Radio Broadcasters Support America's 'AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act' (suntimes.com) 196
Last month, the U.S. House passed the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. They call it "a bipartisan effort to require AM radio in new vehicles," adding that the bill now "awaits action in the Senate, where a companion measure has already garnered support, according to public records."
Broadcasters said AM radio remains a critical source of information, offering news and weather alerts, particularly when cell networks and internet service are disrupted or unreliable... "AM radio — all radio — has always been about connection, and in Chicago, especially, the connection is incredibly strong," Mary Sandberg Boyle, vice president and general manager of WGN-AM 720, said. "You don't need a subscription. You don't need a data plan or an app. You turn on the radio, and it's there..." Boyle said the accessibility of radio becomes especially important during severe weather and breaking news situations. "That's when local radio is really more important because we have the ability to stay live, pivot our content and what we're covering, and we can access a large amount of audience members very quickly and keep everybody safe," she said. Boyle also serves on the board of directors of the National Association of Broadcasters, which has argued that preserving AM radio access is an access issue rather than a matter of nostalgia.
The legislation emerged after several automakers removed AM radio from certain electric vehicle models, citing interference from electric power systems. Companies including Tesla, Rivian, Volvo and others have either eliminated or limited AM radio in some EVs. The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents most major automakers, has opposed the requirement. In congressional testimony last year, President and CEO John Bozzella argued that "analog AM radio does not contribute to motor vehicle safety" and requiring it as standard equipment "is not necessary to ensure public safety."
Under the bill, the U.S. Department of Transportation would be required to develop regulations ensuring AM radio remains available in new vehicles sold in the U.S. The measure would also bar automakers from charging consumers separately for AM radio access... While public discussion around the legislation has largely focused on emergency alerts and news access, some scholars say preserving AM radio also has implications for media diversity... "I think the media landscape is really overwhelmingly homogenized right now, and AM radio is important in many markets," [said Zachary McDowell, associate professor of communications at the University of Illinois Chicago]. "It's a space that still allows for all sorts of different voices that is still open and accessible."
The article also includes this quote from Rodney Gibbs, executive director of Heartland Signal, which operates a local talk radio station. "Despite the kind of shiny objects that digital media is, AM radio still has a viable and durable audience. It's a daily, unscripted, authentic conversation between the host and the listeners. You don't get that from broadcast television. You don't get that from digital media."
The legislation emerged after several automakers removed AM radio from certain electric vehicle models, citing interference from electric power systems. Companies including Tesla, Rivian, Volvo and others have either eliminated or limited AM radio in some EVs. The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents most major automakers, has opposed the requirement. In congressional testimony last year, President and CEO John Bozzella argued that "analog AM radio does not contribute to motor vehicle safety" and requiring it as standard equipment "is not necessary to ensure public safety."
Under the bill, the U.S. Department of Transportation would be required to develop regulations ensuring AM radio remains available in new vehicles sold in the U.S. The measure would also bar automakers from charging consumers separately for AM radio access... While public discussion around the legislation has largely focused on emergency alerts and news access, some scholars say preserving AM radio also has implications for media diversity... "I think the media landscape is really overwhelmingly homogenized right now, and AM radio is important in many markets," [said Zachary McDowell, associate professor of communications at the University of Illinois Chicago]. "It's a space that still allows for all sorts of different voices that is still open and accessible."
The article also includes this quote from Rodney Gibbs, executive director of Heartland Signal, which operates a local talk radio station. "Despite the kind of shiny objects that digital media is, AM radio still has a viable and durable audience. It's a daily, unscripted, authentic conversation between the host and the listeners. You don't get that from broadcast television. You don't get that from digital media."
You need this for an emergency (Score:5, Insightful)
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MW Propagation is a lot of fun. You can get stations that are thousands of miles away. Too bad younger generations haven't bothered to experience it.
Re:You need this for an emergency (Score:4, Insightful)
You can't shitify a product that much for that long and have anyone give a shit. Who the hell cares if I can get a radio station from thousands of miles away when it's the exact same content because it's from the exact same mega corporation?
