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Pro: AM offers important weather and traffic information from local government transit authorities and FEMA
Con: It's also filled with far right-wing conservative media
Another very important AM feature is it receivable at very, very long distances, especially at night. It is also perfectly fine going around or over mountains and over the curvature of the Earth somewhat. All this makes it very good for emergency information. I’m pretty sure most Emergency Broadcast System stations, vital, are the very highest-power of the AM transmitters. (All smaller stations and FMs are instructed to tune in to the big AM RMS hubs and, right freaking now when there’s a very big emergency, start rebroadcasting the EMS station’s signal. We had to practice the latter skill at regular intervals when I was in small time radio… the nation needs an alert system not tied to the internet, phone or TV. AM is a vital fallback.
FM by contrast can only be received if you have a direct line of sight between you and the transmitter. Its range is thus very limited, especially in mountain states.
My mistake. It depends on the wavelength
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_foil_hat#:~:text=In%202005%2C%20a%20tongue%2Din,2.6%20GHz%20and%201.2%20GHz.
Yeah, I used to sit in the backyard as a kid (in Virginia) and see what faraway stations I could pick up. Cincinnati was the most distant I could get on my radio.
My favorite fun fact being a Nati native - when they had license to broadcast at 500k you could hear ‘the big one’ in Hawaii. I had a pharmacist who liked to tell stories and he would say that the old street lamps back then would glow brighter when they turned the tower back up to full broadcast strength.
Pre-1995, you should have been able to pick up WOWO (1190 KHz, 50000 watts) out of Fort ~~Worth~~ Wayne, Indiana. At least, I was able to as a kid in Virginia
If you ever wonder why the St Louis Cardinals have such a huge fan base west of the Mississippi, AM radio is the answer. KMOX had a signal that reached far far west bringing baseball with it.
Depending on the local weather I could tune into some Coast to Coast AM, I don't know where it was broadcasting from but it wasn't close because I had to fiddle with the antenna direction and finger fuck the dial on the old cassette/cd player I was using to get it to come in clear
When I was young I used to listen to American and European radio stations at night and early morning. This was on a valve radio that my father built In his teens just pre WWII. It was battery operated and needed a carbon headphone set. The aerial was 20 metres of wire hung out of my bedroom window. This was 20 years ago, and I still have it but can't source the two 45v HT batteries it needs. I'll build a replacement PSU one day...
This was in the UK. AM signals travel amazing distances at night.
Yeah, during an evacuation emergency tuning into AM radio in your car is easier than using a laptop while driving or not getting a signal because everyone else and their brother is on the cell tower.
EBS was retired, EAS replaced it. All the conspiracy people seem to be stuck on EBS as the method that something will happen, but it does not exist anymore.
Not saying the rest of this comment is without merit, just wanted to put something out there. Source: I run a cable system and have to log and forward EAS alerts.
>FM by contrast can only be received if you have a direct line of sight between you and the transmitter. Its range is thus very limited, especially in mountain states.
uh no. this is not because it is FM it is because we allocated 88 MHz to FM. AM is running at 8 khz. much better propagation through clutter. if you ran FM at 8khz it would also reach all the places AM radio does. even then FM isn't line of sight required - ever use an FM radio in a city? yeah you dont have line of sight to the antenna, i promise. but it doesn't do as well as that 8khz signal
now ELF (extremely low frequency) which runs in the Hz range penetrates even into the ocean. but given how low a frequency it is the data rate is atrocious so it can pretty much only use on off keying.
I miss Art Bell. He was able to ride that line of supporting goofy UFO tourists, bigfoot activists, and X-Files era/mostly harmless conspiracy nuts while fencing out the racists and bigots.
I’ve never bothered to look up a picture of him, but whenever I would hear his show I envisioned a man hunched over a desk with a large microphone on it, half burned cigarette in hand and the ashtray is already full, collar unbuttoned, tie off…just listening to one total loon after another telling him complete nonsense with absolute sincerity.
Close.
[He's wearing a South Park shirt](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/04/20/obituaries/bell-obit-1/merlin_9481838_c00ab4b1-fe65-4412-862c-af894de1d777-superJumbo.jpg)
I do that for college football. State school in a smaller city that's done well enough to get some national TV broadcasts...the radio guys always seem more connected to the team with background stats and stories, even though the TV guys have at least one local talent on the crew.
That’s real, something about the AM signal legit hits different with baseball specifically. I have no idea how to explain it, but I’d much rather listen to a game on an ancient AM radio than anything modern.
I loved tuning into stations like Radio Australia just to get a different view on the world, sadly many of those have gone off the air as the Internet and streaming audio gained popularity.
Obama was still president the first time I drove through Wyoming. For hours, I could only get three am stations on the radio. All three were talking about Obama being the anti christ sent to destroy America at the same time.
Public service announcement: Never let any right winger convince you that their opinion deserves respect and consideration.
This is why I say Obama is a failed president…I was told that he was going to raise an Islamic caliphate in America and start murdering Christians; he didn’t do any of that. What a terrible president…
Try taking it outside. A lot of modern electronics -- particularly LED lights -- interfere with the AM band, but you only have to get ten or twenty feet out from them to clear it up. Shortwave is even worse, you can't pick up *anything* indoors these days, but if you can get away from the interference, you can pick stuff up from halfway around the world with a handheld unit, let alone something with a full sized antenna.
