Killing AM radios in cars

[joatmon]

A bunch of news stories lately about car makers dropping AM radios from new cars. Seems like the most often used justification is that electric cars generate interference, which AM is susceptible to.

I live in a rural area, not many FM stations, and the AM stations are either all talk or extreme religious stations. I do listen to AM if I happen to be on a long drive, especially at night when there's a sporting event I want to catch, AM seems to go farther, and more AM stations carry sports. Other than that, I wouldn't miss it. Since I tend to buy new cars only when the old one is in hospice, it will be a while before I'm at risk of buying a car that doesn't have AM.

Curious what other genvibers think about AM radio

[andrewclaus]

I can't remember the last time I tried listening to AM. It was a long time ago, before there were smartphones and podcasts. And before that there were books on tape.

My '98 Subaru still has a cassette deck. It's not dead yet. (It also has a weather band radio, which still broadcasts.)

[tpollauf]

Good topic Joat! I listen to AM quite a bit as there is an excellent "all news" channel in Detroit called WWJ news radio. Very informative, unbiased, educational, and worthy of my time while driving. My 2004 Vibe GT is pretty much my daily driver and does not have Sirius/XM unlike my 2009 Vibe GT and the 2014 Silverdo. I hope they still keep it for a few more decades.

[tommytipover]

I haven't listened to AM radio in 40-50 years. I had one of those pocket transistor radios from Kmart when I was a tween. I don't think I've ever listened to AM in my car.

[Mark]

I've listened to parts of collage football games on AM, but not in the last few years that I can think of. Other than that - never. In the Vibes and my pickup that don't have bluetooth radios I use one of these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B088T ... UTF8&psc=1 to stream iHeart or other content to the car radio. Really not going to miss it.