Most of my clients listen to a small, local easy listening station. They all know 101.1. FM.

Denon removed AM radio from their line a few year ago. Everyone in the training class agreed that it was a good idea. A couple of years later, AM reappeared.

I haven't attached an AM radio antenna in 7 years.

If manufacturers removed the tuner, they would be on the hook to offer a stand alone tuner. That would be an expensive sku alternative to a tuner chip in a receiver.

I can comment on this. You are correct, that everyone agreed in multiple CI trainings to remove the AM tuner; however once it was out, we received instant backlash for doing it. I had multiple conversations with CIs who moved to other lines because we no longer offered the AM tuner. The following year, the vocal majority at our CI trainings were asking for the tuner back.

If I remember correctly, part of the argument is that with internet radio there are some cases where sports are blacked out or the feed is delayed vs the TV broadcast, also many people in cottage country still don't have internet.

Just my 2 cents.

Thanks,

Paul
D+M Group

Slightly OT- who's doing Denon's CI training, this year- Jeff?

haha especially when 80 of them say "INVALID" or some other error message when you try to select them unless you have a specific audio format coming in.

I'd guess that an AVR would run about $5 less at retail by leaving out the AM/FM tuner.. maybe even less.

You think YOUR radio stations suck?
Several years ago I was in Saudi Arabia. Our client had provided us with a driver and we went out to do some shopping. The driver was Filipino, and he played a country music station all the time.

I finally asked him where he learned to like country music. He responded, "I don't like it, but it's the only station in English."


Paul,
Someone at D+M should do a white paper on how to actually get decent AM reception. This could become a five minute topic during the training, with the white paper handouts for anyone interested. Those people who want AM radio will then be well supported by your company.

If there was enough interest to more or less force you guys to bring it back, how about backing that up with instructions on how to make it work well? Connections of two wires from a nonexistent AM antenna is totally baffling to most installers.

For instance, there's an AM antenna by Terk that greatly improves AM reception, and in some areas doesn't even need to be connected to the receiver to improve the AM! (I've commented before that this is one of the few Terk antenna products that actually works.)

Years ago we did a system for the owner of the seahawks back then (Bruce Nordstrom)... Huge multi zone system in a penthose (tons of rebar and concrete. The system was in the middle of the living room... We didn't hook up an AM antennae.

He moves in and goes to listen to the game on AM because Bruce preferred the radio play-calling over the TV announcers play-calling... He calls up livid as hell!

We had a conduit from the MEC to a side wall. So ... we fished over to the side wall and up to the ceiling (which had a 2 foot high open space) & had to have a guy do a belly crawl in the ceiling above, and roto drill through the exterior concrete to get an AM antennae outside of the concrete and rebar!

A total nightmare, and cost us a ton of lost profits. After that I ask (do you listen to AM?).

NOW, that being said... A lot of AM ststions are now being streamed, right?

Someone has pointed out that streaming sometimes gets interrupted. I've heard of that. It's the internet!
AM radio involves selecting an input and pushing one button to go to a preset. And if, like that client, only one station is ever tuned in, that one preset button push isn't necessary.

What component lets you go to a single streaming source by only selecting an input?

The only time that AM radio is interrupted is the three to five second period at dawn and dusk, if the antenna aiming must be changed from interfering with other stations at night.

Not all stations have to do this. You know that company, Clear Channel? Well, "clear channel" used to only mean that no other AM station used that frequency in the entire continental US. KFI 640 (NBC) and KNX 1070 (CBS) used to be the two in Los Angeles. I used to listen to KOA, KOB, KOMO, KNBR, WWL, and WLS on AM in Los Angeles. Many of those can still be received here, though of course with a lot of noise.

AM is VERY receivable but noise is a great problem.

When it comes down to it (as you guys know), the placement of the AVR within the home, what the home is made out of and where the home is physically in relation to the station itself will all impact quality of the reception - these are all obviously things that really can't be changed from an install point of view. So in a situation where connecting the provided AM antenna to the unit and moving it around does not get you good reception to the stations your customer wants, really the only thing to be done is some kind of external/amplified antenna like you suggest above. Not sure what a white paper or extra training around it would cover.

Thanks,

Paul
D+M Group

Ernie just wants something he can proof read and criticize for grammatical errors :)-

I assume it would be grammatically written, and proofread. I expect documentation from D+M to be no less correct than every cereal box I've ever seen.

It could cover exactly the small amount of information that you mention, but in more detail. Placing an AVR directly above a satellite receiver, for instance, is an invitation to static. A weak signal is an invitation to static. Actually connecting the antenna terminal to ground, not necessarily the local power ground, can improve reception. That Terk antenna I mentioned can dramatically strengthen the signal, but it must be properly aimed and even tuned for best reception, so reception of several stations involves adjusting the antenna.

Yes, for a training, this is too much information for the entire crowd. That makes a paper an even better idea as it will present information that installers just don't hear about.

This information, with your name on it, makes your brand better because it offers support to those who want AM and it tells those who don't care about AM that you're on top of technology, yesterday's as well as today's. Also, an 'official' source for the fact that a person might have to decide on only ONE channel of AM will help the client lower his expectations, making the installer more successful.