Tesla isn't the only thing cutting back on AM reception. Today I went to Best Buy to price-shop a new bookshelf stereo. Most of the models for sale had no AM function at all
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Why Is Tesla Killing AM Radio?
- Thread starter Bongwater
- Start date
Of course that's nothing new. Bookshelf radios such as those made by Bose, KLH, and other audiophile brands haven't included AM for 30 years.
And once upon a time (1970s?) wasn't there a mandate for radio manufacturers to include FM radio tuners to help the "struggling" band at that time?
No. The only mandate regarding FM was the order, effective at the start of 1967, that FM stations in the larger markets could not simulcast sister fulltime AM stations more than a limited percentage of time. This caused many new or hybrid formats to fill the void.
By 1974, FM was approaching 40% of national listening. By 1977, the band had half of all listening. And many radios, including those in cars, still were AM only.
Bingo. As the saying goes: "For every funeral procession, so goes another AM listener".
On days when my paper gets an unusually high number of obituaries (paid) to run, I always consider it a mixed blessing. Yes, we're making more money than usual that day, but we're also losing a bunch of subscribers.
Because Tesla hates Rush Limbaugh? 
The other thing that happened at that time was the copyright for FM ended, and wasn't renewed, so manufacturers no longer had to pay a royalty to the Armstrong heirs to install FM in radios. RCA settled the lawsuit with Armstrong's widow, and RCA added FM to its portable radios.
Most of the fundamental Armstrong patents had expired in the 1950-1951 period. That did not help FM much, as there was a gradual decline in the number of stations from 1950 to 1960, with the total going from around 1000 in 1950 to 700 in 1960.
One additional thing that did happen in the 60's was the development of AFC, putting an end to the annoying drift of FM stations on most receivers.
Of course, the authorization of FM stereo early in the 60's was also a factor... but interestingly it took several years just to reach 100 stereo stations back then.
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The problem in my area is the massive power line static. They follow along side the road and ruin every station. Including a 50,000 watt station a few miles away. Even if you're out in the sticks away from the power lines, you are too far away from the station and then you have to deal with the ignition generated by the engine itself. Don't even think about plugging in a battery charger or cell phone into the cigarette lighter. The am band will be completely drown out by white noise and various sqeaks and chirps. There is also white noise that interferes with weak fm stations as well. Inside my house radio reception am or fm is crappy because white noise and buzzing that is heard across the band. Mainly because of power lines and several transformers across the road from my house. Back in the analog TV days I could not get decent reception of vhf channel 3 with an outside antenna because of sparkles and snow all over the screen. I"ve bought new more sensitive radios to no avail. All I get is much louder static even with all the electronics in the house turned off and the radio on battery power. I wish the FCC would inforce the interference rules. as for the FM translators, thats a joke. Everytime some am station gets a translator, the parent AM stations often superior signal goes down the toilet. They stop doing maintenence and will go for months with bad or low audio, weak signals and often will downgrade, or go off the air completly. which is illegal. Several stations have gone from as much as 5000 watts down to a few hundred watts. I can understand them wanting to save money on multiple nightime arrays, but don't destroy the daytime signal so that nobody can hear it. those fm translators can be picked up on car radio, but can't be heard on the cheap clock radio in the bedroom. If you are too near a large city, translators get drown out by splatter from nearby transmitters especially on poor quality radios. The Jensen radio in my truck does that. That's why I continue to listen to the AM signal if possible because of the bleed over on FM. But if they destroy the original AM station I'm out of luck. I can't listen anymore.
Yeah but these weren't audiophile brands--stuff like Panasonic. If stuff in the $100-$300 range won't give you an AM option, who's going to make an effort to find items with an AM option?
When you talk about companies like Panasonic, you need to broaden the view to the international market. What is the status of AM radio in the international market? My limited knowledge is that AM is in worse shape outside the US, which means there isn't much of a market for AM in any electronics.
It all depends on the country. In places where the government controls most of radio, such as the Scandinavian countries and much of Europe, AM is closing down. On the other hand, it still does well in some places like Spain and Portugal.
In Argentina, more than half of all Buenos Aires listening is to AM. Countries like Perú, Chile, Colombia and Venzuela have very high AM listening still.
On the other hand, in the Caribbean most of the smaller island nations have no AM any more.
But in some countries, AM is big enough that Pansonic or similar companies would not ship to them without AM.
And India is building out a whole new infrastructure based on high-power 540 to 1600 kHz stations using DRM only. They want to use fewer transmitters but with huge power to cover the whole subcontinent.
I'm 37 and do. Ballgames just sound better on AM. Music does sound better on FM but I'll be sad when there is no more AM to listen to.
I'm putting these in my F100.
https://ssli.ebayimg.com/images/g/IwYAAOSwiylXCEpH/s-l640.jpg
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/vvkAAOSwQglanJA1/s-l1600.jpg
There have been articles discussed here about both AM and FM going away completely in factory car audio systems and I know from recent car stereo shopping that even CD is going away in some aftermarket models. I mentioned in the thread about Best Buy dropping CDs that I've seen cheap models with only auxiliary jacks, USB ports, and possibly Bluetooth. I still want radio and CD in my car, but if I were to buy a new car with no AM, I could live without it with no more than I listen to it now.
Is it possible that AM and FM will someday have to "pay to play" for their place on the in-car entertainment dashboard -- the way SiriusXM does? If automakers decide that convenient access digital and streaming modes is more important to potential buyers than traditional radio, is there anything stopping them from making AM/FM an extra-cost option and making the standard arrangement digital/streaming/satellite?
The issues with Sirius were the receiving system was expensive and they charged a subscription fee. As long as AM/FM is a cheap device and doesn't require a subscription, it'll be in the dash.
My dashboard has AM/FM/XM/USB but why would I pay for XM when I can get much better audio from my USB port and listen to just the music I prefer? Now if you are talking about people who live in their vehicles and want to listen to a specific type of content (non-music) then it probably makes sense (as it does if you live in the sticks and have no receivable radio stations).
Vehicle manufacturers will continue to follow what their customers will pay for. In my case they could offer just an amplifier and AUX plug and let me select which device I want to listen to. My smartphone could stream or play its own content or continue receiving FM. AM and FM-HD would not be available in that scenario but that isn't a loss where I live.
Vehicle manufacturers will continue to follow what their customers will pay for. In my case they could offer just an amplifier and AUX plug and let me select which device I want to listen to. My smartphone could stream or play its own content or continue receiving FM. AM and FM-HD would not be available in that scenario but that isn't a loss where I live.
Since I don't want to spend money on those MP3 downloads I like but which I will infrequently listen to, I like having Sirius / XM for the moments when I might want to listen to songs that are fun to hear, but not frequently. I also like a couple of the mood / blend channels, but more for the feeling than for the individual songs. Classical is another area where I don't want to buy everything I like, and I enjoy hearing the same compositions by different orchestras.
Same goes for classic country and 50's and 60's Top 40 oldies. Not all the time, but fun to have on occasion.
And when I want to hear current music, whether it be pop or country, the SIrius / XM channels are part of my music discovery process.
The satellite also gives me the BBC and a couple of other talk alternatives, plus an occasional hit of Howard.
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