Bluesky comments
This is bipartisan and utterly stupid, a backdoor hit on electric vehicles. Electric vehicle motors generate electromagnetic interference that causes static on AM radio frequencies.
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This sure sounds like a subsidy to talk radio broadcasters and legacy tech manufacturers tarted up with an extremely dubious public safety pretext.
Full text
It turns out that the one thing that can apparently bridge Washington’s partisan divide is AM radio. U.S. automakers may be forced to build AM radio into new vehicles within the next year.
The House of Representatives, in a rare instance of bipartisan support, overwhelmingly approved legislation on Wednesday that would require new cars, trucks, and SUVs to be built with AM radio at no additional charge to consumers. The AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act, which would direct the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to require automakers to include AM radio in new passenger vehicles as standard equipment, will now head to the Senate.
Until recently, proponents of AM radio have waged an unsuccessful lobbying effort for a mandate, arguing that it offers critical information during emergencies because its signal can travel long distances. But a groundswell of support from Democrats and Republicans, the broadcast industry, emergency responder organizations, and even former administrators of the Federal Emergency Management Agency is pushing this legislation closer to becoming law.
And there is reason to believe the Senate will follow the House’s lead on the bill, which was co-sponsored by Senators Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas). Earlier this year, the senators secured 60 co-sponsors for their version of the bill, a critical threshold to overcoming a filibuster.
Cruz, who chairs the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, and Markey hailed the decision in a joint statement Wednesday.
“This vote sends a clear message to car manufacturers that AM Radio is a lifeline that must be protected in new vehicles. From emergency response to sports, entertainment, and news, AM radio is an essential communication tool for tens of millions of Americans. It is now time for the Senate to pass the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act and for this legislation to become law so AM radio remains a trusted and essential resource for commuters and communities across the country.”
A growing number of automakers, including BMW, Rivian, Tesla, and Volvo, have moved away from the century-old broadcast band in favor of software-defined vehicles that offer streaming services like TuneIn and SiriusXM. Ford had also removed AM radio from some vehicles but has since reversed course.
Tesla couldn’t be reached for comment; Rivian declined to comment for this story.
EV makers have led the charge because the electromagnetic interference generated by electric motors can affect the frequencies used by AM radio. Automakers have argued that this interference degrades the AM signal and audio quality.
Tesla doesn’t have AM receivers in the base versions of its Model 3 and Model Y vehicles. Rivian’s new R2 SUV doesn’t have an FM or AM receiver; however, the vehicle model offers AM/FM radio through the digital radio platform iHeartRadio for free. The Rivian R1S and R1T models allow customers to access FM content digitally or via built‐in receiver.
https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/16/us-automakers-could-soon-be-forced-to-include-am-radio-for-free/
This is absolutely intended to be an attack on EVs. They don’t give a fuck about AM emergency broadcasting.
The emergency broadcasting system in North America is in its deathbed, to the point that PEP stations and relays are now maintained by pretty much exclusively volunteers. The US and Canadian governments keep making very deliberate and active decisions to sunset the entire EAS at every opportunity. They shut down Weatheradio back in March. They keep reallocating low-band VHF frequencies into GMRS and FRS, which would be fine if that didnt mean killing emergency broadcasting systems.
The two groups that are panickedly trying to keep this infrastructure live is like 7/8 retired old guys who used to be employed in the radio industry and 1/8 autistic trans women who are terrified of the fact that without them, all of this infrastructure will crumble within the next 5-10 years when the retired guys all die.
Every other radio nerd I’ve talked to about this thinks it’s completely meaningless and unhelpful, and if they wanted to do anything they’d mandate receivers for the NWR weather bands between 162.4 and 162.55 MHz, which are VHF frequencies that neither an AM nor FM radio can receive.
Actually they care about both. Two of the most prominent AM talk radio shows were Alex Jones and his predecessor Art Bell
Yes, I’m fully aware of the fact that AM talk radio used to be the primary vector for conservative propaganda.
How does the mandate hurt EVs? I’m not seeing it. A given EV will have AM radio and it will sound bad, where the alternative is that the EV wouldn’t have it at all?
The GOP pretty clearly didn’t put a lot of thought into this bill. It’s very short and the gripe is essentially that “some newer cars” don’t include AM radios.
