Ford in reverse gear over AM radio removal after Congress threatens action
- Reference: 1684956606
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/05/24/ford_backtracks_on_am_radio/
- Source link:
Ford Motor Company announced the move through its CEO Jim Farley in a [1]tweet yesterday in which he acknowledged the airing of a [2]bill [PDF] in the US Senate last week that would require AM radios be included in all automobiles sold in America.
The proposed law would mandate AM radios due to the vital role that frequency band has in the Federal Emergency Management Agency's national public warning system, which broadcasts alerts via AM stations.
[3]
Senator Ed Markey (D-MA), who introduced the [4]AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act , has been [5]railing against plans by eight automakers to eliminate AM radios from their vehicles since earlier this year, when he said that BMW, Ford, Mazda, Polestar, Rivian, Tesla, Volkswagen, and Volvo responded to letters confirming their intention.
[6]
[7]
"Broadcast AM radio is an essential part of our emergency alert infrastructure, but the responses to my letter show that far too many automakers are ignoring the critical safety benefits of AM radio," Markey said in March, prior to the introduction of the bill last week. Backed by a bipartisan group of senators, the AM Radio act would require the inclusion of AM receivers at no additional charge to buyers, and would impose civil penalties on any company not complying.
Those threats appear to be working.
[8]
"After speaking with policy leaders about the importance of AM broadcast radio as a part of the emergency alert system, we've decided to include it on all 2024 Ford & Lincoln vehicles," Farley said. The chief exec's tweet continued with an interesting tidbit: the ability for the cars to receive AM signals never went away – it was simply disabled.
"For any owners of Ford EVs without AM broadcast capability, we'll offer a software update," Farley said.
Rivian, meanwhile, told us it "offers free access to AM and FM radio services in all Rivian consumer vehicles that come standard in each vehicle. AM radio service from local and national stations is provided via digital radio platforms (thus ensuring enhanced audio quality.)"
[9]Analogue radio given 10-year stay of execution as the UK U-turns on DAB digital future
[10]Ancient telly borked broadband for entire Welsh village
[11]BOFH : What if International Bad Actors designed the vaccine to make us watch more Steven Seagal movies?
[12]Neil Young yanks music from streaming services: 'Worst audio in history'
[13]Station to station: Ten DAB-Bluetooth combo radios
Along with being used to broadcast emergency messages, AM radio is also used across the US as the broadcasting system of choice for talk radio, news, sports, and the like. Automakers have moved to eliminate AM radio from their vehicles, more specifically from EVs, [14]supposedly because electric motors potentially make AM signal quality worse than it already is.
Well, be as that may, it's probably also because they think AM radio is falling out of style and no longer has a place in modern cars.
[15]
Markey [16]applauded Ford's move to return AM radio to its vehicles, saying it reflects that Ford, at the very least, has had "an overdue realization about the importance of AM radio … [it] is more than just an essential safety feature—it's a free, accessible source for anyone to listen to music, news, sports, and entertainment."
We asked Senator Markey's office whether he'd heard from any of the other automakers he called out for removing AM radio, and its response didn't address that or other questions we asked. We also contacted the automakers on the supposedly anti-AM train that Markey identified, and heard back from BMW, which told us it would make a decision if and when the bill is passed. ®
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[1] https://twitter.com/jimfarley98/status/1661024295110463491
[2] https://www.markey.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/am_radio_for_every_vehicle_actpdf.pdf
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZG6JBfLlW4VLDDIDCw3fIAAAAII&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/1669
[5] https://www.markey.senate.gov/news/press-releases/senator-markey-criticizes-eight-automakers-for-removing-broadcast-am-radio-from-vehicles
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZG6JBfLlW4VLDDIDCw3fIAAAAII&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZG6JBfLlW4VLDDIDCw3fIAAAAII&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZG6JBfLlW4VLDDIDCw3fIAAAAII&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2020/07/03/analogue_commercial_radio_licences_extended_10_years/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2020/09/22/old_tv_broke_broadband/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/26/bofh_2021_episode_21/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2015/07/15/neil_young_streaming_music/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2013/12/16/review_dab_bluetooth_combo_radios_group_test/
[14] https://thehill.com/homenews/nexstar_media_wire/4004678-say-goodbye-to-am-radio-why-carmakers-are-removing-it-from-new-models/
[15] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZG6JBfLlW4VLDDIDCw3fIAAAAII&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[16] https://www.markey.senate.gov/news/press-releases/senator-markey-applauds-fords-decision-to-keep-am-radio-in-new-vehicles
[17] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Two different issues.
