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Comment by mountainofdeath | Hacker News Reader

I mean, AM radio is basically dead (as is FM radio). Most of the stations are foreign language, talk-shows and and in at least one case in the USA, overt foreign propaganda by an unfriendly nation. I imagine the radio spectrum can be repurposed for better uses.

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>I mean, AM radio is basically dead

Not where I am, yes some stations have the crazies on them. But the small City where I live has an AM Station. At least daily, it interviews a local politicians. All other stations focus on the politicians in the nearby State Capital or National Politics.

It also plays a bit of middle, right and left wing shows along with music from the 50s. And on weekend evenings it plays old serials from the 20s--40s.

So it is rather unique and gets decent ratings due to its programming.

I listen to AM radio every day along with very large numbers of other people. It's far from dead, at least in my part of the US.

> talk-shows

This is what the whole thing is about.

Sports radio is still very popular, and exists mainly on AM radio.

Really? Here in Germany there are a ton of stations left that send over radio.

I still use mine.

There are a lot of safety/whether/info stations run by the government. I don't carry a smartphone so that can be really valuable.

> AM radio is basically dead (as is FM radio)

This is pretty out of touch. Drive-time AM radio is still a HUGE market in certain places. Think Rush Limbaugh et al. Although, that might be what you mean by "overt foreign propaganda by an unfriendly nation", the fact remains that it's 1) hugely popular by the numbers, and 2) directly beneficial to the certain congressional vermin.

One might suspect that this is the real reason they are pushing it?

It seems to be bipartisan, so no.

Yah. In reading more, it appears centered a lot around emergency alerting infrastructure.

Rush Limbaugh is basically dead.

Oh no, I mean literal state propaganda. The parent company of Russia Today leased an AM radio station to spout literal Russian propaganda (English language of course).

* Radio Sputnik for 6 hours a day* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KCXL#Broadcast_of_Radio_Sputni...

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