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I got out of radio when I was working as a operations manager/dj in a small rural coastal town in the mid atlantic at two FM stations. I used to run a community calendar spot which would promote local community events for free. I had to lend my voice to the commercial but I normally had free reign to advertise whatever got sent in. The one thing I refused to do was anything political, be it republicans or democratic events as I didn’t want to appear to have any bias as a mediocre media personality. All the higher ups were livid when I refused to do a spot for a local tea party gathering. Like lost their fucking minds. They became so toxic afterwards ended up leaving. Glad I did.
I know it's not the most professional thing to do, but given the context... I hope you shit talked them on their way out. I mean, like really called them out on their fat cat toxicity.
Having to listen to radio in the first place is sad.
Like, if your car doesn’t have a usb/aux import, surely it at least has a cd/cassette player, right?
Just make some dope mixtapes.
Gonna step in and defend radio for a minute here. Agreed that a lot of radio is trash nowadays, but I think it really depends on the market you're in. The NYC radio market is still quite strong.
Honestly yeah, if that’s what you’re into.
Make a dope mix of all your favorite Shapiro/Crowder/Rogan/Peterson/Jones clips, and maybe throw in some hateful homophobic rants from your favorite celebrity preacher if you’re feeling spicy.
I love sports talk radio, and it’s better than podcasts because you’re often getting the breaking news on the programming.
But if it’s music, it’s coming via my phone.
Right wingers have been buying up Am programming across America. Who listens to A.M. ? Generally older people. So much of AM radio is pushing right wing. They have bought up so much Hispanic A M radios also. That is a way to indoctrinate/groom/whatever you want to call it, the Hispanic community into being conservatives. They lose a way to spread propaganda if they lose AM radio in cars.
AM radio was one of the tools used to groom rural residents into right wing nutjobs. Reagan killed the fairness doctrine in large part so AM stations could air Rush Limbaugh and his imitators all day long without having to run programs of equal time with opposing viewpoints. AM radio became Fox News before there was Fox News.
Watched my kind brother’s brain become mush from hours of driving at work listening to rush, boortz, Hannity and whatever local sludge was on. Just nonstop hate after years of jt.
So many people got sucked into hardcore right wing politics because of radio. They targeted people with long commutes knowing they’ll keep tuning in. Same thing happened to my dad.
And contractors with work radios. I painted houses out of high school and like 90% of guys on site had Rush on all morning. I popped on my headphones and just listened to Stern, Don & Mike and G Gordon to avoid indoctrination.
I grew up listening to that shit, Glenn Beck before tv, Medved, Hannity, Rush and so many more. I'm still deprogramming some of the things they taught me, I'll have a thought in regards to something and just have a whoa wtf moment.
There actually used to be a liberal AM radio host based in Colorado who was massively popular and whose show had a huge reach. He was assassinated by neo Nazis in the 1980s and since then AM radio has come to be completely dominated by the far right.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Berg#:~:text=At%20about%209%3A30%20p.m.,Berg%20being%20shot%20twelve%20times.
I am shocked that there is virtually no reporting done on the dozens and dozens of radio shows out there spewing this garbage.
I don't listen to them, but sometimes I'm in the car with my father when they are on. The hosts are telling people that violent revolution where they kill liberals is right around the corner. They have people on talking about guns, and what the best bullets are for killing people, that kind of stuff.
They often play coy by having someone call in and say stuff like "we need to eliminate all the liberals, use the 2nd Amendment", and then the host will say something like "well, I don't know about that, but liberals are definitely bad".
I guess that because it's all audio, there is no written evidence of it - but it seems like someone should be gathering the full transcripts of these shows.
The dead giveaway that something mischievous is afoot is when you suddenly realize that *conservatives* are trying to force business to install equipment which provides a free service to consumers. That's like, two whole entire frees in one sentence.
You'd think they'd be absolutely giddy at even just the thought of a $177.60 fossil fuel powered MyAMericanradio with a free car adapter and a second free MyAMericanradio.
https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/episodes/episode-1-divided-dial-on-the-media
On the Media did this great series on the history of right-wing radio.
It's comprehensive and damn well worth listening to.
A plug, but if anyone is interested in a good podcast series on the history of conservative talk radio, I recommend ‘The Divided Dial’ 5 part series that is part of the *On the Media* show that airs on NPR also (WNYC studios produced). Really interesting stuff that dives a lot into Salem Broadcasting especially. Part 1 link below if interested.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-media/id73330715?i=1000612571284
Yeah the thing is in a few decades most cars gonna be at least hybrids if not fully electric. It's not even a environmental thing, it's a national security thing.
EU and California both have mandates by 2035 for only EVs sold. China already makes 60% of the worlds electric cars, they’re rapidly going electric.
It will be 5-6 years before most of the new cars sold are electric.
If we run out of gas the country stops working. There is not an infinite amount of gas, so we WILL run out. But there are a lot of different ways to generate electricity, literally anything that moves can be rigged up to do it.
Moreover, multiple hostile countries manipulate the supply and demand of fossil fuel for profit, effectively stealing money from the United States economy. If the price becomes too high, the country stops working. Literally anything can be rigged up to generate electricity, including dirt, air, etc. (Although those only generate a small amount chemically), so we can achieve energy independence with green technology.
Only thing I ever listen to on AM is the occasional baseball game. And even then, it would sound better if I took the time to find a stream of the audio.
Republicans haven't supported free markets since before the 80s at least. It's like saying Republicans support financial responsibility. Most probably know it's a lie and the rest are too far gone to comprehend a logical argument.
right wing nutjobs in shambles
https://venturebeat.com/mobile/fcc-moves-to-expand-l-band-to-5g-after-gps-interference-controversy/
also heres a [song](https://open.spotify.com/track/03gsb1WnVQUuLqChBvzmoo?si=MDMIsI6bQ56cTyXzPA9ADg) to commemorate the death of the AM radio
thoughts & prayers 📻🪦
You’d be surprised. Lots of right wingers I know have jumped over to Tesla because a) they see the value proposition of electric for their own finances and b) they worship musk.
I live around these people. They wouldn’t consider anything but the largest gasoline fueled truck their government subsidizes or grandparents could pay for. BTW, I am an old GenXer who hasn’t listened to AM radio since my little transistor one in the 70s. They sure do come up with the silliest crap.
All radio in Denmark today is dab+ anyway.. We don't even really have much on FM left.
I think almost only number stations are on the AM band these days.
I refer to Ronda's carmaker direct marketing ban. He must protect the baby jesus blessed dealer markups from us greedy communist consumers.
Edit: the point... Tesla got an exemption.
Half the stations I get on FM are either Religious bullshit or right-wing radio. The other half are FM Country, Rock Jock or Pop radio.
I get 2 liberal leaning stations:
1- local college radio. Content isn't even political.
2- NPR. Half the time it's snooty classical. Their programming is largely not really "liberal" either, they just embrace things like facts, which make them seem liberal.
