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Goodbye AM Radios in Automobiles, starting in 2024

Discussion in 'General Announcements' started by W9GB, May 15, 2023.

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  1. W9GB

    W9GB Premium Subscriber QRZ Page

    In case anyone missed the Ford Automotive announcement earlier (April 2023) …
    Fox Business, Washington Post, and other news outlets reported.
    https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/ford-removing-am-radios-most-new-vehicles-2024

    End of a love affair: AM radio is being removed from many cars
: Ford, BMW, Volkswagen, Tesla and other automakers are eliminating AM radio from some new vehicles, stirring protests against the loss of a medium that has shaped American life for a century.
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/05/13/am-radio-electric-cars/

    Traffic Reports and Talk Radio via AM Radio stations will lose audience.
     
    KL7KN likes this.
  2. KL7KN

    KL7KN Ham Member QRZ Page

    No wonder, AM radio itself has been on a death spiral for decades. Add in the RIF spewing EVs and you have the perfect storm that has killed AM radios....

    AM radio is still popular here in Ak, owing to the very rural parts of the state with no local bc outlets.
     
    W8ISK and K2AMD like this.
  3. W7UUU

    W7UUU Director, QRZ Forums Lifetime Member 133 QRZ HQ Staff Life Member QRZ Page

    I have a local "tower acquaintance" who services radio stations and towers all the time and has for many years. He's been talking about this for a long time.

    In addition to the slow decline already in place for years for AM radio, and the RFI for EVs and autos in general moving away from AM, is the HUGE value of land being taken up by radio tower installations. Some of the old "clear channel" tower lots with 3 or 4 phased towers and their radial/guy wire fields are sitting on MILLIONS of dollars of what in many cases is now prime real estate. Back when the towers went in, land was cheap. But now the cities keep creeping closer and those massive plots that can now become 1500 apartment units and shopping centers. FAR more revenue at stake with the land than any future broadcast revenue could even come close to matching.

    That's a big part of this equation as well.

    Dave
    W7UUU
     
    W8ISK, KL7KN, K2AMD and 7 others like this.
  4. KA0HCP

    KA0HCP XML Subscriber QRZ Page

    I still listen to AM out here on the Great Plains. Best way to get farm news, news and ag talk shows. Especially when making the 80-100 mile treks to the nearest big cities for shopping and medical services.
     
    K2DJT, W8ISK, DL4CW and 6 others like this.
  5. N3LHQ

    N3LHQ Premium Subscriber QRZ Page

    AM radio was my travel friend for 55 years! I miss Rush Limbaugh.
     
    KR4BD, W8ISK, KE7DRT and 3 others like this.
  6. KT4QD

    KT4QD XML Subscriber QRZ Page

    I haven't seen or heard any "protests" near me about this.

     
    W8ISK likes this.
  7. N3RYB

    N3RYB Premium Subscriber QRZ Page

    Sounds like there is a new market for Bluetooth AM receivers for in cars...
     
    W8ISK and WD4IGX like this.
  8. W5ESE

    W5ESE Ham Member QRZ Page

    I listen to AM radio sometimes on long road trips. I enjoy Dave Ramsey.

    In some parts of remote west Texas and the Texas panhandle, there isn't much FM coverage. And I have no interest in satellite radio.
     
    W8ISK, KF5OL and K0UO like this.
  9. KA9JLM

    KA9JLM Ham Member QRZ Page

    Who can afford to buy a new automobile without selling all of their ham gear ?
     
    W8ISK likes this.
  10. WW5F

    WW5F Ham Member QRZ Page

    AM radio died with Rush Limbaugh. RIP El Rushbo!

    I don't have any reason to listen to AM radio any more.
     
    W8ISK, N3LHQ and N3RYB like this.
  11. K6CLS

    K6CLS Ham Member QRZ Page

    I think the point is, we all may occasionally have to listen to the highway road information transmitters. Usually in mountainous areas, with no FM, cell, or satellite coverage.
     
  12. N3RYB

    N3RYB Premium Subscriber QRZ Page

    What mountains do you drive on with no satellite coverage yet where MW AM would help you? o_O
     
  13. K6CLS

    K6CLS Ham Member QRZ Page

    plenty of places in the Sierras where all ham, FM, XM, and GPS quit, but the local Caltrans AM road condx worked. deep valleys, twisty roads, dense forest, remote areas.
     
    N1IPU, AD5HR, N7BWB and 1 other person like this.
  14. G8FXC

    G8FXC XML Subscriber QRZ Page

    All broadcast entertainment is in decline - Medium Wave AM is just being hit harder than the rest at the moment. The reason is quite simple - economics - it is just too difficult to make a profit out of broadcast entertainment.

    When I was a kid - back in the late fifties and sixties - all entertainment was analogue broadcast - and all speech services were medium wave AM. In Britain, it was almost entirely government funded - you guys in the US had commercial radio a long time before we did. As I got into my teens, things began to change here. The government began to relax the rules and permit some commercial radio stations and the move up to VHF FM also began. This move was partly because it offered better reception quality, but also because VHF FM had a shorter and more controllable range - and that is important for commercial radio in the smaller countries on this side of the pond. A Medium Wave AM transmitter has a range that varies significantly with propagation conditions - an advertiser wants to target his market - there is no merit to an advertiser in Southern England for his adverts being heard several hundred miles away in France - he cannot serve that market.

    The next stage in the process round here was the move from VHF analogue FM to DAB which is VHF digital over FM. This brings the operating costs right down - instead of dedicating a transmitter to a station, they can multiplex multiple stations onto each transmitter. According to Wikipedia, FM broadcasters have reported that moving to DAB can reduce their transmitter costs by almost a factor of 20.

    But around here, even digital broadcast media are now being eroded as more and more entertainment moves to internet streaming. We still have a couple of broadcast receivers in the house, but I don't remember the last time they were switched on - all audio-only entertainment is delivered over the internet to the Echo smart speakers that are located in every room of the house and all our television comes through an Amazon Fire TV Cube, also internet streamed. I don't bother with entertainment in the car very much, but when I do, that is also usually streamed over the 4G network. I prefer this because it gives me entertainment on demand - I don't have to accept the broadcast schedules worked out by station managers. Advertisers prefer it because it gives them far more control over their budget. On traditional broadcast media, they pay for transmissions of adverts and have no reliable way of knowing if anyone actually heard them. Over the streaming platforms, they pay for adverts delivered to listeners - gone are the adverts emitted into the aether to drift away into interstellar space with nobody on earth hearing them!

    Streaming also supports pay-per-view very well - as in services like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. Attempts at implementing PPV over analogue broadcast were not very successful and even over digital broadcast it required an expensive infrastructure. Over internet streaming, it is easy - Netflix gives me a user ID and password and they will not deliver entertainment to me without me entering it. OK - they do have something of a problem with password sharing, but they have ways of detecting this and at least discouraging it.

    So, it's not surprising that AM broadcast is disappearing slowly. The real surprise is that it is still here at all.

    Martin (G8FXC)
     
    W8ISK and WD4IGX like this.
  15. N3LHQ

    N3LHQ Premium Subscriber QRZ Page

    Most States have the Traffic Alerts and other type warnings on the 1600's AM. Amber Alert signs are still not everywhere, so is this another APP to load on your phone? :(
     
    Last edited: May 16, 2023
    W8ISK likes this.

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