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12 March 2024

Yesterday

Terminal Ambivalence

We Left Our Intrepid Broadcast Radio Lover At This Sentence:

If I had wanted to listen to my local AM broadcast station, I would have needed a different car. The Tesla HAS NO AM RADIO and I NEVER NOTICED!

Neither, Apparently, Had Many Others

It is my small burden and greater pleasure to subscribe to a number of daily so-called Smart Briefs*. These are promulgated by trade journals in the fields in which I work or have interest. They cover sound recording, broadcasting, aviation, electric vehicles, and some physical sciences. Last year I read in the NAB Smart Brief an article about some EVs, including the Teslas, lacking an AM radio. I don't remember the article itself, but just like the word 'awesome' became a 'thing' or a 'meme' goes 'viral,' I had a sudden awakening to this surprising fact. My first reaction was sort of an attenuated 'yikes' as I realized that I was lacking AM and further 'yikes' attenuation as I realized it didn't matter that much, at least to me. Does it matter to anyone? If I, broadcast-aware denizen that I am, hadn't noticed, will others? The Smart Briefs picked up the theme with their usual contradictory screeds and I'll attempt to summarize them later. But, since you're not likely to have been following this issue, your first question has to be WHY? Why not put an AM radio in my Tesla. Unsurprisingly, the answer, no matter on which side of the argument you find yourself, is 'greed'**. And if you satisfy yourself in part with that answer, you also have to also ask why NOW? After all, AM broadcasting started with KDKA in 1920 and passed the century mark in fine-ish fettle four years ago.

Greed

Yes, greed, but maybe not the greed you're thinking of. It's not the cost of adding an AM radio to the rest of the entertainment system in the car. The Tesla S, for example, has 22 speakers and sports a "960-watt audio system." Almost enough! And the cost of adding an AM receiver chip is negligible compared to that audio extravaganza. The New Greed comes in two parts. Part 1 is technical. Electric cars run on electricity. If you've driven under a power line with the radio on, you will have noticed the crackling hum attendent upon your transit. In effect, the battery, computer, and motors in your EV are little radio transmitters and make the same sort of noise, although it's even more annoying since the pitch varies with the motor speed.

But the most important aspect of the New Greed is something you've surely noticed in your non-vehicular life: Subscriptions. Television used to be free, using a rooftop antenna or a pair of "rabbit ears" on top of the television set. (Behold at the left, one rabbit ear masquerading as an AM radio antenna.) Now, you are overwhelmed with monthly and annual subscriptions for Netflix, Disney, Apple, and so many other forms of data and entertainment. Even this blog, which used to be created by Microsoft Front Page freeware, now requires a software subscription from Adobe to generate new items since Front Page has been "deprecated." Everyone is getting rich (unless they're you or me) on subscriptions. The car makers don't want to be left behind!

Tesla is in the forefront of the New Greed craze. A subscription is required to listen to the SiriusXM radio. What about navigation map updates? Subscription! What about "Full Self Driving"? Let's not always see the same hands. That, incidentally, is $199 per month unless you pay $12,000 to buy it outright. Do you want your heated seats to work? Send a check to Mercedes. For car manufacturers, AM radio is the carborundum in the axle grease. It's free to all; there's no way to charge for an unencrypted over-the-air broadcast signal colloquially called "ancient modulation."

The EV makers have, or claim to have, an excuse to leave out the AM radio: The noise generated by the electric components makes AM irritating, weak, distorted, noisy, crackly, and just plain unusable. True? Of course not. It requires better engineering, careful shielding of the electric and electronic components, proper antenna placement, and possibly clever software. And yes, this does cost money, probably a lot more than does the AM receiver chip itself. Would it raise the price of the vehicle? Perhaps; I'm not privy to their cost estimates.

I Tried an Experiment

The antenna at left is attached to an actual AM (and FM and shortwave) radio, below. I replaced its 20-year-old batteries, put it on the passenger seat of the Tesla, tuned to KAZM—a strong local station, and fired up the Tesla. (Well, stepped on the brake and fondled the touchscreen.) There was no change in the radio signal—no noise, crackling, etc. The next step was to tune to a different frequency with no resident signal. Still no increase in noise! It appears, at least in this minimal test, that Tesla has already performed the engineering to allow AM radio to function. Good Tesla! Is this true of earlier models? Other manufacturer's models? Or even this vehicle? Had I unlimbered one of my beautiful spectrum analyzers and been a bit more critical in my testing, I could provide an answer, but it wouldn't matter since I'm not planning to install a radio.

The Arguments

Notwithstanding the tentative results of the above experiment, the noise and interference argument isn't invalid. It is somewhat difficult and not free to ensure AM radio compatibility with EVs. What, then, to do to convince manufacturers to include AM? Unlimber the government, that's what! There are plenty of gored oxen on both sides of the argument.

Despite my past life and career, I can afford to be casual about it all. Plenty of others cannot. For examples:

Radio station owners! If you spent vast sums on your AM station and your main audience is in cars, you'd be apoplectic as your audience dwindles, arguably and in part as a result of government policy. Who will buy advertising if there's nobody listening?
Radio station employees, programmers, and workers. Lots of specialized skills looking for work at a diminishing number of employers.
NAB, the National Association of Broadcasters! Their job is to encourage and promote broadcasting and to represent broadcast media owners.
Emergency services—weather, police, disaster recovery. They argue with much validity that AM radio is the one universally accessible service to warn people of danger.
And a smattering of AM fans—people who just enjoy listening to those clear-channel stations thousands of miles away and those local stations that, like KAZM, play "mellow mountain music."

Their letter to the FCC is simple: Dear Government: AM Radio is essential. Please mandate that all manufacturers include it in their entertainment system!

Of course the pro-AM arguments above are countered thus:

AM Radio is obsolete. Not just EVs but the whole modern electronic environment is inimical to AM radio. All the electronic gadgets people own interfere and hardly anyone anywhere can still receive AM.
An internet or cell phone connection is more efficient! Everybody has one and, keeps it with him. It works in vehicles, and provides personalized alerts.
Yes, AM radio station owners will suffer, but they can stream their signals, and besides, nothing lasts forever.
You're an AM fan? You can listen to all those stations since they stream on the internet, not just a few clear-channels. And from all over the world.

None of these arguments mention that you have to pay to subscribe.

Dear Government: Don't mess with progress! AM is obsolete, and the substitutes are far more universal and effective. Don't raise the cost of our vehicles for the poor consumer!

Apart from the oxymoronic salutation, both "letters" have valid points, How would I resolve the problem? I don't know! I want my radio and I'm not keen on government mandates. What's a poor, ambivalent blogger to do?

* I don't know if that's a trademarked term, but why take chances when I have a surfeit of capital letters?
** Greed is good! Or maybe it isn't. If you find yourself distracted by asterisks, just keep reading and ignore this aside.

Richard Factor

NP:

"Inside of Me"

Solid State Logic

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Another case of "I swear this wasn't planned." it's a ham radio T-shirt exhorting the Congress to adopt PRB-1, a bill requiring HOA communities to allow amateur radio antennas despite the community bylaws.

No ambivalence for me here! I was for the bill and still am in favor of whatever equivalent may be proposed in the future.

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