Car radios, capitalism, and politics.

Manufacturers of electric cars have found that the motors in the cars create interference with the reception of AM radio signals on the car radios. In some instances, cars will include only FM radio receivers.

Now, this would not be a problem in, say, Canada. You can go to the city of Halifax and find only FM stations on your radio. But in the United States, things are different more than somewhat. There are about 4,700 AM radio stations in the US. In Canada? About 100.

A while back, the FCC relaxed the restrictions on the number of radio stations which a single owner could amass. A few corporations quickly started to gobble up the market. iHeartMedia now owns about 865 stations. Many of these stations broadcast the same programs.

As you might suspect, iHeartMedia has a large vested interest in the advertising dollars these stations produce. Loss of car listenership would be a substantial blow. Thus the 'capitalism' in the topic line.

Through a series of steps, AM radio has become 'home' to a number of talk shows. These are almost without exception 'conservative' in content and listenership. Thus the 'politics' in the topic line.

And so there's quite a brouhaha going on about electric cars and AM radio receivers.

Regards, stay safe 'n well.

 

I suppose that it's appropriate at this point to make the observation that if something as simple as AM radio can affect or hinder the average EV, it seems to be a built in failure point. Perhaps EV manufacturers should fix the EV motors so they wouldn't be adversely impacted by simple radio frequencies...

 

https://apnews.com/article/am-radio-cars-congress-bipartisan-bill-ac3aa22e5db8d2acdc2448fe620c28f4

When I read about this last week, I thought it was one of the most pointless and overt examples of government interference in the free market I've heard of.

@Torus34 Probably this should have been placed in Political Opinions. Current Events have requirements about linking a source and copying the title into your subject.

@drluggit You've read the problem backwards. The EV motor may impact the AM radio signal, not the other way around. Thus the "safety" argument is made about the vital safety the AM radio provides:

 

Any good "road trip out west" horror movie at some point has an AM transmission.

 

Hmm.. I recall reading that the interference caused by the radio to the electric motors was the actual problem. I'll find the relevant story and repost here.

 

AM radio still exists? Huh.

 

am is essential to truck drivers who want music and weather information without changing the channel frequently as they drive.

engine noise can be filtered with properly sized capacitors, just as it is on older cars.

 

I saw a story yesterday about this and congress made a law that requires auto makers to include AM radio.

The lame excuse given?
It's how they communicate Emergency Broadcasts. Even though hardly anyone listens to AM raido and it will reach very very few people. A law was made.

It was a good chuckle.

 

...

 

The automakers were not taking them out of Diesel tractor trucks.
They were taking them out of cars and light duty trucks.
Since no one under the age of 50 or 60 ever listen to AM.

 

In my area there is one AM station owned by a University, which is where their communications majors do their practices. Just about everything else is religious and MAGA talk-shows (6 stations, at a minimum). I think the owner is Cox Media. The University AM is non-profit so, and it barely covers a 5 mile radius around the Campus so... I'm good with commercial AM disappearing from car radios. Let education have free access to the whole band.

 

Since conservative talk radio has often been transmitted on AM stations, I suppose that this is another way to silence them.

I heard on the news, yesterday, that Ford backed off on leaving off AM radios on their trucks. It had been a plan before that.

Of course, I'm very old school. I owned a Buick that had a CD changer in the trunk that allowed me to play just about any kind of music I wanted while I was driving. CDs are no longer available in most cars. You have to listen to FM or XM which play what they darn please. I have a flash drive port in my current car, but the darn thing has a bad habit of going bad after a year or so.

 

Anyone with a smartphone can find whatever they want without needing AM radio.

 

I just sync my iPhone and listen to Pandora or podcasts…

beat me to it …

 

How long before the exclusion of AM radios, the venue by which lots of conservatives spew their poison, morphs in to a conspiracy theory with the culprit being George Soros?

 

People can choose to buy cars that have AM radios.
People can also choose to by cars without electric engines.
If people choose to do the above I am sure engineers will quickly find a way to solve the problem.

 

Hi, drluggit.

You've got the cart before the horse in terms of what affects what.

Regards, stay safe 'n well.

 

Hi, ECA.

One report has listenership in the US at over 80 million each month.*

Regards, stay safe 'n well.

*Ref: Is AM radio over? | The Week

 

Hi, dairyair.

As to the number of people that listen to AM radio, see post # 18.

Regards, stay safe 'n well.

 

Learn something new every day. Thanks

 

Not a new problem, fought it all my life with high end car audio..

Isolator for car radios electric buzz - Search (bing.com)

I'm sure the manufactures will make a quick fix of it

 

Thx, I also found this, no my age guess was of 50 or 60 and above was fairly accurate.

...
Compared to AM radio, there are more FM listeners because of the superior audio quality. FM radio is a top choice for music listening; this is clear from the Nielsen research results, which showed that 86% of listeners tuned into FM, compared to 21% of AM listeners. This is also because of generational factors.

According to a report by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the median age of AM radio listeners is 57 years. Among people aged 25-34, AM makes up for 9% of radio listening compared to 91% of FM listening. There is a significant generational difference between AM and FM listeners. While the millennial and Gen Z group grew up with the earlier means of listening to music, few remain loyal to the radio. With new and emerging ways of streaming music, AM weekly cumulative seems to decrease every year.
Who Listens to AM Radio in 2023 - AM Radio Listenership - xRoadGPS

 

Yup. My bad. I found the article in question and I misread it. Now, that doesn't mean an electric vehicle will survive an EMP burst.. but...

 

Actually, on long road trips BOTH BANDS sux! Sat radio rules! Just from my point of origin to California you are fiddling with scan looking for FM broadcasts..

Now head east for a couple thousand miles, well that where USB/smartphone and your favorite mix's comes in

 

It's as if congresspeople have forgotten how amber alerts are issued. Perhaps we will soon return to the days of police shouting stuff through a bullhorn while driving through the neighborhood.