Keeping AM radio alive

The baboons in Washington (a group of baboons is called a congress if you did not know) are on track to do the right thing trying to keep AM receivers in new cars for free in a pushback agents several auto manufactures (particularly EVs)

So please let your respectively reps know if you want to keep AM radios in cars

https://www.rounds.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/am_radio_for_every_vehicle_act_of_2023.pdf

 

Why would we want to keep a.m. radio alive?

 

I wanted to keep my CD player alive more than AM radio. I'm fine with XM not living though. I could get behind keeping HAM radio alive.

 

My ~1100 CDs (and ~1300 cassettes) concur with you...

 

I use AM in the mountains when im tired of FM fuzzing in and out and streaming is useless. Also my dad and other family members use it to listen to football games still. Its still got plenty of uses in my book.

 

I think there is still a role for AM radio, and I'd like to see it stay around. It would be ideal for an emergency broadcast warning system, but for listening to music or talk radio it is pretty much dead.

In a national emergency, satellites can go down. FM radio is limited to a 50–60-mile radius and less in mountains. AM radio signals can travel much farther and is a better way to keep the public informed during an emergency.

 

There’s always a conspiracy theory buried about the demise of AM radio. Station owners rather stream on iHeart or some other platform due to the cost of powering up a transmitter. Also small independent station would die a slow death. From no audience, same as TV stations having to still broadcast an air signal. The government would have complete control over what you listened to. Wait,,,, my tinfoil hat is smoking,,, ahhhhhhh.

 

It's cool every now and then to sit there in the middle of the night in Michigan and hear a station out of NY or St. Louis. But other than that, I don't think most people have any use for it. The quality isn't good, the signal is very unreliable and affected by a lot of factors that can cause you to lose signal in the same spot you had it the day before. It served a purpose at one time but that purpose is largely gone. I can take it or leave it.

 

When Rush died, AM radio died.

You don't need to care about the politics part of it but he kept AM radio financially viable and in demand far longer then if he had not been on the air.

 

I agree. 2112 was a pretty cool album.

 

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