AM vs FM radio

Have you ever thought about the history, or the differences in AM and FM radio? If your like me than you haven't. Doing research on this topic made me appreciate the differences! I think once you read this, you will have more insight about AM and FM radio stations.

AM stations were the earliest broadcasting stations to be developed. AM refers to amplitude modulation, a mode of broadcasting radio waves by varying the amplitude of the carrier signal in response to the amplitude of the signal to be transmitted. AM radio ranges from 535 to 1705 kHz. 

AM is the older an easier of the two technologies to implement. The receiver detects the changes in the carrier frequency’s amplitude and amplifies it to drive a speaker. The simplicity of the technology made it easy to build radio receivers in great quantities. The main problem associated with AM broadcasting is the fact that it is very susceptible to various weather conditions that deteriorate and distort the signal. The simplicity of the design also limits the broadcast to a single audio channel, making it inadequate for stereo sound.

FM refers to frequency modulation, and occurs on VHF airwaves in the frequency range of 88 to 108 MHz everywhere (except Japan and Russia).FM radio was invented by Edwin H. Armstrong in the 1930s for the specific purpose of overcoming the interference problem of AM radio, to which it is relatively immune.

FM is a development over AM broadcasting and it provides a lot of substantial benefits thus it is much more complex compared to AM. The first and most substantial benefit is its ability to send out two channels of information at the same time with the use of advanced algorithms. This allows the station to broadcast left and right audio channels for full stereo sound. Since most environmental factors that distort radio waves only affect its amplitude and not the frequency where FM stores the actual voice signal, the data in the FM signal doesn’t degrade as easily as AM. This also means that FM signal quality doesn’t degrade linearly as you get further from the transmitting station.

I think that these differences in AM and FM radio give FM radio a serious advantage in the radio industry. Not many people want to be subjected to the static that comes along with AM. The only time that I have listened to an AM station on the radio, was to listen to a Ravens football broadcast. Other than that I always listen to FM.

According to the  September 2011 RADAR 110 National Radio Listening Report, 1.7 million additional listeners 12 years and older tune into radio on average every week, from the 2010 report. The young demographics of radio make it very obvious to me that FM is the leading reason to this increase. How many 12 year olds that you know would tune into AM/ talk radio?

In the DC area, these are the AM and FM radio stations.

The Pulitzer Prize

If your like me, than you have heard of the Pulitzer Prize, but never really knew what it was all about. The Pulitzer Prize is a very important award for my interest in the field of journalism . It is an opportunity to be recognized, and rewarded for your work in a specific field.

What’s so special about a Pulitzer Prize?
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. The Pulitzer Prizes are administered by Columbia University, in New York City.

Describe the prize’s organization:
In the late 19th century, Joseph Pulitzer stood out as the very embodiment of American journalism.  Pulitzer was the first to call for the training of journalists at the university level in a school of journalism. When Pulitzer wrote his will, provisions were made for the establishment of the Pulitzer Prize, as an incentive to excellence. He specified 4 awards in journalism, 4 in letters and drama, 1 for education, and 4 for traveling scholarships.  Since his passing, changes in the awards have been made.

The award process: 
The Pulitzer Prize only evaluates those works in the media that have been entered with a $50 entry fee.

The award process(usually a year long) begins early in  the year with the judges being appointed. Usually there are 102 judges, who serve on 20 separate juries and are asked to make three nominations in each of the 21 categories. By February, the administrator’s office in the Columbia school of journalism has received about 1,100 journalism entries. In early March, 77 editors, publishers, writers, and educators gather to judge the entries in the 14 journalism categories.
More than 2,400 entries are submitted each year in the Pulitzer Prize competition, and only 21 awards are normally made (yearly).  In 20 of these, each winner receives a $10,000 cash award. The winner of the public service category in the journalism competition is awarded a gold medal. The gold medal always goes to a newspaper, although an individual may be named in citation.

  
(The gold medal awarded to the winner of the public service category in journalism.)


Two recent winners:

Public Service: For a distinguished example of meritorious public service by a newspaper or news site through the use of its journalistic resources.
The 2011 winner for Public Service in Journalism was The Los Angeles Time for reporting by Jeffery Gottlieb, and Ruben Vives, who uncovered municipal corruption in the small California city of Bell.
http://www.pulitzer.org/citation/2011-Public-Service

Fiction: For distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with the American life.
The 2011 winner for fiction in Letters, Drama, and Music was awarded to  “A Visit From the Goon Squad” by Jennifer Egan.  “A Visit From the Goon Squad” is an investigation of growing up, and growing old in the digital-age.
http://www.pulitzer.org/citation/2011-Fiction

Some Famous Winners of the Pulitzer Prize Include:

• John F. Kennedy (Biography)
• Harper Lee and Earnest Hemmingway (Fiction) 
• Robert Frost (Poetry)

For more information on the Pulitzer Prize visit their website: http://www.pulitzer.org