Analyzing FM and AM radio

The radio is used more than just for listening to music. We use different aspects of the radio for things like getting updates on the weather, local traffic, sports broadcasts, news, and advertisements. FM and AM radio plays a huge role in today’s radio industry.  Before getting into the differences and influence they have, we must first understand what each of them are, how they work, and what they do.

We can start out by defining AM radio as Amplitude Modulation. The numbers on these stations are the thousands of cycles per second of electromagnetic energy. They range from 535 to 1705kilohertz which is another way to say that there are 117 different stations to choose from AM radio. According to A Science Odyssey: Radio Transmission, “With AM radio, the amplitude, or overall strength, of the signal is varied to incorporate the sound information.”

Now that we know about the technology in AM radio, let’s look at the history of it. Before broadcasting begun, early radios used telegraphic signal to transmit messages in the late 1800’s by Gugliemo Marconi. The establishment of broadcast service was conducted by Lee Deforest. He invented a vacuum that allowed multiple radio stations, something that the early radios did not do. Today this is known as Amplitude Modulation.

FM or Frequency Modulation, was invented a few years later in 1933 by Edwin Howard Armstrong.  His input made it possible for the advancement of the signal by managing the static noise.       

Technologically, FM radio has many differences from AM radio. The frequency of the carrier signal is varied. It is measured in millions of cycles per seconds between 88 and 108 megahertz.  FM radio sends high fidelity signals which make static decrease unlike AM radio. 

Now that we have the technological differences aside, we can now focus on the variation of content between AM and FM radio.

Starting with AM radio, an article called Why I listen to AM Radio Stations by Aaron Tadeo writes “There are lots of news programs that update me about what’s going on around me.” The AM station 4SB1071 writes on their online page the content they play including local content.  Other stations include talk radio, sports radio, and religious radio. News can be locally, nationally, and even internationally on AM radio stations. 

The content of FM radio consists of mostly music. Different genres have specific stations like country, hip hop, pop, gospel, and oldies.

Captive audiences like Alaskan communities mostly listen to AM stations because they are “captive” and uses it as a primary way for reports.  AM Radio Listening writes, “The audience of public AM stations is plummeting at an average rate of 10 percent each year”. This chart shows the comparison of younger and older audiences to AM and FM radio.

After doing the research on Amplitude Modulation and Frequency Modulation, I have come to find many differences. This includes technologically, audience, historically, and content. All of these make it possible for radio as we know it today and its influence it has on our culture.