[no-dr-onboard]

What a shame. I've lived in a rural areas for most of my adult life. FM reception is notoriously poor due to the terrain. AM repeaters were always a nice touch. Also worth noting that AM radio content is absurdly easy to support and transmit.

[eternityforest]

I doubt AM is easy to transmit in practice. Complicated modulation schemes cost almost nothing, but high power is still expensive and needs real engineering.

It might be easier on a DIY level, but on a commercial level complexity is free, substance and power are expensive.

[RF_Enthusiast]

AM transmissions (10 kHz) are relatively narrow compared to other broadcast formats, so the power bill is less than FM (200 kHz) and TV (6000 kHz).

The real cost problem in 2022 is the size of the antenna. The entire tower, or array of towers, is the antenna. They can take up many acres of land. It is hard to justify not selling out and replacing those towers with more lucrative residential, retail or industrial development.

A single station's antenna could be 5 properly spaced towers, each hundreds of feet high.

[RF_Enthusiast]

It's a notable argument you bring up that AM stations are sometimes the only audio service available in remote areas.

The characteristics of AM (i.e., daytime groundwave and nighttime skywave) provide service that other services can not.

[JKCalhoun]

AM content absurdly easy to receive for; that's for sure.