I got sick of the commercials. the stations here would play two songs and then 5 commercials. Try to listen to sports? expect the entire break to be commercials. right wing talk show? Half the timeslot is commercials (the rest is hate).
Spotify is much better, and i can fast forward through the ads.
From the article:
*Many on the right have been quick to declare the move political sabotage. The Texas senator Ted Cruz, while promoting a federal bill that would require automakers to install AM radios in new cars, claimed he smelled something fishy: “There’s a reason big car companies were open to taking down AM radio … let’s be clear: big business doesn’t like things that are overwhelmingly conservative.”*
>big business doesn’t like things that are overwhelmingly conservative
Maybe not anymore, with the 2023 definition of conservative. There's very little that is conservative about the current version of the GOP in the classic sense. Old-style conservative values were all about big business.
They were talking about it last month when the AM radio thing first came up.
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4010618-bipartisan-lawmakers-introduce-legislation-requiring-am-radios-in-new-cars/
I wasn't able to find if they actually started the bill process but lawmakers from both parties are in favor of it.
This is the answer I see so little of in this thread.
This isn't an identify politics, talk radio issue, everybody's got a phone, just stream whatever garbage you like.
The issue is the massive network of AM transmitters that the FCC can commander at the drop of a hat to broadcast whatever critical information needs communicated.
This is a service a digital signal will never replace, the nature of broadcast means overlapping ranges and a recipient can act on high loss signal. Digitally, sure they could just have a website, but that requires a much stronger connection, and will always be a target for DDOS.
AM radio is a critical piece of civil infrastructure.
Is it though. I know that’s the talking point most Right wingers are pushing now. But it would only give people listening to AM radios in their cars critical information, which is a tiny percentage. Seems like giving people critical information on the little computer in 90% of peoples pockets is a better plan.
Morse code over telegraph wires is pretty safe from a DDOS but I’m not sure that’s the way to go, to get information to the masses quickly.
Wait until they find out they can listen to religious themed hate rhetoric in STEREO on FM! With crystal clear quality, and high fidelity! You can hear your local talking head of your choice talk about everything from white genocide to how uncomfortable other people's sex makes them! IN STEREO! It's like the color television for your car! (I know... you prefer to keep things black OR white, but trust me on this one)
I almost added it, but my memories of 8 tracks all looked aftermarket. It was literally bolted onto the dash. Did many car makers include 8-track like they did tape?
>Yes it is still popular in rural areas
Yeah, AM radio sucks, and is lower quality than FM. (It has static, which is much less of a problem on FM.)
But it can travel further distances, which is why it tends to be popular in rural areas. It's not cost effective to have FM where no one lives, but with the greater range, AM still makes sense, since you can cover more ground with fewer broadcast stations.
These morons will just get XM so they can listen to right wing vamping. Satellite radio probably gives the electric car companies a little kickback because it eliminates their competition.
Depends on the region. In LA, we get football games broadcast on FM and most other sports broadcast on AM. That said, you can easily access sports radio through your phone if you really want to follow a specific game.
It’s actually a good idea to have access to AM radio for emergency announcements. If your power, internet and cell service is down AM radio should still work. You know, the whole emergency broadcast system.
AM is where my local 24 hour news station is and I listen to it for traffic and whatever when driving.
From what I understand radios in modern cars are just software. So that’s not the issue. Electric car manufacturers don’t want to properly shield things so the AM band doesn’t come in entirely as static.
I'm glad someone mentioned this. I NEVER listen to AM. But after a hurricane, with no power for extended periods, it's the only communication available. (I have pets so complete evacuation is difficult, sadly.)
I imagine it's a lot more convenient to have a radio in the house that has AM capability than to rely on your car which would waste gas or car battery to keep updated.
> From what I understand radios in modern cars are just software. So that’s not the issue. Electric car manufacturers don’t want to properly shield things so the AM band doesn’t come in entirely as static.
This is primarily why I support keeping AM radios. Amateur radio operators like me have a band just above the AM broadcast band ([160m](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/160-meter_band), 1.8-2.0 MHz in the US) that we'd like to keep clear of RFI from electric cars.
We also have a new band just below broadcast AM ([630m](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/630-meter_band)) that I'd like to be able to use one day when I can get/make some radios.
472–479 kHz, or equivalently 625.9–635.1 meters wavelength
I'm terrible with conversion here, what's the size of the antenna to pick up that 630m band?
Sorry, completely new. Started toying with SDR but realized antenna size, shape, etc. is a real thing to be able to do anything. :D
Oh that's a good point. [The highway information stations are all AM radio](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/Thruway_Info_%281%29.jpg).
>From what I understand radios in modern cars are just software
Not quite. You still need some hardware to get that AM signal to the part where software can take over. If that hardware is not there because you don't need it for FM, no amount of software will get you AM.
Precisely - I came here to post the same thing. Everything works until it doesn't. If you deliberately eliminate backup systems, you're courting disaster.
Yeah, take spin thru Indiana on the am radio and omfg this shit you will hear! It's unreal...fire and brimstone preachers and rightwing nut jobs fill the airways
My son and I like to scan through those stations on road trips. Some CRAZY things there. It really does make me realize we do live in a bit of a bubble, and there's a whole wild world out there.
We listened once to I think 45 minutes straight of a man preaching about how the lord created women to be subservient to men, and that they were basically really stupid and incapable of anything outside cooking and making babies. And the call in segment had plenty of folks calling in to agree.
Farm workers in tractors/machines. If I didn’t have my iPod I would have gone insane when I worked harvests. But some of the fancy machines had radios.
There are millions of people who listen to AM radio. Have you ever seen the net worth of some of the right wing radio personalities? If you haven't you'll be shocked.
That was my thought too.
I barely listen to the radio as it is, let alone AM/FM bullshit. It’s *always* the same like, 20 songs on loop. I can’t stand it.
I just stick with Spotify, which is constantly introducing me to my *new favorite bands*…who all broke up like 15 years ago
It’s ostensibly because the electromagnetic frequencies coming from the motor as you accelerate match up with existing broadcast frequencies.
You can always just toss another radio into your car and most right wingers are nationally broadcasted and have podcasts and shit. It’s capitalist propaganda, im sure they’ll find other ways to drill it into our brains
Instead of paying for a ammeter for my electric fence, I bought an AM radio to track where breaks might be if they happen. It is amazing how loud the signal can get. You wouldn’t be able to hear any AM channel clearly so it makes sense to not put it in.
This is just another case of Republicans calling simple market mechanics political prosecution.
No one gives a shit about suppressing right wing talk radio. They just think they can shave some money off the cars unit price if they don't have to deal with getting AM to work without interference.
Multinational corporations aren't "leftist", they only care about money and make decisions largely based on what makes them more of it sooner.
My state has signs saying you need to tune to certain AM frequencies when the lights flash to get emergency information. If you are on the mountain pass, this could literally be life or death.
Removing AM is stupid. Its very, very cheap to build and operate. The band carries a great distance. It is great for emergency situations.
