Amazing! For the first time, an article at NiemanLab gets EVERYTHING right and reaches the correct conclusion.
Mathew Jordan, a prof of media studies, writes the 100-year history of AM radio and gets every detail right. He’s talking about a “law” being considered by congress that would require automakers to keep the AM band on car radios instead of devoting them solely to Wifi and streaming. The advocates of the law are the few giant providers of current automatic AM programming, mostly iHeart, formerly Clear Channel.
The advocates are claiming that AM is necessary in rural areas and for emergencies. This used to be true, but since the majority of stations are now robots carrying iHeart trash talk, it’s not really valid now.
Technically, AM is the only mode that can serve remote areas because it naturally spans longer distances and isn’t blocked by mountains or valleys. This hasn’t changed since the programming turned to trash.
Jordan argues that AM could be useful again if FCC restored the Fairness Doctrine and started requiring more real public service. As I’ve been ranting every day for 17 years, the Fairness Doctrine created real journalism and real entertainment during its 50 years of enforcement.
REAL JOURNALISM AND REAL ENTERTAINMENT WERE PROFITABLE. Advertisers enjoyed reaching ALL the population, not just a cultish 30% of the population. Advertisers used to believe, for some mysterious reason, that soap cleaned everyone’s skin, not just Democrat skin, and food filled everyone’s bellies, not just Democrat bellies.
When the FD was abolished by the same monsters who now want to preserve AM, real journalism and real entertainment disappeared from both TV and radio, and everything became useless noise like newspapers.
Good work by Mathew Jordan!
Polistra's Mill 