Now It’s FM
We’ve talked before in this space about the “AM Radio For Every Vehicle Act” proposed in Congress. It would mandate that all vehicles have an AM radio for use in national emergencies. I’m conflicted on the topic, because I work for an AM radio station and the move by automakers to take AM out of cars does affect us…but I also know that AM is used by the federal government for dissemination of emergency information, and that transcends any professional conflict of interest we have.
Automakers claimed it was because AM suffered interference from electric vehicles; fixing that was actually quite simple, as it turns out. But we suggested previously that this had little to do with EV interference on AM radios, and much more to do with the profit motive of automakers. If you have over-the-air radio—AM and FM—then you get information and entertainment for free, and automakers want you to pay for the content through satellite and streaming services they get money to promote.
And we further suggested that the way you can tell it’s all a cash grab by automakers is when they say FM is too costly to maintain in vehicles; it’s one thing when it’s both AM and FM, but FM alone would not be feasible in their eyes.
Despite the congressional effort to mandate AM came word this week that one automaker is dumping FM radio from cars, too.
Tesla is eliminating FM radio from its new Model 3 and Model Y Standard vehicles. Tesla phased out AM tuners as early as five years ago, and now becomes the first major automaker to remove over-the-air free radio entirely.
The “AM Radio For Every Vehicle Act” has bipartisan support—more than 300 House co-sponsors and a Senate supermajority that would require automakers to include AM radio as a standard safety feature, no different than seat belts.
But as with all things in Congress…nothing’s happening, and hasn’t for months, even before the current Congress was sworn in earlier this year.
Again, I’m a fan of less government. But this appears to be sacrificing safety for profit and the government does have a role to play.
Although as far as current impact…is anyone buying a Tesla these days?
