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They say it's because of audio quality, but it isn't that simple:
It's easy to take for granted amenities in our cars like air conditioning and the radio, which have been standard equipment for longer than many of us have been alive. But the rise of electric vehicles is giving the auto industry the chance to rethink norms and jettison ideas that belong in the past. One of those ideas may be AM radios, which some carmakers say they won't include on future EVs, and which are already unavailable on a few. Car companies blame interference from EVs' drivetrains, but the answer isn't that simple—not by a long shot.
[....] EVs from Audi, BMW, Porsche, Tesla, and Volvo are sold without AM radios, and it's been that way for years.
[....] So are highly complex EVs incompatible with one of the oldest, simplest electronics? BMW and Volvo told me it was due to audio quality problems rooted in electromagnetic interference, of which EVs' drivetrains produce a significant amount. Cars' engines and other complex electronics have always made EM interference, but low-wattage static is relatively easy to shield against. It's not as simple with EVs that may pull hundreds of watts from their batteries
[....] But it's hard to take them at their word when EVs are built with AM radios and in no small numbers. Detroit's Three—Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis—have produced or currently make EVs that include AM radio
Can radio be an addiction? I suppose it depends on the frequency.
Will the FCC cry foul if there is interference? Only if the batter hinders the catcher after a third strike.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Monday July 11 2022, @01:06AM (2 children)
At home, where the radio doesn't move, you can pick up AM stations from way over the horizon. In the car, you'll pick it up, then lose it, it comes back, and you lose it. FM radio is short range, but it stays pretty constant until you drive out of range. All the years I drove truck, I tuned into FM radio stations, or I played cassettes, or I just turned the stereo off. Pretty much the only times I even tried to tune in AM stations, were in emergencies, like blizzards, hurricanes, and tornadoes. When a power outage turned off the entire state of Kentucky and much of Ohio, short range FM radio just wasn't cutting it. Oddly, with a state wide blackout, AM radio seemed more stable than normal.
(Score: 2) by Some call me Tim on Monday July 11 2022, @04:00AM (1 child)
A lot of that depends on where you are. When a power failure takes out a whole state the only guys still operating most of the time are the "Clear Channel" stations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clear-channel_station [wikipedia.org] and the lack of interference from all the others makes it easier to tune them in. I'm on the west coast in central California and I have no trouble picking up the Clear Channel stations from San Francisco to San Diego any time of the day. I guess in case of everything going to hell due to natural disaster or whatever, these stations are there to provide news about when you should put your head between your knees so you can kiss your backside goodbye.
Questioning science is how you do science!
(Score: 4, Informative) by dalek on Monday July 11 2022, @11:38AM
AM radio is great for emergency communications and baseball. There are a limited number of class A (clear channel) stations, and in the US, they typically broadcast at 50 kW day and night. Class D stations can operate on the same frequencies, but they're required to stop transmitting at night to avoid interference with the class A stations.
The D layer of the ionosphere disappears at night, and the E layer weakens due to recombination of ions. The D layer absorbs radio signals in the LF, MF, and into the HF bands. This includes commercial AM radio. At night, AM radio signals don't get absorbed in the D layer and bounce off the F layer. They can also bounce off the surface and have multiple hops between the surface and ionosphere. This allows AM radio frequencies to cover wide areas at night. The class D stations may transmit with high power during the day, because the class A stations are mostly limited to line of sight propagation. A sufficiently distant class D station won't interfere during the day. At night, because AM radio can bounce off the ionosphere and isn't limited to line of sight, the class D stations could interfere, and stop transmitting.
There are at most two or three class A stations on any particular frequency in the contiguous United States, because they can transmit over wide areas at night and disseminate emergency information. When other forms of transmitting information may be unavailable in an emergency, AM radio is still very useful.
Then there's the part that Benjamin Sisko would like. Before the availability of streaming, AM radio was a great way for baseball teams to grow fan bases over large geographic areas by making the broadcasts available. For example, KMOX (1120 AM) is the flagship station for the St. Louis Cardinals. At night, KMOX can be picked up at least as far west as the Rockies, into the northern Plains, and into Texas. Before MLB teams relocated or expanded into the western US, the Cardinals were the farthest west team for quite awhile. Many people to the west became Cardinal fans from listening to Cardinals games on KMOX at night. Many other baseball teams also chose class A stations to carry their games for exactly the same reason. Even as recently as the mid-2000s, when the Cardinals temporarily moved their games off KMOX, there was a lot of backlash from fans in distant states. Without AM radio in the car, it will make it harder to listen to Cardinals games when I'm not in St. Louis. Perhaps it's not of as much interest to readers of this site, but Benjamin Sisko would definitely approve of this.
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