What newer cars?
Which ones?Ford is the only manufacturer in the North American market who has disabled AM radios in any car other than an EV or PHEV. They did so across their entire vehicle lineup for the 2024 model year, but they reversed that decision via software update within a couple of months.
The point is the writing is on the wall. If they don’t have the legislation, companies are going to strip out AM and FM radio to cut costs by a small amount. But if we move to a world where there aren’t handy broadcast radio receivers, emergency communication will be more difficult.
Cell towers can go out of service easily. Maybe they could do emergency cell towers, but cell towers have much shorter range and aren’t as reliable. AM and FM radio provide a way for the government to set up emergency broadcasts if needed and it’s dead simple to scan for a radio station.
The emergency broadcasting system in North America is in its deathbed
You can use a commodity portable Ham radio to do AM radio broadcasts. There is zero chance of it becoming impossible to do an emergency radio broadcast.
they’d mandate receivers for the NWR weather bands between 162.4 and 162.55 MHz
That would require car companies doing new R&D to add something like that. They all already have AM receivers in their vehicles. It’s a lot cheaper to just keep AM radio available.
I think this is absolutely about emergency radio broadcasts. Knowing that cars have at least an AM receiver means the government (or whoever) can reach almost anybody with a vehicle if needed.
I think this is actually a really nice thing to see happen. It’s not every day that the government actually wants people to have access to non-enclose-of-the-commons’d technology.
Cowards won’t set all cars to 101.7 FM THE ROCK: Cleveland’s no.1 buttrock station with mornings with Doc and Buzzsaw, BRRRRRRRRRR AWOOOOOOO
FM
How dare you.
Radioactive by Imagine Dragons plays
I love oldies.
107.3 ALT CLE is the best station in Ohio and I’ll fight anyone who says otherwise. I wanna listen to MGMT Rage, and Wet Leg on my 100 minute drive to go party in Cleveland in my 20 year old shit box that lacks a CD player, cassette deck, and AC.
Other than that, the options for radio in Northern Ohio are classic rock, Christian rock, or stadium country.
I have a Chevy Bolt EV and was curious, so I tested it.
AM Radio sounds ABSOLUTELY FINE in it. Even when accelerating or using heavy regen.
Is this “EVs cause too much interference for AM” thing just FUD? Bruh if one of the cheapest EVs can do it I doubt it’s much of a problem
The thing about analog interference is that it’s relatively graceful and the brain is pretty good at picking up a signal even if there is a ton of noise.
And isn’t there EMC standards that should keep interference from EVs at an acceptable level?
I’m sure there are nefarious motives behind this bit the emergency broadcast argument is completely valid. Car radios have the benefit of being widely available, being low-tech and by being relatively independent of the power grid. It does add a very resilient form of emergency communication. Couldn’t people just get dedicated battery-operated AM/FM receivers instead? Yes, that could but the chance of people actually buying and maintaining a crisis-communication only device is a lot lower than of them buying a and maintaining a car.
Also, it is not a big burden to put on auto makers. Radios are dirt cheap and nobody is going to complain that the legacy emergency backup system sounds shitty during everyday driving where they’ll be listening to digital streaming anyways.
It’s also a shame that swappable car stereos aren’t a thing anymore. These shitty android tablets aren’t exactly aging gracefully.
At least allow us to swap one crappy android tablet for a less crappy android tablet in future.
honestly i just want a radio with physical buttons. at least a screen reader. maybe this is a treatler opinion but i want to do the radio and the a/c while i’m driving
Lol that second bluesky is so ass.
A growing number of automakers, including BMW, Rivian, Tesla, and Volvo, have moved away from the century-old broadcast band in favor of software-defined vehicles that offer streaming services like TuneIn and SiriusXM.
Yeah, big AM radio has more pull than SiriusXM. All those emergency weather alerts are raking in the cash.
Literally the only group that will benefit from this move is sports and conservative AM talk radio. It’s total crank shit.
Imma bring back pirate radio and fill the unused AM airwaves with commie propaganda
AM radio can get a signal out 250 miles using only a diesel generator at the tower and I can receive it with a hand held battery powered receiver with a hand crank backup. Some of us live in rural areas with spotty 5g coverage under ideal circumstances. And areas like this are the least likely to get immediate assistance in the event of an emergency.