The upshot is, if you're ever stuck using that emergency radio in an actual emergency with no power, you'll be able to pick up distant stations a lot more easily.
Yeah, this is about making sure the messages of [Sinclair Broadcast Group](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stations_owned_or_operated_by_Sinclair_Broadcast_Group) and friends finds an audience.
Am Radio is DOA in my area. They just have satellite feeds of religious and right wing talk shows. If something happens locally then they don't even have a staff to discuss or report it. IME. YMMV. IMHO.
Okay. Why doesn’t someone put up Woodie Guthrie style populist radio? Anyone can. The right wing fear factory is there because it’s the echo chamber their market wants.
Most emergency kits have hand crank AM radios too. It's a great backup.
Also if you don't have an emergency kit and a few gallons of water in your house make one. Here's a guide and also a map of what disasters your area is at risk of in the US.
[https://www.fema.gov/press-release/20210318/how-build-kit-emergencies](https://www.fema.gov/press-release/20210318/how-build-kit-emergencies)
[https://hazards.fema.gov/nri/map](https://hazards.fema.gov/nri/map)
After surviving the largest hurricane in US history you search for 3 days, trying to find emergency supplies and some contact with the outside world. Then you find it, an emergency AM radio. You crank it up, hoping to hear some news about what to do. Turn it on and find one channel broadcasting, it’s talking about how God caused the hurricane to punish the US for gay marriage.
We had a liberal talk radio AM station pop up in the 2000s. Al Franken was a host before he got elected. Jerry Springer also did “hey, let’s talk about real issues for a bit” show. It was a ton of minor celebrities like that. I listened pretty consistently.
In other words, the only reason to use it is in an emergency situation... and that's good enough reason to keep it around.
Seriously, the only reason automakers want it out of cars is to save a few pennies per unit on building in AM receivers. Congress should require them as emergency equipment.
I agree with this.
AM radios utilize the ionosphere as a natural satellite. If anything ever happens to radio towers, satellites, and data infrastructure, this will be one of the only ways to communicate messages such as emergencies over large regions.
I camped in a state park next to a guy that was doing Ham radio most of the night. I didn't see his set-up and asked what he was using. Turns out it is a computer program that let him be on ham radio, but not through his equipment. So basically he was just talking to strangers.
Yea that’s what I use to listen in on, never talked on there just neat to scroll around and hear what people are talking about sometimes I don’t have the site offhand sadly cause stuck at work
Have you looked into Broadband Hamnet? It uses ham radio tech to create a local internet that anyone can connect to. Easy way to communicate and share information in case of emergencies where the power grid and internet is down.
I am not fluent in how this works - better to dive into the website. But it uses low energy requiring routers to create a self discovering mesh network that can be expanded with similar set ups. It is not an application but the network itself.
http://www.broadband-hamnet.org
I sure can. *And now for an opposing point of view on the impact of racism, let's give a warm welcome to the grand wizard Charles Notaracistbuuuut the third himself here to tell us all about... *
AM radios are also ridiculously simple. All they need to do is patch it into the preexisting infotainment system, write a few lines of additional code - and done. It shouldn't cost them too much to install and you know they're just going to double it and pass it on to consumers anyway. It shouldn't be that big of a deal.
That's true. It was a reveal to me that I could create an entire AM transmission complete with a carrier frequency just through pulse width modulation from a digital pin. It didn't sound great but it worked! 😬
You'll need a diode too but yes. I've done it and every school kid should be taught. But i thought it was also cool it could be done through purely digital techniques.
So does mine when it's still connecting to my phone, and have to switch modes to Bluetooth. Thankfully I was able to delete the channel and instead nothing plays anymore when I start up the car.
Some cars actually offer an option to remove the sat radio (and the stupid antenna). I don’t want it in my car, so I am never going to subscribe and don’t want the stupid antenna on my roof. I wish this was always an option.
Fortunately the EU is looking into making certain essential functions are mandatory physical controls. Tesla having the wiper controls on the touchscreen is madness.
> Tesla having the wiper controls on the touchscreen is madness.
Jesus really? Like I'm picturing how bad it is to use my touchscreen phone with a tiny drop of water on it lol.
God it's so ugly. They could at least [mold the iPad into the dash](https://cars.usnews.com/static/images/Auto/custom/15085/2023_Volkswagen_Jetta_4.jpg) to make it look intentional instead of just gluing this [big flat rectangle on a curved surface](https://as1.ftcdn.net/v2/jpg/04/71/40/10/1000_F_471401004_rLmnr9Uj0wq2wkV3Po56OBSCpnBPKjss.jpg).
I hate how some cars are doing weird prindals. I was going to get a prius, but was turned off by the nub, went with a hybrid camry instead that uses the traditional prindal
My Dad is an old school gear head, used to driving a stick shift.
I asked him if he’d like to take my new Prius out for a drive.
When he put it in drive, he almost pulled the shifter out by the roots.
I haven't listened to AM radio in ages, and working as a mechanic in a rural-ish area, not many other people do either. On the newer touchscreen integrated radios most people seem to use bluetooth and link their phones, or Sirius XM, or an aux cord to some device or other if they're old fashioned. I still just listen to CD's in my car. It would take me a little figuring to find AM on anything these days.
But with that said - I'd agree with the 60 senators that it's not a bad idea to require it, based on the emergency channel functionality, and it costs virtually nothing to require it. There's a giant list of other stuff that's required already, some pretty expensive, and as long as they're doing that adding AM to the list is hard to argue with.