And as for emergencies just buy a radio. Don't force me to spend an extra couple hundred bucks on my car radio or more if you're buying a electric car because of the Herculean engineering task needed to make them work around electric car motors.
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150% correct.
Re:You need this for an emergency (Score:4, Insightful)
And as for emergencies just buy a radio. Don't force me to spend an extra couple hundred bucks on my car radio or more . . .
Odd to hear this take coming from you. Out of curiosity do you feel the same about other mandatory things included for safety purposes that also add to the cost of the vehicle? Normally you're quite keen on arguing for the government to force people to buy something you consider to be for their own good or to even go further and suggest the government deliver that thing itself. Not that I expect this to change your entire worldview, but the next time you want to go off about someone who'd prefer the government not to force decisions they don't want on them, you remember this.
Re:You need this for an emergency (Score:4, Insightful)
This isn't about safety. Its about ClearChannel/iHeartMedia profit, and some government jackasses who feel the need to be able to dispense propaganda when they feel like it.
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Like going to your trunk when you're broken down on the side of the road, vs. pressing a button on your dash?
Re: Reading is fundamental (Score:2)
How is somene 1,500 miles away going to help you when your car has broken down?
The benefit of AM over everything that is that it works at a very large distance. Very handy when you try to shelter in place after a nuclear strike, or after a hurricane has devastated your state and the one next to it, and you want to stay up to date; not so handy when you need a tow and don't want to wait for a week in yohr cat for it to arrive. (Besides, car AM raduos are receive only.)
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It's 2026, and everyone already carries a high bandwidth digital radio with them. It's called a cell phone.
The only people still listening to AM radio at this point are Boomers listening to conservative talk radio. Even that is available on streaming now, so that AM spectrum would probably be better repurposed for something else.
Re:You need this for an emergency (Score:5, Informative)
It's 2026, and everyone already carries a high bandwidth digital radio with them. It's called a cell phone.
In a real emergency, it is usually worthless, unless maybe it has an FM radio receiver. FM isn't worthless in an incident, it's just not as useful as AM.
Re:You need this for an emergency (Score:4, Informative)
People escaping the Palisades fire or a tornado don't benefit from having a fucking AM radio.
People evacuating benefit from information on evacuation, like which routes are viable. This can change while in transit, and the cell phone network goes to shit when it's leaned on at all so you need a broadcast radio information source. So yes, they fucking well do.
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... AM spectrum would probably be better repurposed for something else.
As others here have explained, AM broadcasting is the best way to disseminate information over large geographic areas when modern comms infrastructure fails. The simplest receievers consist of very few components and don't even require a battery. Even (low-power) transmitters - useful at the neighbourhood level - are remarkably easy to build and can be cobbled together almost out of junk junk by a decent electronics hobbyist.
AM spectrum should remain available for unencrypted over-the-air transmission. Its
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Having recently taken a trip on a major highway through the mountains and trying to stream, cell service is too spotty to depend on. Getting on to a minor highway is even worse, hours of only AM reception.
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AM radio has very poor audio quality, you wouldn't want to be listening to music that way.
And your problem is trying to stream. Modern phones can have more than a terabyte of capacity, more than enough to store anything you'd want to listen to at a reasonable quality level.
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Bear in mind that the 'emergency' where your car radio could be most useful might, no probably, will also have a power outage in there somewhere. Cell service will not last too long when the batteries die, and the generators don't work, or weren't there at all...
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Why not take a look into "pirate radio" in the UK in the 1960s? Public broadcasting here is a bit different to, say, the US but the BBC was the old fuddy-duddy then and was forced to create BBC Radio 1 eventually. One of the pirate radio DJs is still broadcasting on the BBC - the legend that is Tony Blackburn.
The thing about AM radio (or the "wireless" as we used to call it), is that you can broadcast to a vast audience with not a lot of stuff and eventually people will make a film about it! "So what!" I
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I drive an EV - a Seic MG4 and my car radio can do DAB and FM (we've ditched AM here but the UK is rather smaller than the US) with no problem. No idea why you think the motors would be an issue.
