AM radio going away

i guess tesla was ahead of its time. idk about am radio, maybe yes, maybe no. i never listen to the radio anyway, but sometimes you need news, or there are emergency bands on am that would have to be converted somehow.

 

Already another thread on it around here somewhere.

AM is technically well suited to very low density audiences. It still works fine, but there's essentially no money in it, so it isn't likely to grow beyond what it is now, and will probably shrink a bit more. That said I don't see it going away entirely for a long time.

 

I note the irony every time I hear those ads on the local Sports radio station that switched over to FM near two years ago... Was such an improvement in sound quality when they did that.

Most people don't realize that HAM radio was the internet / social media before we had it... And for near the same reason as the demise of AM radio it too is on its way out: Why Ham Radio is Dying? Know the Root Causes Here!

 

Melbourne has lots of electric trams with overhead wires.

I've always found that if I'm driving through Melbourne and listening to AM radio, I get loads of interference whenever a tram is driving nearby.

But with ICE cars, wasn't there some sort of suppression mechanism, either in the car or in the radio? I remember sometimes driving in cars where it was broken, and if you had the AM radio on you'd hear a whirr through the speakers that was consistent with the engine speed.

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Am I right in thinking you've now gone in a different direction to the rest of the world? I hear a lot about Sirius and XM in America, and I understand they're satellite-based? In Australia and Europe we have gone to DAB+, which is a terrestrial digital signal. It seems that this is what we have instead of your satellite radio - hundreds of channels and clear reception. But in Australia. DAB+ only works in big cities: the transmission range is very small.

 

That whine is from the alternator. Those can put out 2500W. The motor in the bZ4X FWD is 150,000W.

Shielding an EV drivetrain so an AM radio can work in the car is possible. It is just more of an undertaking for a medium that fewer people are using.

We have HD radio which is similar to DAB in that a station can simulcast multiple programs, but is still using the FM frequencies.HD radio could be contributing to the decline of AM. A radio broadcaster can now put less popular programing on a FM side channel that was once on a separate AM channel. Why pay for AM broadcasting equipment when you can send news, weather, and traffic out on the FM signal you are already broadcasting?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Audio_Broadcasting#DAB_and_AM/FM_compared

Sirius XM can be viewed as the cable TV of radio. Pay a subscription, and get hundreds of channels of commercial free radio. It's one company now. Some good programing on it. Unless you regularly drive over several states, I don't see the value in it.

 

Ford changed its mind two weeks ago:

Ford reverses course and decides to keep AM radio on its vehicles

 

In the USA most people prefer the internet.

Ford did announce they are going to keep AM radio in their vehicles. This was after they were ridiculed for not having it.

Tesla and VW seem to still be set against AM radio. Tesla also makes it hard to hook up any other audio device to the stereo unless it's a smartphone or FM transmitter.

AM radio has a longer range but poorer sound quality than FM.

In other countries, like in Europe, they've switched to Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) which is incompatible with analog receivers. The USA has a digital enhancement that as far as I understant travels along with the analog signal and is called HD radio and works with both HD and traditional analog radio receivers.

In a natural disaster AM and FM (and TV) stations are more likely to still be up and running long after all internet, cellular and landline communications have failed, hence one appeal besides being able to listen to local radio channels. Local authorities can ask these stations to transmit important information, something that's not what the current iPhone 14 with satellite connectivity can do. You can reach a bigger area with one AM antenna than one FM antenna.

Contrary to popular internet rumors, there is no problem with EV's and hybrids causing interference with AM signals anymore than a traditional ICEV would.

 

Hearing on Value of AM Radio | C-SPAN.org

meh.

A post hurricane environment, and earning an EXW qualification badge in the USN has taught me much about what is essential and what is not when you go into the boonies or the boonies come to you.
I do happen to have a fairly good AM radio but it's attached to a radio that also does other things....
...BETTER.
Back in the old days I used to listen to those 50,000 watt blow-torches at night while traveling but those have all gone or are going the way of the allosaurus, polite political discourse, newspapers, etc.

All four of my vehicles are AM-Jam equipped, and they probably have a combined one hour's use over the last 20 years - INCLUDING post hurricane 'listening.'

I'm thinking that my beloved government has other, more pressing matters....and besides.....
If AM radio required a 'solution' would you REALLY WANT dot.gov to do it????

Put me down for a 'nope.'

 

Not going to stay that way forever.

Everyone has figured out that maintaining cellular communications means not having nearly as many problems during the disaster, so towers and stations are getting a lot of hardening.

It seems to be working. Still a lot to do but we are getting there.

 

Cell towers are also portable.
My beloved company has COWs of Cellular-on-wheels that they ostentatiously deploy to post disaster areas.

Of course, there's also America's favorite megalomaniacal centi-billionaire.
One of his many side-hustles (some say) either will or will not eliminate off of the infrastructural 'last mile issues' that plague areas affected by fire, flooding, famine, pestilence, civil unrest, war, or what I like to call "D...all of the above, 2020."

 

Ya, well, that's great for y'all who live in such areas.

But until my county brings in another line into the valley, we're still on a single, 60-mile-long, data line that gives us all our internet, cellphone and landlines for some 15,000 people, IIRC, that when that gets damaged we're out of all cellular, landline and internet sometimes for a whole week for some.

 

I've visited and worked in Colorado enough to have experienced that. There's lots of places that still need improvements and a broadcast receiver will still be useful for a while around there.

 

maybe they could use some marijuana windfall profits to improve the system

 

I guess nothing's stopping that... but why not just have their regulators lean on the four or five corporations that are already taking subscription money from those 15,000 people in the valley and tell them to get with the program to harden their infrastructure, pull more fiber or whatever makes sense locally.

They're all already charging fees specifically to "maintain and improve infrastructure," but nobody's been holding them to the deal.

 

because they are getting paid off by the corporations?

 

OP question, will AM fade away? seems likely.

"... Fewer than one in three (32%) new car purchasers believe an AM radio is essential in the dashboard "

https://jacobsmedia.com/is-am-radio-walking-the-last-mile/

"The median age of AM radio listeners is 65 years old."

5 Things Blocking The Efforts To Save AM Radio

"Ford says its data, pulled from internet-connected vehicles, shows that less than 5 percent of in-car listening is to AM stations."

https://www.ptleader.com/stories/local-radio-pro-on-am-radios-downfall,120247?

The government has tried to force automakers to keep AM

https://www.ltcnews.com/articles/congress-fights-to-retain-am-radio-in-new-cars

Anecdotally, the reasons people give to keep it, (emergency info, local news) don't exist on my local AM stations and haven't in years.

 

a lot of highways i drive on have signs to tune to AMxxxx for traffic, weather alerts, accidents and etc.

 

We have numerous of those here too, mostly for winter mountain pass conditions, when foul weather often forces traction or chain requirements or road closure. Sometimes for construction delays too.

I find it important to distinguish between what "the government has tried to" do, and what a group of senators and representatives are proposing as legislation. The former suggests executive branch regulatory action. The later is merely some elected congresspeople submitting legislative bills for consideration, the great majority of which die in the process, never becoming law.

"Congress is now addressing the national security aspect of AM radio. The "AM for Every Vehicle Act" would require federal regulators to mandate AM radio in new vehicles without an additional charge.

This bipartisan legislation was introduced by Senators ... and Reps ..."

 

Since we already know how to replace analog broadcast TV with digital TV, these need to be replaced:

• aviation VHF - frequency modulated
• CB - amplitude modulated
• AM - amplitude modulated

Bob Wilson