Is AM radio dead? Tesla thinks so!

Is AM radio dying? If you ask Tesla, it's already dead. But what does that mean for the hundreds of local AM radio stations across the US?
Mentioned in this video (some links are affiliate links):
- Earlier video on the Retio retro nixie tube clock/radio: • Dad tests the Retio (r...
- Open Circuits book: amzn.to/3Db2ftQ
Support me on Patreon: / geerlingguy
Sponsor me on GitHub: github.com/sponsors/geerlingguy
Merch: redshirtjeff.com
Main Channel: / jeffgeerling
Contents:
00:00 - Is AM Radio Dead?
00:48 - Retio AM disaster
01:47 - Why is AM so noisy?
04:03 - Why keep AM alive?
05:22 - Tearing down the Retio
06:30 - A whole lotta hash
08:06 - Content is king
08:40 - Indoor solar?

[@sepposyXIV]

The difference between analog and digital circuit engineers is that the analog circuit engineers know when they are building a radio transmitter.

[@zyeborm]

Nah, they know *that* they are building an antenna ;-) everything is an antenna lol.

[@BrekMartin]

@@zyeborm Every oscillator is a transmitter, and yes it’s a thing EEs are aware of.

[@zyeborm]

@@BrekMartin many of them don't design circuit boards like they know it

[@antilogism]

@@zyeborm I seen a few of those. HDMI seems to be the most challenging to get under the CISPR 22 limits. It doesn't help that the HDMI cable makers treat it like plumbing.

[@paulstubbs7678]

Many many years ago when I purchased my first computer (8 bit Z80 based) I noticed it had a tendency to annoy radio's, once I had the lid off and probed a zero volt circuit board with the positive probe of my old analogue multimeter, the negative lead just laying on the table, however I got a fair deflection on the meter - kind of scary.

[@neil2402]

AM radio is still around in Australia (as well as FM and DAB+). It's mostly what I listen to in the car. With so much remote country, AM is the only thing that can go the distance!

[@DatsunBloke7357]

I personally listen to a lot of 4am in North Queensland

[@hgfhghghgfhfghgfhghg538]

Am is dead in oz they shut down the abc shortwave station theres so much noise now on all the amateur bands from cheap Chinese sola inverters thats its near impossible to hear anything

[@neil2402]

@@hgfhghghgfhfghgfhghg538 The video is referring to medium wave AM rather than shortwave, but I agree with you, the noise on the bands these days is pretty bad.

[@nazigrammar9728]

Are you allowed to travel about 1km away from ur cage, u fcking slaves? Or u r getting ur 10th "booster" already in ur fcking ghetto???

[@caturlifelive]

Agreed Neil, in Bali and Java also still use AM Radio

[@wasakawakawaka2028]

I remember as a kid, tuning into the AM dial late at night and hearing radio broadcasts from the other end of the continent. Even Mexico, and I live in Canada. It was wonderful!

[@SnakeBush]

People do this all night eslecially CB and Ham folks. Signals go long at night

[@wasakawakawaka2028]

@@viktormadman 😆yeah I’m pretty old but I’m not a hundred yet. AM is still in use in the US and Canada, although not as much as it used to be 40 years ago.

[@thecigaddict]

@@viktormadman some countries in Europe are still using am but it’s small amounts

[@thecigaddict]

@@viktormadman and am radio is never dead in Europe due to SSB radio

[@billyring9803]

@@viktormadman we have a few still in Ireland and the bbc also has am still

[@PetesGuide]

I grew up listening to a nuclear physicist/electrical engineer hosting talk radio, nights, on a 50,000 watt AM station, and one of the stories he told a few times was him growing up in a rural area, and seeing the local cows listening to the local country radio station, courtesy of the barbed wire fence.

[@redstickham6394]

Cool story. That actually sounds like it might have been a good program. Don't have stuff like that on the air anymore.

[@mntliferdave]

Sounds like you were listening to "Dr. Bill" on KGO. I loved that guy.

[@PetesGuide]

@@mntliferdave Oh hell yes! I’m going to make you jealous, unfortunately. I had the great honor of becoming good friends with him, my childhood hero. Got invited to his secret hideaway cabin, got to sit in his squeaky chair in the cabin studio, he taught me how to drive a D8, he used to fax things I wrote to uncomfortably important people’s official fax machines. Spent more time with him than my own dad, so losing him hurt like motherfucking hell. Got to do all that because I started a fan website for him that turned into something interesting. One of these days I hope to carry on his legacy.

[@dfirth224]

@@mntliferdave I also listened to "Dr. Bill" on KGO for years. He even answered questions from kids who called in. Unfortunately KGO recently dumped their format again and is now a gambling station. Fortunately I recorded several KGO programs on tape over the years and can now listen to the digital files.

[@Ralzone]

​@@dfirth224 can you upload them to youtube? i would love to listen to it

[@atarihotel]

I totally understand how bad noise is to AM, I get high noise on all the HF ham bands, but I get excited when the power goes out, I get to my radio as fast as I can and put it on battery power so I can actually hear stuff. it drops from S9+ to S0.

[@Veso266]

What about if you turn your own breakers off and see how much noise you have? A lot of times you are your own cullprit for your noise You buy a new small furnace, it for some strange reason makes noise Try it out, you will be so much hapier after that BTW, here is what my stupid modern furnace does to the radio: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZqqXXpavmpxprNU Thats why I put a furnace into the example

[@vk3xe]

Hams, one of the few groups that get excited when there is a power outage

[@lilblackduc7312]

I keep an A.M. radio ready for power outages...

[@jeffkardosjr.3825]

But around here the outages are usually due to a lightning storm where many operators wouldn't operate. And then there's still the RF noise from the supposedly "DC" lightning.

[@atarihotel]

@@Veso266 been there done that. I've long eliminated all sources of RFI noise that I have control over

[@CoreyThompson73]

AM radio stations really killed AM radio. Prior to the 1990s, on an AM/FM combo, the AM station was typically a "full service", 24 hour live format and the FM many times was automated music... In the 1990s, most AM stations seem to make the shift from being local, "full service" to 24/7 nationally syndicated talk radio (large corporations taking over local radio as part of the 1996 Communications Act, likely play into that also), and those stations no longer were the community information hubs they once were. As far as sound quality, 10 Khz channels with CQUAM Stereo sounded really good on a receiver that had an equally wide bandwidth...But broadcasters and receiver manufacturers went narrower band and dropped the C-QUAM... Now broadcasting corporations just see AM radio licenses as a backdoor to "commercial LPFM" operation. The FCC is also to blame for not strictly enforcing Part 15 noise limits on consumer devices. No reason the equipment inside a Tesla can't be filtered to reduce RFI. The traditional internal combustion engine literally has spark gap transmitters firing thousands of times a second, and they are filtered to reduce RFI. If you look at a lot of retro computers, they have extensive RF shielding around them and small capacitors on lines for RF shunting, now you rarely see that, mostly as cost reduction measures (ok, the RF shunt capacitors are no longer there because data lines are shifting at UHF/SHF speeds) ..

[@antilogism]

As for modern lack of shielding, well designed multilayer boards are usually a cheaper way to meet radiated emissions.

[@zyeborm]

Shielding 700Kw of switch mode supply well enough that an AM radio will work well with the antenna placed effectively inside the loop area of the supply would be an interesting challenge.

