I’m going to disagree. Up until the mid ‘70’s I was listening to WLS AM Chicago, from New Port Richey FL. Although it could only be done at night and it wasn’t a car radio, it was a little hand held portable.
The subject of my comments was car radios. When the car industry went to transistor radios, the performance in terms of reception (sensitivity, selectivity, noise rejection, etc.) slipped.
Many excellent radios have been built, starting in the late 1950s using transistors and, more recently, integrated circuit chips. I have owned many, and none of the radios I use now have vacuum tubes. But the early transistor radios for cars underperformed the vacuum tube-type radios they replaced.
Until you have experienced the 8 tube car radios which Chrysler corporation installed in its cars in the 1940s, you haven’t heard a real car radio. I believe these radios were made by Motorola. When I was in high school, my parents had a 1954 Buick with the V8 engine and a manual transmission and a 1947 DeSoto coupe with the flat head 6 and the “lift and clunk” fluid drive.
The 1947 DeSoto was my favourite car for a date. The bench seat, the fluid drive, the radio tuned to Randy’s Record Shop out of Nashville, TN and listening to Buddy Holley singing “Peggy Sue” through the 8" speaker in the dashboard with Little Iodine nestled on my shoulder, this was real living!!
Today’s cars have those awful bucket seats and both driver and passenger have to put on seat belts and shoulder harnesses or a buzzer sounds. The a.m. radio station out of Nashville that carried Randy’s Record Shop is gone. No station plays Buddy Holley singing “Peggy Sue” any more. Without a bench seat, an automatic transmission is useless. Oh, for the good old days of the DeSoto with its 8 tube a.m. radio and ‘lift and clunk’ transmission.
I hear you! Motorola was the first big name in car radios. The name combines Motor and Victrola. There’s likely some business relationship with RCA (Radio Corp. of America) Victor records.
None at all Motorola was formed by Bill Lear and Paul Galvin. According to Wiki, for what it’s worth.
Lear traded his business (Radio Coil) for one-third interest in Paul Galvin’s Galvin Manufacturing Company. At the time the radio had not yet been developed for use in automobiles. Lear worked with his friend Elmer Wavering to build the first car radio.[4] Lear partnered with Howard Gates of Zenith; Lear designed the circuit and layout, Gates did the metal work and Lear completed the assembly. Galvin initially dismissed the prototype, but later ordered a 200-unit production run. Galvin and Lear mulled over names for the product on a cross-country trip and came up with “Motorola”, which was a portmanteau of “motor” and the then popular suffix “-ola” used with audio equipment of the time (for example “Victrola”). The product was such a success that Galvin changed the name of the entire company to Motorola.
Suspect that a natural EMP (Electro Magnetic Pulse) would be too well shielded from affecting an automobile’s radio.
Nice discussion. You made me remember that wonder bar radio in my old Pontiac. In Minnesota, Little Rock was the night time station of choice. Reception at night now has been pretty bad. Never know what Will come in from kc, Detroit, Chicago, cinncinati, etc. all over the place.
KAAY 1090 Little Rock. Rock music on a big signal into WI in the 1960s. Nowadays it’s a lot weaker here up north, probably due to a change in the antenna array. Programming seems to be largely gospel music.
Try KC on 710, Detroit 760, Chicago on 720, 780, 890, 1000, 1160, Cincy on 700. For me, most of the programming on AM these days is distressingly narrowly political and/or conspiratorial and comes from only a few sources. The days of AM radio stations having their own unique personalities and programming are mostly over. WSM Nashville, 650, still is a country powerhouse and the home of the Grand Ol’ Opry since the 1920s.
I still remember my dismay when the first transistor car radios came out in the early 1960s. Since then, the car radios have gotten better, but the stations, not so much. We are in a sunspot high now, but in the next couple years they will be diminishing, and long distance AM signals will improve.
That–and an assortment of fire and brimstone Bible-Thumpers–were the reasons why I didn’t enjoy listening to NYC-metro radio stations on Sunday nights, back in the '60s. Luckily, I stumbled-across WOWO (Ft. Wayne, Indiana… “The Summit City”) as a good source for rock music.
I guess Indiana must be pretty flat if Ft. Wayne was the “summit” in that state. NJ is definitely not known for high elevations, but the highest point in NJ more than twice the elevation of Ft. Wayne.
Based on what you stated, I guess that it wouldn’t be possible for me to pick-up WOWO’s signal in NJ nowadays. Can you receive WOWO’s signal wherever you are located?
Yeah I really miss Bruce Williams. Quite a variety of subjects that came from business to cars. Alway no nonsense advice.
We also had a local at night, Al malmberg that was interesting. Into flying but general interest. Somewhere in the radio station transfers and buyouts, they got rid of him and wrecked the line up.
Around here the only thumping are broadcasts of church services on Sunday morning. Sunday night we used to have Lutheran vespers is all. Even while in ft. Wayne, don’t think I ever tuned in to a local. Mostly Chicago at that point.
AM radio ? That still exists ?
Yeah, unless you just want to listen to music or npr, am is the choice for talk. As the stations are consolidated, it will only get worse.
I get WOWO here in Duluth, MN, but not very well. Wikipedia says they reduced their nighttime power in 1999. That is a big factor. For you, having WLIB in NYC on the same frequency (1190) means it would be a rare thing to get WOWO in NJ. Back in the day, WOWO was 50kw at night. Now 9.8kw. And possibly there was not a station near you on 1190.
I guess that it’s now common practice for stations to reduce their signal strength at night. I live ~45 miles from Manhattan, and while I receive NYC AM stations just fine during the day, late at night their signals are weak.
I no longer bother with AM, in my area, conspiracy, religious, or Spanish language. Similar with over the air TV, when cable went out after a hurricane, hooked up an antenna. Something like 60 channels., all but three were either religious or Spanish language.
In the 1980s on a rental car was surprised and amazed to detect STEREO from an AM station!
Had no idea such stations existed.
Same background noise as a typical AM broadcast but with discernable stereo separation!
Surprised thathe FCC allowed WOWO to broadcast at 50kw after sunset.
If “Clear Channel” designation, oneed not reduce power?
Overall, I agree, but if I want to get accurate reports of current road conditions, there is an “all-news” AM station in Manhattan which is very helpful, and they broadcast these reports ~ every 8 minutes–when they aren’t doing news stories.
In the US the max transmitter power on the AM broadcast band has been 50,000 watts for many decades. A station on an FCC-designated Clear Channel could generally run 50kw day and night.
From an interesting wikipedia article about WOWO:
On March 29, 1941, Westinghouse completed the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) licensing of WOWO’s famous clear-channel signal on 1190, making it class I-B station, operating around the clock at 50,000 watts. These clear-channel broadcasts made WOWO a popular radio superstation of sorts throughout the Eastern United States. Although there were other radio stations broadcasting on 1190 kHz during daylight hours, they were required by the FCC either to cease broadcasting at sunset or to reduce their power at night to make way for WOWO’s clear-channel signal. For instance, WLIB went on the air in New York in 1942 at AM 1190. It was required to sign-off at sunset time in Fort Wayne, so it would not interfere with WOWO’s broadcasts.
Programming for the station changed several times. As network programming shifted from radio to television in the 1950s, WOWO’s network affiliations were discontinued in 1956. The station switched to playing popular music, along with news, sports and talk. In the 1960s and 70s, WOWO was a popular music station, not just in the Fort Wayne area, but after sunset, around the Midwest and Eastern U.S.