Every now and then, I scan the AM dial to see if I can find anything interesting. I’m surprised to find how few stations I can get with tolerable reception, never mind tolerable programming. My scanning usually lasts no longer than a top-of-the-hour newsbreak before I return to public radio (which manages to cover the entire state with FM stations) or to my favorite streaming ad-free stations coming through my phone.
Not that I consider my personal radio experience normative, but I find it odd that Republican Senator M. Michael Rounds of South Dakota and Democratic Senator Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota both want to force carmakers to keep including inferior AM radio in their car options:
A group of senators from both parties have come together to introduce the AM for Every Vehicle Act. The bill, supported by Rounds and 19 other senators, would direct federal regulators to require automakers to maintain AM broadcast radio as a standard feature in new vehicles.
The legislation comes as some automakers are dropping AM radio from newer models.
“Free AM broadcast radio has been an important resource for decades,” Rounds said in a statement. “I am pleased to join Senators Markey and Cruz on this bipartisan legislation so our future generations have access to this free, key resource, especially in our rural areas across South Dakota” [staff, “Congressional Roundup: Rounds Advocates for Defense and AM Radios,” South Dakota Searchlight, 2023.07.01].
Say, if Congress is going to mandate free key resources in cars, could we make Ford, Toyota, et al. install in-seat pee receptacles? I’ve needed to pee miles from the nearest gas station far more often than I’ve needed to receive emergency information out of range of any transmitter other than an AM radio tower. Travel would be far more comfortable and efficient (and maybe healthier!) if I could just go on the go instead of having to hold it until I get to the next rest stop where I might encounter any number of bacteria and skeezy highwaymen.
But just as car manufacturers and owners may not want bags of piss in their vehicles, they have good reason to eschew AM radio in modern vehicles:
Automakers say EVs’ electric motors interfere with AM frequencies, creating annoying buzzing noises and faded signals.
…While the problem of radio band interference is broadly acknowledged, only a few carmakers have taken steps to mitigate it.
Stellantis, parent of Chrysler and Jeep, for example, uses shielded high voltage cables and connectors to cut down on interference. It’s also moving the radio receivers farther from the EV components in its next-generation infotainment systems.
Volkswagen, on the other hand, said such solutions have a significant impact on the range and performance of its EVs, due to the extra weight [Joann Muller, “Electric Cars Are Ditching AM Radio—A Critical Safety Tool,” Axios, 2023.03.13].
8 in 10 Americans age 12 and over listen to radio at least once a week. Maybe 2 in 10 Americans listen to AM radio each week. AM radio doesn’t have a majority audience, and it doesn’t work well with the cleaner, more efficient cars toward which the market is moving.
Congress hasn’t mandated that every electric car have a back-up gasoline motor or a horse in a trailer; we let car buyers decide if they want to take a chance on running out of charge before they reach the next charging station or a storm causing a power outage that prevents them from charging their electric cars for a few days. Perhaps Congress should let the market decide radio choices as well. When Volkswagen dealers see their customers check the dashboard, see no AM button, and walk out to spend their tens of thousands of dollars on scratchy signals at the Jeep dealer across the street, they’ll report back to corporate and say, “We’re losing customers! Put the AM radio back in!” But if no such market phenomenon manifests itself—if car buyers shrug at the installed broadcast bands because they’re mostly shifting to their streaming music and podcasts—then the market is speaking, and there’s no compelling need to prop up an obsolescing technology.
Radio is key to democracy. It brings us together, same time, same frequency, all equal. It is also a lifeline when disasters happen and we need to know where the storm is headed next. Radio 4 Life!
In the South, both the AM and FM radio dials are chock full of electronic bible thumpers.
New cars have Bluetooth receivers instead of radios that will get nearly every AM radio station from your phone using the iHeart Radio app.
*Go to settings – general – car play and push the button on your steering wheel to connect with your phone’s Bluetooth transmitter.
Cory, I’m guessing that at least 50% of South Dakotans listen to AM
radio every day. Your radio experience is most certainly not normative.
I listen to AM stations from Fargo (best reception) and some talk shows
I find interesting, a couple that are decidedly liberal and one with a conservitive
bent. There is one AM station that dedicates it self to agriculture and ag markets.
I try to catch that station now and then.
I suspect that market penetration for EV’s is going to be very slow in the
upper great plains.
Edwin: Do you suspect that auto makers factor the desires of people in the upper great plains into their future marketing plans at a high or low rate?