[@satsuke]

What you are describing would go against Tesla’ s, and most other Web 3.0 disruption based companies design tenants .. which is to push off that cost onto everyone else .. Tesla could build RF emission shielding into their cars, but won’t,. And if they were pushed they’d just say that everybody else needs to design more selective tuners. It’s basically what happened with Light Squares and their interference with GPS signals a decade ago .. they wanted to run LTE on their purchased frequencies, regardless of the fact that consumer GPS receivers would be jammed while in proximity .. the company pushed it off on everybody else to redesign their RF front end

[@WestonP22]

Fun fact: Part 15 has an unintentional radiator exemption for automotive devices. Maybe not quite a free pass, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some use it as an excuse to cut corners.

[@zyeborm]

@@satsuke I didn't say they emitted significantly outside their chassis. I imagine that they do comply with all emi requirements. I said putting an antenna *inside* the dang thing would be difficult. But no, you tell them how trivial it'd be and how evil they are.

[@davidshepherd265]

While I don't listen to AM very often (if ever), I don't want it to die either. Because when SHTF and we lose power, phones, internet, the whole lot, its going to be the one thing (apart from CB and HAM radio) thats relatively easy to re-establish with the grid down.

[@hikaru-live]

Fellow ham here. AM has great range and the receivers are easy to construct, that is why it is good for emergencies. 73 de KC1PQO aka W1/BH4FHO.

[@stephensilva3601]

I got my HAM license in 2018 after my whole area was on fire in 2017. We also had fires in 2018 and I think 2019. We lost TV, phone, internet, and only had AM until the towers went down. The AM station was the only thing broadcasting what was going on. I got my HAM license incase AM goes down too. The repeater is on the other side of the county so it stayed up and running during it all.

[@joecummings1260]

Actually if you can work 160 meters. In an emergency you could be an AM broadcast station. I had a 160 meter dipole built out of 12 gauge building wire less than 15 feet off the ground that I had to zig and zag with to make it fit on the property. At night I regularly talked to a lot of guys within about a 500 mile radius. And we'd rag chew for a few hours. And that was only using 100 watts

[@Minarreal]

When I was a child, I always poked fun at my dad because he listened to the "radio for old folks", with all the crackling noises and stations mostly dedicated to podcasts and news coverage. This video took me back, I really miss it, in a way. And I say miss because the band is almost unlistenable in my city nowadays. Props to your father, he knows his stuff.

[@nolesy34]

And word to his mom

[@electrictroy2010]

They didn’t have “podcasts” over AM or FM radio when you were a child. They didn’t even have iPods yet (where the term podcast originated) .

[@electrictroy2010]

“radio program” or “talk radio” was the term used.

[@nolesy34]

@@electrictroy2010 yup and your hosts were either right wing traditionalists or shock jocks and when the music is all you wanted sometimes they just wouldn't shut it... so my music was the rumbling of a v8

[@frankbohnen2347]

I remember that AM problem very vivid. In fact, I used it for my advantage with my TI59. I placed an AM Radio next to it and dialed until I "heard" it computing. When the sound got steady, it was done. 😊

[@BiGprototype]

so cool

[@JaredConnell]

It's like the classic story of one of the first things that the first pc, the altair 8080 was made to do. Before they had any input or output devices for it and it was just the front panel of switches and leds, someone found out that you could program it with the switches to have it perform specifically timed loops and it would alter the noise of a nearby am radio to make it play a tune and when they demonstrated it to the homebrew computer club there was a standing ovation!

[@yukimoe]

I remember doing that with my TI-83+ as well, turns out anything you send on the link port you can also hear it on an AM radio, so you can hear the audio programs without having to buy one of those 1/10" to 1/8" jack adapters, that was pretty cool

[@grewdpastor]

In the 80's and 90's we had this problem with neurophyiological measuring equipment. I vividly remember the phenomenon of radio reception in EMG studies. The patient functioned as an antenna for the nearest transmitter: in one hospital it was a nearby AM transmitter for pop music and in another the beeper system of that hospital.

[@davidedgar7338]

I had old pentium with 100 MHz fab. That was interesting over classic FM. Also 100 MHz. I knew when Linux kernel finished unpacking to ram. Haha.

[@ibnewton8951]

Crystal radio enthusiasts depend on the continued success of AM radio for listening enjoyment.

[@charleslambert3368]

that reminds me i need to refurbish that crystal set that my grandfather had when he was young and see if I can pick up World Service. It's just a copper coil wound around a wooden cylinder and a galena cat's whisker.

[@spaceflight1019]

That crystal radio will still work long after every battery in the world is dead...

[@book3100]

If you can find crystals.

[@spaceflight1019]

@@book3100 In these radios a 1N34A diode replaced the galena crystal decades ago.

[@tinetannies4637]

All 4 of them

[@robbytheremin2443]

Just discovered you and subscribed. I was the engineer for WMBH and KKUZ here in Joplin back in the 80s. We were actually transmitting stereo AM back then. AM is my preferred mode for broadcast reception and on the ham bands. Rob W0TTM

[@imark7777777]

I think there's still a place for AM if anything it means that manufacturers actually have to design their products to meet a standard of electronic noise. But also I found out AM works underground! Biggest problem with AM is it ended up being only talk, of a recent scan of my dial I found out there is now an AM station that I can receive that has music on it and it doesn't sound that bad. Who is wish I had the time and attention span to enjoy more radio.

[@dfirth224]

What killed AM radio was the FCC in 1962 mandated that most radios had to have BOTH AM and FM bands starting in 1965. That's when people discovered music sounded much better on FM. By 1980 there was almost no music left on AM stations, except in rural areas. Many people may be surprised to learn that NPR stations in mountainous areas are on AM, not FM. FM signal is blocked by hills, etc.

[@gklinger]

I will never stop listening to and enjoying AM radio. Too many fond memories of DXing as a kid and getting excited to grab a signal from some far away city. AM radio is special. Also, Jeff's dad is as nice as Jeff. I'm not surprised. What a wonderful family.

[@MrPatdeeee]

Sadly, You might hear NO AM Radio at all, in the future. Because: IF electric Car stops having AM; the AM stations' advertisers will NO longer pay. Sad, but true. Secondly, the frequencies of AM; is really WANTED by governments and all other things; to use those AM Radio frequencies. For what it's worth...The AM "band" is 540 Kilo-Hrz to 1700 Kilo-Hrz. And those frequencies are wanted by MANY Companies, etc, now. And they'll get it. Because the reason they so want AM band; is it can be heard far difference*; of any other band. Believe it or not. Sad. * Especially at night.

[@johnabbott9073]

Many years ago when I lived in Wheaton, MD - about a mile from the WTOP-AM transmitter, I could hear their signal on my phone line AND in my bathroom water faucet! I never heard it in my toilet. I was told they had a faulty ground, but it eventually disappeared.

[@richiehoyt8487]

Sounds like you were lucky it didn't melt your fillings, lol! I remember back in the 80's there was a pirate AM radio station less a mile from where I lived, which apparently ran 5kW, which of course for a pirate was huge (you could do that kind of thing in Ireland in those days; around that time there was one putting out 50kW in Dublin, and a little later there was a MILLION Watt 'Border Blaster' on FM!) _Anyway,_ i was in church one Sunday, when right during 'The Consecration of the Host' (probably the 'Holiest' bit of the entire ceremony), what should boom out over the 'Tannoy', only " _... Alright,_ Yeah, You're listening to Mike St. Cool, here on ____ where we play ALL the hits, ALL the Time...!"

[@neville132bbk]

At least he didn't say," Hoc est enim radio meum."

