On one hand, fuck AM radio. All the worst right wing talk shows are there.

On the other, in the event of a crisis AM radio just keeps on trucking.

Our department of transportation gives updates over AM radio and it’s easier to do while driving vs going into the 511 app to see what’s up. And since it’s statewide it’s pretty useful. That’s the only thing I use AM for. They’ve got signs in major corridors that flash to tell you there’s a new message. Old school, but reliable.

That’s a good point, there are still a lot of those information/alert radios around and they’re basically all a low powered AM station. That could be important for people driving by and not having that option reduces safety. I have a hard time believing that AM receivers are that expensive for cars that it’s really worth the trade-off. It’s probably not something that gets used often, but when it’s needed you want people to have it.

have a hard time believing that AM receivers are that expensive for cars that it’s really worth the trade-of

Its not about the cost of the radio, the hardware for a digital am receiver at this point is pennies… The issue is electric and hybrid drivetrains generate a lot of very strong localized EMI from the motors and motor inverter drives, and AM is inherently bad at rejecting EMI so it usually wipes out most stations unless they are very strong. It gets really expensive trying to reduce or filter that out.

Didn’t know about that, although it makes sense. That does complicate things!

It’s got good stuff mixed in with the religious snake oil sales pitch right wing wackos. It’s got local sports and usually someone playing continuous music, not always good music but not interrupted very often. But it’s mostly shit. I imagine that you could have fun with a large antenna and a fine tuner receiver. Get stuff from far away. I have a good portable radio receiver that picks up some good range. I take it camping and scan about. Soft hits of the 60s 70s and 80s stations are great

In NYC metro area, I regularly listen to sports radio and NPR on AM. Sure, there’s other stuff too but I don’t tune into it. It’s the best place to get live Yankees broadcasts and coverage of the Giants, Mets, Jets, Nets, Knicks, Islanders, and Rangers.

In the event of a crisis, the only thing I need isn’t radio. The last thing I need is to be told “everything is under control & being handled by the best people” right before “the best people” destroy the planet.

You should re-evaluate your crisis planning. Communication is a key safety item, even if it is one-way. I’ve got a pair of GMRS walkie-talkies that can pretty reliably broadcast a little over a mile. Put them in scan mode and you can pickup chatter from other sources. This has fuck all to do with an AM radio, but they also have the ability to pick up the automated weather reports from the airport. So when it looks real stormy out, I turn one on (to test it) and to get continuous updates directly from the weather station instead of waiting for the news to catch up. Communication in a crisis, even if it’s just one way, is still a critical lifeline.

If I was 10 years younger, sure; I’d be worried about this.

I’m old enough now to know that I’ve already done the best things I could do & I did them before the apocalypse.

You’ll thank me when you find 20 Terabytes of data collected over 25 years, buried in lead containers at the location I sent out 12 years ago.

… consider it a side quest.

(But in all honesty, you seem to have your shit together when it comes to this. Hopefully dire situations need not arise or require this knowledge, but I’m glad you have it.)

I wonder what it would cost to balance that out by broadcasting secular and left-wing media. Wouldn’t it be rad if AM was transformed into something great? Of course even as I’m typing this I can just see the future where some startup sees a monetization strategy in AM and does something shitty with it, like filling it up with LLM generated talk shows, especially if it’s low cost.

Would have to be pirate radio. You think this fcc is gonna be handing out licenses to left-wing secular media?

Better call Christian Slater.

The UK used to have powerful AM stations which operated from ships outside of territorial waters, they’re long gone except for Caroline which still exists (they even have their ship still) but as a legal station.

It’s kind of challenging to do it on the land as a clandestine pirate since physics demands a large (as in hundreds of feet) aerial to radiate anything decent as well as usually a large set of radials for the aerial to work against. It’s a more annoying version of the same problem amateur radio people have when using the 160 metre band. Of course it can be done, and people did it with much worse tech than what we have now, but it’s not something to do at high power lightly. The voltage at the end of an AM/MW transmitter aerial is often pretty bracing for example.

Good point. If Brandan Carr or whatever the fuck the cuck in charge of the FCC is named requires talk shows like Kimmel to do equal time for both candidates, it’s only fair that we have both sides forced onto AM.

Sure, it’ll be a bunch of ranting talking heads at 6 AM, but like others have said, you don’t have to listen.

This will probably end up backfiring when Stephen Colbert or Matt Stone/Trey Parker take over AM radio with guest spots, using clips of Alex Jones on 55 AM “The Frog”.

A nationwide AM radio network with syndicated shows like The Majority Report, I’ve Had It, and Breaking Points? The Reaction Podcast? Kyle Kulinski Power Hour?

Ok I made that last one up but can you imagine?

Air America lasted about 5 years in the 2000s, and it was exactly this. The Republicans would never let their stations die like Air America did.

The problem is running it costs money, and the billionaires only fund the right-wing stuff.

The non-right-wing radio is NPR.

AM radios are also dead simple to implement compared to FM radios too, which is great if you’re the prepper kind.

How do we listen to am radio on our phones?

Man that’s one thing they should have never taken from phones, AM/FM radio. So now you can’t just tune to a station, you gotta download their fucking app that’s filled with extra ads.

Does the app require internet? If there’s a catastrophe, the first thing to go out is internet and phone reception because of high demand.

There are still phones with FM radios. They’ve gotten harder to find since they need wired headphones to use as the antenna. I’ve never seen one with an AM radio though. The antenna in a pocket AM radio is thicker than a modern phone.

