The Ford Motor Company have announced that they are not only phasing out AM radio in all American-made vehicles, but that the company’s Canadian division will no longer have access to the AM-band in upcoming vehicles.
This is being seen as the first confirmation that this is part of a global move by Ford that will see AM removed from all of their vehicles.
During the Welcome Session at NAB Show 2023 today, NAB President and CEO Curtis LeGeyt spoke with Univision Los Angeles’ Gabriela Teissier in a fireside chat about the importance of keeping the radio in the car dashboard saying, “We as an industry have a role to play by stepping up and reminding the public and automakers of our ongoing relevance.
“The facts are, according to Nielsen, 82 million Americans tuned into AM radio at some point over the last month. Those are staggering statistics and that is an audience penetration that any one of the streaming services would bend over backwards to get.
“This idea that AM radio has lost relevance, I think shows how focused we are on what may be coming next, and the new shiny object, and maybe a lack of appreciation for what’s going on around us and how our neighbours, our family are still consuming their media.
“AM radio is fulfilling a role in the Emergency Alerting System that is irreplaceable. For those of us who are walking around with a cell phone, it is easy to say in a time of disaster, ‘well listen, I got an alert on my phone. But what does that alert say? Tune into your local media, and those AM stations serve as the backbone for the emergency alerting that goes through the broadcast system.”
This article from Detroit presents a mix of for and against the ditching of AM in car radios.
https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/2023/04/01/ford-am-radio-commercial/70062845007/
One remark is the "excuse" that as more electric cars are being introduced into the market, the manufacturers don't want to provide for shielding against interference from electrical nouse produced by the electric motors.
The manufacturers are thus justifying this on the grounds that the AM audience is diminishing.
On the other hand, the National Association of Broadcasters, NAB, say that there are 48 million listeners to the AM band.
Sen. Markey and the Federal Communications Commission, FCC are against the ditching of AM in car receivers because emergency services use the AM band.
Former Commissioners of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA says that ditching the AM band in radio represents "...a grave threat to future local, state, and federal disaster response and relief efforts...'".
During a diaster, the mains power may be down so the only access to power is through the car.
Furthermore, the listener may be in an area with little or poor mobile phone coverage resulting the listener not receiving vital information.
I am sure Mr. St. John may have an knowledge of the emergency coverage during the 2019/2020 conflagration along the east coast of Australia.
He has often stated how a DRM+ signal could cover a large inland area.
But there was no DRM during the 2019/2020 disaster.
So we can learn of the experience of any lack of emergency coverage when the studios and transmitters were out of action.
Definitely mobile phone coverage would not be satisfactory to convey emergency information in rural areas.
One final point is that AM broadcasting is used for spoken word programming including programs in languages other than English, LOTE. This applies to the US and Australia.
Thank you,
Anthony, oth think things through with the co-operation of the manufsctuets, broadcasters, emergency legislators, Belfield, in the land of Wangal and Darug Peoples of Eora Nation.