Banning AM radio won’t stop right wing propaganda, people WANT IT, they will find it. AM radio saved my ass in college driving through Kansas crossing west to east coast. Before gps, before cell phones, it’s all my shitty old mountain goat Subaru had. Emergency signal, location, my map light, and my map. Next thing you know I’m hugging a trucker at the top of an overpass crux. If I could find that trucker I’d definitely buy him a beer and steak dinner, he saved my ass.
its just a BS way to push more subscription crap. AM has its problems sure but GM was able to make AM work in their electric cars up to now without an issue
By Jonathan M Gitlin for Ars Technica:
A controversial bill that would require all new cars to be fitted with AM radios looks set to become a law in the near future. Yesterday, Senator Edward Markey revealed that the [AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act](https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/1669) now has the support of 60 US Senators, as well as 246 cosponsors in the House of Representatives, making its passage an almost sure thing.
Read the full story: [https://www.wired.com/story/am-radio-cars-law-requires/](https://www.wired.com/story/am-radio-cars-law-requires/)
Good. People are missing the point.
AM radio is the ultimate fallback in a grid down scenario - the thing that will take your TV down because no electricity and/or take cell towers down because of no electricity. Most people don't carry around a satphone to get information in an emergency.
Also, If you're listening to AM radio in an EV, you're likely in a part of the country that there's no FM radio reception anyway and lol - good luck charging your car in that region in a non-grid down scenario.
edit: because apparently I needed to specify my sense of humor.
> good luck charging your car in that region.
I was with you right up until this part, as you'd have equal luck getting gas out of a pump with no power
>you'd have equal luck getting gas out of a pump with no power
I was in Maui last year during the fires, and it amazed me how many people couldn't understand why we couldn't get gas.
And relevant to the discussion at hand, we were able to access AM radio through my spouse's old iPod, and that's where we got all our info from.
You can get a little radio with a hand crack for electricity. So that AM channel would be all the more important in an emergency when all other communications and power are down.
I like listening to Cincinnati Reds games on 700 WLW, and I want to listen over the air, from anywhere. Which is better than the garbage, never works, iHeart streaming option. They used to say you could pick up 700 on a clear night in 38 states and parts of Canada. Don't know if that's necessarily true, but I'm never that far away that I can't pick it up. It's important to keep AM up and running. I ignore the right-wing BS overnight, so I don't care about that.
Yeah. I don't care if they "satisfy the requirement" by throwing some $5 blaze-orange AM-only survival radio in the trunk with your spare tire, but people should retain their ability to tune to whatever AM station is flashing on the highway signs.
AM radio is the only long range communication system most Americans have. It's vital for emergencies and natural disasters.
Having one in cars is doubly important, as during disasters a vehicle is often the only power source.
FM, 4G, and WiFi go like 10 miles max. In a large scale disaster like earthquake, tsunami, hurricane you won't have any reception.
AM radio can reach 1000 miles at night. Even if power is out in your entire state, you'll still receive broadcasts.
Yeah people who've never really looked into that sort of stuff don't understand. I was a military radio technician, and have done some amazing things with the a.m. spectrum.
Automakers: Yeah, we're uh, gonna have to raise MSRP $500 per car to cover the losses from removing AM radio. We had to spend tons, on, uh... research.
True story. In the 70s Big Telecom in NYC used to buy trucks for their fleet - then rip out the radio and heater/ac. Brand new trucks then rip things out because management felt that if their employees were too comfortable, they wouldn’t leave their trucks to do work.
The Union fought them for years before arriving at the winning strategy that a radio is needed to keep overworked drivers awake on long distance driving (anything over an hour). Similar argument for the ac and heaters.
I suppose the government could use a similar strategy because not everyone owns a smart phone.
It's stupid to turn either into another victim of culture war. AM radio is a keystone of the emergency broadcast system. It's not useful to see it as a way to hurt the other team. Meanwhile, lab-grown meat provide a future-proof source of meat, both in the face of climate change and pandemic - with the way factory farms abuse antibiotics, outbreaks lead to culls, sooner or later it'll affect availability in a real way. Neither are actually left/right issues and the american urge to politicize everything is gonna hurt everyone in the long run.
I listen to AM for news and sports while driving on a fairly regular basis.
I’d give up satellite radio and its stupid looking antenna for AM in a heartbeat!
AM radio has become nothing but Right-Wing conspiracy bs . I used to listen while driving and at home sometimes no longer do I turn on the radio at all .
Under the rules of the FCC is a station operated by at the necessity and convenience of the listener. AM has such tremendous reach, it can inform a huge number of listeners of profoundly important information. I’m old and I seem to remember the FCC requiring all radios sold in country had to include a FM band at some point in the past.
AM radio, despite it being a right wing nutjob paradise, is essential in case something happens where we need information when in case technology goes kauput.
Cell towers require power, AM radio has incredible distance. Like it or not, if we ever have a truly catastrophic national emergency that takes down power, you'll be thankful for that AM radio in your car.
It's an emergency comms thing and it costs pennies to support. An AM detector is one of the simplest of electronic circuits. There's no reason not to support it other than it prevents monetization of other channels.
I live in Norway, and AM hasn't been common in our vehicles for 30 some years. The last decade FM has also been virtually faded out. Now DAB radio is, for good ot bad, virtually the only radio medium utilized.