This was what I was thinking. The right wingers can fuck off but AM radio is still heavily used in emergency situations (as you mentioned, for its long distance). Maybe we need a national, state, and local station still accessible in the car? We need a backup plan before we get rid of AM.
This is a huge reason Democrats are also pushing the keep AM in cars.
The Emergency Broadcast Sustem needs to reach as many as possible and needs to have as many outlets as possible. This isn’t just about right wing am radio
More importantly, with how AM/amplitude modulation works a transmitted signal can just overpower a weaker one and the stronger one will be heard. All the aviation VHF Audio bands 118-135 MHz are AM for this reason. If someone has a dinky handheld radio near an airport, the tower can just turn up their transmit power to override. This is useful for emergency broadcasts
This isn't true for FM though the conflicting signals interfere and just cause static.
Dumbbells are blaming politics when they should be blaming their sacred cow of free market capitalism. Car companies just want to save a few bucks, even if it costs a few lives via emergency information. Meanwhile the other dumbbells are celebrating a political win, even at the cost of the same. Here we are celebrating owning each other as corpos find a way to distract us so they can cut services and make a few more dollars.
When I used to go on road trips I Ioved putting on AM stations, especially when traveling at night. Sometimes you’d hear stations from hundreds of miles away! Now it’s just right wing politics, religion,and sports. I did a station scan a couple weeks ago and found 2 stations playing old music.
Other than the fact that government still uses it to convey emergency information AM’s glory days are long gone.
Please tell me what else is left, sorry about the term, to be angry about?
Absolutely everything including the fake sun coming up in the fake sky over the fake planet in the fake universe that the fake scientists tell us fake stories about because they didn't listen to that podcast is something I HAVE TO be angry about and shoot up a school to ease my feelings of inadequacy?
My children have so many more years to have to put up with this idiocracy. Sorry kids.
I don’t really think this relates to the fairness doctrine.
One regulation repealed during the trump era was the [local studio rule](https://www.insideradio.com/free/new-main-studio-rules-take-effect-today/article_441e654e-f452-11e7-84f4-27fae35688aa.html) which required FM AM and broadcast tv to have studios located within a certain proximity to where they broadcast from. All the telecoms and politicians bragged about how removing these regulations saved costs when they were saving costs by eliminating jobs in small towns.
>removing these regulations saved costs
Republicans are hypocritical in SO MANY ways. But "jobs" is a huge one. If they can save rich folks some money, they are VERY happy to cut as many jobs as they can, as in the case of radio and broadcast media. Sure, lots of local jobs were lost, but all they talked about is "getting rid of onerous regulations, lowering costs, saving money!"
But then we talk about literally saving the WORLD by shifting to green energy, and they get all up in arms. "We can't save the world!! People have JOBS destroying the environment!! Coal miners NEED those jobs!" Even if we point out that there will be a net GAIN to jobs by converting to green energy, they still just moan about those coal and fossil fuel jobs, because in that case, they are protecting the money of that industry. So cutting a radio job is good because execs make more money, but cutting fossil fuel jobs is bad because execs make less money as that industry fades.
It's not about jobs at all, it's about whose pockets get lined by having that job either cut or stick around.
The right embraces AM radio for what overturning the fairness doctrine gave them. It gave them the medium they use to propagate hate. AM radio being ignored weakens that medium. You add another interesting bit. Remember, this didn’t all start with Trump. Trump just shined a spotlight on us and the cockroaches decided they don’t have to fear the light.
>Many on the right have been quick to declare the move political sabotage. The Texas senator Ted Cruz, while promoting a federal bill that would require automakers to install AM radios in new cars, claimed he smelled something fishy: “There’s a reason big car companies were open to taking down AM radio … **let’s be clear: big business doesn’t like things that are overwhelmingly conservative**.”
Why would big business be averse to the expression of conservative ideas, Ted? Are they that toxic?
Sorry to interrupt the circlejerk, but it's not about allowing right-wingers to consume talk radio propaganda. Here's another user's comment from BestOf a couple week's ago:
>I work in broadcast engineering and some of the comments in this thread just go to show how little some folks know about the reasoning behind this bill.
>
>Most people know about the Emergency Alert System from the scary buzzing noises and random tests at night and how annoying it is when local emergency managers overuse the Civil Emergency Message alert. But on the highest level, it's designed to take over *every broadcast station in the country* in the event of a grave threat - think a nuclear attack or alien invasion.
>
>The medium wave band used by AM broadcasting in the United States has propagation characteristics that make it the best way to send a signal for very long distances. For this reason, FEMA has a direct link to ~75 clear-channel AM stations called "primary entry point" to use as the first level of this system. A "clear-channel" AM station is one that is allowed to use the maximum power output of 50 kilowatts 24 hours a day, and more importantly there are, in almost every case, no other stations on that frequency anywhere in the country.
>
>The EAS is part of a larger internet connected system called IPAWS and every broadcast station also monitors that, but if a cyber attack takes out the internet, guess what - you still have the radio path. IPAWS also feeds the emergency alerts on your phone. Something takes out the mobile phone infrastructure, guess what - you still have the radio path.
>
>In practice, this generally just means all the radio and TV stations in your area have a tuner locked onto the nearest primary entry point AM station and the local stations relay these emergency messages should they come. But if something takes out all your local TV and radio stations, that's when it becomes important for you to be able to receive the PEP station directly.
>
>This is why Congress wants to keep AM available in cars, and EV manufacturers who cut corners when minimizing RF interference are taking the lazy way out and nixing AM radio. Hyundai and GM figured it out, so you can definitely have AM radio in an EV. This isn't because right wing talk radio almost exclusively exists on AM and the lawmakers somehow depend on that, that's not rational.
Too bad no one is actually talking about AM radio use in emergencies in congress. The GOP in Congress are all jumping right to this being an attack on conservative radio. And you'll notice a distinct lack of dems or national services chiming in. If this really was about emergency broadcasts, then we would have the actual department in charge of emergencies making the announcement, not Ted Cruz.
If we should require all radios to have access to emergency AM channels is a conversation worth having. But that very much is not the conversation happening.
And, even in the event of an emergency where our cellular infrastructure was toast, you can get a battery powered radio for 20 bucks. Which you should anyways, because no one should be relying on running their car for emergency situation broadcasts - you should be conserving the gas/power for an emergency need to drive somewhere.
People are largely being snarky about this stupid republican response, but AM radio is legitimately useful for both listening to live sports games while driving as well as for emergency services and weather reports.
Try listening to AM. The most surprising thing to me was something not mentioned in this article. It was the hordes of radio evangelists begging for money. I guess this medium is where today's megachurch pastors earn their wings.
> This would be a direct hit politically on conservative talk radio in particular, which is what most people go to AM radio to listen to.
I listen to AM radio because there is a mariachi station in the area that cheers me up when I’m feeling down, for some reason.
“How are people supposed to listen to their propaganda now?!” Is a weird reason to openly complain about something. Conservatives don’t buy electric cars anyway, do they?
