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Ford Adding AM Radio Back Into Vehicle


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3 minutes ago, rmc523 said:

 only time I may tune into an AM station ie for sports.

Pretty much the only time I intentionally listen to AM or FM is during football season, to listen to the radio calls. The only other times I hear them is when Sync loses its mind and switches back to FM static (usually at a deafening volume) on its own. 

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I think it depends on where you are and what you want to listen to.......but there are more listening to AM than what some of these articles are stating..

 

https://news.radio-online.com/articles/b17411/Over-82-Million-Americans-Listen-to-AM-Radio-Monthly#:~:text=Cumulus Media | Westwood One's Audio,of Ear" and Advertiser Perceptions.

 

 

Cumulus Media | Westwood One's Audio Active Group has released a new comprehensive analysis of listening data from the Nielsen Fall 2022 Survey, MRI Simmons, Edison Research's "Share of Ear" and Advertiser Perceptions. It reveals 82 million reasons to keep AM radio in vehicles, illustrating why AM/FM radio is still the queen of the road as 82,346,800 Americans listen to AM radio monthly.

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26 minutes ago, 70 Stang said:

I think it depends on where you are and what you want to listen to.......but there are more listening to AM than what some of these articles are stating..

 

https://news.radio-online.com/articles/b17411/Over-82-Million-Americans-Listen-to-AM-Radio-Monthly#:~:text=Cumulus Media | Westwood One's Audio,of Ear" and Advertiser Perceptions.

 

 

Cumulus Media | Westwood One's Audio Active Group has released a new comprehensive analysis of listening data from the Nielsen Fall 2022 Survey, MRI Simmons, Edison Research's "Share of Ear" and Advertiser Perceptions. It reveals 82 million reasons to keep AM radio in vehicles, illustrating why AM/FM radio is still the queen of the road as 82,346,800 Americans listen to AM radio monthly.

 

You missed this part

Finally, MRI Simmons shows: Ford owners represent 20% of all U.S. AM radio listeners and are more likely to listen to AM radio.

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7 minutes ago, silvrsvt said:

 

You missed this part

Finally, MRI Simmons shows: Ford owners represent 20% of all U.S. AM radio listeners and are more likely to listen to AM radio.

I read that part.....and should have quoted it.

Kind of makes sense with Ford being the #1 Brand for a while.

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Most of the posts in this thread are antidotal rather than dealing with facts. To the people who did try to post actual listening numbers, thank you. Although I didn't check your sources. As far as Ford's decision or future government policy, it should come down to two things. What percentage of people are listening to AM radio daily or weekly, and geographically what percentage of roads in America are not covered by 4G cellular or FM radio? This would give you a good idea how important AM radio is for emergency broadcasts. I would love to see those numbers from objective sources. This is definitely more an issue for rural areas and older listeners. But hard numbers would make arguments and decisions much more clear.

 

I suspect as time goes by AM will become less and less important. It would seem the incentive to eliminate it is interference from EV electric motors which are much bigger than electric motors in ice cars. I assume there's cost involved in shielding those motors so they don't interfere with the AM receiver. Ultimately this is about dollars and not anything else. At some point the cost won't make sense anymore to please a smaller and smaller percentage of customers who either prefer listening to AM radio or have no other coverage on some of the roads they drive. 

Edited by Tico
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18 hours ago, Tico said:

Most of the posts in this thread are antidotal rather than dealing with facts. To the people who did try to post actual listening numbers, thank you. Although I didn't check your sources. As far as Ford's decision or future government policy, it should come down to two things. What percentage of people are listening to AM radio daily or weekly, and geographically what percentage of roads in America are not covered by 4G cellular or FM radio? This would give you a good idea how important AM radio is for emergency broadcasts. I would love to see those numbers from objective sources. This is definitely more an issue for rural areas and older listeners. But hard numbers would make arguments and decisions much more clear.

 

I suspect as time goes by AM will become less and less important. It would seem the incentive to eliminate it is interference from EV electric motors which are much bigger than electric motors in ice cars. I assume there's cost involved in shielding those motors so they don't interfere with the AM receiver. Ultimately this is about dollars and not anything else. At some point the cost won't make sense anymore to please a smaller and smaller percentage of customers who either prefer listening to AM radio or have no other coverage on some of the roads they drive. 

 

Valid points for discussion especially regarding AM radio station ratings. As a media buyer for 35 years, I can share what it's really like for automotive related accounts, dealerships in particular, advertising agencies, etc. and how they make their media placement decisions. Like the Nielsen rating for television, Arbitron ratings are the source for radio stations and the station account executives out selling advertising time to advertisers. The media representatives use the ratings to show their stations in a favorable light compared to their competition using ratings for the various day parts (Morning Drive, Mid-Day, Afternoon Drive, Evening and Overnight). The ratings information is available broken down by the market, times, demographics, specific programs, etc. Only station subscribers to Arbitron can provide ratings information to clients and those stations pay subscription fees in the tens of thousands of dollars per year. The major ratings updates are done on a quarterly basis.   

