I see where Ford, BMW, Volkswagen, Tesla and other automakers are eliminating AM radio from new vehicles.
What’s next? Removing the brakes?
From a story by Marc Fisher on the Washington Post:
America’s love affair between the automobile and AM radio — a century-long romance that provided the soundtrack for lovers’ lanes, kept the lonely company with ballgames and chat shows, sparked family singalongs and defined road trips — is on the verge of collapse, a victim of galloping technological change and swiftly shifting consumer tastes.
My taste in love affairs has certainly shifted over the past few years, although my taste in music has remained pretty much the same. Yes, I still like the Eagles, and Linda Ronstadt. You can laugh if you want; it won’t hurt my feelings.
(I mean: laugh about my taste in music choices. I would prefer that you don’t laugh about my taste in love affairs.)
The breakup in the love affair between AM Radio and automobile manufacturers is going to be painful for some of us, who are entirely innocent of any wrongdoing. Marc Fisher writes:
The breakup is entirely one-sided, a move by major automakers to eliminate AM radios from new vehicles despite protests from station owners, listeners, first-responders and politicians from both major parties.
Automakers, such as BMW, Volkswagen, Mazda and Tesla, are removing AM radios from new electric vehicles because electric engines can interfere with the sound of AM stations.
And Ford, one of the nation’s top-three auto sellers, is taking a bigger step, eliminating AM from all of its vehicles, electric or gas-operated.
This “bigger step” by Ford, eliminating AM Radio from all its vehicles, strikes me as an especially cruel blow. Certainly not a “bigger step forward”. My first car was a Ford Pinto, and practically the only thing that worked right was the AM radio.
Now I kinda wish I still owned that car. Just think what that radio might be worth, someday!
Currently, as of 2023 — before the world flushes itself down the toilet — about half of AM radio listening is happening in cars, mainly while people are caught in traffic. On the LA freeway, for example. Or in Chicago, where workers, last year, spent an average of 155 hours commuting. (But it felt like 300 hours.) The only thing that makes this kind of life bearable is, of course, AM radio. Especially the right-leaning talk shows. Nothing is quite so satisfying as listening to a talk show host verbally abuse the Biden administration, when you’re stuck in traffic.
And weather reports. Who doesn’t love a thoroughly explained prediction about tomorrow’s weather, while waiting for the tow trucks to clear away a ten-car pile-up?
Of course, I live in Pagosa Springs. We’ve never had a ten-car pile-up during rush hour. We don’t actually have a rush hour. I think the biggest pile-up was four cars, and it was at 8 o’clock at night. (One of the reasons I don’t drive at night.)
I’m only able to get two AM stations on my car radio, maybe because my antenna got broken off. (Long story that I won’t bother you with.)
But I’m not heartless. I’m thinking about those poor people in LA and Chicago, driving a brand new Ford, and no AM on their radio.
Marc Fisher wrote that, according to the National Association of Broadcasters (okay, not exactly an unbiased group) there are still 82 million people who listen to AM radio. But they are old people. They listen to AM because they can’t figure out how to connect Bluetooth. This is a sad situation. It’s really not hard to connect Bluetooth, but you have to have your children show you how, and many old people live too far away from their children.
Then we have the problem of tornadoes. From Marc Fisher’s article:
One evening this spring, when severe thunderstorms rolled into Bryan, Tex., with tornadoes threatening parts of the area, Bill Oliver, the news director at WTAW, the area’s century-old AM station, connected to the studio from home and stayed on the air deep into the night, giving listeners details on which neighborhoods and streets were in a twister’s path.
How are Ford owners going to know which streets are safe, when the tornadoes come?
I don’t even want to think about it.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all.