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Why Is Tesla Killing AM Radio?

"Most AM listening is done in the car." Is this finally true, or are there still millions of people unknown to anyone but the PPMs, it seems, who listen to AM at home or at work?
 
The fact is the FCC is killing AM radio, given their only strategy to revitalize it is to hand out FM translators.
 
Now, all cars generate electromagnetic interference, and precautions must be taken to mitigate its effects on the radio. Radio interference is a problem in some hybrids, and it’s worse in an all-electric car. The mitigation must be robust, and apparently Tesla has decided that clean AM reception is no longer worth the effort.
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The fact is that manufacturers haven't taken precautions to mitigate AM radio interference in recent years. I own a 5 year old car with intermittent ABS-related AM interference and, when I left the car at the dealer so they could look into it, I was given a newer loaner that had a constant squeal on several AM stations whenever the engine was running.

I was nodding along with the author of the article until:

Maybe listening to AM via the internet is better than actual radio. But to me, it’s not. For starters, the static in an AM broadcast is as integral to the listening experience as the surface noise on a vinyl record.
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He's kidding, I hope! I've given up trying to listen to AM in the car. My first line of defense is Satellite Radio but if there's something on AM I really want to hear I'll go through the nuisance of finding the right app, starting it, finding the program, waiting for the car to pair, but then enjoy the show without all the static. The only trouble with streaming is the lack of an easy-access interface.
 
wadio said:
I was nodding along with the author of the article until:


He's kidding, I hope! I've given up trying to listen to AM in the car. My first line of defense is Satellite Radio but if there's something on AM I really want to hear I'll go through the nuisance of finding the right app, starting it, finding the program, waiting for the car to pair, but then enjoy the show without all the static. The only trouble with streaming is the lack of an easy-access interface.
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Maybe he's writing of natural, rather than manmade, interference -- the difference between QRN and QRM to hams. But I remember making long drives on Southern summer nights, trying to listen to baseball on AM over the crackles and crashes of distant thunderstorms and wishing those games were on FM, not savoring the "integral listening experience."
 
CTListener said:
Maybe he's writing of natural, rather than manmade, interference -- the difference between QRN and QRM to hams. But I remember making long drives on Southern summer nights, trying to listen to baseball on AM over the crackles and crashes of distant thunderstorms and wishing those games were on FM, not savoring the "integral listening experience."
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I'll admit I do miss the lightening-strike early warnings, but today there are apps for that!
 
KeithE4 said:
QRM is interference of any kind (other stations, electrical/electronic noise, etc). QRN is strictly static.

http://users.isp.com/danflan/qcodes.html
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I always thought that having a separate Q code for atmospheric interference meant that QRM excluded static and was limited to interference from power lines, computers, TVs, vacuum cleaners, other transmitters and the like. I can see now how the definition could be interpreted more broadly. Was the QRN code invented later than QRM to further delineate the causes of interference, or were the codes created at the same time? If they were created at the same time, I'd say the creator originally intended to exclude static from QRM.
 
Considering the cost of a Tesla, as well as the costs of nearly every electric or hybrid car out there, I think we don't have much to worry about over the next 15-20 years, at least.
 
boombox4 said:
Considering the cost of a Tesla, as well as the costs of nearly every electric or hybrid car out there, I think we don't have much to worry about over the next 15-20 years, at least.
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AM reception is a problem in all modern cars with computerized electronics. It's probably worse in electrics and hybrids but I'll bet not much.
 
Part of the problem is that there is no single-rod radio antenna installed on any car, AFAIK. They use a blade (designed for satellite radio?) coupled to the car body. And since few care about AM, few complain. It works great on FM.
 
Actually, the short 'blade' antennas don't work very well on FM either. They're too short to capture much signal without additional pre-amplification (which adds noise to the received FM signal).
Too bad that a 30" rod antenna is not a factory option.
 
frankberry said:
Actually, the short 'blade' antennas don't work very well on FM either. They're too short to capture much signal without additional pre-amplification (which adds noise to the received FM signal).
Too bad that a 30" rod antenna is not a factory option.
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The blade/shark fin still provides better results than the antenna embedded in the windshield that was in vogue in the previous decade or so. The rod was the best, for AM and FM. It's too bad that auto antenna design had to make that concession to satellite radio at the expense of the frequency ranges that the vast majority of radio users still listen to, and I say this as a longtime SiriusXM subscriber.
 
Does anyone under 60(more like 70)feel nostalgic about AM? If the answer is "no" then it's just a matter of time and not that much!
 
KeithE4 said:
Part of the problem is that there is no single-rod radio antenna installed on any car, AFAIK. They use a blade (designed for satellite radio?) coupled to the car body. And since few care about AM, few complain. It works great on FM.
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It may depend a great deal on the quality of the radio installed. My Genesis has 4 distinct antennas with the largest being used for FM and reception, including HD, is great. AM has tons of static unless you are well out in the hinterlands and then it is acceptable for speech but not for music.
 
landtuna said:
It may depend a great deal on the quality of the radio installed. My Genesis has 4 distinct antennas with the largest being used for FM and reception, including HD, is great. AM has tons of static unless you are well out in the hinterlands and then it is acceptable for speech but not for music.
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Actually, the Genesis employs a diversity reception system which uses multiple antennae for the same purpose, selecting the antenna with the best signal at any given moment.
 
My 2014 Honda Civic has the antenna in the rear window. They've come a long way from that dreadful dual wire in the front windshield of GM cars in the '70s; the only reason reception wasn't totally crap was the good quality of those old Delco head units.

Anyway, both FM and AM reception in my Civic are amazingly good. Heck, it's one of the most sensitive AM tuners I've seen in a long time ... not quite to the level of the telescoping whip on the fender, but very close. Only complaint: the Honda radio's AM frequency response is not so good. The AM section in my previous car ('09 Ford Focus) had a fuller sound, but at the expense of sensitivity from its little stub whip on the back roof.

As for nostalgia for AM, I'm 53 - and I must be one of the youngest to feel any affection, even in the shape it's in now. At the same time, I'm a realist about its future.

--Russell
 
From a 73 year old.....I remember well driving across country (literally coast to coast) and being able to listen to AM along the way. Even stations in deep south states would come booming in overnight when FM's died out after the last gas station was passed. Some of those old AM shows were very interesting and nothing like the music-centric FM. Now that I don't drive those long distances any long and the nations cities are not as few and far between as once they were AM doesn't have the same attraction. It was kinda neat during my youth, when my local AM's went dark overnight, to be able to listen to stations far, far away. :(
 
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