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Communications Transportation

AM Radio Law Opposed By Tech and Auto Industries Is Close To Passing (arstechnica.com) 317

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: A controversial bill that would require all new cars to be fitted with AM radios looks set to become a law in the near future. Yesterday, Senator Edward Markey (D-Mass) revealed that the "AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act" now has the support of 60 US Senators, as well as 246 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives, making its passage an almost sure thing. Should that happen, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration would be required to ensure that all new cars sold in the US had AM radios at no extra cost. "Democrats and Republicans are tuning in to the millions of listeners, thousands of broadcasters, and countless emergency management officials who depend on AM radio in their vehicles. AM radio is a lifeline for people in every corner of the United States to get news, sports, and local updates in times of emergencies. Our commonsense bill makes sure this fundamental, essential tool doesn't get lost on the dial. With a filibuster-proof supermajority in the Senate, Congress should quickly take it up and pass it," said Sen. Markey and his co-sponsor Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).

About 82 million people still listen to AM radio, according to the National Association of Broadcasters, which as you can imagine was rather pleased with the congressional support for its industry. "Broadcasters are grateful for the overwhelming bipartisan support for the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act in both chambers of Congress," said NAB president and CEO Curtis LeGeyt. "This majority endorsement reaffirms lawmakers' recognition of the essential service AM radio provides to the American people, particularly in emergency situations. NAB thanks the 307 members of Congress who are reinforcing the importance of maintaining universal access to this crucial public communications medium."
"Requiring the installation of analog AM radios in automobiles is an unnecessary action that would impact EV range, efficiency and affordability at a critical moment of accelerating adoption," said Albert Gore, executive director of ZETA, a clean vehicle advocacy group that opposes the AM radio requirement. "Mandating AM radio would do little to expand drivers' ability to receive emergency alerts. At a time when we are more connected than ever, we encourage Congress to allow manufacturers to innovate and produce designs that meet consumer preference, rather than pushing a specific communications technology," Gore said in a statement.
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AM Radio Law Opposed By Tech and Auto Industries Is Close To Passing

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  • by will4 ( 7250692 ) on Wednesday May 01, 2024 @10:41PM (#64440944)

    Simply replacing AM radio with something else lets corporations, governments, data brokers, politicians, lawyers and lobbyists have a new thing to sell, make money off of, write academic PHD papers on and exert more control.

    For example, there are lots of laws, regulations and legal precedents around AM radio preventing a power grab by the well funded and well connected.

    Get rid of AM radio, create a 'new thing' to replace it and you get to rewrite the regulations from the ground up, making money and gaining power all the way.

    • by nightflameauto ( 6607976 ) on Thursday May 02, 2024 @09:32AM (#64442158)

      Simply replacing AM radio with something else lets corporations, governments, data brokers, politicians, lawyers and lobbyists have a new thing to sell, make money off of, write academic PHD papers on and exert more control.

      For example, there are lots of laws, regulations and legal precedents around AM radio preventing a power grab by the well funded and well connected.

      Get rid of AM radio, create a 'new thing' to replace it and you get to rewrite the regulations from the ground up, making money and gaining power all the way.

      AM Radio is also a passive listening experience. Meaning, it's tough to track every individual listener and gather data about their habits. Tech is opposed to this because the want ALL THE DATA about ALL THE THINGS. Auto industry is opposed because AM tech is cheap and has been cheap for long enough that you can't convince the customer it's a multi-thousand dollar add-on, and they LOVE the idea of keeping automobiles as expensive as possible so as to make them seem a luxury item, even though most of us in fly-over land need one just to get to work. Plus, AM radio doesn't really give them any options ongoing monetization, which seems to be a big trend among the auto industry players. Features that used to be common are now "pay as you go." Because why not? You couldn't do that with AM radio. So I'm sure the bean counters want it gone.

  • by RitchCraft ( 6454710 ) on Wednesday May 01, 2024 @10:46PM (#64440954)

    "AM radios in automobiles is an unnecessary action that would impact EV range" - LO fucking L !! AM radios can run on a crystal with no external source of power if you really want - but that's impractical - better to place a dual AA battery holder in the glove box. There, no impact on the EV range - I say again, LO fucking L.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      Comment removed based on user account deletion
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        • Comment removed based on user account deletion
          • Which is already done and has been done for years. The FCC mandates on spurious signal propagation from electronics and motors still needs to be incorporated, AM radio or not. If AM radio were to suddenly disappear it's not like the auto industry is going to remove all shielding. The pesky FCC mandates are still in effect.

