Not the government's job to mandate this, sorry. Especially not when it means forcing private enterprise to waste money in perpetuity.
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"AM radio being dropped in Electric vehicles" -NY Times article today
- Thread starter Oldbloodandguts
- Start date
For FEMA it is.
You don't remember the UHF mandate of 1964?
That ship has already sailed for AM radio as some car manufacturers (not many as @michael hagerty has pointed out) have already discontinued AM radio in the "infotainment systems" of at least some of their models, but there are other ways to get alerts.
First, remember that consumers would need to be tuned to a particular AM station to receive their alerts. In case you've not seen it elsewhere on this site, few people are listening to AM radio these days. While some car manufacturers have claimed interference as the reason for not including it, the plain and simple truth is that very few consumers, especially those under 40 or even 50 years of age, are using or requesting AM radio. If it wasn't included in the dash, the simple truth is that few consumers would miss it at all. Second, there are many ways to receive alerts other than AM radio. FM stations also carry alerts as do TV stations, cable systems, and cell phone service providers. In fact, cell phones, at least where I live, get more alerts than are broadcast over AM radio. Amber alerts (child abductions and be on the lookout (BOLO) messages) are blasted out to cell phones; Blue alerts which indicate a law enforcement officer has been killed, injured or is missing, at times with a suspect still at large are also sent to cell phones here (users have the option of disabling amber and blue alerts if they wish). In advance of very severe storms, my cell phone sounds the tones and gives weather alert via text, and during the Covid pandemic when they first began enforcing curfews, the county blasted out alerts to our phones every 2 days beginning with the alert tones, to notify/remind residents of the curfew.
Also of interest - per the FCC, those stations that broadcast alerts and messages do so voluntarily. The only ones they MUST carry, are Presidential alerts: Emergency Alert System (EAS)
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The very few cases of "no AM at all" are particularly strong with smaller European manufacturers such as Volvo, a brand that comes from a no-FM-at-all nation and which has limited world-wide sales. But in most cases, the lack of AM is limited to specific electric models only. And Tesla. Still, it's a tiny percentage and, likely, the focus in Congress on this will make sure that it is very limited.
TV and FM are line of site. There are lots of areas where you need extra antennas to get TV and where FM is marginal or not available.
I don't know a single person where I live who has not disabled that function. Our area is a smallish valley and surrounding hills and covers tiny pieces of America's two largest counties... both bigger than some entire New England states or Delaware. But the geniuses in the departments that control alerts have not figured out (with cellular phones going into their fourth decade) how to do keep me from hearing alerts and warnings for places that are a good 70 mph two hour drive away from me!
I recall the amusement and borderline anger of a group of about 100 when we attended a community project meeting in an auditoreum in Rancho Mirage, CA, when were all alerted with ear-piercing tones about a flood alert in Blythe, CA, 110 miles and 2 hours 30 minutes (at best) away!
I never got that type of notice during any pandemic stage, so that was a local decision I am assuming. The problem with systems like that is that they depend on the decision making skills and intelligence of public employees, often at "off-hours" when the quality of staffing is, well, sometimes doubtful
And even then, we are dealing with bureaucracy.
@michael hagerty has been kind enough to list out a few times the vehicle models he's aware of that have so far discontinued AM radio. As I mentioned in my previous post, there aren't many.
Agreed that amber and blue alerts aren't always terribly effective or well executed (or happily received) and as stated, users can disable them. The point is that there are certain alerts you'll get on your phone wherever/whenever you carry it (provided you keep it switched on and are in service range, etc. etc.) that you won't get on an AM radio. Like many others, even the people and agencies issuing alerts have been exploring newer and potentially more effective ways of alerting greater numbers of people faster than sounding EAS alerts on AM radio.
Yep, which is why I mentioned in my post that the county is the one who pushed those alerts. It became a bit political because those alerts (complete with the EAS tones) to notify/remind residents about the Covid curfew were initially "signed" by the county agency that issued them (emergency management if I recall correctly). However, since some county leaders were up for election, they wanted their names on those alerts as they saw them as good (and free) publicity. In reality after about 2 rounds of those alerts with the EAS tones reminding residents of the curfew, they proved so irritating and unpopular that the blowback caused them to stop sending them out entirely.
However, there are still lots of areas with AM coverage that don't get any cellular signal or only get it in some places.
A friend in the UK mentioned to me that the politically connected folks who promoted DAB thought it was a great success. He lives in a smaller town NE of Liverpool, in hilly land. In his flat, he can't get any of the supposed local services, while FM is perfect.
A group he is in is totally opposed to DAB as nearly all the non-metro area listeners have signal trouble both at home and in their cars.
This is a classic "we're from the government and we're here to help you" situation where inadequate facilities, incomplete studies and follow-up resolution of issues were not done. But it looked good on paper and made the politicians look like they were tech-savvy.
On the other hand, leaving those decisions to profit-making companies assures that only the desired demos receive the service.
Since radio signals do not discriminate between age or gender or income, that's really not a consideration when what is at issue is the coverage of all geographical areas with DAB.
The topography and geography of all areas should be considered when setting up regulations like this. I think the US should regulate FM, HD, and AM radio to make sure all areas can get some type of local signal and to make sure all cars have all 3 of these. In an emergency it is lifesaving. Imagine driving in your electric car in an area without FM or HD radio or cell phone reception during a natural disaster. Another reason why as a side note we need to bring back payphones. You can't rely on technology all the time.
Imagine driving an electric car during a power failure. Think about that for a minute. How do you recharge?
Shhhhh! The powers that be do not want that mentioned!
Good point. Another reason we have to rethink what we do with electric cars. I am all for saving the environment and being ecofriendly. Find a way to make it virtually foolproof.
This seems like an impossible financial goal. Consider the Golden Gate Bridge. Since it was built in 1935 approximately 2,000 people are estimated to have jumped from the bridge. In response the GG Bridge Authority has spent to date approximately $400M to build a net underneath the bridge which would prohibit jumpers from getting over the side and jumping. Good idea right? From only a cost basis it then costs taxpayers approximately $200,000 to prevent each jumper from committing suicide. But wait. Just last week a teenager managed to jump despite the net so we might conclude all that money and time have been wasted on this particular issue. And, chances are that it would not deter potential suicides from taking place elsewhere.
I see a direct parallel in this comparison. While I believe we will all be driving some form of EV's eventually it will take many decades to make that a reality and while waiting for the EV infrastructure to be completed our highways, bridges and other infrastructure will continue to be ignored. It seems to me that we have not recognized the greater threat.
I would avoid using suicide as a comparison...
Nearly no gas stations have generators, so you can't fill your tank when the power is out.
In the three decades I lived in Puerto Rico, the power would go out at least twice a month, sometimes more. No gas tank refills! So most of us never let the tank go below 1/2, and every radio station had a generator at both offices and transmitters.
Who is going to pay for this and maintain it? Commercial radio won't go where there are few listeners.
HD does not provide much of a unique service... it is a tag-along for FM and only where FMs find it economically viable do they add HD.
HD at present has a lesser coverage than its originating analog FM.
The bigger reason why pay phones were eliminated in larger cities was robbery and vandalism. You'd have to solve that first. Good luck
This is where non-commercial radio fills the void.
How will it be sustained in locations with no current service? The reason for that is simple: too few people to sustain the operation.
State funded universities. For example, Wyoming Public Radio runs a network of 21 stations and a number of translators out of the University of Wyoming.
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