This is the correct reply. AM is trash, but we even have highway signs that mention AM stations for certain road condition alerts and stuff. Most places don’t rely on it, but when you’re in the mountains it’s useful.

Hell, even here in CA we only barely started getting cell signals in places like Malibu pass and the like. I can usually get cell service and FM on the 5 or PCH but the moment you leave those, all bets are off.

am is a must for driving in the mountains of ca during the winter

AM is cool because you can get stuff from the other side of the world if the weather is right. I never use it though.

As to RW talk on there, I didn’t know that, but we just need to make our own talk shows. We don’t have bankrollers like they do though, and are constantly stabbing each other in the back on the whispers of the RW pretending to be us, so it’s harder.

if mom knew how often i stayed awake listening to baseball and hockey on the radio when i was a kid, i’d still be grounded with an early bedtime today.

The thing about American freedom is that its freedom of the powerful over everyone else.

Oh, there’s no more AM radio to broadcast right wing news? Force it in all cars. Customers don’t deserve the freedom to choose.

Yet they call themselves the free world.

What the fuck kinda comment is this? Want freedom to choose? Don’t flip on the AM radio then. That is literally more freedom than not having the option.

AM radio has longer reach than FM and is how emergency information for interstate highway travel is communicated. Keeping it is a good thing.

Many remote areas rely on AM because it travels better.

I dare you to travel 40 years into the future and stay in an area that believes the shit they push on morning talk shows, in the woods.

the bill expires in 10 years anyways

Fair point.

Read your comments and reply. Otherwise, I’m assuming you’re a bot or shill.

What? I don’t have lemmy push notifications or sobering, I see stuff when I log in.

This might signal a fundamental misunderstanding of what AM radio is used for and why it’s important.

Yeah lots of propaganda talk shows and up there because AM sucks for music and it’s cheap to run and dead simple to implement.

It’s also used for emergency broadcasts and traffic updates, and it’s a resilient form of broadcast technology during disasters that the public should have easy access to.

You think WhatsApp is going to be up after a hurricane? AM can broadcast hundreds of miles, 5G needs antennas every couple blocks with hardlines to back them up.

Fuck outta here with this “hurr durr it’s only for racists” nonsense.

Thank you

I will accept my downvotes for being a dumbass and try to be less of a dumbass in future comments.

As the saying goes, “Don’t hate, educate.”

(Also amateur radio is fun :D)

Many of the mountain towns rely on AM because it travels better…

This has serious implications for a nation already crippled by stupidity, fear & hate.

I mean, without AM… the options become FM and 5G/WWW. FM is a known quantity and the WWW is waayy worse than AM: the Klan broadcasts over the WWW.

What if…

(motions you to come closer)

^morse ^code ^can ^say ^racist ^bullshit ^also

Exactly. Just because a medium can be used to broadcast rascist bullshit doesn’t mean we should eliminate it.

No, but I’ll turn the other way if you want to eliminate racist bullshit

I think any lessons they have to teach, has already been learned from enough

I’m gonna transmit my fascist pepe memes over SSTV

Is that why it’s bleeped?

All the real hipsters use amplitude modulation. Posers use frequency modulation.

Does circuit bending a keyboard count?

…'cause that I can do.

Manipulators use QAM

This is the kind of meaningful change our current governmental system can muster… Fucking pathetic.

He’s 80 fucking years old…

He probably thinks this is super important and that is undoubtedly the real problem.

We need to face the harsh truth that a lot of politicians are suffering from the same age related mental decline, as literally every single peraon who manages to live past 60.

It’s not like a switch gets flipped, but 20 years of it is significant.

If we don’t have real age limits based on science, people will still in office till they die. Because the life of a Senator/House Rep is very comfortable. It’s literally no harder than living in a retirement home. If you don’t care because of lack of empathy or just lack of comprehension, there’s zero mental/emotional stress. And they rarely even have to show up to an office. So no physical stress.

Obviously their bodies will cling on long past their minds being gone.

Yay! America is saved!

Priorities

It should all be digital over 5G cellular and require a separate subscription. I don’t understand why people want stuff for free.

/s

Goddamn communists

Car producers avoid AM as that means they have to shield their stuff better (= more expensive) or you hear spikes in the radio sound. FM doesn’t have that problem, but has much less range.

I hear you and don’t really think “more expensive” is something car mfgs care about ATM. If anything, that’s a feature for them. i think average price of a new car is about $50k

The cost they charge for buying a new car and the cost they pay for the parts of that car are very different things.

They will charge $50k with or without AM radio and would rather do it without.

The other side of that is that they will gladly spend more to add things they can successfully get people to pay for. AM radio is… not one of those things that will increase profits.

cars already have them. they’re taking them out so they can make more money, not to save you $20.

The government is really worrying about the big issues I see.

Yes, fascist propaganda machine must not die.

Not in the US fortunately, but I have been on summer family road trips that started as sunshine and fun and ended with the whole country in flames, evacuations and finding a route home through fires in multiple states. Phones and apps are great when they work. But AM radio and an independent public funded national broadcaster are quite literally going to be taken away over someones dead body.

Last summer, we had fire and flood evacuations on either side of the cape. Phone reception is spotty and DAB/FM barely works but AM gets through. Many lives get saved by AM radio and public broadcasters.

This reminds me of the film “hot rod” starring Andy Samberg.

AM radio has the exclusive rights to a visual spectacle.