EVs May Have Helped Kill AM Radio But Congress Is Bringing It Back

[mahatmakanejeeves]

NEWS
EVs May Have Helped Kill AM Radio But Congress Is Bringing It Back

BY GREG POGGIALI JULY 21, 2025 2:25 PM EST

After a century riding shotgun, AM radio is being ghosted by cars that claim to be the future. BMW, Tesla, Volkswagen, and other brands quietly yanked the old-but-reliable radio band from their EVs, blaming the racket thrown off by their electric motors. Ford even tried to dump AM across its entire lineup — until a public-safety pile-on forced a U-turn.

Now Congress has twirled the tuner back to 540 kHz and cranked the volume: the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act of 2025 would order the Department of Transportation to make AM receivers standard kit in every new passenger car. After passing through the House and Senate with bipartisan support, carmakers will have six years to sort out the static.

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[KPN]

1. The rightwing owns AM airwaves. Have you ever tuned through the

AM band while on a long drive over the past 30 years?! Hundreds of stations — 80% of them Christian broadcast or radical rightwing talking heads. Of course this Congress would try to mandate AM receivers in all vehicles. But bipartisan support?!! What the fuck Democrats????!!! Pounding the nails in our own coffin?!

[Auggie]

3. I want live sports

[KPN]

4. Yesh, I understand that. Me too -- about the only time I actually use AM anymore.

But even for that, I’ve found Sirius to be a good option … at least for professional sports and some college. I tried a free trial period, liked it especially for sports, but cancelled at the end of the ttisl period. They offered it to me for about 1/4 to 1/3 of the regular subscription and I’ve hsd it for that price for several years since.

[msongs]

2. would be nicer to offer having am as a choice.....and bring back the cd players please

[Mike 03]

5. As someone who loved AM radio at a really young age, including all news and talk stations,

I grieve for what AM radio was in the early 80s. But there are still a handful of fantastic all news radio stations in this country, many of them CBS stations (legendary KCBS in San Francisco, KNX in Los Angeles). I do not think we've seen the end of the usefulness of AM radio, and it's not just for people in cars.

The other point I think is important is that many cars receive the NOAA weather radio bands, consisting of 7 channels that give the weather forecast and crucial alerts during inclement weather. I can't overstate how important those stations are to some of us during particular times of the year. So I really don't want to see AM radio scuttled. And if it were to be vanquished, that would provide this toxic administration with one more excuse to nuke NOAA WX radio.