AM Radio: A Lifeline in Many Ways

Summers there were hot Local farmers produced tomatoes apricots cherries apples and walnuts And let me tell you that there was no place cooler than the middle of a lush walnut orchard on a hot August day My family owned a small cannery and packed fruit and vegetables around the clock from June through OctoberThere were not many entertainment options for teenagers back in the late 60s to early 70s All of us worked during the day either in the fields or the cannery and most of us played a little baseball in the afternoon But once the sun set behind the Gabilan Range to the west well you had to make your own fun We figured out how to do thatOne of the pillars of Friday and Saturday nights in the summer was the quotroad partyquot We39d all meet in town because the only way to effectively plan anything back then was in person Phones were unreliable and the concept of emails texts or social media platforms was something from a futuristic movieOnce gathered we would select one of dozens of backroads that deadended into some remote cattle pasture or hay field back our cars and trucks mine was a mustard yellow 1970 Ford Ranchero into a semicircle open the doors and windows and tune our radios to KFRCAM the most powerful Top 40 radio station coming out of San FranciscoWe39d talk and laugh and brag and complain about our jobs and families and how we were all going to get out of this onehorse town quotone of these daysquotamp160 Yes there was beer involved Almost exclusively Coors Banquet Beer in a can the only variety Coors brewed then But it was the tunes on the AM radio the only kind of station we could pull in so far from the big city that drew us altogether cowboys and townies jocks and brains boys and girlsI39ve been reading news coverage about carmakers eliminating AM radios for a variety of reasons most consumers can stream AM stations now and AM signals conflict with the on board computer systems of new cars to name just twoThis strikes me as an incredibly bad idea AM radio is still the top audio source in the US with more than double the audience of streaming platforms Moreover as the National Association of Broadcasters points out AM radio serves a vital role in the nation39s emergency infrastructure Just ask the residents of Lahaina where they got the most timely and accurate information about last month39s firestorm There39s no doubt that many of them were in their cars listening to AM radio emergency broadcasts as they fled the quickly moving infernoI understand that radio has changed over the decades We don39t gather around the radio to listen to Fibber McGee and Molly or FDR39s quotFireside Chatsquot any more But for tens of millions of Americans AM radio is an integral connection to their communities and a popular way to access news sports and entertainmentAnd for teenagers in Hollister and the thousands of farm towns across the country AM radio is still very likely to be the uniting force of quotroad partiesquot on warm summer nightsClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillageorgMyersBizNet

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AM Radio: A Lifeline in Many Ways

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Joe Annotti

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AM Radio: A Lifeline in Many Ways

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