What People Are Saying About Ford, Its Decision to Keep AM

RadioWorld.com ^ | May 24, 2023 | Elle Kehres

[Dr. Sivana]

‘check your back seat before leaving.’ Ford must think every American has no brains.

Lawsuit protection. Every year, somebody gets left in the backseat. Safety mandates require high backed anti-whiplash seats, and Ford is trying to avoid a lawsuit about poor visibility related to an infant left behind, or maybe a regulation requiring yet another sensor. Same source for the labels warning you not to use the electric hair dryer in the bathtub.

[Dr. Sivana]

I have listened to a lot of AM over the years, but I don’t think there “oughta be a law”. Heck, I don’t even think the car ought to even be required to HAVE a radio.

[FlingWingFlyer]

AM radio became worthless once RUSH LIMBAUGH passed. Rush was the only reason AM stayed around this long. God Bless You Rush!

[Liberty Ship]

AM radio is driven by conservative talk radio. And a lot of that is drive time ratings.

Taking AM out of cars is an attack on conservative talk radio.

Emergency Broadcasting capability is important and a good argument for keeping AM, but I really think that the genesis of this was an attack on conservative talk.

[iamgalt]

My Caddy does that also but only if l have opened the rear door. In my case I think of it as a reminder that I put something back there when I exit the car. Actually l like it.

[MountainWalker]

It seems like deleting useful features for no good reason is all the rage nowadays.

[iamgalt]

Soros just bought a bunch of Spanish speaking AM radio stations, this is why the rats are pushing to keep AM.

[Cowgirl of Justice]

Anyone remember when it was said the reason why cursive writing wasn’t being taught anymore was because The Constitution and The Bill of Rights were both written in cursive and the left didn’t want people to be able to read them anymore?

The same with AM radio? Many Conservative voices are on AM radio and is this the left trying to erase Conservatives here???

[Nifster]

Apparently you don’t listen to Clay and Buck or Armstrong and Getty

[raccoonradio]

AM signals reach far and at night cover huge areas, though some stations have to power down or change direction to protect others.
There is news-talk on FM including powerful NPR stations like WBUR and WGBH in Boston. Some conservative talk stations are FM only while some simulcast an AM talker.

Some stations will simulcast on FM with a full powered signal while some have FM translators with limited range.
Some simulcast on HD2 or HD3 signals for those with special HD radio.

Other options:
—streaming—iHeartRadio, TuneIn etc
—some news-talk content on satellite radio (for fee)

The AM dial has strong and weak stations
with talk, news, religion, foreign language and sports. You could have a big sports station on FM while an AM would have sports gambling talk. Some nostalgia/oldies.

In Boston area there’s easy listening WJIB AM 740, a one man operation with a cult following. Listener supported with donations. He refuses to streamcast for cost reasons but covers some areas with an FM translator (101.3)

[Liberty Ship]

Hmmmmmm......thanks,

[raccoonradio]

In Boston iHeart has conservative talk
on WRKO 680 (regional shows like Howie
Carr), WXKS 1200 (nation shows like
Travis and Sexton, Beck, Hannity)
and news station WBZ 1030 has a night show
with Dan Rea.
All of them streamcast.

None have an FM simulcast but if you
have an HD radio WZLX 100.7 has WRKO
on the HD2 and WXKS AM on the HD3.
WBZ AM is on the HD2 of WXKS FM 107.9

[Flying Circus]

I don’t understand why auto manufactures would want to take away a feature that costs them virtually noting additional to provide with other features that are already standard. I don’t necessarily listen to AM radio much anymore, but I still don’t want the option taken away from me when I buy a car. For that matter I don’t listen to FM radio much either, but as long as you have a radio you might as well have access to both bands.

I live in a rural area and there are a lot of local news and events that are only broadcast on the AM side. I am not a big talk radio listener anymore but when I listen to AM it is for local stuff that is not available anywhere else.

[exPBRrat]

Good decision Ford.

[fretzer]

>In Boston area there’s easy listening WJIB AM 740, a one man operation with a cult following. Listener supported with donations. He refuses to streamcast for cost reasons but covers some areas with an FM translator (101.3)

That sounds like a cool station. Around 20 years ago, Reno had a small AM station that broadcast Alex Jones. That’s back when NV was red. The station was bought and now it’s a spanish language station. Now we have a Faux talk station on FM out of Carson City and the standard AM blather from the Reno station.

[KarlInOhio]

It was interesting that Ford could add it back in with just a software update. That tells me that the RF hardware around 1 MHz was never removed and it is just a matter of adding a very simple piece of demodulation software and a couple of menus to the radio. I bet that they don't even have to do that on current models but just have to flip one configuration bit in their radio setup.

Comparing what it takes to demodulate AM versus Bluetooth, WiFi, FM or even the keyfob security radio shows that the software for AM is trivial.

[Pearfect]

A
M

ALL MAGA

GREAT decision.

[Myrddin]

Electric motors put out broadband RF noise that can wipe out AM reception. Fixing that problem is expensive. Deleting the AM radio dodges fixing the problem by removing the affected component. Old gasoline cars with a distributor and mechanical points put out some level of RF interference that could obscure a weak AM signal. Alternators insert "whine" on the DC system of a car. That can be filtered at a small cost. People who purchased cheap CB radios often had to purchase power filters to eliminate the alternator whine.

I was sent to a small fishing boat in the late 70s. His emergency radio reception was being completely wiped out by the onboard alternators providing AC power for equipment. I tried to convince him that the problem needed to be fixed before he took the boat to sea. Too expensive. He went to sea, had problems. Called for help on that radio. Didn't matter because he couldn't hear anything. The boat sunk. He died. RFI is a real problem.

[vortigern]

The main technical difference between AM and FM radio lies in how they encode the audio signal. AM varies the amplitude of the carrier wave, while FM varies the frequency. AM radios are relatively simpler in design as they primarily involve the modulation and demodulation of the amplitude of the carrier wave. AM radios are generally simpler in design compared to FM radios, which can potentially result in lower manufacturing costs for AM radios. From a cost perspective, there is no inherent reason to exclude AM functionality in car radios.