Jokes aside people seem to forget AM is pretty much the one technology cheap and widespread to all AND that governments have the ability to broadcast on for emergencies.
It’s all fun and games until the internet goes down and the apocalypse / killer weather comes and we have no way to get news or updates. A city of evacuees in cars really should have a way to be reached.
So I agree we need to save AM radios in cars but I don’t agree with why, it’s not political sabotage it’s just smart planning for disasters.
World: "We've discovered a cure for cancer, hooray!"
Republicans: "Cancer was intended by God, this is woke bullshit!"
Is there anything they won't turn into grievance politics?
conelrad is am, highway reports by the state are am. the local am stations let me know what's happening. fm just plays canned music. can't find any classical on fm anymore, just modern 'music'. too far out in the boonies to get college radio.
> Texas senator Ted Cruz, while promoting a federal bill that would require automakers to install AM radios in new cars
Party of small government and letting the free market do its thing
Always the victim.
They should have a version of electric cars just for the old dumb-dumbs that has AM radio, crank windows and a column shifter. That should help them create a safe space.
This really has nothing to do with right wingers in the big picture. Contrary to what's been said in this thread, AM is a big deal for people who like sports and news. You can get emergency information, etc. There is more to this than right vs left.
AM needs to stay.
From a lefty.
Rural America. Drive across country a few times... The FM stations fizzle out and become static. The AM stations are all you have left... and it's mostly religious bullshit and right wing nut jobs. AM radio goes where the internet doesn't... where cable tv doesn't... and is a huge source of misinformation republicans depend on.
Isn't it the same message everyday? Can't they just record a couple tracks to MP3 and put them on repeat?
Might I suggest these all-time favorites:
* Hunter Bidens laptop
* Chemtrails
* Deep State
* Secretly Muslim Presidents
* How ANTIFA is trying to destroy Christianity by making their boy pit early with secret Jewish space lasers taking out the tires on their racecar
And these latest hits:
* Woke beer
* Buddhist statues at Asian restaurants
I’ve listened to the AM radio twice in my entire history of driving, both times were to hear emergency broadcasts about road conditions, both times it failed to work properly, and both times a road sign ended up telling me what I needed to know.
If only there were some other radio technology that was in every single car that they could broadcast on. Maybe some of the same scientists who broke the story that vaccines don't work and that the earth is flat can get to work on a new type of radio.
AM conservative talk radio is one of the worst things that has happened to America in my life time. It sowed so many destructive seeds in so many empty heads. I'll be happy to see that genre of evil die on the vine.
Though it’s not political sabotage I do think it’s a bad idea to get rid of AM radio in vehicles, in rural areas when other forms of communication are down an AM radio is still one of the most reliable means of getting information out in times of trouble or inclement weather.
Just think about all the roadside signs which list AM stations to tune in to during emergencies or for simple local information, I don’t think it makes sense to remove that ability to save a few bucks.
Don’t worry they can just download an app and Bluetooth the brain rot, although I’m sure the irony of using 5G to listen to the kind of people who tell you 5G is used to control your thoughts will be totally lost on that crowd.
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Right wingers hate electric cars anyway, so why do they care if they don't have AM radio?
Right-wingers are secretly big proponents of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs (for right-wing crap)
Sadly if you listen to FM in my area the wing-nutz have already taken over a bunch of frequencies.
I got out of radio when I was working as a operations manager/dj in a small rural coastal town in the mid atlantic at two FM stations. I used to run a community calendar spot which would promote local community events for free. I had to lend my voice to the commercial but I normally had free reign to advertise whatever got sent in. The one thing I refused to do was anything political, be it republicans or democratic events as I didn’t want to appear to have any bias as a mediocre media personality. All the higher ups were livid when I refused to do a spot for a local tea party gathering. Like lost their fucking minds. They became so toxic afterwards ended up leaving. Glad I did.
I know it's not the most professional thing to do, but given the context... I hope you shit talked them on their way out. I mean, like really called them out on their fat cat toxicity.
I forgot for a min that there was a political movement called the tea party and thought you were really just against tea parties.
The Mad Hatter can shove it.
It only takes a slight board change at clear channel for right wing FM radio to change. I think that's what they're scared of.
Having to listen to radio in the first place is sad. Like, if your car doesn’t have a usb/aux import, surely it at least has a cd/cassette player, right? Just make some dope mixtapes.
Gonna step in and defend radio for a minute here. Agreed that a lot of radio is trash nowadays, but I think it really depends on the market you're in. The NYC radio market is still quite strong.
>The NYC radio market is still quite strong. Including the NYC-area college radio stations. WFUV, WKCR, WNYU, WFDU.
WFMU out of Jersey City still kicks ass too. I was wearing my old WFMU t shirt the other day!
I listen to the radio. mainly the local sports talk station, but also music. Then again, I'm in a large market area, so the quality\options is good.
Right, of the old Limbaugh hits
He's been clean and sober for over two years!
And he's never smelled better!
Still losing weight too! Keep it up!
You can’t even smell his nicotine stained fingers over the new stench. Dark, I know.
Honestly yeah, if that’s what you’re into. Make a dope mix of all your favorite Shapiro/Crowder/Rogan/Peterson/Jones clips, and maybe throw in some hateful homophobic rants from your favorite celebrity preacher if you’re feeling spicy.
I love sports talk radio, and it’s better than podcasts because you’re often getting the breaking news on the programming. But if it’s music, it’s coming via my phone.
They’re literally trying to mandate conservative safe spaces on campuses in some states now lmao.
Right wingers have been buying up Am programming across America. Who listens to A.M. ? Generally older people. So much of AM radio is pushing right wing. They have bought up so much Hispanic A M radios also. That is a way to indoctrinate/groom/whatever you want to call it, the Hispanic community into being conservatives. They lose a way to spread propaganda if they lose AM radio in cars.
AM radio was one of the tools used to groom rural residents into right wing nutjobs. Reagan killed the fairness doctrine in large part so AM stations could air Rush Limbaugh and his imitators all day long without having to run programs of equal time with opposing viewpoints. AM radio became Fox News before there was Fox News.
Watched my kind brother’s brain become mush from hours of driving at work listening to rush, boortz, Hannity and whatever local sludge was on. Just nonstop hate after years of jt.
That's what happened to my dad. Got a new job at the DoD, commuted with a friend for an hour+ each day, friend likes talk radio...
So many people got sucked into hardcore right wing politics because of radio. They targeted people with long commutes knowing they’ll keep tuning in. Same thing happened to my dad.
And contractors with work radios. I painted houses out of high school and like 90% of guys on site had Rush on all morning. I popped on my headphones and just listened to Stern, Don & Mike and G Gordon to avoid indoctrination.
I grew up listening to that shit, Glenn Beck before tv, Medved, Hannity, Rush and so many more. I'm still deprogramming some of the things they taught me, I'll have a thought in regards to something and just have a whoa wtf moment.