The switching electronics in EVs produce huge amounts of broad-spectrum "hash" well into the AM broadcast band, which is about 50 times lower in frequency than AM broadcast. This can overwhelm even the best-designed AM radios.
Also, Amplitude Modulation is much more sensitive to interference than the Frequency Modulation which is used in FM broadcasting and DAB. So not only are FM and DAB frequencies much farther away from the emissions that EVs generate, they are also inherently much more immune to that int
Re:You need this for an emergency - correction (Score:2)
... about 50 times lower in frequency than AM broadcast.
Sorry, that should have been 50 times lower than FM broadcast.
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Clear Channel (and Sinclair) snapped up struggling stations nobody else wanted. Maybe take a hard look at the reason why people sold out?
Nobody's gaining marketshare from automobiles continuing to have AM radios in them. Even conservative talkers are going the hybrid podcast route. Savage and Shapiro basically dumped their AM broadcasts.
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So, the reason for mandating it in cars isn't the right wing talk garbage.
It's the highway information radios. The ones the transportation departments have set up in cities and around construction projects, along with the signs with flashing lights that say things like "tune to 1620 AM when flashing" to let you know there's something going on with the road that you should know about. The low power AM signal propagates further than low power FM would, and the band is less crowded.
And it's not a couple hund
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It's not expensive to add AM coverage to the radio itself. However, many cars, especially EVs, flagrantly exceed FCC limits on RF noise pollution, and this is far worse on AM (which picks up noise as signal) than FM (which suppresses some noise and receives less due to the higher frequency). So the cost is not in the radio but in fixing the el cheapo badly filtered car power system so that the AM radio isn't wiped out by it.
Of course after you do all that almost all that's on AM is junk, lots of Rush wannab
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AM radio is mostly right wing talk shows now
I'd be curious for some concrete examples of that. In my mixed political area of 1m+ population, there's one local AM that definitely leans conservative. I know there's a Catholic station. The bulk is Spanish music and religious, Punjabi (no idea of type), an oldies station, 2 sports related ESPN and Fox, one plays some local sports.
If AM is going to be forced on all car manufacturers for "safety" reasons, there should be some requirements of 1 or more stations that own a public safety responsibility though
Re: You need this for an emergency (Score:2)
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" All cell phones by law have a AM/FM capabilty"
Untrue. False. Made up.
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Let me explain shortwave for the younger folks. Do you like hearing about Jesus and broadcasts in languages you don’t speak? Well tune into shortwave!
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When I was young, it was Herbert W. Armstrong. He did have an interesting take. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re:You need this for an emergency (Score:4, Informative)
It's a huge PITA for AM stations. Many AM stations actually have licenses that say they can broadcast from sunrise to sunset and must shut down for the night. Others have "reduced power operations" where they must reduce their transmit power overnight.
And others are lucky to have the full license that lets them go 24/7 at full power. The regulatory bodies have to consider propagation when dealing with AM radio licenses. When an AM radio station goes off the air it presents more headaches because the other stations nearby might have to juggle their power settings.
But AM radio being in the HF radio band means you only need a few stations to cover an entire country. In an emergency, you cannot tell how many transmitters you have available so the AM network means you still have a way to communicate even if stations so down. And some AM stations do not operate at full power as full power operation is reserved for emergencies.
In a scenario where a major city is impacted, nearby AM radio stations can often have coverage into that major city despite being far away (and thus not experience the issues) making it the ideal communications medium.
Plus, it also means the EV makers can't cheap out on radio shielding. ICE vehicles have huge issues as well with EMI causing radio issues, but they have had years to shield the radio from interference caused by the engine. ("Alternator whine" is a common one). The only reason EVs want to ditch AM radio is because their electronics interfere with AM reception and they want to save the $5 of metal to shield components.
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The only reason EVs want to ditch AM radio is because their electronics interfere with AM reception and they want to save the $5 of metal to shield components.
Entirely agree with your overall sentiment, but humbly submit that your "$5 worth of metal" may be a massive underestimate. The electronics that drive such powerful motors produce HUGE quantities of RFI, which is usually pretty broad in spectrum and therefore overlaps the AM band. I suspect that to make an AM radio work decently in such a vehicle there would be changes needed to the drive electronics, the wiring, and possibly the motors themselves - as well as the radio.