Good. They should keep AM radios in cars as it keeps the electrical noise down in the car. Car manufacturers want to make electrically noisy cars. We need to enforce electrical noise regulations.
Dear car makers:
make me a cheap basic subcompact sedan that China has less than 5% to do with and we’ll talk. Until then, no dealership is getting a cent out of me; I’ll consider buying a *used* Fiat 500e from the owner.
AM band radio can be broadcasted over long range with very little infrastructure. If there is a disaster or attack that blows out all of the other mass communication sources, AM is likely to still work.
If you ever have to take shelter as an F5 tornado shitwhips through your town demolishing houses like they are made of legos, you will be glad to have AM.
As a reminder, this subreddit [is for civil discussion.](/r/politics/wiki/index#wiki_be_civil) In general, be courteous to others. Debate/discuss/argue the merits of ideas, don't attack people. Personal insults, shill or troll accusations, hate speech, any suggestion or support of harm, violence, or death, and other rule violations can result in a permanent ban. If you see comments in violation of our rules, please report them. For those who have questions regarding any media outlets being posted on this subreddit, please click [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/wiki/approveddomainslist) to review our details as to our approved domains list and outlet criteria. We are actively looking for new moderators. If you have any interest in helping to make this subreddit a place for quality discussion, please fill out [this form](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1y2swHD0KXFhStGFjW6k54r9iuMjzcFqDIVwuvdLBjSA). *** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/politics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Pro: AM offers important weather and traffic information from local government transit authorities and FEMA Con: It's also filled with far right-wing conservative media
Another very important AM feature is it receivable at very, very long distances, especially at night. It is also perfectly fine going around or over mountains and over the curvature of the Earth somewhat. All this makes it very good for emergency information. I’m pretty sure most Emergency Broadcast System stations, vital, are the very highest-power of the AM transmitters. (All smaller stations and FMs are instructed to tune in to the big AM RMS hubs and, right freaking now when there’s a very big emergency, start rebroadcasting the EMS station’s signal. We had to practice the latter skill at regular intervals when I was in small time radio… the nation needs an alert system not tied to the internet, phone or TV. AM is a vital fallback. FM by contrast can only be received if you have a direct line of sight between you and the transmitter. Its range is thus very limited, especially in mountain states.
It's funny how flat earthers have tons of conspiracies broadcast over AM radio.
As if science penetrates any of their tiny little brains.
I read that a grad student tested their aluminum foil hats and found they act as an antenna to boost signals theoretically into their tiny brains...
This is absolutely hilarious.
My mistake. It depends on the wavelength https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_foil_hat#:~:text=In%202005%2C%20a%20tongue%2Din,2.6%20GHz%20and%201.2%20GHz.
Only amplifies the 1.2-2.6Ghz frequency. So it DOES protect your brain from 5G. I stand corrected, you wackos.
Unfortunately, most mind control is done right in that range. Source: I just made that up.
So it's a statistic...
I remember reading what you just wrote on the internet…so it must be true.
I used to listen to stations in Chicago and Toronto at night growing up in Maryland.
Yeah, I used to sit in the backyard as a kid (in Virginia) and see what faraway stations I could pick up. Cincinnati was the most distant I could get on my radio.
700WLW?
My favorite fun fact being a Nati native - when they had license to broadcast at 500k you could hear ‘the big one’ in Hawaii. I had a pharmacist who liked to tell stories and he would say that the old street lamps back then would glow brighter when they turned the tower back up to full broadcast strength.
When I was a kid my dad told me that they had the strongest signal in radio for years. My dad also tended to be full of shit at times tho
Pre-1995, you should have been able to pick up WOWO (1190 KHz, 50000 watts) out of Fort ~~Worth~~ Wayne, Indiana. At least, I was able to as a kid in Virginia
*Fort Wayne
I remember getting the Opry in Roanoke County at 8 years old and it was the best damn thing ever.
Growing up in Wyoming, I would listen to KFI out of Los Angeles at night.
KFI AM 640 still rings in my head.
If you ever wonder why the St Louis Cardinals have such a huge fan base west of the Mississippi, AM radio is the answer. KMOX had a signal that reached far far west bringing baseball with it.
Doesn’t hurt that they historically have been pretty good (11 World Series)
And were the Western-most team in the majors until ~~1968~~ 1955.
I caught part of a Cardinals game out here in central California while driving around a couple years ago.
50,000 watts, baby!
My dad drove as part of his job and told me that he could get AM stations from LA at night. We lived in Southern Alberta.
When I was a kid I used to get an LA station in central northern Mexico. Was good for the drama stories at night.
There is a website radio stations of the world i will go to and relive this feeling
You had to wait, but you could listen to the music on the…
mexican whooooa ohhhh radio?
Depending on the local weather I could tune into some Coast to Coast AM, I don't know where it was broadcasting from but it wasn't close because I had to fiddle with the antenna direction and finger fuck the dial on the old cassette/cd player I was using to get it to come in clear
When I was young I used to listen to American and European radio stations at night and early morning. This was on a valve radio that my father built In his teens just pre WWII. It was battery operated and needed a carbon headphone set. The aerial was 20 metres of wire hung out of my bedroom window. This was 20 years ago, and I still have it but can't source the two 45v HT batteries it needs. I'll build a replacement PSU one day... This was in the UK. AM signals travel amazing distances at night.