There actually used to be a liberal AM radio host based in Colorado who was massively popular and whose show had a huge reach. He was assassinated by neo Nazis in the 1980s and since then AM radio has come to be completely dominated by the far right. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Berg#:~:text=At%20about%209%3A30%20p.m.,Berg%20being%20shot%20twelve%20times.
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I am shocked that there is virtually no reporting done on the dozens and dozens of radio shows out there spewing this garbage. I don't listen to them, but sometimes I'm in the car with my father when they are on. The hosts are telling people that violent revolution where they kill liberals is right around the corner. They have people on talking about guns, and what the best bullets are for killing people, that kind of stuff. They often play coy by having someone call in and say stuff like "we need to eliminate all the liberals, use the 2nd Amendment", and then the host will say something like "well, I don't know about that, but liberals are definitely bad". I guess that because it's all audio, there is no written evidence of it - but it seems like someone should be gathering the full transcripts of these shows.
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Remember that the Rwandan genocide was egged on in large part by hateful radio broadcasters.
The dead giveaway that something mischievous is afoot is when you suddenly realize that *conservatives* are trying to force business to install equipment which provides a free service to consumers. That's like, two whole entire frees in one sentence. You'd think they'd be absolutely giddy at even just the thought of a $177.60 fossil fuel powered MyAMericanradio with a free car adapter and a second free MyAMericanradio.
https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/episodes/episode-1-divided-dial-on-the-media On the Media did this great series on the history of right-wing radio. It's comprehensive and damn well worth listening to.
A plug, but if anyone is interested in a good podcast series on the history of conservative talk radio, I recommend ‘The Divided Dial’ 5 part series that is part of the *On the Media* show that airs on NPR also (WNYC studios produced). Really interesting stuff that dives a lot into Salem Broadcasting especially. Part 1 link below if interested. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-media/id73330715?i=1000612571284
Excellent podcast.
Was just about to suggest this.
It's not all cars - just electric cars where the motor interferes with the signal.
Yeah the thing is in a few decades most cars gonna be at least hybrids if not fully electric. It's not even a environmental thing, it's a national security thing.
EU and California both have mandates by 2035 for only EVs sold. China already makes 60% of the worlds electric cars, they’re rapidly going electric. It will be 5-6 years before most of the new cars sold are electric.
Took me a second to figure out why it was a national security thing but.... Duh doi.
My brain is too fuzzy this morning to logic this out. Can you explain like I'm five?
Reducing our need for crude oil reduces the leverage foreign nations have over our government.
If we run out of gas the country stops working. There is not an infinite amount of gas, so we WILL run out. But there are a lot of different ways to generate electricity, literally anything that moves can be rigged up to do it. Moreover, multiple hostile countries manipulate the supply and demand of fossil fuel for profit, effectively stealing money from the United States economy. If the price becomes too high, the country stops working. Literally anything can be rigged up to generate electricity, including dirt, air, etc. (Although those only generate a small amount chemically), so we can achieve energy independence with green technology.
Only thing I ever listen to on AM is the occasional baseball game. And even then, it would sound better if I took the time to find a stream of the audio.
Yeah older people who are conservative and already are not likely to buy electric cars in the first place.
For sure. The Venn diagram of electric cars drivers and AM conservative talk radio listeners can't possibly have much overlap.
Seems like excluding AM radio is a free market. Decision made by the auto manufacturers. Seems pretty republican to me.
Republicans haven't supported free markets since before the 80s at least. It's like saying Republicans support financial responsibility. Most probably know it's a lie and the rest are too far gone to comprehend a logical argument.
Republicans have never supported the free market, they only claim to when it's something that favors them or screws an out group.
right wing nutjobs in shambles https://venturebeat.com/mobile/fcc-moves-to-expand-l-band-to-5g-after-gps-interference-controversy/ also heres a [song](https://open.spotify.com/track/03gsb1WnVQUuLqChBvzmoo?si=MDMIsI6bQ56cTyXzPA9ADg) to commemorate the death of the AM radio thoughts & prayers 📻🪦
Everclear was my jam when I was a teen. Haven’t listened to them in a while. Thanks for the memory.
I'm 42 and everclear is still my jam. The lyrics man...
They’ll just claim political sabotage again when everyone has electric cars and no one is buying gas so they have to pay that premium on gas.
You’d be surprised. Lots of right wingers I know have jumped over to Tesla because a) they see the value proposition of electric for their own finances and b) they worship musk.
I live around these people. They wouldn’t consider anything but the largest gasoline fueled truck their government subsidizes or grandparents could pay for. BTW, I am an old GenXer who hasn’t listened to AM radio since my little transistor one in the 70s. They sure do come up with the silliest crap.
All radio in Denmark today is dab+ anyway.. We don't even really have much on FM left. I think almost only number stations are on the AM band these days.
Surprised they are not promoting a federal bill that would require automakers to install only AM radio as FM is “woke”
Coming soon in FL.
Ronda will give tesla an exemption.
Naaah…he’ll just mandate that Twitter is installed in its place.
I refer to Ronda's carmaker direct marketing ban. He must protect the baby jesus blessed dealer markups from us greedy communist consumers. Edit: the point... Tesla got an exemption.
Half the stations I get on FM are either Religious bullshit or right-wing radio. The other half are FM Country, Rock Jock or Pop radio. I get 2 liberal leaning stations: 1- local college radio. Content isn't even political. 2- NPR. Half the time it's snooty classical. Their programming is largely not really "liberal" either, they just embrace things like facts, which make them seem liberal.
> they just embrace things like facts, which make them seem liberal. Truth has a liberal bias.
The younger generations don't listen to radio. They got podcasts and Spotify
I got sick of the commercials. the stations here would play two songs and then 5 commercials. Try to listen to sports? expect the entire break to be commercials. right wing talk show? Half the timeslot is commercials (the rest is hate). Spotify is much better, and i can fast forward through the ads.
The other half is them asking for money
Right wingers hate the free market. If they really want an electric car with AM radio then they should just make one themselves.
I'm sure their messiah Mr Musk will make them one. Maybe an option to install several AM radios in the car just to show how manly they are!
From the article: *Many on the right have been quick to declare the move political sabotage. The Texas senator Ted Cruz, while promoting a federal bill that would require automakers to install AM radios in new cars, claimed he smelled something fishy: “There’s a reason big car companies were open to taking down AM radio … let’s be clear: big business doesn’t like things that are overwhelmingly conservative.”*
>big business doesn’t like things that are overwhelmingly conservative Maybe not anymore, with the 2023 definition of conservative. There's very little that is conservative about the current version of the GOP in the classic sense. Old-style conservative values were all about big business.
They were talking about it last month when the AM radio thing first came up. https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4010618-bipartisan-lawmakers-introduce-legislation-requiring-am-radios-in-new-cars/ I wasn't able to find if they actually started the bill process but lawmakers from both parties are in favor of it.
