It’s not just that it’s more reliable in a emergency, rural areas still don’t have great cell service, like there are seriously places that have very little Internet bandwidth at best. I was in crash and had to go 5 miles down the highway to actually get service to call the highway patrol. The area I live in has…

They should have more clearly presented it as a Civil Defense issue, which it is, instead of relating it to baseball and, I’m guessing, religious stations that are afraid of the Reverend not being able to afford his Rolex and lakehouse.

And it’s fair to ask the question if you don’t understand, but this is why we don’t make reactionary decisions based on information we don’t understand. Public Safety, like any good system should have backups that are extremely reliable, and if anything, just more and more and more different types of backups. AM fits…

Congress: “Every pair of pants must be outfitted with an AM radio!  Didja know cellphones don’t work during zombie hurricanes?”

Generally speaking, if you’ve lost power, your car still works.

It’s just so exhausting to have to explain this over and over, isn’t it? The entire g-d point of having something like AM radio around is that cell phones won’t fucking work during a true disaster/emergency, yet people keep shouting “yOu CaN juSt dO iT On YOuR PHoNe!!! It’s as ridiculous as someone arguing that it’s…

AM works in areas that higher-frequency transmitters won’t: mountainous and rural regions are the most obvious. Think about how far a single AM frequency goes compared to FM.

Can I ask why?

I’m of the firm belief that AM radio is important and to be preserved. Not everyone has a cell phone, not everyone has access to reliable charging and reliable income to pay the monthly bill, but everyone needs access to information on severe weather or other disasters. Plus, as union-hardrolls pointed out, AM radio…

It’s typical for cell phones to become useless in many emergency situations, especially with events like natural disasters. AM has much greater coverage and dependability when it comes to critical information and updates. Not being the mainstream way during regular day to day activity doesn’t mean it’s not a vital…

Hurricane zones disagree with relying on cell phones. Just a few months ago, the entire Houston area lost power for 3-10 days, depending on the location. That included major losses in cell service and at least 1 cable provider going down as far away as Austin. AM radio still worked. Tons of people in hurricane areas…

The Center for Automotive Research concluded in 2023 that the proposed law would cost automakers an additional 3.8 billion dollars between now and 2030.

It wouldn't be possible to fit it into a cell phone because of the necessary antenna.

I used to have a cell phone that had an FM radio tuner in it, but it only worked if you plugged in a pair of headphones, because it used the headphones wire as the antenna. Phones don't come with headphones jacks anymore, though.

Technologically, AM radio is probably the cheapest, most robust way to reach the most people quickly.

If they want to keep AM for public safety, they can pick one frequency and reserve it across the United States. Clear out 5 KHz of the best spectrum and treat them like the EBS where you can activate it in affected areas via a few 50-100 kW antennas. Use it for regional emergency weather alerts, national security…

Agreed. The fact that nearly nobody has an AM radio anywhere but in their car and that it might be the last lifeline in the event of something tragic - it seems like a reasonable expectation that all cars would continue to have it.

AM radio turns any night behind the wheel into a trip.

I’m of the belief that it should stay for public safety stations and weather notifications.

The driver accidentally engaged Cars & Coffee mode