AM

Excerpted from Buck 'Em:  The Autobiography of Buck Owens with Randy Poe, ©2013:

Speaking of the radio, the reason my Capitol records sounded the way they did-- real heavy on the treble-- was because I knew most people were going to be listening to 'em on their AM car radios.  In fact, in those days, even the radio in most people's houses was an AM radio.  And of course, those early transistor radios were all AM radios, too.

When I told Ken Nelson why I was going for that trebly sound, he didn't waste any time.  He had the tech guy at Capitol Studios install some little mono speakers in the control booth.  When we'd mix my singles, we'd always play 'em through those little speakers to make sure that sound really cut through loud and clear.

At the time, nobody else was doing anything like that, but it just seemed like common sense to me.  And it was one more reason that you knew it was a Buck Owens record as soon as it came on the radio-- because it just didn't sound like those other records that always came out sounding like the bass player was standing in front of the singer. 

There's an oldies AM radio station I listen to in my car because the songs sound the way they did when I heard them for the first time.