Are we losing AM radio?

This came in Sourceforge update

"Automakers, such as BMW, Volkswagen, Mazda and Tesla, are removing
 AM radios from new electric vehicles because electric engines can
 interfere with the sound of AM stations. And Ford, one of the nation's 
top-three auto sellers, is taking a bigger step, eliminating AM from all
 of its vehicles, electric or gas-operated."

Well I suppose I can still listen to 2GB in the house.
AM radio is an institution. Do we have to lose it because of electric cars?

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Must be 40+ years since I last listened to commercial AM radioā€¦

Canā€™t say as it would make any difference to meā€¦ I canā€™t even listen to commercial FM radio - drives me crazyā€¦

When I last listened to FM radio, it was JJJ (ABC commercial free) or RTR (community radio - formerly run out of UWA)ā€¦

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I believe it is because of the rise of FM radio stations and slow and steady decline of AM radio stations.

I also think that FM kept the radio alive otherwise radio industry was dying a slow death.

Internet radio came and tried to make a market for itself but then streaming music and podcasts took the spotlight.

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Problem in Australia is all the presenter talent is on AM radio. Apart from ABC, there is no quality FM in the country.
Digital radio has limited transmission ā€¦ large cities only.

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Yes. Thatā€™s the limitation of FM. It has better sound quality but limited range.

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In France there is a massive but very slow roll out of dab plus radio mainly in the bigger cities mainly because the government is selling off the older longwave frequency to other ideas. My future son in law works as a broadcaster on local radio and the number of listeners is dropping each month due to the availability of other media on the internet.
Personally I think french radio is crap as many stations are limited in the choice of music (french songs only) which is helping in its death.
I am all for the move but wonder if the newer technology can cope with the speed of demand when we first moved to tnt the images were poor at times and internet radio can be similar depending on your connection speed.

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By ā€˜digital radioā€™ I meant dab, not FM. In Australia, it is a capital city thing only.

Most of the AM radio in Australia is talkback programsā€¦ listners call in by phone and make comment live on air. It is very popular, especially with listeners driving to and from work by car. The morning peak hour program is prime time. Is that all going to disappear because of electric cars?

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Hi all, :wave:

this may be a bit off-topic, so please excuse me in advance. :blush:

I love AM radio a lot as IĀ“ve been a DXer person since I was a little kid.
I used to scan the world for exotic radio stations with
a Grundig Satellite 600 and before that with an ancient Sonata 52W. That was fun indeed. :smile: .

I also used to consult the WRTH (World Radio and TV Handbook) in my pre-internet era.

Sadly AM radio stations are on the decline nowadays.

At present - and my data allowance permitting - once in a while I like tuning into AM (preferably SW) radio stations by one of those sources via internet:

For websdr:

A WebSDR is a Software-Defined Radio receiver connected to the internet, allowing many listeners to listen and tune it simultaneously.
SDR technology makes it possible that all listeners tune independently, and thus listen to different signals; this is in contrast to the many classical receivers that are already available via the internet.
[ā€¦] Questions and comments can be sent to PA3FWM, the author of the WebSDR software and maintainer of this site; but please check the frequently asked questions first.

WebSDR servers can register themselves automatically on this site, leading to the below list of currently active WebSDR servers.

Currently there are 159 servers active, with 1600 users and 761 MHz of radio spectrum

I particularly like this one: http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/ :

On this page you can listen to and control a short-wave receiver located at the amateur radio club ETGD at the University of Twente. In contrast to other web-controlled receivers, this receiver can be tuned by multiple users simultaneously, thanks to the use of Software-Defined Radio.

This site, which in 2008 was the very first WebSDR site ever, was finally reactivated in July 2012 after an interruption of more than 1.5 years; read also the old news since then.

As for globaltuners:

GlobalTuners provides access to remotely controlled radio receivers all over the world. You can tune the receivers to listen to remote radio broadcasts, air traffic, amateur transmissions and much more.
Anywhere, at any time. You can also share your own receiver, itā€™s a lot of fun for everyone and you get free access to the Premium membership options.

It takes just a few minutes to sign up for a free account.

Globaltuners and websdr let you login to FM sations (also AIR band and the like) as well.

If youĀ“re interested: happy listening. :wink:

Many greetings
Rosika :slightly_smiling_face:

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I had to look it up.
We have a shortwave radio. Have not used it for years. People used to do it like browsing the internet.

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Sorry, Neville. I shouldĀ“ve explained. :neutral_face:

You looked it up already. ThatĀ“s fine.

So basically, a DXer is a person hunting for distant radio stationsā€¦
ā€¦ ,more or less for the sheer fun of it. :blush:

I remember when I fist tuned into Radio Sweden International from Stochkolm. That was huge for me.

An SWL (shortwave listener) on the other hand is person who likes to put the emphasis on the contents of the respective (far-away ) radio stations.
So thatĀ“s to put it in simple terms, I guess.

