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-   -   Ford to discontinue AM Radio on its 2024 Mustang | Do you use AM Radio? (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/car-entertainment/263562-ford-discontinue-am-radio-its-2024-mustang-do-you-use-am-radio.html)

According to reports, Ford will be discontinuing AM Radio on its 2024 Mustang. The seventh-generation iteration of the muscle car will be the second product from the brand to lose AM radio, having already discontinued the feature on the 2023 F-150 Lightning.

A spokesperson from Ford also confirmed the same, stating that "global automakers are modernising radio by offering streaming via mobile apps, FM or digital.



Reports state that AM radio's audience size is fast reducing in Europe while accounting for only a small minority in the USA. This, combined with the fact that automakers are looking to cut down vehicle costs, are some of the reasons why brands are removing the feature.

Having said that, both current & former US emergency officials have reportedly written a letter to the Secretary of Transportation advising action against the disappearance of AM Radio on new cars. AM Radio travels further and is significantly less expensive to operate than its equivalent FM station, meaning it can be reliably found even in remote areas.

Ed Markey, Massachusetts Senator, stated, "AM Radio is the most dependable, cost-free and accessible mechanism for officials to communicate with the public in times of an emergency". Officials believe that the disappearance of AM Radio on new cars will compromise their ability to reach citizens during such times.

Source: TheDrive

Link to Team-BHP news

This is true in theory. But most people don’t have battery operated radio’s at home either anymore.

In Europe the FM feature on car radio’s will disappear as well as we are moving slowly to DAB technology. Today, often an optional feature on cars, it will eventually replace the FM radio completely.

Jeroen

Why is this news?

It should have been news, IF the 2024 Mustang had AM Radio. rl:

AM vs FM vs 3G data --> Which technology has better reach & availability?

The US is a funny country. Since a lot of technology was built decades ago, they have to ensure backward compatibility with other vehicles(Are you going to mandate a new satellite receiver on a 15 year old semi-truck?). Because of the scale of the infrastructure, it it sometimes not easy to strip out old systems and build new ones.

In many highways, you will see signs that look like this:



Images picked on google images. Credits to their respective owners.

I must admit, in three years and 40k miles of driving (I don't drive regularly anymore), that I have tuned into AM thrice for alerts and saved time by taking alternate routes in the hills of Bay Area and Northern California and the high plateaus of New Mexico, where cell service is often patchy.

From what I gather, AM radio transmission is more powerful(though mostly of poorer quality), the signals can be reflected (technically refracted) by the ionosphere, and therefore have greater coverage in regions with physical obstructions (like hills) to line-of-sight transmission.

True. But you can expect your house WiFi to be working when disaster strikes and there is always the federal cell alerts broadcasting system(WEA).

AM has more specific use cases.
Is DAB technology like Sirius FM where you have to pay for a subscription? Probably more expensive hardware than AM(even for emergency use)?

I stopped listening to radio many years back, when the inane chatter and the ads overpowered the songs. The selection of songs on the channels isnt much to write about either.

No, I am familiar with Sirus.

DAB is a digital broadcast technology.

https://www.digitalradioplus.com.au/...-digital-radio

DAB is promoted as the digital successor of FM radio. Ultimately it offers superior sound quality and better uninterrupted reception, although that is depended on coverage. It offers many more features compared to FM as well.

Basically all FM radio station are moving to DAB.

Jeroen

Speaking of DAB, remembered this - many years back when we had Satellite radio is India, I really wanted to use that in the car (for the very reason in my above post). I even got a DAB antenna from the UK and tried to see it the Worldspace receiver would catch the signals with that antenna.

Somehow that experiment got stuck, and the antenna is sitting somewhere in the house.

Wish Worldspace /similar for cars was available in India. Though now we do have some options in terms of streaming music etc, I have kind of settled on my iPod touch with about 3k songs and let it play in random order, giving me a mix of different genres.

I have never listened to Radio while driving. The annoying sound of channel tuning, Over-Acting of Radio Jockeys, Advertisements etc always kept me away from the Radio.

I prefer my playlists on Amazon or carry my Pendrive with 100s of songs while on the long drive.

Thank you for sharing the above use for AM radio. :Cheering:I was wondering if there was still any practical applications for this dinosaur-era technology.

But I'm sure there are newer technologies that can serve a similar purpose.

I have not used radio (AM or FM) even once since music streaming became mainstream. 4G connectivity has become great in most parts of the country, so you'll almost always have data. Songs can be downloaded for the instances one does not have cell reception.

If one wishes to listen to news like we used to on radio, there are podcasts that fulfill the same purpose.

Radio is just outdated tech now. Let it disappear. It won't be missed.

https://youtu.be/2-OvJHgCxMw

Apparently, 92% of people listen to radio in the USA according to this news interview (I guess that includes AM + FM).

I've personally spent a lot of time listening to NPR(National Public Radio) while driving in the US. Sure, the same content is probably available on podcasts, but radio is so much more convenient for daily commutes than playing podcasts.

DAB is not essentially free, you have to pay for internet and possibly for subscription also, while radio is free.

AM have a very high coverage area. These waves can travel well over 1500 kms where FM usually can go about 100. Also, FM gets blocked by physical barriers, probably that's why these emergency channels in US are on AM, to reach maximum. Though AM have poor quality compared to FM, but that would not be of much concern for emergency services.

Regarding usage, I have tuned in Vivid Bharti AM channel more than couple of times, mostly to listen cricket live commentary when on move.

I have tried AM-MW on my car radio, but there is just too much of interference (perhaps due to engine and electronics).
The same story with AM-SW, though it does feel exotic sometimes to tune-in to foreign channels (sometimes speaking and playing in foreign language) and hence the static and noise could be tolerated.
But mostly it is the FM