Opening up AM stations to get translators was expected to be one of the "revitalization" schemes from the FCC. This won't work in heavily populated areas, such as here in the Baltimore Maryland/Washington DC metro area where I live. The FM band is full. Many AMers have already made the switch to FM. Here, the big-dollar operations migrated all-news and rightwing wacko talk from AM to FM. In the case of all-news WTOP, they abandoned AM completely and now run at least three parallel FMs in order to blanket the area with their programming. There is also the sad case of WYPR Baltimore/WYPF Frederick Maryland, both on 88.1. The two stations are supposed to be a simulcast but they're not synchronized; if you're not near either host city the frequency is an utterly unlistenable mash of the same programming stuck in a permanent time warp as the signals compete with each other.

Many available frequencies on the non-commercial part of the FM band are taken by satellite-fed translators operated by religious operations who abused the translator licensing process. Even FM 87.9 is no longer clear here as there's a spanish music station operating under a quasi-legal television station license that broadcasts no video and is parked on TV channel 6 (FM 87.75 or so). There are simply no frequencies available.

The FCC scheme/proposal may work for many small market stations but clearly has nothing to do with revitalizing the AM band, unless the FCC is equating "revitalization" with "abandonment."