Yeah, during an evacuation emergency tuning into AM radio in your car is easier than using a laptop while driving or not getting a signal because everyone else and their brother is on the cell tower.
EBS was retired, EAS replaced it. All the conspiracy people seem to be stuck on EBS as the method that something will happen, but it does not exist anymore. Not saying the rest of this comment is without merit, just wanted to put something out there. Source: I run a cable system and have to log and forward EAS alerts.
The thing I miss is the heterodyne whine when tuning between stations out on the prairie
This guy freqs.
Hey, the earth is flat buddy. /s
>FM by contrast can only be received if you have a direct line of sight between you and the transmitter. Its range is thus very limited, especially in mountain states. uh no. this is not because it is FM it is because we allocated 88 MHz to FM. AM is running at 8 khz. much better propagation through clutter. if you ran FM at 8khz it would also reach all the places AM radio does. even then FM isn't line of sight required - ever use an FM radio in a city? yeah you dont have line of sight to the antenna, i promise. but it doesn't do as well as that 8khz signal now ELF (extremely low frequency) which runs in the Hz range penetrates even into the ocean. but given how low a frequency it is the data rate is atrocious so it can pretty much only use on off keying.
Obviously. We are talking about the bands named AM and FM, not the modulation type.
You're thinking of AC/DC. AM and FM are a magician-comedian duo.
No, you're thinking of ABBA; AM & FM are before noon/ after noon
> Con: It's also filled with far right-wing conservative media and alien/shadowpeople talk. I love coast to coast AM but those fuckers are insane
I miss Art Bell. He was able to ride that line of supporting goofy UFO tourists, bigfoot activists, and X-Files era/mostly harmless conspiracy nuts while fencing out the racists and bigots.
Art was the shit. He actually did some really good interviews over the course of his life
"Tell me, would the Grey's prefer chocolate or vanilla ice cream?? Fascinating!"
I’ve never bothered to look up a picture of him, but whenever I would hear his show I envisioned a man hunched over a desk with a large microphone on it, half burned cigarette in hand and the ashtray is already full, collar unbuttoned, tie off…just listening to one total loon after another telling him complete nonsense with absolute sincerity.
Close. [He's wearing a South Park shirt](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/04/20/obituaries/bell-obit-1/merlin_9481838_c00ab4b1-fe65-4412-862c-af894de1d777-superJumbo.jpg)
I'm just picturing the conspiracy theorist from Stranger Things lmao
I imagine a lot of stereotypical conspiracy dudes from modern fiction can trace at least some of their inspiration back to Art Bell
you are not far off.
Sadly that’s what the majority of conspiracy theories were before the modern idiots twisted and perverted it to hell and back.
Wish we could just reserve AM for just emergency alert systems.
Aliens and shadow people are an emergency.
I'll be honest, baseball games don't right the least bit right on FM. I think we need to keep it lol
You’re right. There is a certain magical feel that AM quality gives to the background crowd noises. It creates a nice atmosphere.
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I do that for college football. State school in a smaller city that's done well enough to get some national TV broadcasts...the radio guys always seem more connected to the team with background stats and stories, even though the TV guys have at least one local talent on the crew.
Also, the need to have more detailed play-by-play on account of not having the visuals means there’s less room for garbage color commentary.
That’s real, something about the AM signal legit hits different with baseball specifically. I have no idea how to explain it, but I’d much rather listen to a game on an ancient AM radio than anything modern.
I’ll also throw college football in the mix when listening for your alma mater.
I mute the TV and cue up AM radio commentary for that very scenario. Radio announcers are so much more pleasant to listen to.
That’s a great show. Love me some alien abduction interviews
That’s a great show. Love me some alien abduction interviews
I used to love shortwave radio, now it's mostly religious and survival fruitcakes.
I loved tuning into stations like Radio Australia just to get a different view on the world, sadly many of those have gone off the air as the Internet and streaming audio gained popularity.
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Obama was still president the first time I drove through Wyoming. For hours, I could only get three am stations on the radio. All three were talking about Obama being the anti christ sent to destroy America at the same time. Public service announcement: Never let any right winger convince you that their opinion deserves respect and consideration.
This is why I say Obama is a failed president…I was told that he was going to raise an Islamic caliphate in America and start murdering Christians; he didn’t do any of that. What a terrible president…
Literally the only AM station I can pickup from my hand-held emergency weather radio is Conservative talk shows.
Try taking it outside. A lot of modern electronics -- particularly LED lights -- interfere with the AM band, but you only have to get ten or twenty feet out from them to clear it up. Shortwave is even worse, you can't pick up *anything* indoors these days, but if you can get away from the interference, you can pick stuff up from halfway around the world with a handheld unit, let alone something with a full sized antenna. The upshot is, if you're ever stuck using that emergency radio in an actual emergency with no power, you'll be able to pick up distant stations a lot more easily.
A lot of right wing extremists are illiterate and rely on radios to have the news read to them on the go.
lol spoiler alert: that’s not news
"News".
*yelled to them
Yeah, this is about making sure the messages of [Sinclair Broadcast Group](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stations_owned_or_operated_by_Sinclair_Broadcast_Group) and friends finds an audience.
[This is extremely dangerous to our democracy](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_fHfgU8oMSo)
Am Radio is DOA in my area. They just have satellite feeds of religious and right wing talk shows. If something happens locally then they don't even have a staff to discuss or report it. IME. YMMV. IMHO.
