AM radio phased out in some EVs

[gmclam]

Can The Industry And Congress Keep AM Radio In The Dashboard?​

Facing an existential moment in the 100-year history of the medium, AM broadcasters are banding together, calling on allies in Congress, and enlisting listener support to preserve their place in the automobile. The heads of 10 state broadcasting associations have formed a Dashboard Subcommittee within the National Alliance of State Broadcasters Associations (NASBA) to slow or stop the removal of AM radio from the dashboard. The two-week old group is working on multiple fronts including fact finding, education and advocacy.

Can The Industry And Congress Keep AM Radio In The Dashboard?

 

[cc333]

Wow, maybe all going well, this can at least slow down AM's seemingly inevitable death, if not stop it and maybe even reverse it a little. This "Pro-AM" movement has been gathering steam for quite some time now... maybe Ford's decision to delete AM will be the catalyst that finally gives the movement enough of a boost that it actually succeeds?

As has been discussed as nauseum in this and other threads, it may be a technologically inferior audio medium compared to even analog FM, but it's still a viable technology that shouldn't be deleted so hastily, no matter how few listeners there are.

c

 

[gmclam]

I am seeing more groups getting involved in trying to save AM radio. There's several links in this article.

NAB Launches Campaign for AM Radio​

With the long-term survival of the U.S. AM broadcast band in question, the National Association of Broadcasters has launched a campaign to highlight AM’s importance in cars.

 

[gmclam]

This article has a link at the end making it easy to voice your concern to your elected official(s).

Who Depends on AM?
From reporting the latest weather updates and providing vital emergency warnings to covering the local high school football game, communities across the country depend on AM radio

We Are Broadcasters | Depend on AM Radio

 

[rr60]

New York Post on AM radio.

 

[MTS2000des]

Great post, but the reality is the cost of keeping facilities operational to transmit AM (especially clear channel) is astronomical, if no one is listening, it makes little financial sense for the broadcasters to keep the transmitters on the air "just in case of an emergency" when the majority of highly rated AM stations simulcast on FM and stream. Who is gonna pay for this? What next? Government subsidies? Say it isn't so.

The automakers don't want to waste money on some technology that, by nature, requires real estate on a windshield and go through the headache of trying to filter hash and trash out of the vehicle space just for the 5 people left who actually listen to AM on AM.

It's had a nice run, but the AM spectrum is nothing but noise in most homes now thanks to China trash power supplies, LED lights, and just about everything that has a cord coming out of it acting as an antenna for such noisemaking circuitry.

 

[Falcon9h]

Great post, but the reality is the cost of keeping facilities operational to transmit AM (especially clear channel) is astronomical, if no one is listening, it makes little financial sense for the broadcasters to keep the transmitters on the air "just in case of an emergency" when the majority of highly rated AM stations simulcast on FM and stream. Who is gonna pay for this? What next? Government subsidies? Say it isn't so.

The automakers don't want to waste money on some technology that, by nature, requires real estate on a windshield and go through the headache of trying to filter hash and trash out of the vehicle space just for the 5 people left who actually listen to AM on AM.

It's had a nice run, but the AM spectrum is nothing but noise in most homes now thanks to China trash power supplies, LED lights, and just about everything that has a cord coming out of it acting as an antenna for such noisemaking circuitry.

Much as I love AM-first thing I started DX'ing as a kid-you're right about all the crap in the house that throws out noise at kilowatt levels. 🙄 Folks have seen my posts with vids of the horrible noise I get here, much worse during the day.
I live in central Pa. 50 miles N. of Harrisburg and sometimes I can't get WHP 580 over noise. That's bad. I throw up my hands in exasperation, hook up a milliwatt FM transmitter to an extra tablet and stream it to a radio, where at least I'm still using a radio. With everything to the right of Lenin getting cancelled it's the only conservative station left. I don't expect it to last.
AM in the car almost doesn't matter-modern radios are junk, haven't had one that would receive anything for years-but I yearn for the days when we used to go out and DX with the AM only radio in my dad's 1969 Impala. Still the best DX radio ever.
Just had to make sure we didn't kill the battery!

 

[n1ofj]

This is what happens

Much as I love AM-first thing I started DX'ing as a kid-you're right about all the crap in the house that throws out noise at kilowatt levels. 🙄 Folks have seen my posts with vids of the horrible noise I get here, much worse during the day.
I live in central Pa. 50 miles N. of Harrisburg and sometimes I can't get WHP 580 over noise. That's bad. I throw up my hands in exasperation, hook up a milliwatt FM transmitter to an extra tablet and stream it to a radio, where at least I'm still using a radio. With everything to the right of Lenin getting cancelled it's the only conservative station left. I don't expect it to last.
AM in the car almost doesn't matter-modern radios are junk, haven't had one that would receive anything for years-but I yearn for the days when we used to go out and DX with the AM only radio in my dad's 1969 Impala. Still the best DX radio ever.
Just had to make sure we didn't kill the battery!

This is what happens when you have lawyers and politically connected people running the FCC show. What ever happened to having persons with technical knowledge making decisions on a rather technical technology.

 

[gmclam]

AM in the car almost doesn't matter-modern radios are junk, haven't had one that would receive anything for years-but I yearn for the days when we used to go out and DX with the AM only radio in my dad's 1969 Impala. Still the best DX radio ever.
Just had to make sure we didn't kill the battery!

I agree. Older radios seem to be better designed. The newer stuff is an incidental add-on inside an IC with a main purpose of receiving something other than AM broadcast. My complaint is not as much about the health of the AM broadcast industry (which has been largely taken over by too many big companies), but the RF EMISSION that new products emit. Yeah it's LED lighting, Electric Vehicles, and hundreds of other devices. We've got enough RF in the air from wireless everything and don't need the unhealthy spurious stuff.

