Fewer cars with AM radios...

[Kelly A]

Tesla isn't just getting rid of AM, they're getting rid of FM and SiriusXM satellite, too. Their reasoning is that since the vehicle is always connected to wireless data, you can stream any station you want. And besides, electric cars don't have enough range to drive out into the middle of nowhere, where there is no cell service, anyway.

Rumor is Tesla's will be optioned with SpaceX Starlink Internet to the vehicle. That way you could stream radio station programming if you choose.

 

[kfbkfb]

My new home stereo system (bought last fall) has no provision (that I am aware of) for receiving AM radio.

I noticed a Walmart house brand ONN home stereo (similar to a giant boombox) doesn't have an AM radio (couldn't find AM listed on an LG home stereo there either).

I will always try to get an AM radio in any radio receiving equip I buy, mainly due to the severe weather situation in the Midwest USA, KC has been hit twice by tornadoes in my lifetime.

If the KC area is badly damaged so that the power is off for an extended time and towers (radio/TV/phone) towers are down, I will (probably) be able to get AM stations from Topeka and St. Joe.


Kirk Bayne

 

[ZantennaG1]

My experience, too, Kelly. And the frequency switches while you’re tuned to a national format as you drive are very cool.

That is super cool. I think in the US, our RDS has something called "Alternative frequency" that's supposed to work the same way, but I haven't seen it in action yet.

 

[ZantennaG1]

I will always try to get an AM radio in any radio receiving equip I buy, mainly due to the severe weather situation in the Midwest USA, KC has been hit twice by tornadoes in my lifetime.

If the KC area is badly damaged so that the power is off for an extended time and towers (radio/TV/phone) towers are down, I will (probably) be able to get AM stations from Topeka and St. Joe.


Kirk Bayne

Finally someone who gets it! Oh yeah, if the numerous KC stations go off, you should recieve WIBW fairly easily, and your vehicle might be able to snag KFAB as well.

 

[CTListener]

Tesla isn't just getting rid of AM, they're getting rid of FM and SiriusXM satellite, too. Their reasoning is that since the vehicle is always connected to wireless data, you can stream any station you want. And besides, electric cars don't have enough range to drive out into the middle of nowhere, where there is no cell service, anyway.

Are there any major players in FM radio that don't stream at all, not even a tightly geofenced stream? If there are, would the disappearance of radio receivers from vehicles be enough to push them into streaming, even if it represents a money pit that will negatively impact the bottom line the more popular it gets? Or would such stations just shrug off former listeners who find a new favorite station that streams?

 

[ZantennaG1]

Longwave has awesome groundwave coverage, which made it ideal for covering rural and offshore areas.

Agreed

As a closer to home example: There used to be a beacon/weather forecast station on 206 kHz in Galveston (GLS) which ran only 2kw. I could hear it in the middle of the day in Amarillo, about 600 miles away.

HOLY COW!

Longwave was also technically closer to the beginnings of radio, so perhaps that helped its early viability.

I think Longwave has been there since the very beginning, along with medium-wave, as LW was for overseas messages, and MW was easy to setup.

That they did, and many were still around until 2014, when the Russians shut down all of their longwave and shortwave broadcast infrastructure, along with all but a few medium wave transmitters.

That is a rather incomplete listing. If you check WRTH editions from a few years later there are many more stations.

Note the stations between 330 and 440 kHz. Technically medium wave but not part of the usual broadcast bands. All long gone now.

That is interesting

 

[Mediafrog+]

Here is the 1965 edition. Actually, there are less.

Check editions from a few years after that. Many of the earlier WRTH's can be rather skimpy on info in certain areas.

Here are the LW listings from the 1974 WRTH...many more stations. The earlier 1969 edition is almost the same.

"Europe-Africa-Near East" followed by "Asia-Pacific" from 1974:

 

[davideduardo]

That is super cool. I think in the US, our RDS has something called "Alternative frequency" that's supposed to work the same way, but I haven't seen it in action yet.

But many cars sold in the US don’t have that feature implemented. It works great on cars that have it.

 

[ZantennaG1]

But many cars sold in the US Donat have that feature implemented. It works great on cars that have it.

Agreed. Not a single car or truck that I've owned or tested has had it installed. For context, I have a deal that allows me to review and test one car a year, or so. I wonder if the Sparc radio (like what @dxsphere has) comes with the Alternative frequency, as it comes with alerts and whatnot?