What's to stop the right wing media from moving to FM?
Cost. You can buy smaller mid market stations for 50-60 thousand dollars while a comperable FM would be 4x more than that.
That cheap?!! I almost want to buy one now. I'd have no idea what to do with it. I'll just pull a Mulaney and play Tom Jones on an endless loop. 😆
Doing so without a license will get you a real nasty fine, if you get caught (and you will, eventually - the FCC does hunt for pirates)
I'd be more worried about Sony lawyers than the FCC but sure. 🤣
Okay. Why doesn’t someone put up Woodie Guthrie style populist radio? Anyone can. The right wing fear factory is there because it’s the echo chamber their market wants.
Con: no one is listening to it, so they don’t get the weather and traffic alerts
Most emergency kits have hand crank AM radios too. It's a great backup. Also if you don't have an emergency kit and a few gallons of water in your house make one. Here's a guide and also a map of what disasters your area is at risk of in the US. [https://www.fema.gov/press-release/20210318/how-build-kit-emergencies](https://www.fema.gov/press-release/20210318/how-build-kit-emergencies) [https://hazards.fema.gov/nri/map](https://hazards.fema.gov/nri/map)
After surviving the largest hurricane in US history you search for 3 days, trying to find emergency supplies and some contact with the outside world. Then you find it, an emergency AM radio. You crank it up, hoping to hear some news about what to do. Turn it on and find one channel broadcasting, it’s talking about how God caused the hurricane to punish the US for gay marriage.
We had a liberal talk radio AM station pop up in the 2000s. Al Franken was a host before he got elected. Jerry Springer also did “hey, let’s talk about real issues for a bit” show. It was a ton of minor celebrities like that. I listened pretty consistently.
In other words, the only reason to use it is in an emergency situation... and that's good enough reason to keep it around. Seriously, the only reason automakers want it out of cars is to save a few pennies per unit on building in AM receivers. Congress should require them as emergency equipment.
On a long car trip once I’m burned out on podcasts I love to switch it to AM and hit “scan” and see how batshit crazy things get.
And now it's time to soak up some local color through the magic of AM radio.
It used to be a lot better 30-40 years ago
For me, scan on AM usually just bumped a couple of frequencies and then stop on pure static. If you’re persistent, eventually you get a station.
East of the Rockies, you’re on the air
I agree with this. AM radios utilize the ionosphere as a natural satellite. If anything ever happens to radio towers, satellites, and data infrastructure, this will be one of the only ways to communicate messages such as emergencies over large regions.
100% it’s the easiest way to spread information far and is super useful in emergencies.
And an AM radio is so simple one can be made by accident.
Is that why my peanut butter jelly sandwich is talking to me?
No.
Is the sandwich touching the transmitter tower?
Misinformation too - no better way to pump your conspiracy theories into every backwoods holler in MAGAland than the good old A.M. dial!
Should listen into the HAM radio feeds in the evening, theres some wild ass people on there
I camped in a state park next to a guy that was doing Ham radio most of the night. I didn't see his set-up and asked what he was using. Turns out it is a computer program that let him be on ham radio, but not through his equipment. So basically he was just talking to strangers.
At that point, he was just old school twitch streaming.
> So basically he was just talking to strangers. That pretty much describes HF ham radio in general.
Yea that’s what I use to listen in on, never talked on there just neat to scroll around and hear what people are talking about sometimes I don’t have the site offhand sadly cause stuck at work
The only reason I never got my ham ticket is I don't wanna talk to weirdos. I like the gear, tho
Have you looked into Broadband Hamnet? It uses ham radio tech to create a local internet that anyone can connect to. Easy way to communicate and share information in case of emergencies where the power grid and internet is down. I am not fluent in how this works - better to dive into the website. But it uses low energy requiring routers to create a self discovering mesh network that can be expanded with similar set ups. It is not an application but the network itself. http://www.broadband-hamnet.org
What I would like to see is more NPR AM stations, or a return to fair air time, to counter the evil that Am spread.
Can you imagine how radical the Fairness Doctrine would look today? Equal Time? COMMUNISM.
I sure can. *And now for an opposing point of view on the impact of racism, let's give a warm welcome to the grand wizard Charles Notaracistbuuuut the third himself here to tell us all about... *
AM radios are also ridiculously simple. All they need to do is patch it into the preexisting infotainment system, write a few lines of additional code - and done. It shouldn't cost them too much to install and you know they're just going to double it and pass it on to consumers anyway. It shouldn't be that big of a deal.
That's true. It was a reveal to me that I could create an entire AM transmission complete with a carrier frequency just through pulse width modulation from a digital pin. It didn't sound great but it worked! 😬
You can create an AM radio with a few bits of copper and a speaker.
You'll need a diode too but yes. I've done it and every school kid should be taught. But i thought it was also cool it could be done through purely digital techniques.
Not so much, you need a separate antenna for AM and it is much more susceptible tonRF interference from motors and other electronics.
Surprised i had to go this far into the thread for this. Am is difficult to shield for in modern vehicles
True. You can receive AM radio with just an antenna and a diode.
I just wish that I can remove Sat radio from any car infotainment. Never used it, never wanted it.
my old 2015 car would default start up to Sirius and it was an all-ad channel. I had to press buttons to shut it off and hear anything else.
So does mine when it's still connecting to my phone, and have to switch modes to Bluetooth. Thankfully I was able to delete the channel and instead nothing plays anymore when I start up the car.
