[dctoedt]

AM radio broadcasts can reach somewhat farther than FM (and way farther at night on clear channels); that might matter in an emergency.

As a middle-schooler living in the Washington DC area, I would regularly pick up WLS in Chicago, some 700 miles away, on my little crystal set at night.

[quickthrower2]

A crystal set needs no battery power, the signal is enough to power the audio. I had fun making one with those 20 in 1 electronics toys as a kid. I think that one didn't tune so you heard multiple stations at once.

[dredmorbius]

There are various kinds of crystal sets.

I don't know the theory, though I did make one as a child.

It was the non-tuning type, and would pull in only the strongest-broadcasting local AM channel.

It's also possible to create a tuner which can pull in a specific station (or more accurately: frequency). These can also operate without a battery, though battery-powered radio is of course more versatile.

[olyjohn]

From the Portland area, I could pick up KGO from San Fransisco at night. Never cared for the content as a kid, but it was still fascinating!

[tjohns]

If you're not familiar with the term, look up "clear-channel station". (Not to be confused with the advertising company of the same name.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clear-channel_station

https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Station-Albums/WSM/Cle...

Stations like KGO receive special status to protect against interference, and in return are required to transmit 10,000 Watts minimum. Most transmit at 50,000 Watts. The idea was to make sure even the most remote parts of the country with no local stations would be able to receive one of the clear-channel stations at night.

[dredmorbius]

This creates a problem, and even risk, where clear-channel (in the generic sense, not of the firm that appropriated the name, see: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clear-channel_station>) stations whose signals may reach 1,000 miles or further at night will often report on local traffic and weather conditions using entirely generic terminology: "in the local area", "around town", "in the suburbs", "metro area", "twin cities", "tri-city area", "quad cities" (there are numerous of each), etc.

That might work if your station's reach is the typical 10--50 miles of an American FM broadcast (notable exception: San Francisco's KQED which can be picked up by direct line-of-sight at least 120 miles away as one approaches Yosemite on CA-120 near and east of Groveland, CA.

There's a similar issue I find with online news items from local broadcast (usually television) stations, which similarly utterly fail to note the city and state in which a story occurs, though at least in this case it's usually possible to punch the call signs into Wikipedia to find out where the station is located, something that's not always possible traveling remote regions by car at night. (Though to be fair, far more possible now than it was several decades ago.)

[hinata08]

yeah, Europe's AM bands were fun at night

I can still get music radio from Algeria on AM, or rock, sport and news from the UK (I believe from stations emitting from Swansea and London) I used to listen to Deutschlandfunk, France Inter, BBC4 LW on the LW band (only the latter is still active today, others were switched off in the 2010s)

Also, I love that radio is a media that is so hard to regulate. There is always some novelty to what you can listen. There used to be rock-music pirate radios in the 60s, emitting from the international waters. Some small countries like Luxembourg and Monaco would also have commercial radios to break government monopolies from neighboring countries. Then there were the pirate FM radios in the 70s and 80s

Monaco is still broadcasting some stations that don't comply with French regulations on music (Riviera radio serves mainstream English pop songs). It allows you to listen to some different music in your car. (this one is in FM, tho, so it's very local)

Some authoritarian governments were challenged by the radio too. Nazi Germany couldn't stop the BBC during WWII, for example. And you can get a lot of American radios all over the world, even when the internet is controlled. At last, none of the radio you listen to on AM end up in the history that profiles you. You can listen to a radio a night without being served the same music over and over afterwards.

AM radio won't be mainstream. But I'm convinced it still has a role for media plurality, and as a line of Defense for the democracy (and yeah, I know you can get much more from internet radios, like Anime music and everything, but it doesn't feel the same)