Ford Blinks, AM radio returns

[begreen]

It looks like Ford got the message from the midwest, loud and clear.

Ford decides to keep AM radio on 2024 models, will restore AM on two electric vehicles from 2023

Owners of new Ford vehicles will be able to tune in to AM radio in their cars, trucks and SUVs after all. CEO Jim Farley wrote in social media postings Tuesday that the company is reversing a decision to scrub the band after speaking with government policy leaders. They are concerned about...

apnews.com

 

[EbS-P]

Well at least older folks I’m guessing were sending the message. Once I got an iPod I didn’t listen to much radio. I would spend 12-18 hours in the tractor and when I couldn’t get FM I’d rather listen nothing than AM.

I don’t get it. Tesla doesn’t have a radio. (Older models had FM) Adding one if I upgrade will cost me an extra, I won’t to say $500. Ford just wants there vehicles to cost more. If the cost is 100$ per vehicle and they sell 3 million a year that’s 300 million in profit they lost.

 

[begreen]

It's been years since I have driven cross country but I used to listen to Paul Harvey on AM when crossing the country. Sometimes I tried to get WWVA out of Wheeling West VA or WLS out of Chicago.

The article says they will be adding AM reception with just a software update. It sounds like the cost is the same but it could be the added AM reception is poor due to electronics interference. If so, some added filtration may be required and most likely the antenna is poorly tuned for the AM frequencies.

 

[brenndatomu]

I listen to am a lot... more than fm

 

[Ashful]

Government shouldn't be mandating my vehicle options, especially those having no immediate relation to occupant safety, or those pertaining to obscenely obsolete technology. I haven't tuned into AM radio even once in the last ten years, and expect I'll reach my grave before that ever changes.

 

[Dan Freeman]

I listen to AM exclusively. Call me old fashioned, not with the times, or whatever you want. I like talk shows, and AM is the place for the best talk shows. Besides, it is still free. I am not paying for radio.
Local AM drive time
Glenn Beck
The Buck Sexton and Clay Travis Show
and, more.

 

[stoveliker]

Government shouldn't be mandating my vehicle options, especially those having no immediate relation to occupant safety, or those pertaining to obscenely obsolete technology. I haven't tuned into AM radio even once in the last ten years, and expect I'll reach my grave before that ever changes.

The argument was that safety messages are broadcast on AM.
I'm not sure about the validity of that tho, as so few people listen to AM anymore (and tornado safety etc. was on FM too, at least back in TN).

I.e. a safety broadcast on a channel with "no" audience makes no sense. (No offense to the AM listeners there still are.)

I used to listen to Beck, Limbaugh, Levin etc. on FM. Never had a need.for AM.

 

[Dan Freeman]

Can't get any of them on AM here. I think you may be underestimating the amount of AM listeners in this country. Where do you pull your conclusions from?

From news.radio-online.com

Cumulus Media | Westwood One's Audio Active Group has released a new comprehensive analysis of listening data from the Nielsen Fall 2022 Survey, MRI Simmons, Edison Research's "Share of Ear" and Advertiser Perceptions. It reveals 82 million reasons to keep AM radio in vehicles, illustrating why AM/FM radio is still the queen of the road as 82,346,800 Americans listen to AM radio monthly.

 

[woodgeek]

I listen to AM exclusively. Call me old fashioned, not with the times, or whatever you want. I like talk shows, and AM is the place for the best talk shows. Besides, it is still free. I am not paying for radio.
Local AM drive time
Glenn Beck
The Buck Sexton and Clay Travis Show
and, more.

Unless Ford decides to charge you $10/month to use the AM radio.

I am not joking.

 

[ABMax24]

I also agree I don't use AM radio very often at all.

However up in Northern Canada because the signal carries further you can listen to radio longer before it drops, but almost all our AM stations also have an FM channel as well, but not vice versa.

I am finding though that newer vehicles have poor AM antennas, which looses much of the range benefit of AM.