[@georgeetherege8347]

Hey, I lived in Wheaton in the 50's and 60's. In 5th grade, MY DAD GAVE ME A Philmore crystal set. We strung a wire from my bedroom window to a tree in the back yard and got enough of WTOP to hear it through the earpiece across the room. Magic.. grew up, fist job was at WINX in Rockville. After college became chief engineer of WGMS (Washington's classical music station. Stayed in radio for 10 years--during the last peak in its popularity. --- John Foote, now W3GX

[@theboredengineer2947]

AM radio is still a thing in the Philippines as I noticed there's still a handful of people listening to it, even in a major city where I live. It is very useful in getting information post natural disaster such as powerful typhoons and earthquakes where even cellphone towers, internet and even TV stations are fully or partially cut off. I hope it will stay for a while here as it has been helpful to us.

[@warrenpuckett4203]

The Philippines is just a large group of mountains that randomly poke up out of the sea. Not really good for line of site transmission.

[@FrancisLitanofficialJAPINOY]

@@warrenpuckett4203mostly received Chinese AM radio stations at night including CNR on 837 kHz from Taiwan.

[@FrancisLitanofficialJAPINOY]

They still have Shortwave broadcasts too including FEBC and Radyo Pilipinas

[@kevinv6639]

AM stations are big on the Navajo Reservation. AM660 is one of the biggest radio stations that can be picked up across the reservation. Thank you for the information from your video.

[@josephschembri4811]

The beauty of AM radio was always its simplicity. You can build an AM broadcast band radio with little more than a coil of wire, a razor blade, and a pencil. If you want to see how bad it will get - look a bit further up on the HF bands. Broadcasters have abandoned the band and things like powerline adapters pump out so much noise that it makes certain portions of the band unusable.

[@Poodleinacan]

lol I need to look into that. The number of things I could broadcast to random people just browsing through AM bands nearby, if there are any.

[@JorgetePanete]

its*

[@GraveUypo]

to me the beauty of it was always that i can tune in to japanese AM stations at my farm in the middle of nowhere brazil, while i can't tune to any local FM stations there. (japan is almost exactly opposite on the globe to my farm). that isn't much of a problem anymore since i have starlink there now, but still.

[@joewoodchuck3824]

We can blame lack of radiation compliance squarely on the government.

[@pootispiker2866]

​@@joewoodchuck3824Care to back up that claim?

[@TripleH3]

I’m 15 years old in Nashville, TN. Turning 16 in two weeks. I listen to WSM and WLAC on my own time multiple times a week. If I want news, country music, or any other programming, usually WSM and WLAC is my first stop. I can also confirm AM interference. I have an old LG TV in my room hooked up to a UHF indoor antenna. When the TV’s on, AM suffers. When it does get into the night, I do sometimes listen to WGN, WMVP, WABC, have heard KMOX here but haven’t done a “deep dive” into it. AM is a great service and would hate to see it go away.

[@bagnome]

WSM is one of my favorite stations. I get reception all the way down in Louisiana. I'll sit outside in my backyard on a Saturday night with my AM radio and a loop antenna and listen to the Grand Ole Opry. I'll tune in to it over the internet during the day. But when the sun goes down and the signal comes through, I'll tune that AM dial. It's a lot more fun that way.

[@Dayman4o]

@@bagnome I'm from Bulgaria listening to WSM on SDR on the internet, it's my favorite radio station

[@jonathanthomas2449]

Imagine using radio in 2023

[@SuperBoomshack]

@@bagnome During power outages from hurricanes here in Florida, i will listen to AM radio on my Sony Walkman and I actually get WSM and a radio station out of NY city, it's crazy

[@ki5aok]

I'm in Houston and every so often, I can pick up WSM. I remember being really excited the first time I was able to pick it up. I was even more excited when, one night, I was able to pick up WLS in Chicago (WSM was coming in pretty clear that night.) Man, I love seeing wave propagation in action.

[@alanpetrus2064]

I love AM. The crackling, the noise, it's music to my ears. It feels real. Not fake. It's here to stay in my heart.

[@mikeg2491]

I always listened to Rush Limbaugh during my lunch hours for years, he was on my local am and fm station but I always listened on AM because not only did it feel more real, he had a deeper, grumblier tone to his voice that actually sounded like he really did while the FM cut was high pitched or squeaky.

[@wa1ufo]

I agree!

[@AndyNL]

I can't say it better!

[@theotherwalt]

And, you lose the signal when you go under a bridge! (I don't know if that still happens, I remember it as a child)

[@channel91uhf]

@@theotherwalt happens so damn much

[@Super80sMan]

Even as technology progresses, it is always good to have backup systems. That way if one goes down, you can use one of your other options.

[@markusallport1276]

I buy, sell and restore old radios from the early 1900's. Some of those old radios still have a great sound and pull in a good amount of stations at night. Many of those radios have short wave band receivers as well, and it's fun to listen to stations from around the world, even though they are also becoming scarce. I still enjoy the sound of an AM radio, the sound is undeniable. Yes many things today generate amplitudes that interfere with AM signals, but it is still fun to listen to.

[@johnstone7697]

The sound quality of AM stations is crap. A far cry from what it was when I was young. The 5kHz audio bandwidth, the huge amount of compresssion and limiting, and even the digital audio processing taking place in the studios, make for a lousy listening experience.

[@Necatuss]

Do you have a website?

[@spaceranger3728]

They had big speakers, too. Heavy magnets.

[@flynnstone3580]

I use to sit outside at night in my 57 Ford Ranch Wagon and easily tune in stations many states away. Those old car tube radios had the best reception.

[@fjockey1]

@@spaceranger3728 Not before 1940. AC radios before then had electromagnetic speakers, not permanent magnets. It took a lot of voltage to drive them but they were full and rich. The exception was battery operated "farm" radios which used PM's prior to 1940.

[@Zerbey]

I remember as a kid growing up in the UK trying to see how many far off AM stations I could find, frequently I could pick up stuff from Eastern Europe. That's the point really, AM can get through even if no other stations can. Not such a big deal with modern satellite radios, but still important.

[@IdiotRace]

I recently found you can do this in the browser now using websdr

[@DavidB-rx3km]

I would rather listen to an Eastern Europen AM radio station than anything on FM in the UK. It is absolutely dreadful, just the same up to date tpre-teen chart music on every single station, with the same shallow presenters and non stop gambling promotions parading as competitions. I wish FM was dead!

[@dlarge6502]

You managed to find a satellite radio in the UK?

[@fauzirahman3285]

Here in Australia, the population in rural areas are sparse in between the cities and while FM stations are widespread in cities, the AM stations still function as a good backbone to keep the rural towns informed, and helps when there are emergency broadcasts such as bushfires. I don't drive much these days but occasionally I would tune in to the local AM station (even though most of the time these days I would tune in to the internet streaming or digital radio versions of the same station), and the funny thing is that it gets a lot of interference with the tram line in this city. Both have been around for a while so they've had to co-exist.

[@TheScottClifton]

Hey, Joe! I didn’t know you had a KZbin channel until now. I’m glad you tackled this topic. I had a Lincoln MKZ hybrid that was quiet as could be and had a Microsoft SYNC HD radio in it that has a synchronized AM tuner! It was amazing to be directly under an EL track and still not have a ton of noise blasting through it. Not only was the car quiet of noise that allowed me to install a HF Ham Radio in it, they put a good quality radio in the car, too. My Hyundai hybrid I have now is very noisy, however their AM analog and HD radio do work fine in it. It does pick up some noise, but not enough to interfere with even a weak station that I wouldn’t listen to very long anyway. The cars that have eliminated the AM radios in them beg the need to be measured to see if they are FCC compliant. I have noted that vehicles beside or near me at stop lights are a source for noise. The same for signage and other lighting. The less we deal with that, the more trouble we’re going to have as time goes.

