On Sunday, March 16, 2003, at 10:22 PM, Tony LaFemina wrote: > Now, Frank Sinatra is aired on an AM station on Sunday morning, so > guess where our superior Bose system is tuned in. So much for > high-fidelity stereo etc...
Here's another off-topic remark brought to mind by your AM radio note. In the late 1970s there were various standards proposed by Motorola and several other smaller companies for improving AM radio sound and allowing stereo broadcasts. The FCC was given the job of picking the new standard. It took several years, and the 1980s rolled in and the Reagan years had started. This was when "deregulation" and "let the market decide" became the mantras of the day, so the FCC bowed to political pressure and decided to let the market decide. It didn't decide because nobody wanted to invest in technology that might be on the losing side in a few months. Finally, in the early 1990s, the Clinton administration stepped in and told them to pick a standard. They picked one, called C-Quam, but it was too late because FM had pretty much taken over the market for higher fidelity radio. Even now there are many AM stations in the US that broadcast in stereo with increased fidelity, but radios that can take advantage of it are rare. The JVC radio/CD player I installed in my car will do AM stereo, and occasionally I'll notice it. WFIA-900 is AM-stereo, and I've been told WHAS is also, but I dislike their programming, so I've never checked. | The next meeting of the Louisville Computer Society will | be March 25. The LCS Web page is <http://www.kymac.org>.
