There’s a controversy about AM radio in cars. Ed Markey, one of Massachusetts’s senators, has proposed a bill to require them. Remember Conelrad?
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It would be a terrible violation of a car owner’s right to choose. Next it could be mandatory satellite radio in cars.
But the FCC could enforce the issue of interference which makes AM radio unusable to other people. A single light dimmer or Asian power supply can knock out AM radio in a whole building!
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What’s the purpose for requiring AM radios? Is it for the gov’t to announce public emergencies? If so, seems that could be accomplished by simply announcing emergencies on both AM and FM radio stations.
Couldn’t agree more on that issue. I don’t see it happening anytime soon though.
AM has far better range and is likely to reach a greater number of people during an emergency.
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The FCC allows ‘clear channel’ AM stations that can broadcast at 50KW all day and have no competitors in their range. The idea was that about 100 stations could provide service to the whole 48. WABC and Albuquerque’s KOB are the only stations on 770 kHz, had a long feud over their overlap.
WOR took out full-page ads in the NY Times claiming that they reached 38 states; I listened in Maryland (Jean Shepherd and Barry Farber).
I remember car radios with the little Conelrad symbol, a triangle in a circle, at 630 and 1260, the stations that would carry the emergency announcements.
I’ll go out on a limb… most people under 50 have never used AM radio, nor are they even aware AM is an option. If they even listen to radio at all.
Somehow “mandating” AM radio be offered in new cars is really no different from requiring ashtrays. Why not? A very few customers might want to smoke in their new cars.
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I usually tune in Newsradio 88 when approaching NYC to get the “traffic and weather together”. I still like the news in 20 minutes, but Android auto has replaced my need for traffic.
It has been quite a while and I have forgotten most of the particulars, but I think it was in the 90’s that the aftermarket radio manufacturers sued the automakers for making radios standard equipment in their vehicles. As long as radios were standard equipment, owners would be less likely to put an aftermarket radio in their vehicle.
I bought my first new car in 1990 and it did not have a radio, so I was free to chose one for myself. It did have AC however.
IIRC the aftermarket manufacturers won the suit, so vehicle manufacturers integrated some of the cars information functions into the radios as well as making the radios part of the add on packages. I don’t think you can buy a vehicle without a radio anymore.
I recall asking the purpose of those symbols on the car-radio’s dial. The clear channel 50KW AM stations in this area can only be heard in the daytime up to a little past Sacramento, then they fade out. At night they can be heard much further. Here in San Jose, even now I routinely listen to KFI-AM in Los Angeles during the night. When I lived in Colorado I listened to both KFI and KNX broadcast from LA at night. I also listened to LA police radio, could be heard at the edge of the AM dial … it was actually pretty fascinating for a kid in rural Colorado to hear all the crimes and allegations of crimes going on in the big city …
I enjoy listening to talk radio. Where I live there are two stations that I enjoy listening to: NPR (abet very liberal) but they carry “Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!” and (Drum Roll Please…) “Car Talk – The Best of Car Talk” and they are on the FM Dial… and if I want to listen to this station, I have to turn the volume way up, way up…
I also listen to a local AM station and they are very much on the conservative side, but they also offer none political programming, like: “Ask the Experts”, “The Kim Komando Show”, and “Somewhere in Time.” This AM station’s volume is atrociously high and if I do not lower the volume before I switch from FM to AM, I get BLASTED out of the car…
I am a political person and I have definite views but all too often those bobble head political podcasters are just parrot stories without thinking and it make my “ears hurt…” and there is toooooo much fake news, from both sides of the aisle… Then I usually just turn off the radio and listen to the rush of the air when the stations are in full “Political Influence” mode…
The AM is more susceptible to interference from power lines and there is one section of a nearby road with a substation adjacent to it and the radio turns into a static generator for a couple of hundred feet around it…
I have Sirius XM radios in two of my vehicles but after the initial Free 3-month trial periods and wasting many hours trying to find stations, I will not waste my money on their subscription. Perhaps, if I drone more or on long trips, it would be practical, but to just buzz around town, I found myself pulling into my destination and still punching in stations trying to find something I wanted to listen to…
If AM radio goes away, I will miss it…
Am radio ? Is it still there ?
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We had Sirius XM on the previous CRV for awhile but once dad got tired of fighting to get the intro package price every year instead of paying more for the one package of channels he wanted. Most of the famliy has switched to podcasts except for a couple stations that have a strong enough signal to cover the 3hr drive the folks take about once a month.
It useless for emergency notification. First of all, you have to be tuned to it to hear any announcements. Who is driving around and thinks, I better check the emergency channel for any looming disasters? 
Almost everyone has a mobile phone. They already have an emergency function that goes off for storms, amber alerts, etc. The days of radio performing this function are as outdated as Ed Markey…
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You know or suspect a disaster then tune in. 60 years ago it was the best way to contact everybody.
Mrs JT listens to an AM station it’s talk radio, has traffic, and broadcasts Baltimore Orioles games.
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Yep, and a few hundred years ago, they rode around on horses yelling into everybody’s home they passed. We don’t see anyone lamenting the loss of that medium. AM Radio is practically in the same situation…
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The Washington Post had a good and long article about AM in cars a couple weeks ago. Ford has dropped AM from all its vehicles. We visited Nashville recently and went to the Grand Ol Opry - famously on WSM, AM 650 since the 1920s. One of the ads during the performance was for the Ford F-150. I wonder if Ford is trying to compensate for, or is reconsidering, that decision.
I have been a fan of AM since I was kid in the 1950s and would miss it, especially at night, when hearing DX (distant) stations was intriguing. Unfortunately now the programming is distressingly one-sidedly religious or political and I find little that I enjoy listening to.
I think FM radio will probably follow the demise of AM with over the air TV not far behind.
Are you thinking at some point, exclusively paid-subscription services for both in-car and home media programming? hmmm … certainly seems possible, but plausible? Seems like there would a lot political opposition against the idea that would have to be overcome.
At some point, if the broadcasters find that it is economically unsustainable to keep broadcasting, they can simply not renew their licenses and stop broadcasting. I believe this will eventually happen, though it may be a long way off. I no longer have a TV antenna, and i dont think ive listened to a radio in years. If my wife or i want music in the car we just stream Pandora to the car’s audio system via Bluetooth. No subscription needed, as Pandora is supported by ad revenue, same as the broadcasters.