Will they keep AM radio in the tractors and combines?
Edwin: I think there are zero liberal am radio talk shows available in your area. If I’m wrong list the one or more, you’re referring to. Thank you.
PS – I also think there are zero am radio liberal talk shows available anywhere in USA. A few podcasts but zero am radio talk shows.
*Thus, it’s obviously a liberal plot to end right wing talk radio by eliminating the am radio from gas powered vehicles.
Most midwest baby boomers learned to smoke cigarettes and drink Grain Belt to AM radio: KISD, KBRK, KLOH during the day and KAAY and WLS at night. Bleeker Street aired from Little Rock and featured blues and progressive rock.
Mike Rounds is three months younger than I and Sen. Klobuchar about six years younger. She likely grew up with WCCO. I moved to Minneapolis in 1972 and converted entirely to public radio. AM was for bubble gum music, livestock reports and some bellicose entertainer named Limbaugh so I never regretted my decision.
When cell phones became ubiquitous I wanted FM radio broadcast through that medium and today — well, you know.
AM radios in personal vehicles will go the way of cigarette lighters and ashtrays but that relief tube that my dad knew of in aircraft would be welcome, indeed.
I never bluff P.
News and views with Joel Heitkamp, and Afternoons live with Tyler Axness
both on the mighty 790, KFGO in Fargo. Google KFGO and look at the
website. KFGO claims to have the largest listening audience in the area.
I really don’t think that Congress can mandate how car manufacturers can sell their products, other that to make something a “safety feature.” Unless the federal; government is going to pay for AM to be included, AM…or even all radios in vehicles could go the way of 8-track and cassette tape players and cigarette lighters. now, if people want to pay extra for the optional equipment, they could get any type of radio or even a cigarette lighter installed in their new vehicle. There is no way they could make AM radios be part of standard equipment. Having a radio is not a safety feature. When car owners have their sound systems stolen, there is no law that I know of which requires them to replace those systems before they can drive those vehicles again. Therefore, those things are obviously not necessary in vehicles. As to Senator Round’s statement, “free” FM radios can offer anything that AM does. And “standard equipment” is not the same as “free.” If something has to be included as standard equipment, then the price of a vehicle goes up for everyone. If something is optional, then the price only goes up for the few that want that particular piece of equipment. At my age, I would guess I am in the demographic that would listen to AM radio, but I don’t . I have listened to AM radio in my car twice in the 13 years. And both times it wouldn’t have been for more than 10 minutes. If there was something special about AM radio to make it indispensable, then I suspect that car manufacturers would want to keep it. But since there is not, I can see why they would want to get rid of it.
Thanks Edwin. Both those talkers do seem to lean blue.
I wonder if the same people who listen to just AM radio also watch just FOX fv station, drive a car with just a key not an FOB, you get my drift.
Rush Limbaugh was on Am radio in this area so it is listen to about 80% of the population even though there is an FM country station in town and an excellent FM native station across the river, KLND.
Cory, I listen to and watch public broadcasting all the time. I LOVE PASSPORT!!!!
It’s contribution time and they would love some help.
Anybody remember the “V-Chip?” Senator Tim Johnson was a major advocate of this rather ethereal thing that would govern how much “V”iolence would be allowed in a TV show before the “V-Chip” would step in and blow out the tubes, or something. I also remember Bill Clinton fretting about Sister Souljah between blow jobs.
So, now we have Marion Michael Rounds and Amy K. working together to save a can of sardines no one gives a sh&t about.
PS Edwin – You don’t need AM radio to listen to KFGO. I’m listening to it right now on my phone through iHeart radio app. So, once again you’re crying BEFORE you’re hurt. Once AM is gone you’ll catch up. You always do, eventually.
P., I’m dedicated to my flip phone. I can actually talk to people on it.
My wife has one of those other phones, but I can live without them.
Oh, I see, you’re fooling with your phone while you’re driving.
If you go by all the commercials those AM stations are running,
a lot of people must be listening.
Edwin – I gave my BMW to charity 21 years ago and don’t drive. You cling to your flip phone, huh? Good for you. 😂
The irony and hypocrisy crack me up that republicans think they have to inject the big hand of ‘gubinment’ into the free market. (Klobuchar is joining this to placate her half a dozen rural voters.)
Joseph Goebbels would be proud of the US AM and FM airwaves for their unabashed distribution of the authoritarian’s propaganda.
