Hippies and NPR

Fun fact: The AM in “AM/FM radio” stands for “amplitude modulation” and FM stands for “frequency modulation”. What this means is that the information is actually encoded within the radio waves differently for each. AM relies on the height of the waves (i.e. amplitude) and FM relies on the width of the waves (i.e. frequency).

Another fun fact: Electric motors utilize an electromagnet that turns on and off thousands of times a second. This has the side effect of creating radio frequency interference due to the little electric signal with every pulse. This affects AM radio since the resulting noise affects amplitudes of radio signals.

What does all this amount to? Electric cars are killing AM radio:

Rather than field complaints about lousy reception, some auto makers, including BMW AG , have dropped AM radios from their electric vehicles. Honda Motor Co. no longer offers them on its hybrid electric Acura NSX sports car.

Tesla Inc. has phased out AM radio from all current production models, including its Model S, which used to offer it. Instead, the company offers an internet-based radio service as well as FM radio, optional HD radio and Bluetooth connectivity for streaming from smartphones.

This is incredibly poetic. You could say this is a perfect reflection of the current zeitgeist. Move fast and break things, progress begets progress, etc. etc.

In fact, I was briefly worried for my former station’s future until I quickly remembered that they broadcast on FM (as well as this nifty service called the internet), so all is well in my world. Not that we had many listeners on FM though. I honestly don’t think I knew of anyone at UVa who owned an analog radio outside of their cars. Even then, we would just plug in our phones or use Bluetooth to stream music. However, my co-DJ often had this idyllic image in his head that even if one person, somewhere out there, happened to be flipping through stations while driving through Charlottesville, caught our station for a second, and we introduced them to a new song, we had successfully done our job as radio DJs. The likelihood of that scenario ever actually having happened is slim, but it’s still nice to think about.

However, as shocking as it may be, the demographics of my undergraduate university isn’t representative of the rest of the nation:

The audience for terrestrial radio remains steady and high: In 2016, 91% of Americans ages 12 or older listened to terrestrial radio in a given week… a figure that has changed little since 2009.

Nielsen lists news/talk/information among the most listened-to radio formats; in 2016, 9.6% of radio listeners tuned in to a news/talk/information station during any 15-minute period during the day.

I’m actually a little surprised at how high the numbers are but the point I’m trying to make is: radio is still relevant. It’s free, it’s easily accessible, and it’s still an important source of news for a nonzero number of people.

The case can be made that AM radio is going to be abandoned in the future anyway (it’s an older standard) and all it needs is some catalyst, i.e. one company brave enough to actually pull the trigger. Apple discontinued including CD/DVD drives in MacBook Pros in 2012 for example, and the floppy drives in the iMac in 1998. In response I would say, Apple made these decisions only after they felt confident enough that there existed another standard that could support the same features. In 1998, it was the CD drive and in 2012, it was online downloads, the Mac App Store, and iTunes/other streaming services. In this specific example though, I’m just not confident that the car manufacturers underwent the same amount of deliberation. This seems like another example (albeit, a pretty funny one) in a long list of new technologies that’s inadvertently caused collateral damage because of flippant implementation.

Now, I’m not saying that we should protect AM radio by any means. I actually get very annoyed when my car defaults back to the radio whenever I unplug my iPhone and I get hit with a wall of static noise. There’s just something to be said here – Especially so in this day and age when a not-insignificant portion of the populous feels that they are being ignored by greater society while the others continue marching forward in the name of progress without looking back every once in while.