Save Our Signal! Politicians close in on votes needed to keep AM radio in every car

[mwooldri]

53. I would agree ... Conditionally though.

Elsewhere in the world AM is functionally dead. DAB+ is replacing FM and AM broadcasts. The longwave AM band has 8 stations left worldwide, of which 4 are full time and are slated to close this year or next. Local commercial stations that are on DAB+ have handed in their medium wave AM licenses and are all digital. The BBC will be off AM domestically within 5 years. Norway has no regular AM or FM transmissions - it's all DAB+. India is different though, it's adopted DRM - a system similar to HD Radio but not encumbered with the patents and licensing requirements that HD Radio has. They have it because India uses shortwave to cover the country.

Should a bill advance through Congress, it should have a sunset clause. The simplest would be X years. Alternatively when a digital system is in place that covers the country and digital receivers are abundant... Then shut down AM and remove a requirement for vehicles to have that tech.

Right now, North America is behind in adopting a nationwide digital system. HD radio exists but it's not prolific in vehicles, and in homes it is a minority listening process - plus receivers aren't cheap. Also DAB+ has advantages HD Radio doesn't - a program guide, tuning by name and not frequency, use of single frequency networks to allow bigger area coverage.

The biggest reason IMO why North America is behind in the digital game is that radio stations own both the content creation and the broadcast infrastructure. Elsewhere, the content creation is separate from the broadcast infrastructure - this is historical... The UK's Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA)owned all the transmitters and licensed stations using a "franchise" model to provide programming on those transmitters for X years. When the IBA was split up, the transmitters were sold off to a private company but the basic model remained. So when digital radio came along, a private company got the rights to a particular frequency and area, existing stations had to be carried, and the company that operated the analog transmitters set up and run the digital ones.

The FCC could do something similar but it would need some political will to do so. A regional DAB+ network can be set up and existing stations have "must carry" status.

So until North America has a robust digital system I do support keeping AM radios in vehicles. However I believe automakers will not be worried about how well the AM radios will work. The AM radios in all the Freightliner trucks I have driven are IMO deaf as doornails. Those motorist "Tune to XXX AM for travel info"? It can't hear them. My local 5 kilowatt AM station? Easier to get the FM translator at 250 watts. Even a big 50kw station like WCBS has issues on these trucks. I don't know what AM is like on an electric vehicle. My cars aren't that deaf but AM is noisy because there is so much electrical interference these days... Plus power lines.... IMO they're the biggest culprits.

So to summarize - AM is dying, and the USA (& Canada) need a more robust digital radio system. Until then AM needs to be in cars but automakers will probably deprecate them by degrading their performance.