[cschneid]

> The AM band in the United States covers frequencies from 540 kHz up to 1700 kHz

I wonder if there's something useful to do with that range. It's a big chunk of lower frequencies right there, in the range that reliably does over-the-horizon propagation (although better at night perhaps according to wikipedia?)

The benefit of AM being super simple to build a receiver for is less relevant nowadays, FM is trivial to get radios for now, and ham radio uses SSB for voice for the most part in the lower frequency ranges.

[RF_Enthusiast]

I'd bet that most would conclude that the best use for those frequencies is broadcast.

In Seattle, half a million people listened to KIRO-AM 710 last month [1]. In Boston, 454,600 people listened to WBZ-AM 1030 [2]. In Los Angeles, 625,500 people listened to KFI-AM 640 [3].

It's difficult to justify discontinuing an audio service that is performing as a top conduit for audio (more than Spotify or Pandora, for example) because of a perception that the service is no longer viable.

[1] <https://radioinsight.com/ratings/seattle-tacoma/> [2] <https://radioinsight.com/ratings/boston/> [3] <https://radioinsight.com/ratings/los-angeles/>

[RF_Savage]

The only real use I'd see would be some new iteration of Loran-C, to have something harder to jamm and spoof then current GNSS systems. But the local noise from car and other electronics would likely make it less useful.

[perilunar]

> I wonder if there's something useful to do with that range.

Non-directional beacons! In Nth America NDBs are 190–535 kHz, but elsewhere they are 190–1750 kHz, overlapping the AM radio band. Keep decommissioning the more expensive VOR stations in favour of satnav (and release the spectrum), but keep NDB transmitters as a low-tech/low-cost backup.