What I'm about to say is a totally a
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I wouldn't be surprised if the all-in COST of making an AM radio work decently in an EV was at least into the hundreds of dollars.
I doubt this very, very heavily. If it were so they would have told us so already as their excuse. These days the typical radio antenna is an amplified module mounted to the roof, this is now cheap and it gives better reception without the sticking-up aerial or with just a short one.
Re: You need this for an emergency (Score:2)
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Why? What good is it for me? I don't speak Spanish.
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Why? What good is it for me? I don't speak Spanish.
I feel obligated to mention the Wall of Voodoo song "Mexican Radio": https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
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I don’t like baseball or right wing propaganda. That’s AM.
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No you don't. Your car is not a part of an emergency kit. You should have an emergency kit at home which includes a hand cranked AM radio. Forcing this into a car is stupid, cars are quickly abandoned in actual emergencies where frequently moving on foot is required and causes people to be disconnected from communication.
Don't trust me on this. There's whole departments dedicated to educating you, e.g. FEMA, and no their advice is not based on some DOGE bro cuts.
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Forcing this into a car is stupid, cars are quickly abandoned in actual emergencies
I thought EV batteries were going to power civilization in an emergency...?
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Power and fuel is not the reason most cars are abandoned in emergencies. Flooding, mechanical failure (especially around bushfires) or impassable areas are. EVs are amazing (anecdote about a disaster below) but they ain't fucking magic even though the performance models with their weight and 4wd make them amazing during snowfall where normal sedans (not American monster-trucks) often fail.
Anecdote: When cyclone Alfred hit South East Queensland early 2025 everyone was heaping shit on a friend of mine who own
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Interesting anecdote. We still don't have decent V2H enablement in the UK. By the way, Australian sentiment on EVs has shifted pretty rapidly. While there's obviously lots of loud-mouthed whiners, EVs are now 26% of sales of new cars, which is pretty decent, all told, and is actually a doubling of market share in a single year. Petrol and diesel saw really chunky declines. It helps that solar and battery are spreading so rapidly, so there's significant benefits in fuel savings to be had. The Electric Viking
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If we get to the point where we need AM Radio emergency kits, we're already so fucked that AM radio emergency kits are going to do jack for us.
WTF are you talking about? There's constant scenarios where AM Radio emergency kits are effective primary forms of communication. It only takes on average 8 hours of a power outage in the USA to lose all mobile and fibre routing coverage in emergency areas at which point radio becomes the most effective forms of communication.
On average a community is without mobile phone coverage due to a disaster situation *YEARLY* in the USA, almost always during hurricane season. Just because you live in places where th
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Cars get you the out of Florida before the Cat 5 hurricane hits. Anything you want to tell those folks AFTER the hurricane hits may need AM band if the CAT5 blew down all the FM AND AM towers in Florida. If that happens, you give your messages to WWL in New Orleans, or WSB in Atlanta, and their 50 thousand watt AM stations will be heard all over Florida and your emergency message will get thru. Size matters, as in transmitter power, and you can't do that on FM. FM goes to the horizon and drops dead
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Cars get you the out of Florida before the Cat 5 hurricane hits.
Emergency kits are for your emergency. If you're not where the hurricane hits then you're not in an emergency and you won't need your AM radio either. Leaving before an emergency happens is not an emergency plan. It's a lucky privilege. Cars are not part of an emergency plan.
I agree with you on technical grounds. AM is essential for emergencies, so essential that you should own a dedicated receiver you can carry with you should your attempt to outdrive a disaster fail.
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" dedicated receiver you can carry with you"
This looks good on paper, but what's going on here is deeper. It's all about EV's and some manufacturers don't want to go to the expense of making their traction motors benign with respect to electromagnetic pollution. That means they make a racket on the lower frequencies. Your AM radio will get wiped out by SOME of these EV manufacturers that, in other circumstances, would probably dump their toxic waste in the river to save money too if there wasn't a law.
