AM Revitalization: The End of Skywave?

[TheFugitive]

So some formalized proposals to revitalize the AM broadcast band have come forth
from the FCC.

One of these proposals involves neutering the nighttime signals of some legendary
"clear channel" AM stations like KDKA, WLW and WABC.

Those stations for around ninety years have enjoyed protected status....i.e. no other
stations were allowed to use their frequencies after sundown.  That effectively cleared
the band for them to cover very wide areas of territory (38 states in the case of KDKA)

The FCC is now proposing to power them down to something under 50,000 watts at
night, so that new local stations can be licensed on those frequencies in other cities.
The idea is to provide more local service at the expense of breadth of broadcast coverage.

Obviously the companies which own these stations are not a fan of the proposal, and have
started up a bunch of online petitions opposing the FCC move.   One of their arguments is
that we might need powerful stations to cover vast broadcast areas in the event of some
unthinkable national emergency.

Back in the day people in rural areas would routinely listen to these big powerhouse stations
for programming like the Grand Ole Opry and Jamboree USA.  But the AM skywave audience
for those shows must be very small by now.  Even truckers have moved to satellite radio for
the most part.