Ron:

We have had discussion on the list before about this sort of thing, so I
can't resist one brief comment here:

Being from western New York, I'm sure you remember the great days of WKBW, a
m 1520.  It was a true pleasure to listen to folks like Joey Reynolds, Sandy
Beach, Dan Nevreth, and Jack Armstrong.  Of course, this does not diminish
other great A M stations like CKLW, WLS, WCFL, WABC, and the two A M top-40
giants in Philadelphia, W F I L, and W I B G.

Since I just acquired one of the new-gen Victor Reader Streams, I have now
switched almost completely to internet radio.  Although it's a far cry from
the radio we all used to enjoy, at least there's some variety there, and you
don't have to listen to all of the commercials and other stuff that seems to
characterize much of commercial A M and F M radio today.

As they say:  "The times, they are achangin!".

Tom Behler: KB8TYJ


-----Original Message-----
From: For blind ham radio operators [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Ron Canazzi
Sent: Friday, September 19, 2014 10:28 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: What AM radio stations are you guys listening too for fun
DXing? Was Re: Am Fm table radios?

Hi Ron,

I am afraid to say I don't think there's much to listen to unless you just
want to check out propagation.  As you say syndication--a natural outgrowth
of consolidation--has put an end to personality type radio and a lot of
local variety programming.

But to quote Johnny Cash: "But there was a time"--when I used to be the
biggest AM Dx-er.  I used to use a variety of radios from my old pre wordl
war II (a relic from my father's youth) Westinghouse upright--which was so
old that the knobs had broken off and I used to use (and I kid you not) a
metal screw driver to insert into the slots where the tuning knob used to be
all the way to my 1980's Icon R71-A general coverage receiver which had a
great AM broadcast portion.  I used to tune up and down the dial to hear
such stations as KMOX, St. 
Louis, 1120
AM, KSL, Salt Lake City, 1160 AM, WOAI, San Antonio Texas, 1200 AM, and the
big catch in the wee hours of the morning KFI, Los Angeles, 640 AM.  
I live in the Western New York State area.

As a teenager, I used to call DX stations which were rather significant toll
calls even at late hours such as the Jerry Williams show on WBZ boston 1030
AM and the Larry Glick show also on WBZ.  The Nightcap program which could
be heard on WWl, New Orleans at 870 and the Larry King show before it got to
Buffalo on a station out of Miami, I believe it was WQAM at 620, but I'm not
sure.  In those days, because of the fairness doctrine, the guests were
diverse and real discussion took place--not just the blow hard mentality of
the Premier Radio model adopted by political hacks of all stripes.

Even during the daytime, when I and my parents were going on a trip of say
100 miles or so, you could tune around in the 'graveyard' area between 1230
Am and 1490 AM and hear a bunch of local stations with  all sorts of diverse
programming.  Now-of-days, when you do that, you're likely to hear 14 or 15
versions of Rush Limbaugh or some 'Music of your life' type format--all
playing the same thing. What a bummer!

Oh for the good old days!  I guess I'm showing my age.