One's a supposed "public safety" thing. The other is RF interference that should have already been addressed, but hasn't.
I'm so glad that the U.S. Congress has successfully solved all major problems and therefore has time for this.
Considering how much time the lazy bastards waste on grade-school name calling, actually getting ANY legislation addressed and passed is an improvement.
The only question remaining is ...
... WTF don't cell phones have an AM receiver[0] built in?
Shirley you're more likely to have a phone than a car at arm's reach in an emergency, even here in the car-crazy United States.
Yes, I know, the manufacturers can't charge for each individual song or over-the-air broadcast ... greedy bastards.
[0] May as well throw in FM, as well ... both come together on a single die package these days.
Re: The only question remaining is ...
WTF don't cell phones have an AM receiver[0] built in?
AM is no longer used in many parts of the world. Even FM has been shut down in some countries such as Norway in favour of DAB+.
I'd like to see mobiles (aka cell phones or Handys) have SDRs capable of AM, FM & DAB+ and the rest. Mine - a few years old - still has an FM radio but that might be useless if the UK government takes the backhanders from certain parties and follows Norway.
Re: The only question remaining is ...
WTF don't cell phones have an AM receiver[0] built in?
Aside from the demand for one, rhe size of the ferrite bar used as an antenna for MW would probably be a dealbreaker here. Most consumers and cell phone manufacturers are looking at slimmer phones. A ferrite bar would ruin that.
Oddly we have tried to get DAB selling faster in this country by killing off sales of analogue only radios with digital tuning on the high street. Yes you can still buy cheap analogue radios that do AM and FM but they don’t have the convenience of digital tuning. Online it’s a bit better and you can get simple radios incorporating digital tuning and expensive advanced ones. Less radios sold without AM supposedly means less listeners to AM and we can then ditch that band in the UK.
Years ago I needed a radio for travelling abroad and went into my local retailer (which rhymes with Murray’s) only because I was passing one. I asked the sales person if she had any radios that did shortwave and had digital tuning. The girl I was talking to was very keen to help me buy a radio but was a little bit lacking in knowledge. Yes she showed me radios but only two of them had any AM component at all and those lacked digital tuning. She had never heard of shortwave and I educated her on the different methods of radio broadcast. She was interested in case anyone came in again asking the same questions as me. I suppose I wasn’t expecting her to know or them to sell what I was after.
Then I tried Peter Jones who used to have a better range and more knowledgable sales staff. They no longer did radios with shortwave or even AM and the bloke there told me that I could just use DAB. When I pointed out that I’d said I was hoping to use it whilst travelling in North America he told me DAB is used in many countries. Yep I said except North America doesn’t use DAB they use IBOC. I explained that I need at least AM as the sports (like baseball) are mostly broadcast on MW.
Rivian, meanwhile, told us it "offers free access to AM and FM radio services in all Rivian consumer vehicles that come standard in each vehicle. AM radio service from local and national stations is provided via digital radio platforms (thus ensuring enhanced audio quality.)"
I think they've rather missed the point there. It's not the content that needs to be available, it's the technology. In the event of a problem, AM transmitters may well still be broadcasting when wireless Internet ones have been taken down.
I'm confused, if Ford's EV implementation interferes with AM radio broadcasts or reception, this would seem to be an FCC issue.