A form of drama is unfolding in the USA right now, where many people are fans of AM frequencies on which they used to listen to their radio. The cause is the arrival of electric cars on the market, which interfere with the reception of AM frequencies. For more information, I refer you to this fascinating article in the Washington Post.

I can already hear you saying, “The end of FM radio soon? Certainly not, because FM offers ease of broadcasting in terms of quality and reception that neither AM frequencies, due to the poor sound emission quality, nor terrestrial digital radio or satellite broadcasting, which are too expensive to implement and have too many reception limitations, can match.

For terrestrial digital radio, this currently requires sharing frequencies on the same line, which is called mutualization. The problem is that if you are not perfectly in the reception axis or if something like a large shopping center or factory is between you and the transmitter, the reception cuts out. It will be necessary to wait for the possibility of individual wide-band broadcasting transmitters to solve this problem and move away from mutualization to personal transmitters for each station with acceptable purchase and implementation costs and widespread digital radio receivers to democratize and popularize it.

FM has also evolved significantly since its creation, and broadcasting standards now allow it to compete with terrestrial digital radio at a lower cost and, depending on the transmitter’s power, cover very large areas. It is also a technique that is easy to deploy at a state level.

I’ll also share some secrets that allow FM radio to rival the technical quality of digital radios. This includes owning a digital table for broadcasting, and there are many options available. This will allow, when terrestrial digital radio becomes popular, only the antenna and amplifier equipment to be changed.

What makes radio successful is primarily the fact that the public can dream about the voices they hear without knowing their faces. This element of mystery is the lifeblood of radio, even if today GoPro cameras are proliferating in studios. The charm is not broken, and it remains to be hoped that all AM radios switch to FM to leave no listener orphaned.

On our side, after many years on the web, we are quickly approaching FM, and if you want to get a little idea of the style and audio quality we will have, just connect to the Bayou Blue Radio player. The only thing missing is the news, but it will become central in the “Music & News” version on Bayou Blue Radio… The voice of jazz!

Thierry De Clemensat
Editor in chief