Many greetings from Rosika :slightly_smiling_face:

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One of the joys of my life is National Public Radio (npr.org) available world-wide. Each public broadcaster (locally, Oregon Public Broadcasting, opb.org) creates local content. The local and national public broadcasting stations, in their web presence and on televisionā€“PBSā€“together create a magnificent array of content that rivals and partners with BBC. AM radio used to be good, but I only bother with public broadcasting now, so FM is perfectly fine with me.

Satellite radio (SiriusXM) has basically taken over for AM radio in the US (even country music!), and even that has a web presence. While I used to take pleasure in DX-ing the AM band, that was 50 or more years ago. The web has filled that role beautifully.

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I long for Radio Luxembourg to come back. It was a treat to tune in, especially on the very big Valve radiogram. Used to switch on ten minutes before, to warm up the valves. The sound was perfect, compared to todayā€™s over saturated or gain cranked recordings. Yes Radio Luxembourg was Medium Wave, but played on vintage equipment it was heaven. They played the oldies, as in everything from the 1920ā€™s through to the sixties. We have Angel Radio in the UK, going out at 7hertz, yet still able to be heard in France. They play the Golden Oldies Nostalgia radio. We have our local Angel Radio where I live, just up the road from me. Eight miles to be exact, north of where Iā€™m sat typing now. Sorry to make it sound like you can all see me typing. :laughing:

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Distant is the word when using SW in Australia. It only really works well at night .
Atmospheric conditions affecy transmissionā€¦ something to do with reflection of waves from the ionosphere.

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What sort of receiver do I need for that?

We had a valve radio in a big cabinet in the living room. We used to listen to SW at night.
In Australia one had to pay for a licence to listen to ā€˜free-to-airā€™ broadcasts. Even when TV came here, we still had licences.

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Like several of you I recall listening to shortwave broadcasts as a kid about 65 years ago. It was amazing to me to hear stations coming in to the US from Europe. This was a time when a phone call to someone 30 miles away was ā€œlong distanceā€.

Shortwave broadcasts have fallen off drastically with the internet replacing the need for high-power radio transmitters with large antenna installations. At one point the BBC halted some of their shortwave services citing the cost of the electricity needed to power a 50,000 Watt transmitter, etc. Recently theyā€™ve increased their radio activities aimed at Europe because Russia has been censoring incoming internet traffic.

AM and FM radio here in southern California consists of mostly terrible stations. I havenā€™t listened to anything on AM in decades. There are a couple of FM stations that are supported by public donations and they are pretty good but thatā€™s it, the rest of the FM spectrum is a wasteland.

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Iā€™ve had XM radio in a few vehicles. It came with a ā€œfeature packageā€ when buying the car, AM/FM/XM/CD/USB included. For several years I subscribed, and it was nice to be able to drive anywhere in the US and listen to the same station completely uninterrupted, unless you went through a tunnel or sometimes in a crowded downtown with buildings blocking the satellite signal.

AM was great as a kid. I grew up in Iowa which is near the center of the US. We could listen to AM stations from Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, and even further. At night they were/are allowed to use more power in transmission. During the day you couldnā€™t always receive the same stations.

We also had a CB radio in the early 70s when that was a fad. One time we talked with someone in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in Canada. Thatā€™s about 1,100 miles (1,700 km). They called this ā€œskip landā€. The signal would bounce off layers of the atmosphere under certain weather conditions. We also talked to people in TX which is more like 900 miles.

When Iā€™m in the car these days I normally stream iHeart Radio. At least when I have cell coverage, which is a huge percentage of the time for me. We took a vacation and drove through Minnesota, North Dakota, Wyoming (Yellowstone National Park), and back through Colorado, and Nebraska. Very seldom did we not have coverage to stream. Lucky me.

iHeart has a few stations I like that you all may like. A few stations for the decades 60s, 70s, 80s, a station for Yacht Rock, and one of my favorites Classic American Top 40. The AT40 station alternates between 70s and 80s AT40 countdowns with Casey Kasem. Pretty good stuff that brings back memories.

Iā€™ll have to fire up some AM radio again. Itā€™s been a while.

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Check their website. Most cars in the US are delivered with satellite capable radios and a trial period.

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I have not seen XM in Australia. Cars are AM/FM. We have satellite TV and internet for remote areas, but I dont think there is radio?

Reading your comments on AM decline makes me realise Australia is way behind. It is our main political debate area, every topic gets aired on talkbak radio. Politicians come on air regularly to answer questions. TV political discussions are a poor second, because they are stage managed and the public gets minimal hearing.

AM may lose out long term, probably because of power consumption. Compatability with electric cars should be able to be solved, at least technically.

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I can remember my mother telling me the story of her brother building a ā€˜crystal radioā€™ and being able to receive a boadcast from London. That would have been in the 1920ā€™s, I think.
Australia then was very isolated, I think the only communication then was a telegraph line. Telegrams were operated by the postal service. A boat trip from England was six months. Telephones were non existent, or confined to the central business district.

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