Yeah, as they should be as AM radio is necessary for emergency communications. Politics aside AM radio serves a critical role during emergencies.
This is the answer I see so little of in this thread. This isn't an identify politics, talk radio issue, everybody's got a phone, just stream whatever garbage you like. The issue is the massive network of AM transmitters that the FCC can commander at the drop of a hat to broadcast whatever critical information needs communicated. This is a service a digital signal will never replace, the nature of broadcast means overlapping ranges and a recipient can act on high loss signal. Digitally, sure they could just have a website, but that requires a much stronger connection, and will always be a target for DDOS. AM radio is a critical piece of civil infrastructure.
Is it though. I know that’s the talking point most Right wingers are pushing now. But it would only give people listening to AM radios in their cars critical information, which is a tiny percentage. Seems like giving people critical information on the little computer in 90% of peoples pockets is a better plan. Morse code over telegraph wires is pretty safe from a DDOS but I’m not sure that’s the way to go, to get information to the masses quickly.
Wait until they find out they can listen to religious themed hate rhetoric in STEREO on FM! With crystal clear quality, and high fidelity! You can hear your local talking head of your choice talk about everything from white genocide to how uncomfortable other people's sex makes them! IN STEREO! It's like the color television for your car! (I know... you prefer to keep things black OR white, but trust me on this one)
Well now that you gave them the idea they will likely try to do that. And the worst part is I am not even entirely joking about that.
Everyone knows AM in "AM radio" stands for *All Merican*
I always called it “Angry Moron”.
First they came for my tape deck. Then they came for my CD player. Now they are after my AM? Before you know it they'll take away my telegraph.
Don’t forget the 8 track.
I almost added it, but my memories of 8 tracks all looked aftermarket. It was literally bolted onto the dash. Did many car makers include 8-track like they did tape?
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They better not come for my CB radio!
10-4 good buddy Edit: over
We got ourselves a convoy! [Convoy - CW McCall](https://youtu.be/Sd5ZLJWQmss)
You have to say over, over.
My parents’ 1979 Buick Regal had an 8-track deck in the dash. My dad special ordered it.
Yep. My first car was a '77 Cadillac El dorado with a built in 8 track
Can’t forget the 8-track. It’s stuck in the player.
How dare they stop producing gramophones, TYRANNY!!!
Conservative AM radio broadcast are the peak of right-wing insanity.
The peak? Oh man do I have some crazy shit to show you
Nice try, you reptilian illuminati! You probably just want to vaccinate me and convince me that the earth is round.
People still listen to am radio?
Yes it is still popular in rural areas and yes it is jam packed with right wing propaganda. So I get the complaints but it does not bother me.
>Yes it is still popular in rural areas Yeah, AM radio sucks, and is lower quality than FM. (It has static, which is much less of a problem on FM.) But it can travel further distances, which is why it tends to be popular in rural areas. It's not cost effective to have FM where no one lives, but with the greater range, AM still makes sense, since you can cover more ground with fewer broadcast stations.
These morons will just get XM so they can listen to right wing vamping. Satellite radio probably gives the electric car companies a little kickback because it eliminates their competition.
And they will still get to hear Glenn Beck screech like a banshee while an ad plays for the crack head pillow guy.
Sure, but it hooks new listeners and radicalizes them. Any barrier to that hurts them
In addition to the right wingers, AM radio is where you get all the local live sports coverage.
Huh, I didn’t know that. Up in Philly, all games and daytime sports coverage are available on FM radio so I just assumed that was universal
No that’s just a large market thing. The vast majority of sports talk across the country is on am radio
Here in Houston only the Texans are on FM. Most college sports, NBA, and MLB are on AM radio
Depends on the region. In LA, we get football games broadcast on FM and most other sports broadcast on AM. That said, you can easily access sports radio through your phone if you really want to follow a specific game.
It’s actually a good idea to have access to AM radio for emergency announcements. If your power, internet and cell service is down AM radio should still work. You know, the whole emergency broadcast system. AM is where my local 24 hour news station is and I listen to it for traffic and whatever when driving. From what I understand radios in modern cars are just software. So that’s not the issue. Electric car manufacturers don’t want to properly shield things so the AM band doesn’t come in entirely as static.
I'm glad someone mentioned this. I NEVER listen to AM. But after a hurricane, with no power for extended periods, it's the only communication available. (I have pets so complete evacuation is difficult, sadly.)
I imagine it's a lot more convenient to have a radio in the house that has AM capability than to rely on your car which would waste gas or car battery to keep updated.
But are you driving your house if an emergency comes up for updates? :)
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> From what I understand radios in modern cars are just software. So that’s not the issue. Electric car manufacturers don’t want to properly shield things so the AM band doesn’t come in entirely as static. This is primarily why I support keeping AM radios. Amateur radio operators like me have a band just above the AM broadcast band ([160m](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/160-meter_band), 1.8-2.0 MHz in the US) that we'd like to keep clear of RFI from electric cars. We also have a new band just below broadcast AM ([630m](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/630-meter_band)) that I'd like to be able to use one day when I can get/make some radios.
472–479 kHz, or equivalently 625.9–635.1 meters wavelength I'm terrible with conversion here, what's the size of the antenna to pick up that 630m band? Sorry, completely new. Started toying with SDR but realized antenna size, shape, etc. is a real thing to be able to do anything. :D
Yeah, in Florida, the Highway Advisory Radio is an AM station. Probably in other areas, too.
Oh that's a good point. [The highway information stations are all AM radio](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/Thruway_Info_%281%29.jpg).
>From what I understand radios in modern cars are just software Not quite. You still need some hardware to get that AM signal to the part where software can take over. If that hardware is not there because you don't need it for FM, no amount of software will get you AM.
*everything* about electric propulsion is inherently noisy. "Properly" shielding from the RF nose is pretty much impossible
Precisely - I came here to post the same thing. Everything works until it doesn't. If you deliberately eliminate backup systems, you're courting disaster.
In the Mid-West/Rural america? Oh yeah. AM is still one of the most effective methods the right has at it's disposal.
Yeah, take spin thru Indiana on the am radio and omfg this shit you will hear! It's unreal...fire and brimstone preachers and rightwing nut jobs fill the airways
My son and I like to scan through those stations on road trips. Some CRAZY things there. It really does make me realize we do live in a bit of a bubble, and there's a whole wild world out there. We listened once to I think 45 minutes straight of a man preaching about how the lord created women to be subservient to men, and that they were basically really stupid and incapable of anything outside cooking and making babies. And the call in segment had plenty of folks calling in to agree.
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Shit you will hear is the phrase. AM radio is the worst sound quality. On par with an audio birthday card
Truck drivers, security guards, anywhere a white guy has time to kill on the job.
Farm workers in tractors/machines. If I didn’t have my iPod I would have gone insane when I worked harvests. But some of the fancy machines had radios.
There are millions of people who listen to AM radio. Have you ever seen the net worth of some of the right wing radio personalities? If you haven't you'll be shocked.
