Travel east of San Antonio to Gonzales, Tex., and you’ll find an FM translator fed by a 1kw Class C AM that serves as the local home for Texas Public Radio. For those tuned to the AM signal during the noon hour on Monday, a topic of particular importance took up 25 minutes of air time — “saving” AM radio.
The guest on TPR’s The Source, hosted by David Martin Davies? None other than the President/CEO of the NAB.
It was Curtis LeGeyt who participated in the daily hour-long call-in talk program that gives listeners in San Antonio and surrounding communities the opportunity to call and connect with newsmaker guests.
For LeGeyt, the discussion centered on the rise of electric vehicles and how AM radio “could be left behind” by the “EV revolution.” He appeared by phone from Washington, D.C., and shared “the problem” that several manufacturers have been clear the future of their automobiles won’t include AM radios. “That just flies in the face of consumer demand,” LeGeyt said.
As such, the last several months has seen “tremendous outreach” from AM radio listeners, imploring Congress and vehicle manufacturers to keep kHz-band receivers in their products.
Davies noted that some 62 million Americans listen to AM radio monthly, according to Nielsen, with LeGeyt noting how “staggering” the numbers are.
The NAB believes some 82 million Americans tune to AM radio every month, noting that streaming platforms “would bend over backwards for that type of listenership, and we’ve got it.”
Caller “David” noted how AM radio bring back memories of KJR and KTAC in Seattle and Tacoma, and how the arrival of an FM radio station changed the paradigm of listening. Is nostalgia enough to save AM technology? No, LeGeyt replied when asked by Davies, noting that AM’s importance is rooted in the present.
LeGeyt also noted that some 600 AM radio stations are offering non-English programming, providing multicultural listeners content they cannot receive anywhere else. “Nostalgia is a big part of AM’s story, but the compelling reasons to keep AM radio in the car now is because it is extremely relevant,” LeGeyt said.
TPR is mainly heard on FM radio signals in the San Antonio market, where it has a 1.7 share of the audience, far behind commercial Talk stations WOAI-AM 1200 and KTSA-AM 550, properties of iHeartMedia and Alpha Media, respectively. KTSA enjoys an FM translator at 107.1 MHz while WOAI, like many iHeartMedia spoken word AMs, does not.
That said, the importance of AM radio in the birthplace of iHeartMedia precedesor Clear Channel Communications extends beyond WOAI. Here, KTKR-AM “The Ticket” is a popular Sports Talk choice, while Oldies can be heard on Cox Media Group’s KONO-AM. Tejano music has long been a draw for KEDA-AM.
To listen to LeGeyt’s appearance on TPR in full, please click here:
https://www.tpr.org/podcast/the-source/2023-11-25/saving-am-radio