I do find the juxtaposition a little amusing, Tesla is working on bringing Starlink to their vehicles to have high-speed internet anywhere you can drive, and the government is mandating automakers continue to the use of 100 year old AM radio.

 

[EbS-P]

Can't get any of them on AM here. I think you may be underestimating the amount of AM listeners in this country. Where do you pull your conclusions from?

From news.radio-online.com

I bet I stamp and mail something once a month. But I use my phone once an hour.

 

[Ashful]

The argument was that safety messages are broadcast on AM.

Yeah, I figured that was the case. But to what use? How many people under retirement age today would even known to tune to AM to hear such messages, or if that... what station?

Send it to my smart phone, please.

I just got a chuckle remembering my voicemail greeting at my last company. It said something like, "feel free to leave a message, but if you actually want a prompt response, please email me." I don't think HR liked that one.

 

[begreen]

I haven't listened to AM radio for years, except for traffic and road info. AM is used for pass closures, accident reports, detour info, etc. on highways. I don't think I have ever seen this broadcast on FM. It carries further than FM which makes it practical for this info and also better for emergency broadcasting.

 

[EbS-P]

I haven't listened to AM radio for years, except for traffic and road info. AM is used for pass closures, accident reports, detour info, etc. on highways. I don't think I have ever seen this broadcast on FM. It carries further than FM which makes it practical for this info and also better for emergency broadcasting.

Apple Maps re-routes me if it saves more than X minutes or the road is closed. I had a weather radio. Past tense. I actually still have it but the alerts were often times so far away from my location that once I moved it to clean and then the power supply got mixed up with other black paper supplies I never plugged it in.

Once you loose power and cell service goes down you are in it deep enough that you probably don’t need current updates. I don’t buy the safety argument. Might as well mandate everyone must own and take a course on how to use HAM radios.

 

[woodgeek]

Apple Maps re-routes me if it saves more than X minutes or the road is closed. I had a weather radio. Past tense. I actually still have it but the alerts were often times so far away from my location that once I moved it to clean and then the power supply got mixed up with other black paper supplies I never plugged it in.

Once you loose power and cell service goes down you are in it deep enough that you probably don’t need current updates. I don’t buy the safety argument. Might as well mandate everyone must own and take a course on how to use HAM radios.

Yeah, nearly everyone under 40 has a smartphone on them 24/7, and many under 25 don't know how to OPERATE a radio.

My favorite example of the emergency info thing is a buddy of mine was flying into Pittsburgh a few years ago, circling and circling bc the airport was backed up with the weather. At one point not far off the ground everyones phones started to beep and bleep to issue an urgent tornado warning. All the phones that were in 'airplane mode'.

There was a tornado nearby, but damn if no one on the plane knew what to do with the info.

Fun fact, as the same guy was telling us the story at a friends house later that day, all our phones went off again for another tornado alert.

 

[Ashful]

The claim that Musk is "putting emergency notification and response at risk" is a joke. Is there any emergency notification that is not already sent to my iPhone? If not, I have a hard question for those Senators pushing this stupidity: "why not?"

Hey, we should mandate hand-pumped wells in every house, since electric utilities have become less reliable in our area.

 

[EbS-P]

I do think you need a backup (to the cell phone) emergency broadcast system. AM radio is not it. I recall there was a cell phone that had an FM radio built in. It was a hit in Africa several/many years ago. It probably not being sold anymore.

Emergency deployed temporary cell towers are a thing. Not sure what the response time is.

While traveling, before cell phones, I found radio broadcasts of tornado warnings not very useful. I often did not know my exact location and the description of the location of the tornado often was not detailed enough. Now with access to 5-10 minute old velocity Doppler radar and gps location I am certainly more confident in my decisions when to take shelter.

 

[begreen]

Apple Maps re-routes me if it saves more than X minutes or the road is closed. I had a weather radio. Past tense. I actually still have it but the alerts were often times so far away from my location that once I moved it to clean and then the power supply got mixed up with other black paper supplies I never plugged it in.