[@radijoe]

Hey Scott! Cars seem to be key for all broadcast radio. Your experiences in the car are a lot like mine. I am also fortunate to live on the north side of the metro and KMOX aid particularly strong. But like a radio guy I tune all over the am/fm dial comparing recieve, audio processing, etc. more to come on AM!

[@AlfOfAllTrades]

In Norway, AM has been dead for 40 years at least. FM has been dead for around 10 years, because DAB was supposed to be so much better. I don't listen to radio anymore because of it. I got tired of losing signal everywhere for no apparent reason. Some of the point of maintaining the FM radio here in Norway was to make sure there was as much coverage as possible, for emergency broadcasts EVERYONE (Insert Gary Oldman gif here :) ) could receive. Now, we have spotty coverage, and instead of having a bad but intelligible signal, we have perfect clarity or nothing at all. The excuse was that we were running out of frequencies on the FM, but... we're 7 mill. people and a handful or radio stations... I miss the local FM stations, and I wish we had AM as well. So I listen to radio on the interwebs, and get my FM/AM fix on CB.

[@RidgeRacer]

Samme her :/

[@dasgelbevomei33]

With a decent loop antenna and an airspy hf+ discovery there is still much to hear, even in germany...in the morning i can receive Tennessee..

[@LawpickingLocksmith]

Switzerland had to push back the FM turn off as there are still heaps of cars on the road with only DAB and no plus so they are stuck in silence. Inside tunnels they have perfect FM reception, something that has not yet been completed with DAB. All terrestrial TV transmitters are off and the AM towers removed making room for flawless 3 5G operators with minimal rf radiation exposure.

[@DJTKarlsson]

@@FilooWoj its an informational warfare going on over here in europe.

[@cdl0]

DAB has been abandoned in the Republic of Ireland.

[@johnstraatmann9618]

Personally, I love the “crackle”/static of an AM station, especially while listening to a Cardinals game. Kinda old fashioned, I guess. That being said, if I can get a much better signal on FM or even on an app, I’ll probably listen there; especially on an app since I can pause, rewind, etc. Just my 2 cents.

[@GeerlingEngineering]

There is a certain nostalgia. I remember listening to Cardinals games on the road back when Pujols was in his prime, and every power line would result in a bit of crackle, then pulling in the garage, the game would fade out completely to static, indicating it was time to run inside and watch the rest on TV!

[@radijoe]

You are not alone in liking the sound of AM for baseball.

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

​@@GeerlingEngineering>>> When I was a kid, I occasionally saw the Cards during spring training in my hometown: St. Petersburg, Florida.

[@bigfoottaylor8812]

​@@GeerlingEngineeringI built my first AM radio (from a kit) when I was 6yo - it was as if I had tamed magic! It suddenly made sense yet retained it's hold over me. I have loved radio ever since... Technology is advancing at a tremendous rate, what was sci-fi 20 years ago is everyday today - the difference being that fewer people these days care about how/why something works just so long as it simply WORKS! The fact that every Tesla to this day (as far as I am aware) still ships with an AM receiver onboard is rather entertaining - the signal from Tesla's "Superchargers" instructs the vehicle's charging port to open via said modulation! In the event of an emergency the absence of such receiving facility on the onboard entertainment system (in my opinion) reeks of information control - "I'll tell you only IF you need to know". And by that I mean if you pay Mr. Musk for an optional extra - an extra that won't function unless you have a 4G/LTE signal! Although I hear he has satellites for that...!

[@stevepomp]

AM Radio is essential as an inexpensive means to listen to news, talk and music. The distances it covers means more reach and inclusion of people who do not have internet radio streams provided by iHeart or Tune in Radio. AM is 80% what I listen to and love low power local stations and their perspective on current events. Long Live AM.

[@patriciawilson9666]

100%

[@wa1ufo]

Exactly!

[@silvy7394]

Thats the problem though. With things like Starlink not having reliable, fast, internet is a thing of the past. Even in the most remote areas.

[@truantray]

Without AM radio, where would old white men complain about immigrants and liberals? AM is dying because the demo that listens to it is literally dying.

[@JeremyLogan]

Where I am (Alabama), AM is solely reserved for far-right echo chambers and Christian propaganda. It's basically just reserved for the companies who can only just barely eek out enough listeners.

[@SWBF2-2005IsBestStfu]

British person here, and your dad is definitely right and the 'it's about the content" on AM radio as any football fan can attest to, driving away from Saturdays foodball game listening to radio 5 live and that sports report out of the blue music would come on, God that music and James A Gordon's voice is instant nostalgia

[@JRNipper]

Been an engineer in broadcasting all my life and had a few calls from people saying they were hearing our AM station (KSTP) in their electric fan and toasters. BTW, AM radio is all I listen to these days since FM does not have much that's worth hearing.

[@artdonovandesign]

Electric fans??? Are am radio broadcasts what I've been hearing for years in them? I thought it was my imagination.

[@chronobot2001]

AM radio gives me a good early warning of a approaching storm. I am constantly listening to talk radio and when I hear crackling I know a storm is coming.

[@davidlarson4164]

Clicked on the video for the content but being St. Louis born I am so glad to have found this! Had no idea the voice of St. Louis was going to be one of the stars. BTW, your dad is fantastic, he needs his own channel :)

[@Solaceon]

Me too! I'm all the way out in West Virginia now but I'm wearing my favorite Cardinals shirt too. The algorithm nailed it this time.

[@indridcold8433]

AM is not dead. The advent of digital AM radio has saved the band. It sounds as clear as braodcast FM and when you fall out of the digital range, the radio automatically drops back to conventional AM. AM is also many nation's default national emergency communication band because of its extreme range. It requires no networks to get the long range, unlike internet, cellular, and VHF/UHF communication. The aspects of AM broadcast radio being excellent for national emergency communication will likely keep AM broadcast alive a long time. International shortwave broadcasts are still done in AM with some SSB. The infamous citizen's band is mostly AM as well, which is also an excellent communication resource when networks are down. Aircraft communication is all AM ,from the air, because strong FM signals will drown out all distant and weaker FM signals, AM does not do that the same way. Some Satellite communication is done in AM as well. AM receivers are almost childishly easy to make, as well. I think AM may be around a long time. As for Tesla Motors, electric cars are only good for cities and near suburban areas. The battery range, charging time, charging station availability, and lack of portably storage ability, assures electric cars will not be used in far suburban, and rural areas.

[@SonicBoone56]

Tesla's decision was nothing more than a fashion statement. I agree with what you've said.

[@johnstone7697]

HD am has been pretty much a bust. Here in Chicago, there might be one station that still runs it, but that's about it.

[@FarnhamJ07]

@@johnstone7697 Yes; while I want it to be true that AM will be saved, I think it's wishful thinking-just look at Europe. AM died over there many years ago, and despite transitioning to digital, FM is now being shut down by mandate in many countries too; they want to reallocate the band. I'd bet it'll be around here for another 5-10 years at least, but I find it difficult to believe it won't happen here too.

[@Lucas_Antar]

Everything you said signals dead.

[@ThePowerLover]

@@FarnhamJ07 Bro, Eurupe is just a lab for the world...

[@ryanpaaz]

It's still my preferred way to get news and weather. Especially after a good storm. I hope AM stays around forever, its so cool that it's so simple yet still going after almost 100 years.

[@patriciawilson9666]

Yeah me too.Don't worry it's not going anywhere.

[@SSFighter1701]

AM is definitely great during bad weather, I must agree.

[@CewyahAlt]

AM radio is nice in the super rural areas of the US in the rural west where you can't get a single FM station because all of the mountains are blocking most of it

[@jeffkardosjr.3825]

Yeah, like only getting 2 stations in much of the Adirondacks.

