Now you have to make sure your car has a radio (at least AM)?

[Isaac Zachary]

So Tesla and many others (seemingly all of them are EV's) are ditching AM radio. Teslas also do not have an auxiliary port for you to easily hook up your own AM radio. Reading Tesla forums it looks like they've also got Bluetooth setup so you can only hook up a phone. Other Bluetooth transmitters don't work.

So if you want to have a true AM radio in a Tesla you either need a separate speaker or an FM modulator so you can hear it over the car's stereo. But then there's fear they'll drop FM too.

I have an AM/FM radio hooked up in the Avalon with it's own speaker since I have problems with the stupid infotainment center. But apparently if I buy a Tesla I may have to do the same thing.

Not to mention the reason they do it is because the electric motors cause more interference with amplitude modulated signals, and they don't want to go through the hassle of lowering their RF noise through better shielding and chokes and such or a better AM radio with better noise filters.

[Ecky]

Originally Posted by Isaac Zachary

So Tesla and many others (seemingly all of them are EV's) are ditching AM radio. Teslas also do not have an auxiliary port for you to easily hook up your own AM radio. Reading Tesla forums it looks like they've also got Bluetooth setup so you can only hook up a phone. Other Bluetooth transmitters don't work.

So if you want to have a true AM radio in a Tesla you either need a separate speaker or an FM modulator so you can hear it over the car's stereo. But then there's fear they'll drop FM too.

I have an AM/FM radio hooked up in the Avalon with it's own speaker since I have problems with the stupid infotainment center. But apparently if I buy a Tesla I may have to do the same thing.

Not to mention the reason they do it is because the electric motors cause more interference with amplitude modulated signals, and they don't want to go through the hassle of lowering their RF noise through better shielding and chokes and such or a better AM radio with better noise filters.

In truth, I listen almost exclusively to downloaded media (USB flash drive, or bluetooth). I do occasionally listen to public radio, but it's more the exception.

The real danger here is that we'll get into a feedback loop of fewer listeners resulting in fewer stations resulting in fewer listeners. This is almost certainly the beginning of the end of free public radio.

[freebeard]

Other Bluetooth transmitters don't work.

Can they still call it Bluetooth? The answer is somewhere in here: www.bluetooth.com/specifications/specs/

Possibly Advanced Audio Distribution Profile 1.4?

Instead of a radio, my Notchback had twin 40mm Webers. They souned like Gabriel's trumpet.

[Isaac Zachary]

After getting caught in two storms that knocked out all phone and interet communications, I've become rather interested in radio. I wasn't before, but now I see it's value. I don't think there's any good substitutions for having a radio.

The thing about AM is it travels farther. I can get AM stations from hundreds of miles away. I don't get any FM stations that are more than 20 miles away.

[redpoint5]

I don't listen to radio unless I lose internet connectivity, which is fairly often. No interest in AM radio. It sounds like garbage, and my annoyance is that HD radio never became standard.

[freebeard]

The thing about AM is it travels farther.

Another thing is that a crystal radio can receive AM. I read oncet about a crystal radio who's coil was copper tubing winded 3ft in diameter, and capacitors made from bottles of water in a tub of water. It would drive an 8" speaker.

AM in high fidelity compared to a PRC-6 walkie-talkie.

The AN/PRC-6 operates using wide-band FM on a single crystal controlled frequency in the 47 to 55.4 MHz low band VHF band.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

AM radio seems to be getting out of favor worldwide. In my country its frequency has been used for 5G internet, while most AM channels are switching to the extended FM band using the frequencies formerly used by the 2 through 5 analog TV channels. It's been a while since I noticed most devices such as cellphones or portable MP3 players whenever having a radio receiver it would be FM only.

[JSH]

Originally Posted by Isaac Zachary

Not to mention the reason they do it is because the electric motors cause more interference with amplitude modulated signals, and they don't want to go through the hassle of lowering their RF noise through better shielding and chokes and such or a better AM radio with better noise filters.

In 2022 only 47 million people listened to AM radio in a given week. Of those people they only average 2 hours of listening a day. On the other hand 275 million people listen to FM radio.

Automakers are dropping AM radio because it would cost money to keep it and the vast majority of people don't care. Pretty much anything broadcast on a radio station is also available to stream. Yes, there are some use cases where AM makes sense like remote rural areas but that is a very limited market.

(In 2013 63 million people listened to AM radio. In 2017 that was down to 59 million. Another 5 years later at it is 47 million. The trend line is very clear)

[Isaac Zachary]

Originally Posted by JSH

In 2022 only 47 million people listened to AM radio in a given week. Of those people they only average 2 hours of listening a day. On the other hand 275 million people listen to FM radio.

Automakers are dropping AM radio because it would cost money to keep it and the vast majority of people don't care. Pretty much anything broadcast on a radio station is also available to stream. Yes, there are some use cases where AM makes sense like remote rural areas but that is a very limited market.

(In 2013 63 million people listened to AM radio. In 2017 that was down to 59 million. Another 5 years later at it is 47 million. The trend line is very clear)

Exactly true.

But what gets me is that they not only cut AM (which there are reasons why to do that) but they also cut the AUX port and apparently made it impossible to connect a bluetooth device (other than a phone) in an apparent attempt to make it impossible to connect your own AM radio to the car.

There still is a way... If you want AM in a Tesla you could either 1) use an AM radio with it's own speaker or 2) use an AM radio hooked up to an FM modulator so you can hear it on the car's stereo through it's FM radio.

But this is something that saddens me about new cars: uncustomizability. For an example, cars are no longer designed so you could add your own stereo. True: CD's, cassette tapes, 8-tracks and now AM are things of the past (for most people). But having a non-customizable car means you get what you get, whether it works for you or not. Whether something new suddenly pops up or not, or whether you'd like an old feature or not.

As someone who likes to fix things and is the minority that lives out in the middle of nowhere and listens to AM radio and enjoys hobbies like amateur radio, I don't like the idea of uncustomizable cars.

[Isaac Zachary]

It looks like you can get audio in through a 3.5mm to usb dongle...

https://www.amazon.com/VOLT-PLUS-TEC.../dp/B08NWGGWTW