  • I am no fan of congress regulating things into existence, but the concern over decreasing the range is utter and complete bullshit. Running an AM radio, and presuming that the power amplifier and digital interface are already there for any other audio source, takes about ** 10 milliamps **, that is 1/100th of an amp. At 12v that is a mere 0.12 watts. Turning the display screen 1 notch higher is about 10 times that, it's nothing at all and will be utterly imperceptible effect on range.

    • by xous ( 1009057 )

      It's not the cost of the radio that's the problem.

      EV's make a lot of RF noise due to their power supplies and motors. It's the RF shielding (weight) and antenna as AM requires a larger antenna (more drag, and weight).

      • I know that, I was just commenting on the notion that it would harm the range - which it will not.

              AM radio is being destroyed by other forces related to this - switching regulators and switching power supplied spew RF that caused tremendous interference, and EVs are chock full of them, including the main drive power.

        • >> I know that, I was just commenting on the notion that it would harm the range - which it will not.
          It does.
          I worked on solving EMI problems in vehicles, ICE and EV.
          Ferrites, shields, contacts... all those weigh a lot, and eventually add a little resistance in the high current path.
          Shielding for in-car AM reception is probably 50dB harder than shielding for normal EMC requirements.

  • There's a reason e.g. aircraft communication uses AM: It has a long range and you don't have cut outs with people talking on the same frequency. With FM the PLL basically locks on the strongest signal. Satellite radio is subscription and is pushed really hard for new cars and while I do like satellite radio I'd feel a little naked without an AM tuner. Of course, I also carry a HAM radio around with me, though usually the antenna isn't going to work in the metal box, which is why mounted antennae are a thing
    • by kriston ( 7886 )

      and you don't have cut outs with people talking on the same frequency.

      No. Remember the heterodyne squeal during Tenerife [wikipedia.org]?

  • by ukoda ( 537183 ) on Wednesday May 01, 2024 @11:30PM (#64441040) Homepage
    I quick skim of the bill does not show any performance requirements, so there should be no problems. Make a minimal effort to reduce sources of AM band noise and then set tuning threshold above what noise there may be left.

    When stationary it will be the poor performance of the antenna that will limit reception range. On the move the noise from the motor controller switching will be the biggest problem.

    As a practical note my Tesla can have up to 350kW of power being commutated to the motors yet no create noise on a AM receiver tuned to 26.45MHz (NZ truck CB). Sure that is further up the band but still came as surprise to me how well it works.
  • About 82 million people still listen to AM radio

    So population of the USA is about 340M, this claim is just under 1 in 4 people in the USA listen to AM radio. To be honest I haven't listened to the radio in my car in over a decade - am or fm. I do not know anyone that does and I am in the age demographic that would likely listen to a radio rather than stream. Does anyone under 30 or 35 use a radio in their car, I know my child never has in almost a decade of driving.

    Now if the 82M includes the fact I may have turned on the AM radio in my car when I was

    • by ukoda ( 537183 )
      I remember the last time I listened to radio in my car, it was 21 years ago. I realised I had managed to make the whole commute to work hearing only adverts. Commercial radio had gone off the deep end with pushing ads. I made up a CD of MP3s and put that on random play, problem solved. Never felt the urge to see if they resumed playing music on commercial radio once I realised there was a way to listen to music I liked 100% of the time.
      • by skam240 ( 789197 )

        I listen to radio driving to work all the time, I like the fact that it gets me listening to music that I enjoy from outside of my personal music collection and what I listen to at home along with the fact that it just instantly works with no fuss when I start the car.

        Given that, I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about in regards to ads on radio being such a burden. I easily get more ads streaming free Pandora then I ever do listening to the radio.

  • Sure, put AM radio back in EVs. That's trivial. But then the question is how horrible is the reception without adding more shielding? Does the law specify any quality requirements? I would infer from the summary that the law doesn't say, but it would be up to the NHTSA to create regulations, so they would probably set some quality standards.

