Peter Vogel’s Tech Wise
As another Vancouver frequency goes dark, is the writing on the proverbial wall for AM/FM radio, asks Peter Vogel. (Pexels)
Our recent columns on the future of AM radio (“Streaming technologies are bypassing old-school radio”: Jan. 14, and “Is this the end of the line for AM radio?”: Oct. 31) sparked reader interest.
A local development is also providing fodder for the contentious topic. That would be the somewhat surprising announcement from Corus Entertainment concerning longtime AM ratings powerhouse radio station CKNW and its move down the dial from 980 to 730.
While the Corus/CKNW spin on the story is a technical one, about a better and clearer signal, especially in the downtown core, there is no sugar-coating the fact this represents attrition in the AM radio space. It makes for one fewer station on a dial where stations began disappearing several years ago (think Bloomberg 1410, which was once one of Canada’s top radio stations as 1410 CFUN, and Team1040 Sports Radio at 1040) with frequencies going silent.
In the case of the CKNW move from 980 to 730, the latter having been a popular all-traffic station (and in an earlier life, as CKLG, the home of Top 40 radio in Vancouver), the 980 frequency will go dark and the station will rebrand as 730 CKNW. Yes, in a technical sense the move is a good one. The 980 frequency was very poor in much of the downtown peninsula, mainly because the transmitter and antenna are off Highway 15 in Cloverdale, whereas the 730 site is substantially closer.
This move also acknowledges that Canada’s experiment with so-called HD Radio is mostly a failure. HD Radio allows companies to piggyback AM stations on the signals of their FM stations. CKNW, for instance, can be found on HD-capable radios as a sub-station on the signal from CFMI Rock 101. While most modern cars have HD-capable radios, the use of such feeds simply hasn’t resonated with the public.
A reader wanted to know why AM radio still existed, adding that surely FM is much better. Here’s how I answered him.
Such a good question. Answering it, however, is somewhat technical.
AM signals have a greater reach for a given power, especially at night. The saying is that a dozen or so AM stations could cover all or much of North America.
However, your real question may be why the AM band stations aren’t using FM. The answer lies in bandwidth. An FM station has quite a wide bandwidth, measured in megahertz. An AM station has a bandwidth measured in kilohertz. The current AM band would be too narrow to accommodate many stations in FM mode.
You are right, FM is much better, precisely because of the extra bandwidth available—about 200 kHz (0.2 MHz). AM stations don’t have that width, nor do they need it for mostly voice programming. Music, especially in stereo, needs that extra width. In addition, the FM band, up around 100 megahertz, is well above most terrestrial sources of radio noise.
Back to that CKNW move again. AM transmitters are costly to operate, and technicians trained in their operation and maintenance are increasingly difficult to come by. Shutting down one of the two AM frequencies, in this case 980, represents a substantial savings for Corus, which is in a struggle to stave off bankruptcy. It is unlikely a bidder will emerge to take over the 980 frequency.
As I stated in one of my previous columns, give it a decade or so, and what we know as the AM band will be no more. Will we see a digital replacement, as there is now in parts of Europe? Maybe. This requires entirely new gear in our cars. Might the AM band be given over to hyperlocal citizen stations, as is happening in the Netherlands, ostensibly with regulatory oversight but in practice a modern version of anything-goes pirate radio? Again, maybe.
Running a Windows-based desktop or laptop computer? Microsoft is rolling out PC Manager, a useful tool to easily tune up your computer. There have been tools of this type previously (CCleaner, FileHippo come to mind), but you can be sure this new tool is properly vetted and tested.
It’s available through the Microsoft app store. It can run in the background, or you can use it manually to carry out a performance boost, check for and clean up duplicate files (I was surprised to find around 50 gigs of doubles in my test machine), carry out a “deep cleanup” to remove superfluous files, see what runs on machine startup and turn off needless tasks, and run a check for particularly large files.
Use PC Manager to quickly restore your taskbar’s appearance, reset your browser’s default settings, and restore default apps if these have become replaced over time.
PC Manager only operates on Windows 10 and 11. Highly recommended.
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