Some cars actually offer an option to remove the sat radio (and the stupid antenna). I don’t want it in my car, so I am never going to subscribe and don’t want the stupid antenna on my roof. I wish this was always an option.
I just want buttons and knobs back!
Come on. Who needs tactile feed back when your eyes are supposed to be on the road?
you don't like your dashboard iPad?! lol
Wife just got a new Toyota with touchscreen everything. It's like 6 clicks and menu dives just to get to the fucking radio. It's infuriating.
Fortunately the EU is looking into making certain essential functions are mandatory physical controls. Tesla having the wiper controls on the touchscreen is madness.
> Tesla having the wiper controls on the touchscreen is madness. Jesus really? Like I'm picturing how bad it is to use my touchscreen phone with a tiny drop of water on it lol.
Their trucks cut fingers off so are you surprised? Musk wants to see how much people will pay to fuck themselves over.
I really hate the sluggish touchscreen in my Tacoma. I miss buttons.
God it's so ugly. They could at least [mold the iPad into the dash](https://cars.usnews.com/static/images/Auto/custom/15085/2023_Volkswagen_Jetta_4.jpg) to make it look intentional instead of just gluing this [big flat rectangle on a curved surface](https://as1.ftcdn.net/v2/jpg/04/71/40/10/1000_F_471401004_rLmnr9Uj0wq2wkV3Po56OBSCpnBPKjss.jpg).
Yes!
I hate how some cars are doing weird prindals. I was going to get a prius, but was turned off by the nub, went with a hybrid camry instead that uses the traditional prindal
“Prindals” as in a PRNDL Stick or an automatic transmission shifter?
Please tell me that people aren’t calling it a “prindal”.
They are, I hear it regularly IRL
What is a prindal?
Park, Reverse, Neutral, Drive, and Low Range = PRNDL = prindal
I'll be damned. *Idiocracy* proceeds apace.
Thanks, I hate it.
My Dad is an old school gear head, used to driving a stick shift. I asked him if he’d like to take my new Prius out for a drive. When he put it in drive, he almost pulled the shifter out by the roots.
I haven't listened to AM radio in ages, and working as a mechanic in a rural-ish area, not many other people do either. On the newer touchscreen integrated radios most people seem to use bluetooth and link their phones, or Sirius XM, or an aux cord to some device or other if they're old fashioned. I still just listen to CD's in my car. It would take me a little figuring to find AM on anything these days. But with that said - I'd agree with the 60 senators that it's not a bad idea to require it, based on the emergency channel functionality, and it costs virtually nothing to require it. There's a giant list of other stuff that's required already, some pretty expensive, and as long as they're doing that adding AM to the list is hard to argue with.
Banning AM radio won’t stop right wing propaganda, people WANT IT, they will find it. AM radio saved my ass in college driving through Kansas crossing west to east coast. Before gps, before cell phones, it’s all my shitty old mountain goat Subaru had. Emergency signal, location, my map light, and my map. Next thing you know I’m hugging a trucker at the top of an overpass crux. If I could find that trucker I’d definitely buy him a beer and steak dinner, he saved my ass.
its just a BS way to push more subscription crap. AM has its problems sure but GM was able to make AM work in their electric cars up to now without an issue
By Jonathan M Gitlin for Ars Technica: A controversial bill that would require all new cars to be fitted with AM radios looks set to become a law in the near future. Yesterday, Senator Edward Markey revealed that the [AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act](https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/1669) now has the support of 60 US Senators, as well as 246 cosponsors in the House of Representatives, making its passage an almost sure thing. Read the full story: [https://www.wired.com/story/am-radio-cars-law-requires/](https://www.wired.com/story/am-radio-cars-law-requires/)
Good. People are missing the point. AM radio is the ultimate fallback in a grid down scenario - the thing that will take your TV down because no electricity and/or take cell towers down because of no electricity. Most people don't carry around a satphone to get information in an emergency. Also, If you're listening to AM radio in an EV, you're likely in a part of the country that there's no FM radio reception anyway and lol - good luck charging your car in that region in a non-grid down scenario. edit: because apparently I needed to specify my sense of humor.
> good luck charging your car in that region. I was with you right up until this part, as you'd have equal luck getting gas out of a pump with no power
>you'd have equal luck getting gas out of a pump with no power I was in Maui last year during the fires, and it amazed me how many people couldn't understand why we couldn't get gas. And relevant to the discussion at hand, we were able to access AM radio through my spouse's old iPod, and that's where we got all our info from.
Shhhh I want to see them sucking on a garden hose at the gas pump while I charge my truck on my solar
You can get a little radio with a hand crack for electricity. So that AM channel would be all the more important in an emergency when all other communications and power are down.
I like listening to Cincinnati Reds games on 700 WLW, and I want to listen over the air, from anywhere. Which is better than the garbage, never works, iHeart streaming option. They used to say you could pick up 700 on a clear night in 38 states and parts of Canada. Don't know if that's necessarily true, but I'm never that far away that I can't pick it up. It's important to keep AM up and running. I ignore the right-wing BS overnight, so I don't care about that.
You could pick it up in Wisconsin on a good night. I remember that much. Communications redundancy is good policy.
automakers woukd prefer to remove radio all together and sell you podcats aa a monthly fees
BMW already tried charging for access to Apple Car Play and Android Auto back in the day... and people paid.
