The Infinite Dial

There's a good piece in yesterday's Washington Post by Marc Fisher looking at the state of local AM -- weakened by the departure of All-News powerhouse WTOP and the recent advent of Gospel on FM. One of the most interesting aspects of Fisher's article is the connection between the type of local content that AM was once famous for and the things that people now look for elsewhere on-line.

"The swap shop call-in shows that once filled the midday airwaves on many local stations are the spiritual godfather of Craigslist and other online classified sites. The sports phone-in shows that have long been an AM staple spawned the fan message boards that have proven so popular on the Internet. And although the great American tradition of ranting -- passionate political tirades, righteous religious preaching, get-rich-quick financial schemes -- surely dates back to Colonial times, it was first propelled into a mass, coast-to-coast culture on AM radio, and has found a happy new home on the Web," Fisher writes.