Car makers — I mean, automobile manufacturers — say that installing AM radio receivers in new vehicles is a game not worth the candle. Who listens to AM radio?! Well, as Bill points out, a lot of people do… only not the right KIND of people.
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It isn’t shielding the radio that is at question. It is shielding the power electronics in the rest of the car that is the problem. The point that keeps getting missed is that a car that doesn’t have sufficient such shielding is going to disrupt the AM radio in the car next to it in traffic (or traffic jam). If you force the car makers to support AM radio, you are providing a backup to what the FCC is supposed to be doing in regards to radio interference in general. If you don’t like mandates, put in a clause that… Read more »
My solution: Less damn electronics in my damn truck!
As for safety warning, this past year’s hurricanes in Florida showed a CLEAR need to keep AM radio. Cell phone communications were the first thing to go.
I restore antique radios for a living and the shear joy of viewing those glowing vacuum tubes at work. Adding an aftermarket AM radio won’t work because it will still be subject to the noise generated by the high power switching circuits used to power the drivetrain. The solution, of course, is to electrically shield noise generating circuitry which is a difficult design problem and added manufacturing cost that the manufacturers just don’t want to deal with. AM broadcasting, as an economic proposition, is on thin ice as is. Removing AM from cars will be its deathblow (and put me… Read more »
I am not sure I would want legislation forcing AM radio in cars or a sticker warning me the car has no AM radio. For the former: since most new cars have a USB-A and/or USB-C port, someone ought to invent an AM radio that would plug in to one of these ports. That could be a profitable but cheap-for-the-consumer product. And this unit may not need that shielding. As for the latter there is a radio station in Chicago that broadcasts as a TV station but can be picked up on the FM dial at 87.7 (the FM range… Read more »
“That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men”
How does this secure any rights?
Mid-year last year I bought a 2024 BMW X5 hybrid. No AM radio. Got the BS about expense to shield, cost of this, cost of that. Ended up pairing my cellphone to the radio so I can listen to AM590 The Answer, but it’s not always the best reception and sound. My 2018 BMW 530e hybrid HAD AM radio, and I listened to it every morning on the road. Now I’m beginning to wonder if this is just another big, greedy government ploy to allow auto makers charge extra for this “add on.” Bill, I drove I-10 from Fresno to… Read more »
$3.8 billion over 7 years comes to $542.8 million per year, ACROSS THE ENTIRE AUTO INDUSTRY. It doesn’t seem that huge a cost given the number of new cars made every year.
Once again, we’re all against government mandates unless it’s something we want. It should be the car makers choice. The market will decide if they want AM radio or not with their buying dollars… or maybe we can mandate ashtrays and white wall tires too.
Scott, the emergency broadcast network you’re talking about at the end of this video was called the CONELRAD system. As far as I know it still exists. Government programs don’t die, they just fade away to obsolescence and keep on sucking down tax dollars. I think we can be very confident that IF AM radio in cars costs “X” billion dollars over 7 years AND automobile manufacturers remove AM radio functionality from their cars THEN we will not see an “X” billion dollar overall reduction in the price of cars over the same period. If the manufacturers take something away… Read more »
Even though I listen to AM in the car almost exclusively, I was, at first, against the bill because I don’t like Congress telling automakers what they have to put in their cars. But then I realized that Congress has been telling automakers how to build their cars since the 60’s. – and requiring many very, very expensive items. So why, suddenly, do we choose AM radio as the one thing that Congress shouldn’t be able to mandate? Also, because of the emergency broadcasts, AM radios are an important and often life-saving safety feature. Cell phones can’t replace AM for… Read more »