My error.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaker_Street
Dusty Johnson has never stopped raising money so the SDDP needs to hound the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee for cash and start running opposition ads on every commercial radio station in South Dakota. My party can recruit some respected Democrats to record radio spots then bombard the airwaves paving the way to 2024.
I love listening to AM Radio while driving, I get to listen to my Twins in the evening, Skyforce as well, and by day, I have my very interesting talk shows I love to listen to. I am with Edwin on this, AM Radio is very popular and there are plenty of us left. We are not rolling in our graves yet, and we are still proudly clinging to old fashion way of life. Thank You Edwin for standing in our defense.
Thanks, Ed and Mike. Your voices are heard. Commercial radio broadcast is huge in Indian Country, too.
Edwin and Mike Zitterich – Don’t you understand that AM radio can exist without people owning AM radio receivers. My friends new Honda Accord has no radio at all but he can listen to any radio station through the car speakers by using Bluetooth and his cell phone. The cell phone also has over a thousand albums stored on it. – You’ll understand when you have to. It’s your way of clinging to something that’s long passed you by. Like your feelings about minorities and women’s rights.
As a founding listener and devotee of Bill Janklow’s idea of public radio for 37 years, my affirmation was cemented by this story:
In ’97, I performed my first of six seasons as Mother Ginger in the Black Hills Dance Theater’s production of the Nutcracker; Vanessa Short Bull danced the Sugar Plum Fairy. On opening night, her dad brought her likely centenarian grandmother backstage before the show to watch her warm up. The vision of three Sicangu generations attending a Tchiachovski ballet was all it took for me to understand how public media funds bridges.
In 1991 I was the Sysco rep who supplied the entire cast and crew of Thunderheart with fresh fish, full grocery supplies and other goodies. Coast to Coast Catering rented an inactive but well-equipped restaurant in Kadoka owned by the family that operates Discount Fuel. I drove out there from Rapid City in a refrigerated truck nearly every day during filming and Coast to Coast Catering spent almost $500,000 with me. Graham Greene gave me his autograph on the back of one of my business cards.
P., don’t you understand that my Buick Park Avenue is 20 years old
and has a radio that works for AM and FM? I plan on keeping it for
a while yet. It works good. 178000 miles so far. I’ve heard that some
people got 400000 miles on those 3.8 engines.
So, Edwin how is that affected by the fact that new cars won’t and don’t have radios? If you don’t need a new car why are you whining about it? Or are you really just complaining because you can’t abide by change? Hmmm?
Edwin – Do you hear auto makers demand that AM radio go out of business? It’s their right to build cars any way they choose.
I listen to AM radio far more than FM.
AM has the range that FM doesn’t.
AM has balanced news that FM (for the most part) doesn’t.
What I would REALLY like to see is DOT requiring all vehicles have the same cruise controls in the same locations.
I drive 5 differnt vehicles and they are ALL different when it comes to the cruise controls.
One more comment, P., yes I do think that auto makers will pay attention
to the market needs of the upper great plains and Canada.
Bottom line : new cars won’t have radios at all. You can complain but new cars won’t have radios. It’s because 99% of people will have a wireless radio already in their pocket on their cellphone.
Enough said by me. Just wait and learn for yourself.
I buy and sell used cars, I only buy cars with radios in them, especially AM radio. And BUICK is the best car you can buy besides those infamous Pontiac Grand Prix and Grand Am’s…I love them, and will continue to make sure my friends and neighbors and customers can get them.
I used to drive across South Dakota, sometimes border to border for 15 years. Without AM radio, you can’t tune in the Twins.
I had to chuckle the other day when one of Greg Belfrage’s 6 callers agreed with Greg that they need to keep AM radio while he was driving truck in Texas listening to Greg on livestream. There is only two things on AM, old country and right wing radio. I listen to one because I enjoy old timey music and the other because it is entertaining to listen to these people bitch about Hillary’s emails. I say kill AM radio.
K E L O outof Sioux Falls was a darn good AM station for Rock music back in the 70s. Most of the farmers around here had their radios tuned to WNAX out oif Yank Not for weather and farm news.
As i have mentioned before, my favorite sttion was Late night WLS out of Chi Town and their Animal Stories with Uncle Larry Lujack. K I L R (Little Rock) K O M A (Oklahoma City) and WOW (Omaha) were good music stations, too.