AM radio future unclear, played big role in history

Growing up in the Boston suburbs, Suzyn Waldman fell madly in love with two things: baseball and Broadway shows.

During the 1950s and ‘60s, the long arm of AM radio brought both into her home.

“I can still hear Ned Martin of the Red Sox reciting poetry about the mountains in Anaheim,” said Waldman, the pioneer announcer and former star of musical stage who’s been calling New York Yankees games for decades. “I can still hear Curt Gowdy with that Wyoming twang.

“Not everyone can remember who their first television broadcasters were — but everyone knows who the radio team was. Everyone.”

Like many fans, especially older ones, Waldman originally got hooked by America’s pastime listening to ballgames on an AM signal. In fact, next month will mark the 100th anniversary of the first World Series broadcast to a national radio audience, when Graham McNamee and Ford Frick were among those who called the 1923 Fall Classic between the Giants and Yankees on NBC.

A century later, however, some consider AM stations a dying medium in the modern age of digital technology. Several major automakers are eliminating broadcast AM radio from newer models — prompting lawmakers on Capitol Hill to propose legislation that would prevent the practice for safety and other reasons.

A bill with bipartisan support, the “AM for Every Vehicle Act” is winding its way through Congress.

“Not all change is progress,” Waldman said.

To be sure, from satellite radio and streaming services to FM stations and cell phone apps, baseball fans nowadays have all sorts of options for tuning in their favorite team — even all 30 teams — whether their car features AM radio or not.

But those options aren’t necessarily free. And it’s not necessarily that simple.

Because for generations of fans, the warm memory of climbing into the family car on a hot summer night and finding the ballgame on that dashboard dial, leaning in to listen pitch by pitch with mom or dad over the persistent static of crackling AM airwaves, is the kind of age-of-innocence nostalgia that evokes “Field of Dreams.”

“I still like baseball on the radio,” John Thorn, official historian for MLB, said in an email. “I suspect that is not only because it is my favorite game, but also because it is a stop-action sport whose rhythms are well-suited to pauses, visualization by the listener, and reflection about the wonder of being ‘there’ at a distant game.”