[@TinkerTry]

That thoughtful gift to your dad at the end, a very touching moment. Well done sir. I can't believe I didn't find subscribe earlier, love those deep dives into technology!

[@DrHotelMario]

I was DXing the other night in my car. Managed to get WSB in Georgia all the way up in Cumberland, MD. It's fun. I hope it doesn't go away.

[@pabllosee]

In Poland we are still broadcasting channel one of Polish Radio (Program Pierwszy Polskiego Radia also called Jedynka) at 225 khz. In 80's Poland got biggest radio tower in world. It whose designed and build specially for 225 khz.

[@radijoe]

That’s a low frequency! Tall towers for sure. I’ld like to check that out.

[@pabllosee]

@@radijoe RCN Konstantynów whose 646 metres tall. It collapsed during maintenance, due to errors in procedures of changing stabilizing cables. Now the signal is transmitted thru RCN Solec Kujawski.

[@paulsengupta971]

@@radijoe The Long Wave band. Still going in the UK broadcasting Radio 4 on 198kHz but not sure for how long. There are only a handful of long wave stations still going around Europe. Some of them can be picked up in the US at night apparently. There's a facebook group dedicated to it.

[@MrLoretano77]

I used to listen to KMOX at night in Rochester New York on a cheap clock radio back in the eighties and nineties when there wasn't as much EMI. You should do a long form interview with your father I would love to hear his stories and I'm sure many others would as well. And by the way when I buy a new car I make sure it has an AM radio and doesn't suffer from interference. This is very important to me as one of the things I love to do on a long trip at night is tune around to hear what I can hear from far away. Years ago I even had a shortwave receiver in my car for the same purpose. Great video thank you

[@Fireball409]

After seeing this video (this one being the first one of yours) convinced me without any hesitation to become one of your subscribers! I'll soon be 68 years old and I wish I could've stuck with broadcast engineering in my younger days!!!

[@vanpenguin22]

What a cool father/son relationship. I have same with my son, and it is one of the the greatest blessings of my life 🙌

[@ChrisdeHaan]

The biggest is the distance. WJR in Detroit on a cloudy night driving to North Carolina we got WJR in about 2/3s of the way there. If I remember right we had the same thing happen on our way to Florida and picked it up almost all the way to Georgia taking I75.

[@chetpomeroy1399]

I remember back in the Cold War many U.S. AM radio stations were part of CONELRAD/EBS. During the 1970's and 80's, Top-10/Rock & Roll radio stations would simulcast their signals both on their FM *and* AM transmitters. It used to be that local, usually small-town AM radio stations would often be required by the FCC to sign off at sunset.

[@stevenlitvintchouk3131]

Even today, on some Interstate highways, the signs urge you to tune to certain AM radio stations for the official traffic reports. Local weather and traffic reports are the main uses I have for local AM radio.

[@artdonovandesign]

I remember that.

[@xxGravyBabyxx]

Since 2014 when I started driving, my car has always been set to AM 570 Fox Sports LA. My family would always listen to the dodger games when we were on the road so when I finally owned a car, I just kept the station at AM 570. The amount of laughs, discussions about sports, cheering for my LA Dodgers, and knowledge about how to navigate life will remain with me forever. My girlfriend and friends always find it weird when I tell them that I listen to AM radio more than my Spotify account or FM radio lol. I really hope AM is here to stay and hope my future kids will enjoy the radio as much as I did. Great video.

[@someoneelse7629]

Where I live (North Europe) AM has been dead a very long time, but I started my Radio hobby with DX ing on an old radio, then I was lucky when I visited a radio repair shop as a kid, the owner noticed I turned on AM on all radios and tuned around, he asked me if I used to listen to AM at night (when all the far away stations was coming in) and I said yes and told him what I had hear, so he went in a back room and got me a really nice "world radio" that someone left for a repair but didn't pay for, and gave it to me for free. That kicked off a life long hobby for me

[@SethTierney]

I got my dad the same book for his birthday, he read through the entire thing in one sitting! He still goes back and looks through it every so often. It's the perfect coffee table book and a great conversation starter.

[@raven4k998]

am radio is horrible as it's nothing but country music stations so yes

[@JRNipper]

@@raven4k998 Here in the Tampa Bay market there are no country music stations on AM, it's mostly talk, sports and Christian stations along with some Spanish stations. My favorite is the Cuban station on 530, they play what the FM easy listening stations used to play here back in the 60's and 70's . And even though they are over 330 miles away, I can pick them up fairly well all day long.

[@DJ-Daz]

I remember as a kid (in Halifax, UK) listening to French AM broadcasts at night. Just the memory takes me back decades. Travel distance must be nearly 500 miles yet it was clear as a bell.

Droitwich still can be received clearly in Germany or Switzerland. Solt, Droitwich, Madrid and Langenberg even reached as far as America under great conditions.

[@justaguy9224]

@ I once received 198 kHz from Droitwich in northeastern Hungary purely by groundwave propagation around noon with an upper mid-range Sony car radio with a regular car antenna

[@paulsengupta971]

You can still get a load of foreign stations at night. Spain has a load of medium wave stuff down the bottom of the band.

@@paulsengupta971 Hungary, Czech and the UK still also have many stations. For example, you can now actually hear a Spanish station on 1215kHz.

[@cashawX10]

@@paulsengupta971 Haha! Funny who you bump into on KZbin, I think we crossed paths back in Cardiff 20 or so years ago, hope you are doing well ! EDIT: 30 years ago ! Scary....

[@kazprado5356]

Also in India, AM radio stations are still broadcast in Analog AM and DRM+ or Digital Radio Mondiale (both Digital AM, SW, and FM technology from Europe). But in the Philippines, AM Radio was still broadcast in Analog, because both NTC, KBP, and DICT are not yet planned and not yet officially adopted for digital radio broadcasting like experimental broadcast in DRM or HD Radio for AM and FM stations in Mega Manila.

[@FrancisLitanofficialJAPINOY]

HD Radio has only used in Metro Manila for test broadcast: 98.7 DZFE (classical music) on FM and HD1 but 98.7 HD2 for 702 DZAS (Christian radio station) simulcast.

[@markbenton4370]

Thanks SirJeff..Happy belated Christmas...

[@Devo_gx]

It's absolutely incredible that I can sometimes get KSL 1160 Utah in southern Alberta almost as clear as a local station at night. I love scanning the dial to see what can be received at night. 1300km away

[@specialopsdave]

From Western Colorado, obscured by the continental divide, I can pick up an east Nebraska station

[@gregdaweson4657]

The radio waves are bouncing off the ionosphere.

[@Devo_gx]

@@gregdaweson4657 Yup! It's just amazing that AM can have that reach. I've actually gotten HD lock the odd time in that station too (which is even crazier since the HD signal is broadcast at lower power levels than the analog signal)

[@AdrianBoyko]

When I was a kid growing up in Edmonton, I used to listen to AM, at night, from Seattle (KOMO?) and Salt Lake City (KSL) using a cheap pocket transistor radio.

[@gus473]

In central Minnesota we would listen to Winnipeg 990 AM and KAAY 1110 (?) Little Rock, Ark. Plus Chicago stations, Nashville's Grand Ol' Opry, and on and on. We checked everything on the dial! 📻😎✌🏼

[@JRNipper]

@@gus473 As a kid in the mid-60's living in east central MN, I would sneak off with my mom's portable GE radio and listen to WBAP in Dallas, TX play great country hits of that time all night long. Was not hard to find as WCCO-AM is 830 where mom kept it and WBAP is 820, just a quarter twist of the tuning knob.

