The Unintended Impact of the New Daylight Savings Time on AM Stations
As some of you may know, in 2005 Congress passed a law extending Daylight Savings Time by four weeks. Beginning next Spring, daylight savings will begin three weeks earlier than before, and extend an extra week into the Fall. Specifically, as of March 11, 2007, daylight savings will start on the second Sunday of March and end on the first Sunday of November. The change was part of a bill passed by Congress aimed at spurring energy conservation. This change, however, will also have the unintended effect of causing many AM stations to sign-on well into morning drive time, and possibly after many kids have been deposited at school, for an additional month of every year.
Due to nighttime propagation characteristics, many AM radio stations must drastically reduce their power during the nighttime hours, or cease broadcasting altogether. The extension of Daylight Savings Time will exacerbate the impact of the annual time shift by requiring stations to delay the start of their morning broadcast for an additional four weeks each year. This expansion of daylight savings could have a real impact on the bottom line of many AM stations, especially daytime-only stations. Ultimately, staying on the air for an extra hour at the end of the day does not offset the loss of an hour during morning drive time.
This change in daylight savings is essentially an experiment to see if the four-week extension will truly result in any conservation of energy. Once the change becomes effective, the law requires the Department of Energy to conduct a follow-up report to assess the impact of the extension on energy consumption. Congress can then decide whether to keep the extension or revert back to the current time schedules.
Congress’ presumably well-intentioned efforts to conserve energy will have a huge impact on AM radio stations, unless the FCC waives or changes its rules to grant affected AM stations some relief. While the NAB mentioned this issue in passing as part of its recent Petition for Rulemaking regarding the use of FM translator stations by AM stations, at present, there does not appear to be any request pending before the FCC seeking relief from the upcoming extension of Daylight Savings Time. AM broadcasters may wish to consider filing a petition with the FCC seeking relief from this new law. We'd be interested in the reactions of AM station owners to see if this is seen as a problem that is significant enough to require some regulatory relief.
Yes it is worth pursueing relief! Again AM broadcasters have to take a kick in the teeth, the am fm playing field has been so uneven for so long and the FCC failure to choose a AM Stereo standard killed once again an opportunity to help level that field. Now directional and daytimers take another kick (how many more teeth does the AM Broadcaster have to loose?) morning drive has got to be one of the last economical viable periods keeping these daytimers on the AIR. Did congress and the commission stop to think about the listners (voters)who will again be confused why they can't get weather alerts and EAS broadcast on the stations they are use to waking up to evryday of the week,now thanks to Congress you have to look at what month it is on the calendar before setting your alarm at night. We know what happens they are forced to find another station to wake up to. When the time changes back, who tells these listeners they can go back to their old favorite station? Let's say they did mark their calender so that when the daylight savings changed they could go back to their old favorite station, but guess what? The lost of the audiences during this DLST lead to lost revenues, which lead to layoffs of those favorite morning air personalities, and now it's satelite,or infomercial or worse yet it's off the air??
It's like all the laws Congress continues to pass,( the few that they can agree on enough to pass)the sideffects do more harm than good,just like alot of our new medications. Maybe they just have to have FDA approval after significant test studies?
Working with a small daytime am station, I would be very interested in seeking relief from the FCC regarding losing more broadcast time. Perhaps a 6am to 8pm rule or something along those lines.
There is a reason that daytime stations are daytime stations, and that others are directional. This is not simply a matter of "changing the rules". FCC rules can be changed, the propogation characteristics of the AM band don't and won't care what the FCC says, we'll simply have interference which will often be terrible.
That's why I get crazy when I hear otherwise very smart people talk about the FCC changing the rules to allow HD nighttime operation. They talk about it like it's only and FCC problem. The FCC needs to hire some scientists again and get the politics out of the rulemaking process.
On a related note, the whole DLST shift is idiocy and will cause many unintended consequences for dubious gains.