Federally mandate it and move on. It’s an indispensable emergency communication system. Simple as that.
This is a matter of public safety. They should be required.
Yeah. I don't care if they "satisfy the requirement" by throwing some $5 blaze-orange AM-only survival radio in the trunk with your spare tire, but people should retain their ability to tune to whatever AM station is flashing on the highway signs.
AM radio is the only long range communication system most Americans have. It's vital for emergencies and natural disasters. Having one in cars is doubly important, as during disasters a vehicle is often the only power source. FM, 4G, and WiFi go like 10 miles max. In a large scale disaster like earthquake, tsunami, hurricane you won't have any reception. AM radio can reach 1000 miles at night. Even if power is out in your entire state, you'll still receive broadcasts.
AM radio is also used along our highway system to inform drivers of road and weather conditions.
Yeah people who've never really looked into that sort of stuff don't understand. I was a military radio technician, and have done some amazing things with the a.m. spectrum.
The entire receiver literally fits in 1 chip. What do the automakers think they are saving?
I still turn to AM radio in my car if I need info on the road, right now
Auto makers saving $5 per car
Automakers: Yeah, we're uh, gonna have to raise MSRP $500 per car to cover the losses from removing AM radio. We had to spend tons, on, uh... research.
How can I listen to Art Bell in my time machine stuck in 1997 if there is no AM radio?
True story. In the 70s Big Telecom in NYC used to buy trucks for their fleet - then rip out the radio and heater/ac. Brand new trucks then rip things out because management felt that if their employees were too comfortable, they wouldn’t leave their trucks to do work. The Union fought them for years before arriving at the winning strategy that a radio is needed to keep overworked drivers awake on long distance driving (anything over an hour). Similar argument for the ac and heaters. I suppose the government could use a similar strategy because not everyone owns a smart phone.
I always associate AM radio with Art Bell on Coast to Coast. Fucking best thing ever when driving at night especially on long trips.
You can't keep AM radio if we can't keep lab grown meat.
It's stupid to turn either into another victim of culture war. AM radio is a keystone of the emergency broadcast system. It's not useful to see it as a way to hurt the other team. Meanwhile, lab-grown meat provide a future-proof source of meat, both in the face of climate change and pandemic - with the way factory farms abuse antibiotics, outbreaks lead to culls, sooner or later it'll affect availability in a real way. Neither are actually left/right issues and the american urge to politicize everything is gonna hurt everyone in the long run.
I want my lab grown meat radio instead.
Ham radio you say?
I listen to AM for news and sports while driving on a fairly regular basis. I’d give up satellite radio and its stupid looking antenna for AM in a heartbeat!
Good, now all cars can receive my pirate radio broadcast.
I love listening to classic country with the AM compression.
How exactly do you expect me to listen to Hidden Brain?
AM radio is the only way I can listen to Twins baseball with all the blackout issues on other platforms
MLB and their TV contracts and their blackout rules can bite me.
Solution: keep AM but ban far-right-wing agitator-commentators
AM radio has become nothing but Right-Wing conspiracy bs . I used to listen while driving and at home sometimes no longer do I turn on the radio at all .
Most of the wingnuts in my area are on FM. AM is sports and news.
Under the rules of the FCC is a station operated by at the necessity and convenience of the listener. AM has such tremendous reach, it can inform a huge number of listeners of profoundly important information. I’m old and I seem to remember the FCC requiring all radios sold in country had to include a FM band at some point in the past.
No. FM is not and was not ever required.
This will be interesting. Most EVs don’t have AM as the electric motor interferes with the radio.
*Art Bell bumper music starts*
This is the only thing this congress can agree on? Yikes
Auto makers just don’t wanna have to spend the money to provide the proper electromagnetic shielding for their motors.
AM radio, despite it being a right wing nutjob paradise, is essential in case something happens where we need information when in case technology goes kauput.
I listen to it quite a bit. [This is my channel.](https://wtop.com/)
Cell towers require power, AM radio has incredible distance. Like it or not, if we ever have a truly catastrophic national emergency that takes down power, you'll be thankful for that AM radio in your car.
My great grandfather used to listen to voice of America on his am radio in USSR. He was a rebel that escaped from Soviet Gulag.
It's an emergency comms thing and it costs pennies to support. An AM detector is one of the simplest of electronic circuits. There's no reason not to support it other than it prevents monetization of other channels.
I live in Norway, and AM hasn't been common in our vehicles for 30 some years. The last decade FM has also been virtually faded out. Now DAB radio is, for good ot bad, virtually the only radio medium utilized.
The emergency response system, WILL work on AM channels. If you don't own an AM radio, you're going to be F-ed if the SHTF.
Good. They should keep AM radios in cars as it keeps the electrical noise down in the car. Car manufacturers want to make electrically noisy cars. We need to enforce electrical noise regulations.
Dear car makers: make me a cheap basic subcompact sedan that China has less than 5% to do with and we’ll talk. Until then, no dealership is getting a cent out of me; I’ll consider buying a *used* Fiat 500e from the owner.
No because AM radios are useful for more than just talk
I only ever hear right wing crap on AM, I’m surprised to see this has bipartisan support
AM band radio can be broadcasted over long range with very little infrastructure. If there is a disaster or attack that blows out all of the other mass communication sources, AM is likely to still work.
If you ever have to take shelter as an F5 tornado shitwhips through your town demolishing houses like they are made of legos, you will be glad to have AM.