What is the future for AM broadcasting?
AM broadcasting will probably survive because as with FM receivers are cheap and, as with FM, receiver power consumption can be made low. But AM sound quality is inferior to FM and the transmitters generally consume a lot of power since they are usually broadcasting to a large geographical area (e.g. to a whole country). FM broadcast from multiple low-power repeater transmitters can meet the requirements of nationwide broadcasting as well as retransmitting stations available from satellites or the internet. In all these cases the quality of sound achieved with FM broadcasting is compatible with the original broadcast method, a quality that AM broadcast cannot hope to achieve.
