Arguing that AM "has significantly longer range" is quite foolish. The range of AM on the long wave band is the entire Earth, in some cases many times over. We use to allow very high power AM stations in the US that covered all of North America but that was phased out.
We still do allow this on the shortwave bands under very limited circumstances like WBCQ.
RE "...Arguing that AM "has significantly longer range" is quite foolish..." I should have made it clear, I meant the present AM band which is around 550 Khz to 1600 Khz and the present FM band from about 88 Mhz to about 108 MHZ . At the present band frequencies AM radio has a much longer range. ( Most people would not have a receiving capable of receiving Long Wave AM which is on a significantly lower frequency around a few 100 KHz or much less. )
We still do allow this on the shortwave bands under very limited circumstances like WBCQ.