Why are radio shows on FM better than AM?

Question

Ever notice that most good popular music are on FM radio and not on AM? Why?

Answer 1

If u want technical answer thn ill tell u tht """FM is better than AM for Voice""", believe me im a Telecom engineer.

Answer 2

AM is more for talk radio and FM is mostly music... atleast where im from

Answer 3

FM is a wider signal, a higher signal to noise ratio and is higher in frequency so there is less environmental noise.

AM is very susceptible to environmental noises, signal fading, interference from distant stations, and a very narrow bandwidth.

Several years ago, there was an experiment to make AM stereo, but it never caught on.

As a result, talk radio is found on AM and music is on FM in most markets.

Answer 4

Primarily due to the fact that FM has better sound quality/fidelity than AM does.

When FM was first introduced, AM radio was king and Top 40 formats were created on AM stations. Most folks said "FM will never work," and some station owners turned their licenses back in to the FCC.

It's harder to sustain a mass audience on AM music stations with so many FM music stations. To survive financially, stations on AM began using news or talk to attract an audience.

However, I know that some music does work on AM stations,

usually it's a niche such as gospel, classic country or easy listening..formats not available elsewhere in the market.

Answer 5

you can actuall hear fm and it has music on it. Am is just for talking

Answer 6

This makes me feel old. But short and sweet: FM offers superior audio quality, for a number of reasons (but let's not get technical). This finally started to be noticed by operators in the early to mid '70s. Since then FM has eaten AM's lunch and relagated it to talk programming.

If you're just now noticing this, you don't need a technical answer, but Gearboxes's is as good as any and better than most.

-a guy named duh

Answer 7

Radio signals, both AM and FM typically carry farther at night due to temperature layering of the atmosphere, which causes the radio waves heading to outer space reflect back down to earth. It's an atmospheric skip effect

I had bought the same radio you got. The built-in FM transmitter sucks, and the FM modulator was just as worthless. The only reason I still have it was that my car's head deck went out, and the new head deck I bought has an aux port on the front.

So, if you like the service, go for it. Otherwise, don't bother. It won't get any better without you spending any more money.

Answer 8

i like AM radio at night, i listen to coast to coast, radio sucks these days anyway its all easy listening or oldies stations

AM advantage is that at night time you can pick up stations hundreds of miles away, Sometimes I listen to New York Stations I live in DC

Answer 9

Because as radioboy said... in the late 1970s and 1980s people discovered that the audio quality of a Fm signal was better and could play songs in stereo at the time which Am was only mono at the time (Am did see AM stereo in the late 1980s but bombed as a last ditch effort to save AM)

Also at the time, Fm radio prices were coming down, the radios were more plentiful and radio stations were very cheap to put on the air compared to a AM station hince the wholesale move from Am to Fm in about a 5 year span.

And to think, AM used to have all the popular music and FM was the land of easy listening music only for many years and in 5 years the flip flop happened with AM stations going for low dollar prices and now featuring mainly talk and ethnic but country/americana does still play a heavy musical format role on Am still (as well as radio Disney)