Still handy for a lot of people with radios in their vehicles. Usually one less step to simply press the AM button. CHED has always had a great signal, pretty much no interference and doesn’t cut out. Can’t say the same for streaming, with buffering issues at times.
100%
The other part of this is that there is an exisiting technology that has worked exceedingly well for many decades.
While its great that there are some shiny new technologies that opens up more availability for listening to AM radio (and many other things) that doesnt mean that the exisiting technology should be abandoned all together. Unless of course forcing consumers down a specific funnel benefits business (which happens a lot) and that appears to be the case here.
There are literally millions of cars in Canada that still have AM/FM receivers built into them.
Its allows the listener the opporunity to listen to programs at no cost. No paywalls...no added technology required.
So from a business perspective I can see why they would want everyone paying for a streaming service of some kind or being forced to buy some shiny new technology before being able to listen to something that was once free. Thats not even considering the learning curve required to operate some technology.
From a consumer perspective having multiple options is always better and most often the low tech options are cheaper and often times more reliable.
Thats certainly true in this case.
This squeeze on AM/FM stations is IMO coming from industry... its not due to a lack of consumer interest.