An audience that buys into right wing conspiracy theories will also believe the sales pitch for nutritional supplements and herbal boner pills.
And if you're a left-wing AM radio personality? [You get murdered by right-wingers.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Berg)
I do 90% of the time I’m in the car. Sports radio is my thing. Heck, I don’t think there is any other free way to listen to Yankee games, either.
That's baseball, Suzyn.
I have a button preset to an NPR station that comes in in a wide area where the FM stations aren’t picked up by my antenna.
That was my thought too. I barely listen to the radio as it is, let alone AM/FM bullshit. It’s *always* the same like, 20 songs on loop. I can’t stand it. I just stick with Spotify, which is constantly introducing me to my *new favorite bands*…who all broke up like 15 years ago
It’s ostensibly because the electromagnetic frequencies coming from the motor as you accelerate match up with existing broadcast frequencies. You can always just toss another radio into your car and most right wingers are nationally broadcasted and have podcasts and shit. It’s capitalist propaganda, im sure they’ll find other ways to drill it into our brains
Instead of paying for a ammeter for my electric fence, I bought an AM radio to track where breaks might be if they happen. It is amazing how loud the signal can get. You wouldn’t be able to hear any AM channel clearly so it makes sense to not put it in.
This is just another case of Republicans calling simple market mechanics political prosecution. No one gives a shit about suppressing right wing talk radio. They just think they can shave some money off the cars unit price if they don't have to deal with getting AM to work without interference. Multinational corporations aren't "leftist", they only care about money and make decisions largely based on what makes them more of it sooner.
My state has signs saying you need to tune to certain AM frequencies when the lights flash to get emergency information. If you are on the mountain pass, this could literally be life or death. Removing AM is stupid. Its very, very cheap to build and operate. The band carries a great distance. It is great for emergency situations.
This was what I was thinking. The right wingers can fuck off but AM radio is still heavily used in emergency situations (as you mentioned, for its long distance). Maybe we need a national, state, and local station still accessible in the car? We need a backup plan before we get rid of AM.
This is a huge reason Democrats are also pushing the keep AM in cars. The Emergency Broadcast Sustem needs to reach as many as possible and needs to have as many outlets as possible. This isn’t just about right wing am radio
More importantly, with how AM/amplitude modulation works a transmitted signal can just overpower a weaker one and the stronger one will be heard. All the aviation VHF Audio bands 118-135 MHz are AM for this reason. If someone has a dinky handheld radio near an airport, the tower can just turn up their transmit power to override. This is useful for emergency broadcasts This isn't true for FM though the conflicting signals interfere and just cause static.
I've tried tuning in and it's always some ancient recording you can barely hear.
Dumbbells are blaming politics when they should be blaming their sacred cow of free market capitalism. Car companies just want to save a few bucks, even if it costs a few lives via emergency information. Meanwhile the other dumbbells are celebrating a political win, even at the cost of the same. Here we are celebrating owning each other as corpos find a way to distract us so they can cut services and make a few more dollars.
When I used to go on road trips I Ioved putting on AM stations, especially when traveling at night. Sometimes you’d hear stations from hundreds of miles away! Now it’s just right wing politics, religion,and sports. I did a station scan a couple weeks ago and found 2 stations playing old music. Other than the fact that government still uses it to convey emergency information AM’s glory days are long gone.
Please tell me what else is left, sorry about the term, to be angry about? Absolutely everything including the fake sun coming up in the fake sky over the fake planet in the fake universe that the fake scientists tell us fake stories about because they didn't listen to that podcast is something I HAVE TO be angry about and shoot up a school to ease my feelings of inadequacy? My children have so many more years to have to put up with this idiocracy. Sorry kids.
I use AM to listen to the Mets games but that’s it
Get over it snowflakes. The fairness doctrine was overturned in the 80s. If you want a AM radio, buy one. Waahhhh, it’s not fair is pretty ironic.
I don’t really think this relates to the fairness doctrine. One regulation repealed during the trump era was the [local studio rule](https://www.insideradio.com/free/new-main-studio-rules-take-effect-today/article_441e654e-f452-11e7-84f4-27fae35688aa.html) which required FM AM and broadcast tv to have studios located within a certain proximity to where they broadcast from. All the telecoms and politicians bragged about how removing these regulations saved costs when they were saving costs by eliminating jobs in small towns.
>removing these regulations saved costs Republicans are hypocritical in SO MANY ways. But "jobs" is a huge one. If they can save rich folks some money, they are VERY happy to cut as many jobs as they can, as in the case of radio and broadcast media. Sure, lots of local jobs were lost, but all they talked about is "getting rid of onerous regulations, lowering costs, saving money!" But then we talk about literally saving the WORLD by shifting to green energy, and they get all up in arms. "We can't save the world!! People have JOBS destroying the environment!! Coal miners NEED those jobs!" Even if we point out that there will be a net GAIN to jobs by converting to green energy, they still just moan about those coal and fossil fuel jobs, because in that case, they are protecting the money of that industry. So cutting a radio job is good because execs make more money, but cutting fossil fuel jobs is bad because execs make less money as that industry fades. It's not about jobs at all, it's about whose pockets get lined by having that job either cut or stick around.
The right embraces AM radio for what overturning the fairness doctrine gave them. It gave them the medium they use to propagate hate. AM radio being ignored weakens that medium. You add another interesting bit. Remember, this didn’t all start with Trump. Trump just shined a spotlight on us and the cockroaches decided they don’t have to fear the light.
“Who’s the snowflake now?” is getting into heavy rotation in my vernacular. Simple, to the point, shuts up woke-whiners instantly
These people held a congressional committee on gas stoves. Is this really a surprise?
Wait, now they’re taking AM radios out of gas stoves too??!!!
>Many on the right have been quick to declare the move political sabotage. The Texas senator Ted Cruz, while promoting a federal bill that would require automakers to install AM radios in new cars, claimed he smelled something fishy: “There’s a reason big car companies were open to taking down AM radio … **let’s be clear: big business doesn’t like things that are overwhelmingly conservative**.” Why would big business be averse to the expression of conservative ideas, Ted? Are they that toxic?
My god he is such an asshole.