 

[MTS2000des]

This is what happens

This is what happens when you have lawyers and politically connected people running the FCC show. What ever happened to having persons with technical knowledge making decisions on a rather technical technology.

That's just it: the FCC is not here to serve the public. Their constituents are: Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile and they are also known as "Radio Spectrum Sales and Leasing LLC".

 

[mmckenna]

That's just it: the FCC is not here to serve the public. Their constituents are: Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile and they are also known as "Radio Spectrum Sales and Leasing LLC".

Exactly.

You left out "I-heart-Radio" and all the other media juggernauts. Just look at how much effort the spend on chasing down low wattage FM broadcast pirate stations.

F.C.C. = Federal Cash Cow. If you can't fine them, sell the spectrum out from underneath them!

 

[avaloncourt]

That's just it: the FCC is not here to serve the public. Their constituents are: Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile and they are also known as "Radio Spectrum Sales and Leasing LLC".

Precisely right. They serve those handing them billions of dollars.

 

[cc333]

The government serving the public? What a quaint idea!

It seems like this concept is slowly disappearing and being replaced with, "how much can the top 1% pay to get what they want, to everyone's detriment?"

The FCC does seem to do an adequate job at some things, but it's clear that it is increasingly fragmented and incoherent in many areas, and not doing a good job overall.

Hopefully this can improve in time, but it's not looking too likely.

For what it's worth, if they really want people to go to FM and digital streaming, why not sunset licensed commercial operations on the AM band and give it to hobby broadcasters under less restrictive Part 15 rules? Or Ham operators, even.

The band is pretty much useless for anything else....

c

 

[mmckenna]

For what it's worth, if they really want people to go to FM and digital streaming, why not sunset licensed commercial operations on the AM band and give it to hobby broadcasters under less restrictive Part 15 rules? Or Ham operators, even.

The band is pretty much useless for anything else....

c

ITU has international treaties about what can be done.
Also, it's removing AM radios from vehicles. Doesn't mean older vehicles still won't have them or there won't be AM radios in peoples homes.

As for ham operators, they have allocations just below and just above the AM broadcast band. Adding more to it isn't going to accomplish much. Too much of the ham allocations are underutilized.

It's too valuable to give away. It'll stay some form of broadcasting, I'm willing to bet. The FCC and others have been playing with other ways of utilizing it, but nothing seems to have stuck yet. Big slices of spectrum like that are too valuable to give away to hobbyists.

 

[AK9R]

As for ham operators, they have allocations just below and just above the AM broadcast band.

Specifically...amateur radio in the U.S. has:
630 meter band 472 - 479 kHz, 5 watts EIRP maximum, except in Alaska within 496 miles of Russia where the power limit is 1 watt EIRP.
160 meter band 1800 - 2000 kHz, 1500 watts maximum transmitter power.

 

[Falcon9h]

The nice thing about the electric cars I've been around is that they can be programmed to charge at night, after peak hours. Not only is there less strain on the grid at that time, but depending on your rate plan, electricity can be cheaper.
My sister drives one. It works for her because she's got about 30 miles to work. Car gets parked in the garage and plugged in when needed. It'll automatically wait until the right time to start charging. When she comes out in the morning, it's fully charged.
She's getting about 300 miles of range out of it. She's also taken it on a few long trips. The rapid chargers will bring it to nearly full charge in 30 minutes. If you've ever traveled with a woman, you'll find that you will not get 300 miles between bathroom breaks, and when you do stop, it's 30 minutes minimum.
No, it's not as quick/easy as a gas/Diesel vehicle. But it's not as bad as some want you to think.

Electric cars are the right direction to go for most users. They are not the single solution for every application. While I'm sure the 2035 requirement will stay, I'll be there'll be options.

Unfortunately, and like with most things, there's the first knee jerk reactions that many people have whenever change is suggested. I'm sure most will get over it and adjust. That's what we humans do.

Ah, the eternal mystery-what females do in bathrooms that long! 🙄
Of course the answer to power is nuclear but with the communists in charge, forget about that.

 

[cc333]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/05/13/am-radio-electric-cars/

Looks like automakers' push to eliminate AM is starting to gain some widespread attention....

c

 

[BrhatWeed]

I find it disturbing just how fast the progressive Washington Post has to attack the right as nothing more than fear mongers and haters. Since when is the elimination of AM radio "progress"?

 

[chrismol1]

View attachment 141771
I find it disturbing just how fast the progressive Washington Post has to attack the right as nothing more than fear mongers and haters. Since when is the elimination of AM radio "progress"?

When many of "reporters" get political for their rags, there is no hitting bottom where one side can accuse the other side of something or find something wrong. One side could do something to help curing cancer and the other side would find something wrong about that

 

[cc333]

Well, regardless of their motivations, what I find striking is that political figures on both sides all seem to be in agreement about the importance of AM, and none of them want to see it removed from cars.

Whether they're right or wrong about AM remains to be seen.

There's no debating that AM radio is in a death spiral, but I feel like a significant number of the reasons why are self inflicted, and I find that to be a shame.

I know that economics (ex., ad revenue) and new technologies (streaming, satellite) have contributed significantly too, but it seems like the big radio companies could've done more. AM, as a technology, is still at least somewhat viable I believe, and despite all the EMIs and various other deficiencies, in my experiences, I've found that it still has a better reach than FM and internet (there are still places out here in the West – particularly in the mountains – where cell service is prone to being very slow and unreliable (and in some cases completely nonexistent), and in those places, streaming is obviously impossible. I've lived in and still often travel through a few such places, so I should know).

c