Need suggestions for best AM broadcast sound

Does anyone have any suggestions for creating the best AM sound?  I realize that our little AM station will never sound like the FM, but are there any rules of thumb that someone should change when creating a piece strictly for AM airplay?  I'm using AA1.5 and just want the best sound possible.

thanks!

Pretty much, the same rules apply to AM, as everywhere else...Make it sound as good as possible on the way in.  I don't think there are too many special things you can do to help the sound.  I would suggest producing everything in mono.  That's how people will hear it, and stereo effects are just a waste of time.

I think Emmett pretty much has it.

The AM station almost certainly uses very heavy processing on its output...and this processing will be set up to give them the sound they want from standard commercially produced CDs and live voices.  Other than producing for mono (though if you send them a CD you'll still have to burn  "stereo" even if it's 2 track mono), any attempt to "second guess" the processing could lead to a worse rather than better sound.

Bob

Use good equipment and get a good sound. Record to mono, use very little processing, maybe some hard limiting if there are peaks.

I use an EV RE20 and a Symetrix 528e vocal processor for all my voice over work and record the same regardless of the target media, AM, FM, Poscast, etc.

Thanks folks, I appreciate the help.  Sounds like I ought to just keep doing what I'm doing then 

Thanks again!

As an almost exclusive AM listener, I can perhaps provide something from that perspective.

My daytime mainstay is a 5kW station located about 75 miles away, and I am just inside the upper lobe of its mandated cardioid aerial pattern. This makes reception difficult, especially since I have to make do with the internal receiving aerial that comes with a radio. Consequently, and moreso than most AM listening situations, noise plays an important factor. Of course, there is the situation of a thunderstorm, which renders reception all but impossible, but mostly I refer to sferics (solar and terrestrial), and local (usually power-line related) noise sources, since DXing isn't an issue with daytime reception.

The station I listen to is non-commercial and talk. My main beef with them technically is that they fail to take into account what effects the telephone has on voices and intelligibility, and in particular, weak female voices, which are often just simply not present. This applies sometimes to both genders of voice in studio as well, occasionally, especially if it is lower-pitched and/or volume. I guess they fail to understand that the percentage of modulation tapers off with distance, even if adequate power is available at the receiving end. (In other words, these deficiencies could be adequately addressed with compression techniques.)

My nighttime listening is CBC Radio I from Winnipeg, Manitoba, which considering that I am located in west-central Illinois, is quite a feat, considering that they only transmit 50kW omnidirectional. However, I mention it since, when reception is good (and this is of course highly variable) there has never been once an issue of intelligibility.

Lastly, I would say "concentrate on voice," and forget music. Why? The bandwidth of an AM channel is only 10kHz so its gonna sound crappy anyway, and people aren't going to be straining to hear that note of  _________, but they will to hear that syllable that just couldn't punch through.

So, for what its worth from a long, long-time AM listener, usb, lsb and dsb, short, medium and long wave. Come to think of it, I think BBC does or used to have a good guide for best voice practices in broadcasting (?).

The bandwidth of an AM channel is only 10kHz so its gonna sound crappy anyway, and people aren't going to be straining to hear that note of  _________, but they will to hear that syllable that just couldn't punch through.

Er, it's rather less than 10kHz. The internationally agreed RF channel spacing for the AM broadcast bands is 9kHz, and accordingly the flat audio bandwidth is limited on a good station to about 5kHz! To operate correctly, an am station has to shape the audio output so that it doesn't overmodulate, because every time that happens, the carrier disappears, and most recievers don't take particularly kindly to this. And you have to roll off the modulation bandwidth, or you will interfere with adjacent channels.

Thanks for keepin' me honest, SteveG.