Automakers Are Starting to Drop AM Radio in New Cars. Here's Why

[JayhawkCO]

I don't think I've listened to AM on purpose in about 15 years.

[Max Rockatansky]

I usually listen to ESPN morning shows a couple times a week.  When I'm in the car it is one of the few times I feel focused enough to catch up on sports news.

[ErmineNotyours]

I see YouTube videos about table top radios in Europe, and they all seem to be able to tune in Europe's Digital Audio Broadcasting.  The National Association of Broadcasters could have encouraged electronics manufactures to make HD Radio available on sets built for the U.S., but they've conceded the table top market to the smart speaker and the personal radio market to the smart phone.  They're putting all their money on car listening, so they have this bananas rule about requiring auto manufactures to have AM radios, rather than mandate them to have HD radios and move the remaining AM broadcasters to HD who aren't already there.

I don't regularly listen to AM radio, but I'm a fan of the medium that I tune in once in a while.  It seemed two smaller AM stations went off the air at the same time, both fading out and then going silent completely.  It sounded like they had technical issues, and didn't come back on the air immediately because people can stream and nobody cares.  KRIZ is back on in a very quiet, local form, and KGRG (AM) is still off the air, probably permanently.

As for the EAS, I heard the distinctive tones of an EAS test echoing around a warehouse I was working in, so I tuned my own radio around to find the test, or actual emergency if there was one.  On the way over, I ran past two other stations conducting their tests.  Then a few minutes later, another radio in the warehouse was broadcasting a test, so I again searched for it and came across two other stations conducting tests.  Now nobody listens to the radio in warehouses, and after being subjected to stations that repeat the same songs once an hour, that's a good thing.

I was in a small store during the nation-wide EAS test in early October a year ago, with everyone's smart phones going off at the same time.  Very strange.

[Rothman]

I haven't listened to radio in the car in years.

I have tuned into Russian radio through radio.garden every now and then, though.

[ZLoth]

I have Bluetooth in both of my vehicles and unlimited data, so I'm better off streaming my music from my self-hosted Plex server via PlexAMP or audiobooks from my self-hosted instance of AudioBookShelf.

Just as an addendum... I have both the Hoopla and Libby apps installed on my phone as well. These are audiobook services offered through my public library at no cost.

The funny part is that when I'm streaming a local station, the audio quality is better than either the over-the-air AM or FM frequencies. For AM, it's understandable, but kinda surprised for FM.

[ZLoth]

Here's a YouTube video that was posted in early February. 2025:

The bill in question is S.315 - AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act of 2025.

[Road Hog]

So new vehicles will soon be like my grandpa's old 1973 Dodge ... AM with push button presets but no FM. They're taking FM out now so no point adding it back.

[ET21]

I still have AM/FM bands in my newer car (24 VW Golf GTI). Once my Sirius trail ends I'm gonna start playing around with radio stations for a bit.