Excerpts from a longread at The Washington Post:
Automakers, such as BMW, Volkswagen, Mazda and Tesla, are removing AM radios from new electric vehicles because electric engines can interfere with the sound of AM stations. And Ford, one of the nation’s top-three auto sellers, is taking a bigger step, eliminating AM from all of its vehicles, electric or gas-operated.Some station owners and advertisers contend that losing access to the car dashboard will indeed be a death blow to many of the nation’s 4,185 AM stations — the possible demise of a core element of the nation’s delivery system for news, political talk (especially on the right), coverage of weather emergencies and foreign language programming.“This is a tone-deaf display of complete ignorance about what AM radio means to Americans,” said Michael Harrison, publisher of Talkers, a trade journal covering the talk radio industry. “It’s not the end of the world for radio, but it is the loss of an iconic piece of American culture.”..Now, although 82 million Americans still listen to AM stations each month, according to the National Association of Broadcasters, the AM audience has been aging for decades. Ford says its data, pulled from internet-connected vehicles, shows that less than 5 percent of in-car listening is to AM stations..Some Democrats are fighting to save stations that often are the only live source of local information during extreme weather, as well as outlets that target immigrant audiences. Some Republicans, meanwhile, claim the elimination of AM radio is aimed at diminishing the reach of conservative talk radio, an AM mainstay from Sean Hannity to Glenn Beck to dozens of acolytes of the late Rush Limbaugh. Eight of the country’s 10 most popular radio talk shows are conservative...“The automobile is essential to liberty,” right-wing talk show host Mark Levin told his listeners last month. “It’s freedom. So the control of the automobile is about the control of your freedom. They finally figured out how to attack conservative talk radio.”
Related: The top 40 songs of January 25, 1964.
Interesting that Republicans going after FORD !! FORD's (Henry at least) history as pro-Nazi / anti Jewish back in the day before WWII fits RIGHT in (ha ha) with current political leaning of many Republicans
ReplyDeleteSure it's annoying that AM is going away, but this is the free market at work. Despite all the panicking articles you see, AM has been losing listeners for decades. So much so that savvy AM stations have found themselves some form of FM simulcast, if not on HD radio. Meanwhile consumers are moving to ad-free SXM, spotify and simply whatever they can get on their phones. No wonder car makers are following them.
ReplyDeleteThat said, wight-wing radio will loose massively when AM radios go away. But to pretend that they are news is a bit of a stretch.
Seems to me, rather than buy a new car that doesn't give you an AM radio and makes you pay for subscription items such as seat warmers et al, it may be easier, more economical, and maybe better for the planet, to keep your old car.
ReplyDeleteI have an old Saab wagon, well, I say old but compared to my age, 19 years old is barely out of the embryonic sac.
Keeping that powerful, safe and comfortable car roadworthy and fuelled costs less than buying a new battery powered car.
Even if I spend $100 on petrol and $50 on maintenance every week until I die it will still be far cheaper to own than a battery driven automobile (tell me again why a car with a battery is called electric ? I see no power cords trailing behind them)
And I will never have to try and wipe my finger over a screen to turn the demisters on.
Long live AM radio and tactile temperature controls !
Basically, batteries contain chemicals which can be converted into electrical energy. It's quite the thing and looks like it could catch on. See also electric razors, electric toothbrushes and the cordless drill.
DeleteTo me, with my Zombie Apocalypse issues, I keep thinking that one day, ala Red Dawn (1984), we might need to hear an important radio broadcast from 800 miles away. If I recall, only AM stations broadcast at such distances.
ReplyDeleteIt used to be that AM was filled with great fare. It could again be a force, I think, if you had the right stuff on it. As far as I'm concerned, NPR and other such stations should also have an AM presence (since I am at the outer limit of an NPR area, so I get a lot of static).
As best I can tell, about the only couple of things on AM (at least where I am) are hard-right talk programs and Spanish language broadcasts. There ought also to be plenty of "voices" from all areas of the political spectrum, as well as plenty of English programing (at least for those of us in the USA).
If nothing else, AM stations ought to be playing syndicated programs (remember CBS Mystery Theater?), as well as old programs from "A Prairie Home Companion," and the such. If AM became the home of great radio comedy (old and new), as well as a repository of other broadcasts that do not require the better sound quality needed for current music, it might make a comeback.
In any case, if the Zombie Apocalypse does hit, climb into your 1985 Chevy truck, find the AM band, then scan it for news of where we should all get together to fight back!
I do not need an A M radio to know right from wrong
ReplyDeleteI never listen to the radio in the morning, so won't miss it.
ReplyDeleteOK as I understand it, the premise is without AM radios in cars not enough listeners to make it worth advertisers buying airtime and AM will starve to death. All these facilities will be dirt cheap and the cost to operate is electricity and personnel. If the stations are snatched up by a few right wing magadoners...(ha ha I meant to write megadoners but my fingers are stubborn), anyway, they could kill most of the personnel cost by all broadcasting prerecorded programming or single call in show to an 800 number. Become the dark net to the hardcore right. They might even pick up a few advertisers. Like a black hole it might suck in the curious.
ReplyDeletexoxoxoBruce
Not everyone lives in/near a city and I would miss AM as a reliable source of info in remote areas during emergencies (wildfires, floods etc). Also, not everyone lives in the US which from the comments I've seen over this issue is sadly sounding more and more like a clownfest everyday.
ReplyDelete"Clownfest" is a good word. I like it. :-)
DeleteFord backed off on killing AM for 2024 models after talking to various states about the AM emergency warning systems, but no commitment past '24 models. “It's just a software change.”
ReplyDeleteLike Tesla and John Deere, the car manufacturers will retain control of a car you paid a fortune for. They can change the software at any time without your permission or even telling you. Tesla does it constantly. Pay a half million bucks for a John Deere and when it quits you can’t fix it without access to the proprietary information. On new Mercedes you can add lots of horsepower paying $60 or $90 a month. They are in complete control with propitiatory systems you can't hack.