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Emergencies (Score:2)
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Cars absolutely are a part of emergency kit. When you need to pack up and leave home to get to a shelter or rally point, your car is the first option. It might not be the BEST option (due to all the other people in their cars doing the same thing at the same time) but that's a different issue.
Expecting that everyone have a hand-cranked anything on hand is ludicrous. Everyone in the US has access to a car (usually), which is why putting AM radios in them assures that people will actually have radio access
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People constantly spout this. Has it ever happened? They didn’t even do it during 9/11.
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WTF has 9/11 got to do with anything? That wasn't an emergency for anyone other than people in a building and those moving away from the immediate surrounds. There was no wide spread flooding or cut-off access for populations.
While the idea of relying on your car for communication is dumb, on average some community in the USA being cut off from all communication other than radio during an emergency event happens on an almost yearly basis. Usually during hurricane season.
I mean shit, "has it ever happened?"
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If they didn't use the AM band during that emergency, when would they use it?
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AM is good for sending out information during a disaster which includes power outage, when the cellular network will crater whether it's affected by the outages or not. And it will be, because some sites' generators won't work, or they don't have much fuel to begin with. Everyone can have solar and hand crank generators for their phones and still have them be worthless.
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They didn’t even do it during 9/11.
Were you anywhere near NYC during 9/11?? I was at Chambers and West Broadway, and allow me to assure you the cellular network was DEAD. Just saying.
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And did they do anything with the AM band?
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And did they do anything with the AM band?
Uh, yeah. 1010 WINS was on air the entire time and told people how to get the fuck off the island.
(if you don't know about 1010, you're obviously not from the area despite your queens-based username)
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"It needs to be forced as standard equipment."
Needs to be for your partisan interests, not for anything else. Gen Z doesn't see utility for good reason.
the internet has world-wide propagation range (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm quite a bit older than Gen Z and even I think AM radio is a waste of spectrum. We've got cell phones now and supposedly Starlink is even capable of providing cell coverage from space. The cell networks are also quite a bit more resilient than people give them credit for, too. Last major hurricane we had here (Irma), I watched the weather radar on my phone throughout the entire storm. Power went out, Spectrum was down, but the cell service stayed up the whole time.
Also, AM radio just sounds like absolute ass. I don't understand how anyone would willingly subject themselves to that when you can get a crystal clear audio feed via modern online streaming. I get it, it was an amazing achievement in its day and a necessary stepping stone to better technologies, but please just let it finally die.
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Lots of areas without cell coverage or Starlink coverage, I just have to go a mile down the road to lose the last bar on the phone and there's trees that will block Starlink.
Re: You need this for an emergency (Score:2)
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Driving around on the back roads to avoid the fires it was handy to have AM to find out which roads were closed. Once you get into the back country there's not much else besides AM.
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I am sure that Gen Z is well aware that in zombie apocalypse you have to find an AM radio to broadcast in order to find other survivors.
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What would you replace it with? It's not really useful for much else.
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No it doesn't.
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Sure, for when the Russkies invade, right? Red Dawn!
Re:You need this for an emergency (Score:4, Informative)
So why isnt it mandated for homes and all devices that receive radio currently?
Why is my car the only thing that *has* to receive AM?
This is another bullshit “I have a hobby horse and Im going to fucking ride it at everyone elses expense” political move.
Re:You need this for an emergency (Score:5, Insightful)
We spent the last 50 years building out infrastructure for radio. It's called a cell phone.
Cell phone coverage is practically nil out in many areas. Yes, we did build out the cell phone network. But then we switched to 4G/5G and in promptly vanished. Gotta keep those basement-dwelling autists happy with low latency networking for their vidya games.
And actually, "we" didn't build out anything. The corporations got lots of bandwidth to offer revenue producing product providing service we were getting for free. Compare the net present value of the fees you will be paying AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile for the rest of your life to the few hundred dollars an AM/FM radio will cost you once.
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Your faith in high frequency radio is touching. Cell phones a line of sight. AM radio is not so limited. It works much better in the mountains.
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Stop spamming, thx.