[@Rick-S-6063]

I'm from the Flint, Michigan area and CKLW 800 AM from Windsor would come in very clearly, especially later at night and into the early morning hours, even on the el cheapo transistor radio. That was back when AM offered good listening. Those were the days.

[@FrancisLitanofficialJAPINOY]

Also in Manila, Philippines at night: CNR (China National Radio) from Taiwan broadcast on 837 kHz and reaches across Southeast Asia including the Philippines.

[@FrancisLitanofficialJAPINOY]

WWRU 1660 AM (Korean Radio) from NYC, reaches up to Southern Ontario and Southwestern Quebec. US radio station from Niagara River/Youngstown, NY is WTOR 770 AM (W-Toronto), transmitter located at Youngstown, NY, but it’s studios located at Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, it reaches from Niagara Falls, Buffalo region as well as Golden Horseshoe in Toronto and Southern Ontario. When almost night or dusk, WTOR will sign off with Station notice and US National anthem on that time, if that WTOR broadcast at nighttime, that station likely to interfere with NYC radio station 77 WABC. WABC also broadcast at nighttime that reaches whole New York state and parts of Ontario and Quebec at night. WTOR is only daytime AM radio station that broadcast any South Asian languages like Punjabi, Urdu, Hindi, religious programming on Sikhism, Islam, Hinduism, etc..

[@MiketheEye]

Great video! I grew up in STL and with KMOX! I worked for Wyoming PBS for a few years and there were a lot of Cardinals fans out there like your dad was talking about. An engineer at the station actually helped me rig up a loop antenna and with it in the perfect position on a clear night I could listen to the Blues games in my house. It was awesome. Radio magic.

[@ManunKanava]

Jeah, merry christmas, hope it will be soon, been waiting for it.

[@adrianmurillo2646]

Beautiful! Thank you, for taking the time to explain the importance, as well as the setbacks of AM radio. Would be interested in learning more about the emergency advisory radio system.

[@HarryHamsterChannel]

I remember the little "Civil Defense" logo on old radio dials. The advice back during the cold war would have been "Kiss it goodbye".

[@cardinalsfan9610]

I'm a diehard Cardinals fan roughly 500 miles from STL. It wasn't until 2016, through the KZbinr "Todderbert", that I got into the hobby of AM DX'ing. While I'm not into it a lot, it has been fun getting stations like WWL in New Orleans (just over 1000 miles from me), or WSM in Nashville, or WCBS in NYC, at night. While it's possible to get a lot of stations through apps like TuneIn these days, it's sad that AM could - one day - potentially go by the wayside.

[@gir489returns2]

Wow he actually mentioned KDKA. When I installed my aftermarket headunit into my car when I lived in Pittsburgh, I actually had to get a special antenna for it to work so I could continue to listen to KDKA. Great AM station.

[@Dmartin23941]

AM is still nostalgic for me. Early morning drives with it in the background.

[@hadibq]

great gift!! 🙂👍 I still use a pocket AM receiver to test LED light spots quality in terms of interferences they produce. and yes I've found out some cheap LED lights are much better than expensive fancy ones for this aspect

[@Hamboarding]

Unfortunately it's been dead in Germany for a long time, those AM receivers in our cars sometimes give you an unintelligible French station once in a while. SW, MW and LW are all dead for over a decade I believe. It's sad 😢 The car controls remind me of this whole world that is inaccessible, gone and just produces static when you turn it on

[@patriciawilson9666]

Man,that really is sad.Everyday i hop in the rig and flip on the radio without a thought.Being a big baseball fan radio is the number one way i follow the Tiger's games.

[@williamhall667]

Even in Nottingham England, you will often pick up a French radio station.

[@jamesjwalsh]

Might be leftover free french resistance activity. No one told them the war ended in '45.

[@Andersljungberg]

Perhaps it is Sweden that bars were used by public service so that residents outside the country could listen to public service radio. In Sweden, am var has never been used by any local radio station or private radio station. on the other hand, you usually listen to Radio Luxembourg. before the 90s there was a radio monopoly in Sweden. But there was a pirate radio station before that

[@Andersljungberg]

Do you know what happened to radio Luxemburg that you could listen to in the 90s. I searched for information on Google several years ago about radio Luxembourg without success in finding anything

[@jim-qy3kk]

45 years ago i got my first ham license and my instructor said he used to listen to kmox when he was stationed in hawaii to keep in touch with his home town. thank you for a great video.

[@harryfalkiewicz3139]

Great discussion of an important but overlooked transmission method! I will be buying the "Open Circuits" book and I hope you receive a bump for the affiliate link! Fantastic job!

[@ergindemir7366]

One advantage of AM radio is you can build a receiver that does not require battery or any power source.

[@radijoe]

You can run an analog AM radio a loooong time on batteries compared to the HD portables I have played with.

[@T313COmun1s7]

I would say that AM radio is not dead, but it is terminal. Preserving it is an exercise in futility. That is not a bad thing. It is simply a technology who's time has past. That said, it is used for some pretty critical things. So what we need to be doing is asking the following question. What is going to replace it? For each use case, especially the critical infrastructure ones, we need to be working towards a new technology that not only replaces it, but improves upon it, even if this technology does not exist yet. We need to actively be working on the next thing that will check every single box that AM Radio checked, while also improving on some of the classic problems with the technology. Like your dad mentioned Amplitude Modulation lends itself to allot of interference due to how easily any kind of noise can affect the amplitude of the carrier signal. So as an example, interference is one of the issues the replacement should at least address if not fix. To the radio enthusiasts out there. I am not trying to take away your hobby. You should be leading the charge. Nobody is more qualified than you to be working towards the next big thing to solve these problems. I am not saying stop your hobby, I am saying take it up a notch.

[@jonthebru]

If a decent digital way of transmitting and receiving could be implemented, one not as susceptible to the interference talked about here then then possible the MW band could be saved. Many AM stations were given FM translator frequencies going back a few years, many of them promote the FM side more heavily that the AM side.

[@gorak9000]

AM Broadcast radio is used for "pretty critical things?" So scratchy country music, religious garbage, and garbage syndicated national "talk radio" is "critical" now? Like someone else said above in another comment, AM radio killed AM radio.

[@T313COmun1s7]

@@gorak9000 way to out yourself for not watching the whole thing. It is used for emergency communications. Amateur radio operators are a critical part of disaster infrastructure. The reason the FCC provides them so many protections and alloted spectrum is the FCC and Emergency Services rely on them when everything else is down. If it was only about the stuff you mentioned, there wouldn't even be a discussion. An intelligent person would have been able to figure that out even without the FCC defending AM radio just based on the fact that there are people in the know worried about it.

[@gorak9000]

@@T313COmun1s7 How is it good for emergency alerting if no one is ever listening to it in the first place? And this notion that everyone depends on HAMS for when the shit goes down is so laughable - somewhere I remember seeing an article or youtube video or something where the FCC told amateurs that their services were not needed during some emergency, and a bunch of HAMs got their panties in a bunch about it. Do you honestly believe that the government's backup plan for when the shit hits the fan is to call up Ol' Don down the street to use his radio?? Show me proof that in any major disaster in the last 20 years anyone actually depended on HAMs for critical communication, and then I might take that old wive's tale with a few fewer grains of salt of doubt. If a cell company asked the FCC nicely (aka greased somoene's pocket) for any spectrum that's currently allocated to HAMs, they'd sell it to them so fast you wouldn't even know what happened. They sold off a huge chunk of the c-band satellite spectrum which was used for broadcast TV (among other things) without batting an eye.

