I like that purple '53 Chevy.
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Car Makes & Models with No AM Band.
- Thread starter davideduardo
- Start date
You do know that Young Sheldon is a fictional TV show, not a documentary?
Maybe with unionized writers on strike, suits from the NAB are crossing the picket lines and inserting AM-friendly content into the scripts they and other strike-breakers churn out!
Actually was a bigger difference than that. The one and only new car I've ever owned was a '70 Dart Swinger, bought the year I graduated college (nice car...318 V8 with stick shift. If you kept your foot out of it gas mileage was in the 22-23 mpg range). Don't recall what an AM only radio cost, but an AM-FM radio was an almost $300 option. On a car with a list price of around $2500!
Needless to say, I skipped the FM (not much worth listening to on FM in 1970 anyway). Turns out it was a good decision. Several years later I got a factory AM-FM radio at a junkyard for $10 or so. FM section was deaf as a stump, and didn't have very good AFC so it drifted. A lot.
Depended entirely on the manufacturer and whether the AM/FM unit was mono or stereo. I’ll try to pull some option/price lists for Ford, GM and Chrysler for 1970 in the next day or two.
And that's why I was surprised at how realistic they made it.
The episode was surely written before the strike.
The newest car I had with AM only was a 1988 Chevy Beretta. But I had almost always changed out the stereo system on cars I bought with aftermarket systems on my own because they either had no FM, cassette, or both, and then CD when it became available. The first vehicle I had that had all I wanted was a 2000 Nissan Hardbody truck. Since then I only had to change out another stereo once with my 2012 Dodge Caliber when the factory system died, and I ended up with a system that had AM, FM, CD, USB, and Bluetooth. By that time I was using USB and Bluetooth more than anything else, FM and CD occasionally, and almost never AM. So I honestly can do without AM since there is almost never anything I want to hear there.
They don't turn over episodes that quickly
I thought it was obvious that the original post about NAB people doctoring the scripts was tongue-in-cheek. Or tongue-in-keyboard as the case may be.
Young Sheldon-TV show, realistic? Come on Chimp, you're messing with us?
I'm curious. If Congress does pass a law requiring AM radios to be installed in new cars, how long do they think that should continue? Another 20 years? 50? 100?
The federal government is tasked with promoting public safety, public health. and the well-being of the American people. That is why, over the years, they have mandated tail lights on vehicles, windshield safety glass, airbags, seat belts, catalytic converters, engines that burn unleaded gasoline, and other environmental and safety factors.
I remember when the first seat belt laws were passed in 1968 and the Clean Air Act was passed in 1970, which required automakers to modify engines. I was in school, and there was a public outcry about it. Those who objected offered the argument that: It was too expensive, and the automakers would have to implement huge price increases to the public. Also, government had no business interfering with private corporations like GM and Ford. Finally, the public should be allowed to decided if they wanted seat belts and airbags, because in free market capitalism, the wishes of individual consumers took precedence over "government intrusion."
Any laws regarding the components auto makers are required to install, will always be contoversial.
My issue is this: Some kind of emergency broadcast band is needed ( especially in western America in areas with high fire and earthquake danger) to alert the public in case of a natural disaster. I'm in a hilly area, in the I-680 corridor of the Diablo Valley, where FM reception is very unreliable. So I need ( and use) AM radio in my 2015 Prius. That's useful to me. FM is not reliable, nor is cell phone reception during an emergency where the cell phone towers may be down. In fact, my AT&T network doesn't always deliver a signal, because there are "dead areas" in these hills where my i-phone drops the calls.
So, I would like to have a vehicle, where there is some kind of reliable broadcast band where emergency safety information can be clearly and reliably received.
People here talk about installing AM radios in cars as if it is some kind of huge expense, or some kind of moral issue of government over-reach. That's an extremist position, IMO ; and the same thing that was said about seat belt laws.
How much, in ballpark terms, would it cost per electric vehicle, to install an AM radio that was relatively free of static or noise interference from the engine?
Michael, do you know? Does anyone else who is familiar with this kind of technology know, by chance? Thank you, from Daryl
Fujitsu Ten had apparently solved many of the interference problems with AM radio reception ~30 years ago, their tech could certainly be implemented in a new low cost (low power too) AM receiver IC.
I also think that the unique characteristics of the frequency range currently used by AM radio should continue to be used for AM radio, maybe partially Government subsidized (justified for public safety) to keep several 50kW omni Day&Night AMs OTA throughout the USA.
Kirk Bayne
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But even if true, that means to an auto manufacturer, more cost for something that few potential customers care about? Giving customers what they want, and avoiding things that customers don't want, builds a positive customer experience. It also helps reduce manufacturing costs.
Even though I'm in the business; personally I don't want the government to even consider using any taxpayer dollars for keeping derelict AM stations alive in the very remote chance that these stations would be staffed during an emergency. That, and if the majority of consumers under 70 never would even consider turning to AM radio in an emergency, talk about a-'tree falling in the woods' scenario.
The problem in the USA is not radio sets, it is radio signals.
I've mentioned this about 80 times already, but... there are only about 180 AM stations in the top 100 US market that cover at least 80% of the market population day and night. There are some markets that have none, and a few like New York City, Chicago and Los Angles that have 5 or 6... but those are exceptions.
So, if you build it (those imaginary radios), they won't come. The AM signals are further reduced in reach by ever-greater interference from today's electronics.
Everyone talks about the price of the radio's AM section but I suspect the antenna design is more costly than the radio IC, and more challenging to implement without interference in an electric vehicle
By the way, my mother had one of those Fujitsu Ten radios in her '80s Toyota Corolla, where it was the OEM factory radio-cassette player. It was an AM-stereo radio and while there were no AM-stereo stations where we lived, if you pushed the stereo button the AM bandwidth would still widen to a glorious, hi-fidelity frequency response. It was shockingly good, but of course the Internet didn't exist yet so with no streaming alternatives, the quality of the radio was still important to most people.
There has been talk about improving the sound and technology of AM radio. Here's a way to do it:
www.insideradio.com
This way you get the content from AM radio, but digitally, bypassing the obsolete radio device. The app is coming from radio consultant Fred Jacobs.
New ‘Essential’ App For AM Radio Stations Launched By jÄcapps.
In an effort to help keep AM radio programming available in vehicles, jÄcapps is marketing what it calls the Essential app to broadcasters. Billed as a simplified version of the
This way you get the content from AM radio, but digitally, bypassing the obsolete radio device. The app is coming from radio consultant Fred Jacobs.
If you heard the weather bulletin I think you'd agree with me.
OK, but in a SHTF scenario, there will be no electricity, and -- consequently -- no interference.
TEOTWAWKI scenario, there will be many more problems than whether someone can hear AM (or even FM) radio.
As for the proposed law, I say let 'em do it. Or, better yet, mandate Weather Band reception in cars. Give NOAA the chance to gain more ratings.
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