 

Over the years, I made a lot of arguments about the validity of the ratings. The markets have become totally fragmented by the impact of CD's, cellular phones, SiriusXM, streaming apps and every other factor that distract drivers. The strongest dayparts for listernership are the AM and PM Drive when commuters are driving to and from work with a focus on personality hosted programs to draw listeners and the corresponding ratings. AM radio was dying years ago but helped to a minor extent with the advent of AM Stereo which was never going to solve AM radio's loss in audience to FM. AM station management finally concentrated their programming on news/talk, supported by cost effective syndicated programming. 

 

The problem with the ratings driven resources is that the ratings don't accurately reflect the true numbers of actual listeners. The radios may be on, but it doesn't mean that the radio, AM or FM, is actually being heard due to the tremendous volume of cell phone conversations and other distractions taking place, at least in those areas with adequate cellular coverage. AM succeeds being news driven along with its inherent range advantage over FM. And AM stations in many markets have more local staff dedicated to news gathering. AM's audience may continue to decline with the development of new technology but is still important in many markets and areas, especially the more rural areas.

Edited by ice-capades
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  • 2 weeks later...

Ford Backed Group to Tell House AM Radio Not Needed in Cars

https://fordauthority.com/2023/06/ford-backed-group-to-tell-house-am-radio-not-needed-in-cars/

 

2024 Mustang_FordAuthority.com.jpg

 

Ford Motor Company stirred up a proverbial hornet’s nest recently when the automaker decided to ditch AM radio functionality in the 2023 Ford F-150 Lightning and 2024 Ford Mustang, and later announced that it would be following suit in most all of its modelssave for commercial vehicles – in both the U.S. and Canada. This move not only drew the ire of customers that still use and enjoy AM radio, but also a host of lawmakers concerned that its removal might impact emergency broadcast situations, prompting some to introduce a bill requiring automakers to retain this functionality. That pushback seemingly worked, as Ford CEO Jim Farley recently announced that the automaker will be retaining AM radio in its 2024 model year vehicles after all, but the Ford-backed lobby group Alliance for Automotive Innovation (AIA) is now arguing that this feature isn’t necessary either, according to Automotive News.

 

The AIA is expected to make this argument during an upcoming hearing hosted by the House’s Subcommittee on Communications and Technology to discuss the proposed bill called the AM for Every Vehicle Act, which aims to direct the NHTSA to issue a rule requiring automakers to keep AM radio in new vehicles at no extra cost to consumers.

Edited by ice-capades
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1 hour ago, ice-capades said:

Ford Backed Group to Tell House AM Radio Not Needed in Cars

https://fordauthority.com/2023/06/ford-backed-group-to-tell-house-am-radio-not-needed-in-cars/

 

2024 Mustang_FordAuthority.com.jpg

 

Ford Motor Company stirred up a proverbial hornet’s nest recently when the automaker decided to ditch AM radio functionality in the 2023 Ford F-150 Lightning and 2024 Ford Mustang, and later announced that it would be following suit in most all of its modelssave for commercial vehicles – in both the U.S. and Canada. This move not only drew the ire of customers that still use and enjoy AM radio, but also a host of lawmakers concerned that its removal might impact emergency broadcast situations, prompting some to introduce a bill requiring automakers to retain this functionality. That pushback seemingly worked, as Ford CEO Jim Farley recently announced that the automaker will be retaining AM radio in its 2024 model year vehicles after all, but the Ford-backed lobby group Alliance for Automotive Innovation (AIA) is now arguing that this feature isn’t necessary either, according to Automotive News.

 

The AIA is expected to make this argument during an upcoming hearing hosted by the House’s Subcommittee on Communications and Technology to discuss the proposed bill called the AM for Every Vehicle Act, which aims to direct the NHTSA to issue a rule requiring automakers to keep AM radio in new vehicles at no extra cost to consumers.

It seems to be much ado about nothing. I don't think we need a Congressional act to ensure America Coast to Coast remains available in your vehicle. It just seems to me that, while a mfr probably may not lose many sales by eliminating  AM, but that it may add to the things they don't like about the vehicle.There are some of us folks that enjoy AM talk shows while driving. Professional and local sports are not alway available online or FM, and there are many AM stations adopting a foreign language format. A cursory Google search reveals that an automotive AM/FM receiver chip costs about $4, an FM-only chip is around $2.25.These are retail prices for individual orders. Quantities of a thousand or more of either are less than a dollar. There is already an antenna, amplifier and speaker network in the vehicle which would remain sans AM capability. What would be the effect on overall sales of saving ~50¢ a vehicle this way?

Edited by Chrisgb
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2 hours ago, silvrsvt said:

 

2.3 million vehicles sold in 2022

 

Cost savings in materials would be $1,150,000 plus any additional engineering costs. 

That would be passed to the consumer.  It’s not as if they are going to eat that cost, and I’m sure they weren’t passing that $.50 savings to the consumer.  They like to delete a lot of things from their vehicles, but interestingly their vehicle prices seem to keep going up, not down.   

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