[@TempoLOOKING]

Dude the santanists don't want you to have freedom

[@jaminova_1969]

I love AM. On the West Coast, I can listen to the Navajo Nation AM660 (600 miles east), KFI Los Angeles AM640 (150 miles north), KOGO AM 600 (local), and AM 840 in San Francisco (500 miles north).

[@hg-sx5nk]

In Brazil, we're on our way to move the vast majority of AM/MW stations to FM. To handle the extra spectrum demand, the FM band has been expanded using the room left by TV channels 5 & 6. Car stereos and cell phones from the last 3 years already cover the whole 76 to 108MHz band. Main force behind the migration of AM to analog FM were stations owners and local broadcast vendors that were losing ad revenue to FM and wanted a cheap and fast transition without the development costs required by modulation schemes like DRM, DAB or IBOC.

[@MikeCarden]

LOVE that book. Gave it to myself for Christmas and even though it's not really meant to be read "Cover to Cover", I did exactly that the moment I had it in my hands. It's glorious!

[@sandmanxo]

I still love listening to AM radio, as when I'm in the middle of nowhere Texas with a terrible or nonexistent cell signal I can still listen to something. I even carry a portable radio and an am loop antenna whenever I travel as it's easy to pick up signals from all over the western US in rf quiet areas. It's sad to see the state of AM radio currently, at least HD radio wasn't very successful as it completely wrecks adjacent analog signals with skywave.

[@GeoffSeeley]

Your dad is awesome. As a kid in 80's Nova Scotia, I used to listen to the radio on clear summer nights and pick up stations in New York city and got addicted to the old radio shows/serials broadcast on those stations Sunday nights, such as The Shadow, Dragnet, X Minus One, Adventures by Morse, The Whistler and many more.

[@user-yx6yy9kl9g]

Electrical and computer engineering student down in Texas! Favorite KZbin channel, always super interesting content. Plus, you two remind me of me and my dad, all of us geeks.

[@jonthebru]

Twenty two AM licenses were turned back in to the FCC in 2022. I'd guess they are smaller stations that really didn't have a sales market.

[@ctbcubed]

Your comment about content is interesting. Where I live, WJR AM was once a premier clear channel station with almost all locally produced content and coverage of major league sports. Now it only has locally hosted programs during morning and afternoon drive time with local traffic and weather during the day. Most of the rest of the programming is syndicated conservative talk from Fox and other syndicated programming of no interest to me. Listening to HI-FI baseball play by play on FM just isn't the same. Many AM stations can be streamed, so that's an option for vehicles without AM reception capability. For a time during college in the late 60s to early 70s, I stood transmitter watch at a 50kW day/ 10kW night AM station (WCAR) with a top 40 format hosted by local disc jockeys and it was a great job until something broke. I still like AM DXing using my roof mounted loop antenna, but most content is syndicated and available locally or on the internet if I was interested. Consider how many shortwave stations have left the airwaves and I fear it predicts the future of AM as we know it. My first AM receiver was a IN34 diode, headphone and bedspring for an antenna. It doesn't get much simpler than that for picking up the strongest local station. Next time you have a power failure in your neighborhood, listen to how quiet the AM band is. The rest of the time, listen to your neighbors plasma TV or the grow lights for the basement herbal medicine operation down the street. I suppose it's getting harder to justify the cost of operating a high power AM station when content can be streamed for a mere fraction of the cost. At some point, AM will probably die and all those great transmitter sites will be developed into condos or Amazon warehouses. I enjoy your videos and they bring back great memories from my brief time in the business.

[@mdau]

I remember when I first learned about skywave propagation I waited until nighttime and then scanned the AM band. From Toronto I was able to receive stations from New York, Chicago, and Montréal, but the farthest one was KMOX in St. Louis! The signal was just barely drifting in and out of the noise but hearing that got me interested in the world of amateur radio, and your father may be in part to thank for it!

[@audiodood]

I’m in MI and picked up a station from Georgia

[@vienabalsi]

wow fantastic work. It's like old tube vintage guiar amp. Can not be replaced !

[@davidgrisez]

AM radio was the very original radio system that has existed since the early part of the 20th century. One of the reasons that it still exists today is that no one wants the band of radio frequencies that the FCC assigned to AM radio a long time ago. Today it seems like AM is mostly used for talk radio and a few news stations. Also AM radio is still used for highway information. However since Edwin Howard Armstrong invented FM radio, FM radio has always had better sound quality since it is not subject to electrical interference. Also the truth is that electric car makers can do things that will reduce AM radio interference, however since that would cost extra money they are not likely to do it. One thing that was used for many years in cars to reduce AM radio interference was radio signal suppression spark plug wires.

[@SonicBoone56]

FM is subject to interference, just not regular electric lines. Cell towers definitely can interfere with FM.

[@SuperShecky]

Content is indeed king. AM content in the US has been mostly garbage for decades now. Even if you like crap content, it's easier and (crappier) on the internet. The biggest reason one would want yo tune in AM is if you grew up listening to AM and do it out of habit. That demographic is shrinking fast.

[@fentonfun]

Thanks for sharing this video. I have a BMW i3. In USA, the AM Radio is not activated by BMW. This is because of the interference issue. With an app and OBD connector, I’m able to activate BMW i3’s AM Radio. It works but it definitely has sub-par audio quality.

[@radijoe]

You can talk to the radio via ODB? I need to look into what I can see on my car via ODB.

[@trevorpatt8294]

Awesome video! I listen to KMOX every day! Just getting into radio stuff. Your dad seems so cool. The KSDK tower was a really good video also.

[@judsonleach5248]

Is AM Radio DEAD?!? - "How DARE You!" - LOL - Says the "Super Nerd" who builds AM & FM home transmitters for FUN!!! LOL - We LOVE YOU, AND Your Father, Jeff!! 🙂 I MISS #RamseyElectronics !!! 😞 - Thank GOODNESS!!! I STILL have their circuit board designs!

[@rmccombs66]

I often listen to a program on WBBM in Chicago and I'm 760 miles away. We reception isn't going I could listen on the Internet, but usually don't. It's just not the same. I also sometimes listen to KMOX. I remember on one of Techmoan's videos he demonstrated how DAB in the UK mostly sounds horrible because of the low bit rates that are used.

[@coolsunsgoldenclassics]

You're darn right, it's just not the same. Last Christmas Eve I was pulling in the Christmas programming out of Chicago on my Emerson retro radio with the lights out lying in my bed.

[@aceg81]

Great video, as always! I have to say, though, I feel like a lot of AM is a victim of the success of big radio networks. One of the great things about AM historically is that it's served as a local source of news, and a town square - a forum for discussion. These days, you have these lights-out stations that just syndicate national talk shows. There's nothing local. If all the stations are the same, there's no reason not to just go the podcast route and download whatever talk show you'd be listening to. My local AM station still has a local morning show and some specialty stuff on weekends, and it's hung on to local content as well as it can, but it's mostly just the same syndicated crap that every other station carries, now.

[@pauljs75]

AM is still very much a thing for talk, weather, and sports. Not to mention it carries more range for the power input. Companies just fail at RF isolation and don't want to bother trying to figure out how to deal with it.

[@jennyknopps1291]

Don't forget traffic reports.

[@anthonydiiorio]

Loving these radio videos!

[@vk3ase]

A car with out AM would not be very good in two thirds of Australia but 90% of the population are in the other third and have no idea. From about 1930 on, good AM transmitters were capable of FM quality but most radios are only capable of getting less than half of the bandwidth available so the problem is in receiver design. There are a few switchable band width radios available and AM sounds great on wide.