Hell, the local FM/Am station in my rural town (they broadcast on both) is the only way to get decent communication about what’s going on in the area since most of the farm houses don’t even have broadband Internet connections. Just because you don’t see the value doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
I’m one of three volunteers in my region trying to keep the VHF EAS systems (weather band radio) live despite the government actively trying to sabotage it.
Believe me, I understand the value of emergency radio services. My point here is that the government does not sincerely care about emergency radio broadcasting, not that radio is bad and stupid.
And emergency broadcasting. If cell towers go down, what other means of communication are there? AM and FM are long-range and simple technologies. It would even be easy to set up low-power portable radio stations if necessary.
I agree mostly. I guess what I’m trying to say is that bluesky comment seems to believe this bill is entirely propped by conservative talk radio, as if conservative talk radio is not part of a much broader reactionary web of special interests. That notion skirts how disproportionately small the impact of AM radio is to the broader conservative movement, which has modernized considerably with podcasts and the like. I can understand legacy tech manufacturers lobbying to have AM receivers installed in car. That makes sense. But you’d think that a conservative talk radio lobby would also be lobbying Congress to require new cars to have WiFi or 5G receivers.
To me, it seems if lobbyists proposed this legislation then they probably made some salient points about public safety, to the chagrin of auto manufacturers. Yes, sports and conservative AM talk radio would be the main benefactors of this bill. But it reads less like a clever conspiracy to inject conservativism into everyone’s cars and more like regular ass law that keeps an associated dying industry alive for a while longer.
It’s just a useless bill that achieves nothing, and their stated justification is an outright fabrication.
I don’t think there’s some conspiracy here, it’s just dumb cranks in office doing crank stuff.
Oh ok
They’re cranks, and they’re old and out of touch. I’m sure they think am radio is super important to their whole project. It’s also virtue signaling to their base with minimal risk even if 99% of them haven’t ever tuned into an am radio station in the past 20 years.
assigned male radio
EV makers have led the charge because the electromagnetic interference generated by electric motors can affect the frequencies used by AM radio. Automakers have argued that this interference degrades the AM signal and audio quality.
A lot of words to say "it costs us an extra $10 per car (plus R&D) to have an AM radio.
Rivian’s new R2 SUV doesn’t have an FM or AM receiver
wtf.
I think a bill like this is great. Obviously it should include FM as well. These car and software companies absolutely want to move to an entirely subscription-internet-based world where they have total control over communication with their vehicles, and companies can sell more analytics.
It’s petty and stupid and mostly useless but honestly I’m in favor of this, and it should include FM too.
my college had an AM station so i fully support this. i’ve driven hybrids and while you could hear the motor spinning up sometimes, it really wasn’t bad at all. it wasn’t noticeable over the sound of the engine coming on or the wind or the actual signal from the radio. maybe they put in shielding specifically for the radio but either way, i would rather have a car that has a shitty AM radio than one that doesn’t have one at all. either way, it’s not a backdoor hit and i can’t think of any radio manufacturer that doesn’t make a lot more of everything else, so my guess is it’s the kind of bill only an extremely elderly congressperson (or me) would want. now the FM band is just iHeart so imo they should just release the entire allocation
You still have AM radio in the US?
In Europe they are switching of the FM radio stations and I don’t recall ever receiving AM.
We absolutely do. Pretty much every city over 15,000 still has at least one AM/FM station that plays music and has regular local news updates. And in many areas that’s the only local media available in a 50km radius.
Maybe I’m just sentimental but AM radio is pleasant to listen to. It has that fuzzy analog quality that very few things still around have.
I just recently got an old 1980’s truck project running and driving after a lot of restomodding, and it still has the original AM-only radio. It works and it’s a nice listen even through just the 1 speaker. If AM were to die, I’d be sad that I couldn’t hear the tunes any more in that old truck.
Terrestrial radio deserves to stay alive and that includes the AM band.
just mandate cb radios, i want my drive to work to be an xbox live lobby
nice
I have a feeling it will be killed in the Senate though.
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