Eric Tesug said:

My point being, Anoraks love the love of AM – real people don't.

I have two quite separate approaches to the AM debate. Firstly, from a 'non-anorak' perspective, I use AM the most, because for me it is the most practical. I can get dozens of stations, some from near, some from far- I can carry my pocket sized transistor (that cost me a tenner!) anywhere and unlike FM, the signal doesn't disappear as soon as you walk away from the set and I don't need a flamin' 2 foot aerial (which is a bit annoying when on bicycle!). So- if you could replace this neat, low tech set up that meets my needs perfectly, I guess I'd be equally happy- say with a mobile phone that could pick up web stations (if you can find me one for a tenner, even better!)

And yes, sigh.... my second approach is, I have to admit pure, anorak fuelled nostalgia for AM. I'll miss the appearence of Radio Banana every night at 8 CET for example. No future UK based 14 year old will ever get to learn the Tunisian national anthem by heart as the station sharing 963Khz with Caroline in the early 80's shut down each night or will they telephone a bemused Portuguese radio station employee in Lisbon and tell them to leave the frequency they are using immediately as it's interfering with Caroline. There'll be no battle between Algeria and the Irish on long wave, no distant low power Irish pirates, no 'bloody hell it's Radio Somerset' moments as they mysteriously pop up as the sun sets (on 1566 or thereabouts) plus a thousand other little delights.

Sad though it is- I'd miss all of that. I'll be 40 (bloody 40 for feck's sake) in two weeks,and I sincerely hope I'm wrong but I've just got a hunch that radio wise the next 40 years are going to be a lot less interesting than the last. As Jim Royal would have sad, web radio my arse!

Regards to all
Giles.