[@Anon-fv9ee]

During a natural disaster with power out, the broadband RF hash that usually makes AM inferior disappears as all the noisy LED’s, PV panels and switch-mode power supplies stop working. Thus, the signal-to-noise ratio of AM increases. Even just one high power AM transmitter could be heard across an entire continent at night. AM is inferior most of the time but far superior and necessary for those rare events, when cell towers and internet goes down. I remember as a kid going on a road trip through the country. As blue sky gave way to grey clouds, you could hear faint static crashes listening to the local AM station - an early warning of thunderstorms. This was a time before smart phones and weather apps. And a portable/pocket AM radio with a ferrite bar can be rotated to find max signal strength for direction-finding (DF) - the same principle aircraft use as a navaid for NDB’s. It’s not just about content - AM can be used to predict weather, propagation and for navigation! It’s still incredibly useful for multiple reasons!

[@prabhakarv4193]

Very nice and informative. Thank you

[@chronobot2001]

I would say 80% of my radio listening is AM. I really don't want AM to go away.

[@DarthVader007]

Interesting and honest interview about the state of AM in the US. If the content is good people will follow you to other platforms. In EU DAB gives so many options for new and old stations. In the US you have HD Radio which is not bad quality wise, but there is a player in between where stations and manufacturers nerd to pay additional money for licences. Then there is streaming which is at least in urban areas and major streets working, but the music royalties are higher than for broadcast radio. To make use of all strengths from the different technologies car manufacturers like Audi created Hybrid Radio with seamless station following between FM, DAB, HD and streaming. You select the content and not a technology. That is a much better approach from a customer point of view

[@GeerlingEngineering]

We'll hopefully do a deep-dive on HD Radio in the US, where it went wrong, and how it's doing today.

[@radijoe]

Like many radio engineers I am watching the dashboard action. With cars able to have internet the coordination and seamless transitioning seems possible. But a lot has to happen and it has to be affordable for many stations since it won’t make much difference in smaller markets or specialty radio.

[@JackClayton123]

Electrical engineer here. At one point I wore a heart rate monitor. Driving my old (1990s) vehicle, the monitor would jump to 200bpm. I assumed the ignition system was messing with the HRM (as my pulse remained normal).

[@danelmendorf5765]

Nice interview!

[@d00dEEE]

Well, living in a high risk earthquake zone, I have an AM radio with battery, hand crank charger and solar panels. I expect it to work if we lose the power grid, so AM had better not be dead.

[@P_RO_]

There are still AM stations out there, but most are syndicated and have little to no local content. You'll hear something, just not what you want and need...

[@michaelturner4457]

Here in the UK, MW/AM has always been limited to around 5kHz audio bandwidth, and sounded rather crap compared to FM. But there's really only spoken word/talk stations on there these days, very little music. In fact there's one less, now that Absolute Radio on 1215kHz closed their transmitters, 8 years early.

[@trevorsmith1859]

Radio Caroline is transmitting on 648 in the south east and the quality is quite good, and they are now powering it from solar.

[@joseislanio8910]

I've been fiddling around AM radios for a good part of my life. Now I have more knowledge on how to get better reception, but it's sad to find fewer stations than I used to.

[@sciologist]

When I was a kid, there was no FM or TV. We would listed to the tube AM radio every night. We lived in Houston Tx and we would listen to a rock station from Chicago.

[@VolkerHett]

My EV has AM, FM and DAB+ and I use DAB+ most of the time and haven't tried AM yet. I should try it. I have a small Sony and and a big Grundig Radio with LF to VHF with several short wave bands and even SSB so I can listen to morse code :D Both are collecting dust in a shelf for over 30 years now.

[@cliffrhames3023]

AM Radio years ago had a good sound with all that great music and heavy compression. Now with narrow band sound (thanks FCC) it’s useless for oldies format. C-QUAM stereo had a beautiful warm analog sound as well but big corp buyouts killed that too at least that’s what I was told.

[@ChrisSpil]

"NRSC-1" adopted a 10 kHz standard analog AM audio bandwidth in 1986, which represented a “narrowing” of AM signals from the 15 kHz audio bandwidth which had been used up to that time. The idea was positive, to technically encourage the production of higher fidelity AM receivers. But apparently, in practice, things didn't go that well.. As far as AM Stereo goes, whenever you were dealing with a full, interference-free AM signal received, its audio was truly outstanding in all aspects! The problem is, you barely ever had such conditions -- especially at night..

[@omeganik]

I listen to baseball games on AM radio all the time. Football sometimes, too. I really only do this while driving, but occasionally I'll turn it on to have in the background while doing something else at home as well.

[@davidgreen8512]

So my local baseball team (the Cleveland Guardians) broadcast on both AM and FM. The FM's broadcast is superior (even with a bit of lag), but there is something nostalgic of the interference and pops of the AM station. It almost feels like something is missing listening to the games on FM, because I listened on AM for so many years.

[@radijoe]

There is something about how baseball sounds on AM that is cool. Many years ago I thought about putting a wireless mic in the ground by the first base bag to catch the sound of the base vs glove. You can imagine the logistics being a little tough! But FM broadcasts could use something to make them special. Sounds of the game could be one…

[@gregpaspatis9425]

@David Green My younger brother is a occasional listener of AM radio, although not to the level that he had listened back before the 2010s. In the Mid-Atlantic area, he says the 1100 AM signal for WTAM radio on most nights without any bad weather conditions, is the most consistently reliable nighttime signal of all the 50,000 watt powerhouse stations in the eastern and central time zones.

[@gordslater]

Probably a class-D audio amp in that Retio. Designers need to be careful to ensure the speaker wiring doesn't radiate square waves.

[@justaguy9224]

No, modern three phase inverters generate loads of noise because of the sheer amount of switching needed to produce three phase ac from regular dc. That’s the same reason why power supplies create horrible interference on the medium wave band.

[@JRNipper]

@@justaguy9224 Hurray for linear power supplies! I've been earning my pay recently by repairing switch-mode PS modules and it's amazing how much power that can be had out of these small units. The downside, of course, is the amount of RFI they generate not to mention the number of components that can easily breakdown. Then there's the electrolytic capacitor issues, they get really hot on the output side, having to filter full-wave rectified freqs of about 40kHz to over 100kHz...is it any wonder why they don't last? One of our Sennheiser wireless receiver's PS caught fire due to an output cap overheating and started a fire. The great majority of my repair parts stock is a cabinet full of capacitors since about 98% of the repairs only require replacing a few capacitors. I've found the organic polymer filter caps are much better and last way longer than electrolytics.

[@DJDouglasWarden]

hey I'm from St louis! great video thank you very much.

[@jeromemckenna7102]

Now I understand why the AM radio in a 1966 Chevy Nova sounded so good..

[@masterandservant8021]

In Mexico, AM radio is dropping as well as FM. The Internet came to substitute most of the services provided by radio stations such as publicity and news, Spotify is likened to the last nail of the coffin in Mexico's radio business and stations. A major radio provider has closed several FM stations due to low audiences and declared them bankruptcy

[@HarryHamsterChannel]

Who needs them? People want what's cheap and available. That's how AM radio began. Radio is more resilient, takes less equipment and infrastructure than the internet. Radio can be a good way of controlling your media access through sub-channel signals. Expect pay FM. Remember ONTV? "Abandoning" radio is short-sighted, as foolish governments drop support of valuable infrastructure. It'll never be either/or. What's wrong with "both"?

[@charlesloukas1946]

@@HarryHamsterChannel I tried to listen to Alaskan local news stations online about the UFO shoot down I could not from the UK