History repeats itself?

Letter to the editor in the April 15, 1987, Radio World:

I’ve heard all the garbage I can stand about the AM stereo “issue.”  The problem?

1.  Motorola and Kahn each was a monopoly.

2.  The stations don’t want to waste $6,000 on the wrong system.

3.  The FCC is afraid it will be sued by the “sore loser” in a standard decision.

4. The receiver makers are afraid of wasting millions of the wrong system.

5.  The listeners don’t know anything about AM stereo.

Does any of this sound vaguely familiar regarding some AM “improvement” schemes currently being used?  Those that fail to learn from history are destined to repeat it, Bob.

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One thought on “History repeats itself?”

  1. The problem is that the current “improvement scheme” is NOT an improvement without spending a lot of money as to transmission and reception, and then it is far worse than C-Quam, which at least if setup properly did work. If the C-Quam decoder chip would have gone into every AM car radio, there would have been a following. My MW-5 had C-Quam running and when the Gates 5 replaced it, the AM stereo was discontinued about a year later. There were many irate listeners who called to complain, mainly older demographic, but they were ignored by management. The IBOC freight train was not stopping and a BE AM6 suddenly showed up to broadcast the buzz saw. History DOES indeed repeat itself.

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