Once you loose power and cell service goes down you are in it deep enough that you probably don’t need current updates. I don’t buy the safety argument. Might as well mandate everyone must own and take a course on how to use HAM radios.

So instead would we mandate cellular service for everyone and good cellular reception across the nation? There are some major dead zones out west which also happen to be areas where an advanced warning is very important. Low-power FM transmission lacks the range in these areas.

 

[EbS-P]

So instead would we mandate cellular service for everyone and good cellular reception across the nation? There are some major dead zones out west which also happen to be areas where an advanced warning is very important. Low-power FM transmission lacks the range in these areas.

No. Weather radio with automatic emergency alerts is the system we need to fill in the coverage gaps. Not AM radio.

NOAA Weather Radio

 

[old greybeard]

AM radio costs pennies to add to a car, if it has a antenna already. The simplest rcvr to make, easily homebuilt. Still plenty of people listening to it, but old demographics. And we’ve been dealing with motor interference with AM for years, but that is where the cost lies, cleaning up the noise.
We lose the grid, and internet due to a major hack, or war with china, and satellites fail or our taken out you’ll be grateful for local radio, if anyone is physically staffing the local station. It would take me about a hour at the local AM transmitter to rig it up to provide live news. We always had back up plans to broadcast live from the transmitter, and a generator that runs for days. Same with tv, even new tv’s have tuners, no antennas provided, and few use off air, even though that number is growing due to cord cutting and streaming.
No denying that we could use the AM frequencies with a better modulation standard. Unfortunately the govt has lost interest in public airwaves except to sell the frequencies, and few listeners make it a poor investment.
But internet and cellular aren’t robust at all, and can easily be taken down.

 

[stoveliker]

No. Weather radio with automatic emergency alerts is the system we need to fill in the coverage gaps. Not AM radio.

NOAA Weather Radio

Yes, and it's FM (all of them, I believe).

begreen, or is some remote tornado alley land serviced by AM weather alert radio stations?

 

[gthomas785]

I don't get the argument against including the AM radio? It's not like anyone is forcing you to listen to it. And the bill says no additional cost. Soo...??

 

[Ashful]

No denying that we could use the AM frequencies with a better modulation standard. Unfortunately the govt has lost interest in public airwaves except to sell the frequencies, and few listeners make it a poor investment.
But internet and cellular aren’t robust at all, and can easily be taken down.

So can AM radio, used to do it all the time, although it wasn't until we infringed on TV bands that the FCC paid our rooftop antenna test site a visit. Lesson: no one cared when we knocked out local AM radio.

I don't get the argument against including the AM radio? It's not like anyone is forcing you to listen to it. And the bill says no additional cost. Soo...??

Nothing is free. If packaged locally into the head unit / center console, those components take space away from other functions. If packaged remotely, there's associated costs. But even more important to some is what this represents, government mandating functions in products you are purchasing, which have no direct bearing on product safety or reliability.

 

[gthomas785]

Nothing is free. If packaged locally into the head unit / center console, those components take space away from other functions. If packaged remotely, there's associated costs. But even more important to some is what this represents, government mandating functions in products you are purchasing, which have no direct bearing on product safety or reliability.

Sorry to tell you but adding back the AM radio does not take up any additional space - as demonstrated by the fact that Ford kept the components in there all along and just re-enabled them by a software update.

To your second point I would rather have something be mandated and not use it than have to pay an up-charge for a feature that used to be standard. That's all I'm going to say about that.

 

[begreen]

Yes, and it's FM (all of them, I believe).

begreen, or is some remote tornado alley land serviced by AM weather alert radio stations?

Mountain pass conditions and warnings are on the AM band in the west. Conditions can change quickly if there is a rockslide, or snow while it's still raining down below. From eastern wa down through Nevada its high desert plateau. I don't know what they use there but there's almost nothing on the FM band. Local AM stations carry for a long distance.

We get a few big pebbles rolling down the mountainside occasionally.