 

[michael hagerty]

We checked the menu for the new F-150 Lightning. Even the owners manual doesn't list AM as being there. FM-FM HD, Apple Carplay(tm) Google Android? Those are there. AM? Nope!

I haven't had the Lightning yet, but all four trim levels of it show AM/FM as standard. Can you screenshot the menu? Should be Audio>Radio>then the available sources.

And I drove the C-Max every year Ford made it. They had AM.

 

[michael hagerty]

We checked the menu for the new F-150 Lightning. Even the owners manual doesn't list AM as being there. FM-FM HD, Apple Carplay(tm) Google Android? Those are there. AM? Nope!

I spent a few minutes hoping one of the more thorough video reviews would walk through the process on camera, but radio is so blah, most don't even open the menu. However, this guy, while he shows off how to tune SiriusXM by voice, shows the screen, which shows AM, FM and Sirus XM touch icons at the top of the blue part of the screen and presets below that include 540 and 810 AM as well as 89.9 FM and SiriusXM Highway. I've set the link so it's cued to that section:

 

[michael hagerty]

Okay...of course, the very next video is the one that has it step by step. Here's how:

 

[jhimbo]

Are car manufacturers saving a boatload of money by not including AM. I would think it would be minimal.

 

[michael hagerty]

Are car manufacturers saving a boatload of money by not including AM. I would think it would be minimal.

It is minimal, and the linked article that began this thread makes it clear that it's a minority of car manufacturers who are not including AM, most of them European brands, where AM is nearly extinct.

 

[Kelly A]

Okay...of course, the very next video is the one that has it step by step. Here's how:

Doesn't matter. I'm not going over to my neighbors again and poke through his new truck to dig up stupid AM. He or his family has no interest in listening to it, so I equally have no interest in loading it into his new truck.

 

[michael hagerty]

Doesn't matter. I'm not going over to my neighbors again and poke through his new truck to dig up stupid AM. He or his family has no interest in listening to it, so I equally have no interest in loading it into his new truck.

Fine. No loading involved. It should be in the menu. If he cares about AM, you might want to forward the link.

 

[Kelly A]

Fine. No loading involved. It should be in the menu. If he cares about AM, you might want to forward the link.

He doesn't. My neighbor is in his early 40's and didn't know that AM still exists. In fact, he said to me that if I managed to find it, please keep it hidden. One less tab or button that he'll never use. He made a comment that his grandmother used to listen to AM all the time.

 

[dxsphere]

Agreed. Not a single car or truck that I've owned or tested has had it installed. For context, I have a deal that allows me to review and test one car a year, or so. I wonder if the Sparc radio (like what @dxsphere has) comes with the Alternative frequency, as it comes with alerts and whatnot?

The SPARC does not come with alternative frequency, neither do the Sangean brand HD receivers. Alternative frequency is mainly an RDS thing; nothing like it for HD.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

Alternative frequency is mainly an RDS thing; nothing like it for HD.

However, I'm pretty certain a broadcaster can use both RDS and HD simultaneously. I equivocate only because I don't have a receiver at my fingertips with RDS but not HD to check.

 

[CentralFL]

Longwave began being eliminated 50 or more years ago.

From my perspective, LW developed for regional or national coverage before higher power MW transmitters were practical. Some European nations never developed LW, and others used it for rural coverage... some nations used it to cover offshore islands and the marine listener.

The Soviets seem to have liked LW, as it was an easy way to cover wide areas that had no local radio and poor communication with Moscow or regional capitals.

Numerically, there were relatively few of those stations. Here is the WRH listing for all LW stations in 1960:

View attachment 3232

Longwave began being eliminated 50 or more years ago.

From my perspective, LW developed for regional or national coverage before higher power MW transmitters were practical. Some European nations never developed LW, and others used it for rural coverage... some nations used it to cover offshore islands and the marine listener.

The Soviets seem to have liked LW, as it was an easy way to cover wide areas that had no local radio and poor communication with Moscow or regional capitals.

Numerically, there were relatively few of those stations. Here is the WRH listing for all LW stations in 1960:

View attachment 3232

There was a Top-40 LW station called Atlantic 252 in the late 1980's-1990s. It was out of Ireland and covered both Ireland and Britain well. They were successful until more FMs were started up outside of the major cities in the mid 1990s. Towards the end they switched towards dance music before leaving the airwaves in about 2002.