Hey, I am really into radio!
Many little portable shortwave radios (like the Grundig G5) have really good AM reception and the easy ability to add antennas. They are cheap now too because hardly anyone is brocasting on SW anymore. It's hit-or-miss though. I listen to AM from all over western North America on mine, but sometimes due to weather/new stations, a signal that's audible one night isn't the next.
That's the probable option. Just in case you have internet out there....
What I would recommend, assuming you (or a neigbour with unencrypted wifi) have high speed internet is an internet connected radio. I got the AR Infinite Radio for Christmas.
http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/pro...57&catid=10076
(The review by Logan is mine- for some reason, my spacing and punctuation was screwed up when the review was posted lol)
While the cost is a bit more than you wanted to spend, the wealth of music/news sports from all over the world is amazing. The Fan 960 stream works with this radio, and since it's just an Internet stream, the signal is always clear. I easily added the radio streams for most NHL teams, too!
With that particular radio, you're best off if you can hook it up to a wired Ethernet connection. It still works OK with wifi, but it tends to buffer more than it should. Ethernet helps, though. And there are other models, too!
Perhaps give that a try.