In article <5652db723837865ff176ae3df19d1c4c@jiglu-wc>, ... (Neil Gates) wrote:

Having recently parted company with TalkSport, Mike Mendozeoff
has now been added to the line-up of talkers at Play Radio and
will be on Wednesdays and Thursdays 8pm to midnight starting next
week on Play Two UK.

Can't he get a job on a real station then???

Hate to share this with you Neil, the places which produce commercials in 2008 includes proper Net stations, agreed not some of the smaller copy Net stations.
And further disaster comes with that news that cars in 2009 will have FM and Net radios – no AM, sorry dude. Well not all cars, just so you don't leap on the comment. However, the cars that are attractive to ad-people, in terms of who drives them, will probably have them.
I do agree with your previous e-mail in that some do listen to AM especially for local niche services. They also listen in areas where, as Giles indicated, there might be no option but AM for now, although that is a decreasing problem in this day and age unless you live in the deprived areas of Africa (as just one example).

I have to say I do admire your defence of AM, but there is one other thing to consider. AM costs a small fortune to maintain, just the crippling cost of electricity/diesel (even in third world countries). Therefore, it makes sense for broadcasters who want to reach a long term sustainable audience to look at more cost effective routes to those listeners. One power/bandwidth hungary station on analogue is not the long term future.

I look forward to your reply – no really I do it is good jousting

Eric