Please, be kind. He might have eaten a lot of paste in school.
come back to carbon paper! (Score:2)
Please? we are dying out here!
Sure, and then ... (Score:2)
Manufacturers will comply with the letter of the law and include AM radios, but then charge extra for ones with FM too.
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Just like they did in the 50's and 60's.
Re:Sure, and then ... (Score:4, Interesting)
Weather bands as well? (Score:4, Informative)
Hello,
What about adding the weather radio bands [wikipedia.org] as well? While not everywhere has blizzards, floods and tornadoes, they are definitely useful for alerting the population to those types of emergencies in the places they do occur.
Regards,
Aryeh Goretsky
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It's almost like weather information in emergencies is transmitted over AM...
That said this is stupid. A car is not emergency equipment. You should have an emergency plan that involves a situation where your car is in accessible and an emergency kit with a hand cranked AM radio in it, ESPECIALLY if you live in places with blizzards, floods and tornadoes.
It doesnâ(TM)t have to be GOOD radio. (Score:2)
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"This should cost nearly nothing to implement."
But shitty radios cost money to support. Customers will complain and there won't be solutions. It's not about the cost of the radio, it's about the cost of the feature.
"...whatever terribly short range staticky mess you capture can be presented to the consumer for compliance purposes."
It can be, but there are consequences. And that assumes compliance requirements don't get worse.
AM radio has theoretical value because it has historical value and partisans hav
Re:It doesnâ(TM)t have to be GOOD radio. (Score:4, Interesting)
A buggy whip in every EV! (Score:2)
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Re: A buggy whip in every EV! (Score:2)
I loved Art Bell. He'd just tell the perpetual motion machine loons "you can't do that, it violates the laws of thermodynamics, show me or GTFO." George Noory, the last thing I remember about listening to his show, he had the head of some medical examiner's office on, and conducted a normal interview, and then at the end, "have you ever seen anything that looked like an attack by a vampire or werewolf?" You could hear the guest rolling her eyes, and she said "we... Don't see a lot of that."
complete lies, unsurprising (Score:4, Informative)
'While public discussion around the legislation has largely focused on emergency alerts and news access, some scholars say preserving AM radio also has implications for media diversity... "I think the media landscape is really overwhelmingly homogenized right now, and AM radio is important in many markets," [said Zachary McDowell, associate professor of communications at the University of Illinois Chicago]. "It's a space that still allows for all sorts of different voices that is still open and accessible."'
This is bullshit. The reason for the homogeneity in "media" is because that was a Republican strategy to create partisan media. Reagan began deregulating media so that essential checks ensuring independent media would be destroyed. That's where we are today and the solution is not to force shitty receivers into cars where no one wants them, the solution is to undue the damage done to media since the 80s. Cars are utterly irrelevant to the state of media today, and back when Reagan was ruining media cars were NOT required to have radios AT ALL.
Your EV is gonna be dead anyway after the bomb dro (Score:2)
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First responder perspective (Score:5, Insightful)
The negligible expense of AM radio in every vehicle is an investment that's paid back in lives saved. I'll give you an example and presume that you can extrapolate to other events.
When Sandy hit, it took out all kinds of communications. (Cellular networks are particularly vulnerable to this because backup power supply systems are only designed to run briefly and because the towers fall in hurricanes/tornados/derechos/etc.) Even local radio stations -- yes, including AM stations -- were knocked off the air by the event. But non-local radio stations that could be received in the affected area stayed on the air, and when we asked WLS-AM (mentioned in this story) and other stations (e.g. KMOX-AM) to broadcast evacuation instructions, they did. And some people heard those broadcasts, which I know because I was there and asked them how they knew to come to the evac staging zones we'd set up.
That's the thing about AM radio: because powerful stations can be heard hundreds of miles away on cheap gear, they constitute a communications channel that is likely to be keep working even when everything else is down or severely impaired. It's dirt-cheap insurance, and the feeble excuse from EV vendors that it causes interference is absolutely bullshit: we figured out how to solve that problem a long time ago. Their real reason is that want people to depend solely on communication channels that they control, even if they know full well that they'll fail in emergencies, and they don't care how many people die as a consequence.
