He's either a passionate owner or someone who's completely deluded. Either way, you can't argue against the zeal with which one radio station entrepreneur in a small Wisconsin town is fighting to keep the often-moribund AM band alive - even utilizing the long dead AM Stereo. (Although who he expects to actually hear this since there are few radios that have it is another question.)

I like this guy - he's everything the owner of a small radio station should be. He really believes in his product and wants desperately to improve the sound in cars, wondering why drivers don't complain more to car makers about the sometimes-lousy sound coming out of their in-dash entertainment systems. 

He recently realized how bad things were when he went to a seminar and heard an expert talk about HD radio and cars. 

“I was able to talk with him after the session and I brought up the idea that we need to end the ‘analog vs digital AM’ war – such that radios should be able to receive both analog stereo and digital HD – and have receivers just tune up the dial from 540 AM to 108 FM with no ‘band button.’

”Winnekins says that the representative from Xperi said he is open to both ideas. But automotive companies will only put options in their products that they believe their customers want. That means for AM to truly have good receivers, customers need to demand it."

I think he may be fighting a losing battle, but hey, at least he's trying!

This small-town AM station operator has some big-time ideas to keep radio alive

By the way, his station also broadcasts over the net, directly from the AM Stereo receiver they use to monitor the signal. If you're curious what it sounds like in full country twang, you can hear it here.