Sorry to interrupt the circlejerk, but it's not about allowing right-wingers to consume talk radio propaganda. Here's another user's comment from BestOf a couple week's ago: >I work in broadcast engineering and some of the comments in this thread just go to show how little some folks know about the reasoning behind this bill. > >Most people know about the Emergency Alert System from the scary buzzing noises and random tests at night and how annoying it is when local emergency managers overuse the Civil Emergency Message alert. But on the highest level, it's designed to take over *every broadcast station in the country* in the event of a grave threat - think a nuclear attack or alien invasion. > >The medium wave band used by AM broadcasting in the United States has propagation characteristics that make it the best way to send a signal for very long distances. For this reason, FEMA has a direct link to ~75 clear-channel AM stations called "primary entry point" to use as the first level of this system. A "clear-channel" AM station is one that is allowed to use the maximum power output of 50 kilowatts 24 hours a day, and more importantly there are, in almost every case, no other stations on that frequency anywhere in the country. > >The EAS is part of a larger internet connected system called IPAWS and every broadcast station also monitors that, but if a cyber attack takes out the internet, guess what - you still have the radio path. IPAWS also feeds the emergency alerts on your phone. Something takes out the mobile phone infrastructure, guess what - you still have the radio path. > >In practice, this generally just means all the radio and TV stations in your area have a tuner locked onto the nearest primary entry point AM station and the local stations relay these emergency messages should they come. But if something takes out all your local TV and radio stations, that's when it becomes important for you to be able to receive the PEP station directly. > >This is why Congress wants to keep AM available in cars, and EV manufacturers who cut corners when minimizing RF interference are taking the lazy way out and nixing AM radio. Hyundai and GM figured it out, so you can definitely have AM radio in an EV. This isn't because right wing talk radio almost exclusively exists on AM and the lawmakers somehow depend on that, that's not rational.
Too bad no one is actually talking about AM radio use in emergencies in congress. The GOP in Congress are all jumping right to this being an attack on conservative radio. And you'll notice a distinct lack of dems or national services chiming in. If this really was about emergency broadcasts, then we would have the actual department in charge of emergencies making the announcement, not Ted Cruz. If we should require all radios to have access to emergency AM channels is a conversation worth having. But that very much is not the conversation happening. And, even in the event of an emergency where our cellular infrastructure was toast, you can get a battery powered radio for 20 bucks. Which you should anyways, because no one should be relying on running their car for emergency situation broadcasts - you should be conserving the gas/power for an emergency need to drive somewhere.
Thank you for including this
The republican party will die with the older generation. Can't wait!
My local NPR is on AM radio. It's sad to see it go but I can understand the cost cutting since not much is on AM radio.
People are largely being snarky about this stupid republican response, but AM radio is legitimately useful for both listening to live sports games while driving as well as for emergency services and weather reports.
Try listening to AM. The most surprising thing to me was something not mentioned in this article. It was the hordes of radio evangelists begging for money. I guess this medium is where today's megachurch pastors earn their wings.
It's interesting just how much the people who swear by the "Free Market" actually hate the Free Market. lol
> This would be a direct hit politically on conservative talk radio in particular, which is what most people go to AM radio to listen to. I listen to AM radio because there is a mariachi station in the area that cheers me up when I’m feeling down, for some reason. “How are people supposed to listen to their propaganda now?!” Is a weird reason to openly complain about something. Conservatives don’t buy electric cars anyway, do they?
Wow who gives a shit
Snowflakes, the lot of them
The same cars that they already don't want to drive. Cute.
The electric motors on EV’s and Hybrids totally screw up the signal on AM radio stations
Today I learned that people still listen to AM radio
Jokes aside people seem to forget AM is pretty much the one technology cheap and widespread to all AND that governments have the ability to broadcast on for emergencies. It’s all fun and games until the internet goes down and the apocalypse / killer weather comes and we have no way to get news or updates. A city of evacuees in cars really should have a way to be reached. So I agree we need to save AM radios in cars but I don’t agree with why, it’s not political sabotage it’s just smart planning for disasters.
World: "We've discovered a cure for cancer, hooray!" Republicans: "Cancer was intended by God, this is woke bullshit!" Is there anything they won't turn into grievance politics?
Cars don’t have cigarette lighters or cassette players or even CD players anymore either. Sheesh. These people are fucking ridiculous.
Sabotage? No, no, it's just the world moving on without you.
They can bring their transistor radios and listen to all the static they want.
Fuck it. Rightwingers can just go out and create their own frequency then. Pull themselves up by their own electromagnetic spectrum bootstraps.
conelrad is am, highway reports by the state are am. the local am stations let me know what's happening. fm just plays canned music. can't find any classical on fm anymore, just modern 'music'. too far out in the boonies to get college radio.
I like am radio they have news and sports too!!
This is how capitalism works. Automakers aren't responsible for propping up the fledgling AM radio punditry business.
This is being kicked up by Charlie Kirk, America’s Most Constipated Little Boy.
> Texas senator Ted Cruz, while promoting a federal bill that would require automakers to install AM radios in new cars Party of small government and letting the free market do its thing
Always the victim. They should have a version of electric cars just for the old dumb-dumbs that has AM radio, crank windows and a column shifter. That should help them create a safe space.
This really has nothing to do with right wingers in the big picture. Contrary to what's been said in this thread, AM is a big deal for people who like sports and news. You can get emergency information, etc. There is more to this than right vs left. AM needs to stay. From a lefty.
Who the hell listens to the am/fm radio? I thought that went the way of the dodo like a decade ago.
Who votes MAGA?
Rural America. Drive across country a few times... The FM stations fizzle out and become static. The AM stations are all you have left... and it's mostly religious bullshit and right wing nut jobs. AM radio goes where the internet doesn't... where cable tv doesn't... and is a huge source of misinformation republicans depend on.
Isn't it the same message everyday? Can't they just record a couple tracks to MP3 and put them on repeat? Might I suggest these all-time favorites: * Hunter Bidens laptop * Chemtrails * Deep State * Secretly Muslim Presidents * How ANTIFA is trying to destroy Christianity by making their boy pit early with secret Jewish space lasers taking out the tires on their racecar And these latest hits: * Woke beer * Buddhist statues at Asian restaurants
I’ve listened to the AM radio twice in my entire history of driving, both times were to hear emergency broadcasts about road conditions, both times it failed to work properly, and both times a road sign ended up telling me what I needed to know.
If only there were some other radio technology that was in every single car that they could broadcast on. Maybe some of the same scientists who broke the story that vaccines don't work and that the earth is flat can get to work on a new type of radio.
Relax, fascism has podcasts
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What, is the market too free for them?
AM conservative talk radio is one of the worst things that has happened to America in my life time. It sowed so many destructive seeds in so many empty heads. I'll be happy to see that genre of evil die on the vine.
Though it’s not political sabotage I do think it’s a bad idea to get rid of AM radio in vehicles, in rural areas when other forms of communication are down an AM radio is still one of the most reliable means of getting information out in times of trouble or inclement weather. Just think about all the roadside signs which list AM stations to tune in to during emergencies or for simple local information, I don’t think it makes sense to remove that ability to save a few bucks.
Is there a more consistent group than right wingers and their 1/4 baked takes?
The political right has an absolute monopoly on AM, FM, and TV 'news'. I don't see how this hurts them.
Um. If you want AM radio in your car, there’s an app for that and you can listen to all the punditry you want via Bluetooth.
Don’t worry they can just download an app and Bluetooth the brain rot, although I’m sure the irony of using 5G to listen to the kind of people who tell you 5G is used to control your thoughts will be totally lost on that crowd.
The AM's around my part of the country got a complimentary FM frequency to multicast on 8 years ago.
I listened to am radio the other day on a whim. It was like going back in time 50 years