Several years ago the hardware industry developed a set of high performance AM receiver chip sets that greatly improved upon current circuit designs, broad frequency response and good noise characteristics and low distortion. Not one hardware vender actually put the chip sets into a production unit. Most AM stations have pulled the stereo exciters in order to max out the volume of the mono transmissins. Soon, every AM station can add a digital stereo service on top of the existing broadcast. It will utilize the same data reduction approach taken by XM Radio. Demonstrations sound very good; but I expect that the typical poor production practices (excessive compression, eq and limiting) will kill its potential.

Richard.

 

That's my vocal compressor, bass compressor and sometimes electric guitar compressor.

 

I'm not sure how you can tell if it sounded better then than now, as AM radio (at least in my listening area) now is pretty much music free, and consists solely of sports and right wing talk shows. I guess in some of the larger markets there are still AM stations that actually play music?