Back in the mid 80’s, a big to-do was made about AM stereo being the next Big Thing. What happened? Do radios routinely come with AM stereo and it isn’t mentioned, or what?
I know my car radios have come with AM stereo at least since my 1986 Dodge. Although obviously, cheap portable radios don’t.
After several years of fighting over standards, the broadcast industry finally got together and launched AM stereo to great public indifference. IMHO there were two reasons for the general apathy:
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FM radio had already become the de facto standard for broadcast music. The AM band had already slid over to news, talk and sports – none of which particularly benefitted from stereo.
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AM stereo didn’t do anything for the quiality problems of AM radio. You still had interference, static, different signals day and night, etc. on AM. The only difference was that they were assaulting both ears. In fact, since static could now vary between one speaker and the other, sometimes the crappy sound quality was even MORE irritating.
Despite this, most better home and car stereos have AM stereo, just like FM. And stations that made the investment to upgrade their transmitters aren’t going to rip the equipment out.
Try http://www.amstereoradio.com
Digital radio is what’s cooking now.
http://www.stereophile.com/shownews.cgi?933
Gives me a chance to shamelessly plug my favorite magazine.