If you have a 12v DC supply in the shack (most of us do), head to your local auto junkyard and buy an older model AM-FM car stereo. You'll probably get one of these fairly cheap.
Given the fact they were designed to adequately pull in stations with a small antenna, hooking one to a decent length of wire, loop, what have you will yield good results.
I'd want an analog-tuned version if planning to chase non-US stations. Many don't use our standard 10KHz channel spacing, and almost all the digital sets offered for the US market will only tune the AM BCB in 10KHz steps.