    I know my 2015 Model S has AM, and it's fine, but my 2019 Model 3 does not have it. And if I upgrade the media computer in the Model S, I lose AM. But I also know

    • by ukoda ( 537183 )
      I skimmed the bill and saw no mention of quality. I suspect the reason AM was dropped in the Model 3 is the aim was a premium audio experience and AM would have been a blemish on that. I have AM CB in my model 3 and noise is not a problem so I suspect the EMC is not too bad overall in Teslas.
  • HD Radio for AM (Score:4, Interesting)

    by BrookHarty ( 9119 ) on Wednesday May 01, 2024 @11:47PM (#64441066) Journal

    Prob not a bad idea to keep AM around, since many rural communities still have AM.
    Even better include HD Radio for AM, for better quality.

    https://hdradio.com/all-digita... [hdradio.com]

    As for cost, that doesnt really make sense, as they build everything in bulk for their car lines.
    Its bad enough many cars dont include AUX jacks anymore.

    Removing simple things that people use, to save a few pennies is kinda absurd.

    • I briefly thought about buying an HD radio. It was several hundred dollars at the time and then came to my senses after realizing I'd just be hearing the same shit as regular radio but now in HD. I opted for satellite instead and still pay for a streaming subscription on my phone. Last time I heard a discussion about the biggest locat station it was how the playlist hasn't changed in three decades.

    • by kriston ( 7886 )

      Trouble is, all-digital HD Radio on AM fails to work at night due to the AM skip effect. In fact, not just all-digital, but regular HD Radio is affected.

      It's so bad that even the AM HD Radio hybrid digital channels (the overwhelming majority) have found that they must turn off their HD Radio carriers when the sun goes down.

      Somehow, though Digital Radio Mondiale [wikipedia.org] figured this out for AM but iBiquity HD Radio never did.

    • by ukoda ( 537183 )
      The cost is less likely to be the issue vs performance. You need a large ugly antenna to get decent signal strength. Making ugly cars does not go down well with buyers. Compared with all other sources (non-HD) AM sounds like shit. Shit sounding stereos do not go down with buyers. So they simply reduce risk and remove a seldom missed option in favor of more sales.
  • Spotify has over 100 million subscribers in the USA, are we going to mandate internet access and Spotify clients in every car? Why are we forcing everyone to pay what a minority of citizens choose to use?

    I personally do not remember the last time I tuned into an AM station, even though (I think) all my cars had it. My kids wouldn't even know where to find AM radio in their cars. I think the only person who I know has used AM radio in the last 2 decades is my father in law, but he drives a 25 year old truc
  • In the first hours of an emergency, thousands of unlicensed preppers and anti-government losers are going to pull out their Amazon-bought 2-meter Bafengs and keep the HAM radio operators and pollute the airwaves, keeping from doing their job.
    • The FCC has a hands-off policy on ham radio. Self-policing and in my neck of the woods it has worked fairly well. Yea we have some idiots from time to time try to interrupt the R.A.C.E.S. operations but we have fox hunters that usually takes care of them.
  • Set it to the emergency alerts frequency only.

  • Do not make them fit an AM radio - force them to provide a standard size (DIN) slot to fit the radio, and make it possible to fit your own.

    Then you get a choice of Apple or Android compatible if you want, the Kenwood from your old car if you want real controls, or some ancient one from the car boot sale if you want to go on playing your cassettes.

    And change it for a newer one whenever you wish.

    Nothing kills the second hand value of a car like being stuck with some old piece of crap that can't be chan

  • by Registered Coward v2 ( 447531 ) on Thursday May 02, 2024 @06:14AM (#64441544)
    Toss it in the glove box with a cable to attach to the existing audio system via USB for power and audio and you have AM installed.
    • The car is a Faraday cage with electric motors and other RFI sources inside, just how well do you think that will work? Yes, there is an AM radio in the car if you bring one in the car but it will not actually receive any AM stations. The complaint from car manufactureres is not that they are required to have an AM radio in the car, it is that they'd have to go through the trouble of shielding everything to allow the AM radio to work as intended. In the fine article there is a mention that this shielding

  • LOL EV range (Score:4, Insightful)

    by DrXym ( 126579 ) on Thursday May 02, 2024 @07:13AM (#64441654)

    I have no idea if ZETA is a genuine group or some astroturfing bullshit, but claiming it affects EV range, or cost is a pretty ballsy lie. Radios powered by watch & AAA batteries can receive AM radio so it would have neglible impact on EV range, or cost. And besides, if that's the demented logic path they want to go down then ban satellite radio and 4/5G data since surely both of those would have way more impact on range and cost.

  • by bobthesungeek76036 ( 2697689 ) on Thursday May 02, 2024 @07:14AM (#64441664)
    I'm a ham radio operator and I would like nothing more than to mandate AM radios. I have lost count of how many EVs I have passed that have spewed RF noise on my ham radio. But I would think that most AM stations also have internet broadcasts?

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