Yeah, I remember as a kid with a Cheap stereo and an antenna consisting of maybe 5ft of thin wire dangling from it being able to pick up reasonably clear AM transmissions from as far away as St Louis, Chicago, and NYC… and Inlived in almost-coastal NC. Especially at night you could really pull some stuff in.
FM by comparison is effectively line of sight, so with a practical broadcast antenna the upper limit is 40 or 50 miles.
Pretty sure it was the wire, because changing how it was aligned would affect what could pick up pretty dramatically.
And I should clarify… while it was certainly a cheap “system in a box”, it was a real multi component system with detachable speakers, etc. not a boombox or anything like that.
FM by comparison is effectively line of sight, so with a practical broadcast antenna the upper limit is 40 or 50 miles.