No More AM Radio in CArs

The Washington Post just ran an article about how auto manufacturers, including Ford, are not including AM radio in cars anymore.

End of a love affair: AM radio is being removed from many cars - The Washington Post

Very few AM radio stations draw a rating above .1 anymore. Any AM radio programming that is still popular will find a home on FM.

But as someone who tends to travel by car rather than fly I will miss listening to those 50,000 watt AM boomers. I remember driving from Las Vegas to California in spring 1981 and hearing Vin Scully do a baseball game on radio for the first time.

 

Elon Musk accidentally breaking right wing talk radio is a hilarious possible permutation I did not see coming.

 

This is pretty much only in some electric vehicles.

 

Don't have a subscription so thanks for mentioning that no-so-insignificant detail.

 

Phew. I was getting nervous about not being able to tune into those CONELRAD stations at 640 or 1240 in case of a nuclear attack.

 

I believe Ford is phasing it out in all new cars, not just electrics.

 

Now you can catch the Dodgers in your car via a Bluetooth connection to your phone.

I don’t think I’ve ever used the AM band on my car radio. Hell, thanks to Bluetooth, satellite radio and the Internet, I barely use the FM band on my car radio.

Someday we’re going to have to explain to our grandchildren how our parents’ cars only had AM radio and one speaker, and how Buck Owens connected one of those speakers in the recording studio so he could make his music sound better on it.

 

Driving out west, when I got tired of my CDs, I would hunt around the AM dial looking for a Country Gold station. That works best at night.

 

Don't you need a subscription for that? I thought stations that carry Major League Baseball games can't stream them.

 

I love my satellite radio, but in Philly (KYW) and New York (WINS), AM radio is/was great. (Don't know if either station is still around.)