Ford brings back AM radio!!!

I use AM radio almost daily. And you are correct in that Highway Safety and Park information is often on AM stations.

Glad to hear AM will still be supported.

Analog AM should always be supported. It is an important part of the EAS. It is, also, the easiest to build a radio for with only a few parts. I have heard that there is also a push for AM stations to go digital only. That would be another big mistake as far as EAS goes.

I was born an raised on AM radio. I still remember when Al radios were AM and FM was an option. I love listening to AM especially late at night when I can pick up all the Clear Channel Stations like KMOX in St. Louis, or WBBM in Chicago or WCBS in NYC and several other Blowtorch AM stations. I get good news and even entertainment,when they play the old time radio shows(as a matter of fact, I listened to AM most of the way down from Dayton). I don't see myself buying a vehicle without AM radio OBTW, I do have SiriusXM radio in my FIAT, because it's the gives me the ability to listen to news, talk and music programs in their entirety without distance fading. Once again, you always post the content that I need to know about. Thank you and 73's

30 years ago I was able to listen to KMOX at night out in eastern New Mexico so I could generally catch baseball or hockey games and St. Louis area news through it. It was thanks to good propagation and AM transmission. I think that's what annoys most of this new crowd: they don't want drivers to have that kind of listening range without a subscription.

I only listen to BCB AM in the car as it is the "best" band to listen to at night, when I do most of my driving. Despite signal fading and propagation phasing, I prefer it over the crosstalk of FM stations as one drives between "markets". This, with the EAS and traffic notifications combine to make .5 to 1.7 MHz an essential driving companion.

I knew I'd never go out of style..be a run on retro fits now!

Probably they no longer have conventional AM/FM tuners and as you mentioned, they are SDR now. Good question.

Single and double DIN radios started coming out with just FM and quickly realized that they weren't selling.

I also will not pay subscription for radio. I occasionally listen to AM radio. I hate Tesla's screen interface. I want gauges in front of me, and actual controls not icon and menus that take my eyes off the road.

I would feel cautiously optimistic if Ford had committed to keeping AM radios in their vehicles beyond one year. If the ability to use AM is there (but disabled) than I don't buy any justification for not keeping it available.

My first car a 1967 Ford Falcon had AM only. If you wanted FM you bought an FM converter

I don't typically listen to either AM or FM during my daily drive anymore, usually on 2 mtrs or listening to HF bands, but don't understand what the car manufacturers have against AM. Sure sounds like Ford is using SDR and just didn't enable it, maybe you're onto something about trying to sell subscriptions.

It's software, companies want subscriptions to the radio services! More electronics, more money! Everyone wants a slice of the pie!

The radios themselves aren't made by the manufacturer, just adapted. So I'm thinking they all have AM capabilities, just they just decided not to include it in the display. Why? I think the most obvious reason is they want to have their cars modern and get rid of the traditional items. Like CD, floppy discs they see AM as old stuff and like the computer industry just don't include it anymore. I don't think it has anything to do with costs, as the only savings is a few lines of code.

Funny Ria says she won't pay to listen to the radio. Neither will I. I don't pay for TV either. Just shorten the rabbit ears for UHF. Any way I think she's right that car manufacturers are trying or pressured to sell subscriptions such as Ihart, Sirius XM, etc.

This is good news..

Lack of AM radio reduces enthusiasm for electric cars.

if the auto doesn't have am radio i wont buy it.

Gotta have AM for all the practical reasons. There are still plenty of places that FM doesn't reach; ditto for cell and satellite. Only an urban snob who doesn't get out much and has no imagination or knowledge of history would think otherwise.