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You're incredibly short sighted for an emergency responder. How about sharing other stories of Sandy, the stories of people walking on foot, of people who abandoned their cars due to lack of fuel, or people who abandoned cars due being unable to pass damaged / flooded areas?
AM radio is critical in emergencies, but there's a reason FEMA says your emergency kit should included a *PORTABLE* AM radio and not a Ford F-150. A car is not part of an emergency plan, it's emergency avoidance. An AM radio should be pa
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AM radio is critical in emergencies, but there's a reason FEMA says your emergency kit should included a *PORTABLE* AM radio and not a Ford F-150
Everybody *should* have an emergency radio. Most people nowadays don't own any kind of radio besides what is in their car. It only costs a few bucks and gives everyone with a car a chance at getting long-distance communications. Sounds like a no-brainer to me.
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I am a first responder
Well, you should go to FEMA's website and learn some basic emergency response and emergency preparedness
Because, the person that goes to some website obviously knows more than the person that does it for a living. Ah... slashdot
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I too am trained in emergency response dumb-arse. When I worked for SES I saw precisely the things I listed as references.
I LOVE this. Yet another Slashdotter doesn't bother to do basic research and picks a side based on what they think someone's qualifications are without question. And on the internet no less.
You know what, I'll speak your languge: I'm not trained in emergency response. I am the king. I rule you. Now listen to me. Does that make me more authorative than the OP? Maybe now you will think abo
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This is an incredibly short sighted argument for someone calling someone else short sighted. Someone might need updates while evacuating, and their car's radio will have better reception than the portable they are using inside of the car. AM radios work OK inside of cars, but still not as well as a car stereo using the external antenna. It's easier to use and hear while driving. It's a small addition to the cost. Yes, people should have a portable radio for emergencies. Having the car stereo pick up the AM
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You claim cars are superior while also writing about your car's poor reception. Cars have had horrendous reception compared to basic portables for about 25 years now thanks to sleek hidden antenna designs not at all tuned for AM. Precisely no one is mandating a wire wound dual band MW antenna here. Combined with the high frequency electronics of an EV and you're lucky to pickup anything at all. On the flip side your portable allows you to step outside of the car and actually get reception.
Also you're confla
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the feeble excuse from EV vendors that it causes interference is absolutely bullshit: we figured out how to solve that problem a long time ago.
Uh, as I understand it, it isn't that AM radio interferes with the car. It's that the car interferes with AM radio. It can be solved, certainly, but am I willing to pay for extra shielding in my EV so that it doesn't interfere with my ability to listen to AM radio?
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"an investment that's paid back in lives saved"
If it's an investment, then we should be able to compute the return on that investment.
For public policy purposes, a life is currently valued at around $10 million. There are around 16 million new vehicles sold in the US per year. Therefore, we will have a positive return if the marginal cost is less than $0.63 per vehicle per life saved to install an AM radio and any necessary shielding.
What stands out to me that we hear from broadcasters, from manufacturers,
Make it part of your emergency kit (Score:2)
Why require AM radio in a car? A AM/FM radio should be part of your household emergency kit. Logically, if AM radio is needed in a car for emergencies, shouldn't we also require cars to carry first aid kits, flashlights, batteries, blankets, and non-perishable food?
Ok well then just make 1 channel (Score:2)
Get rid of all the other spectrum and programming, just have an or rather THE emergency AM channel or whatever is needed for that function and require that be in all vehicles.
AM Radio for local traffic issues (Score:2)
Itâ(TM)s long been standard for local traffic issues to be broadcast on one of several frequencies when driving through the passes of Washington State. Since I donâ(TM)t listen to many AM stations, I could use three memory buttons for most of what I needed and if the lights on the sign were flashing Iâ(TM)d hit the AM button and figure out the correct station.
My new EV doesnâ(TM)t have AM radio, and Iâ(TM)m left wondering how I can know whatâ(TM)s going on nearby as Iâ(TM)
Re: (Score:2)
Obligatory Everclear. [youtube.com]