The Patriot Post® · Why Are EVs Phasing Out AM Radio?

As if EVs needed one more reason for us to hate them.

We’ve written recently about Joe Biden’s weird obsession with killing off the internal combustion engine and thereby forcing us all into costly and unpopular electric vehicles. Largely overlooked, though, when The Wall Street Journal reported on it more than two months ago, was the news that numerous electric vehicle manufacturers are eliminating the AM radios in their cars.

Automakers such as Ford, Volkswagen, BMW, Mazda, Volvo, and Tesla are leading the purge, saying the electric motor within their EV interferes with AM frequencies and creates an annoying buzzing noise and a weak or fading broadcast.

No big deal, you say? Think again. Government officials say the absence of AM as a communications medium could put people at risk during an emergency. That’s because AM radio has long been one of the primary ways that federal, state, and local governments communicate with the public during natural disasters and other crises.

But there’s more. Much more. AM radio is The Platform That Rush Limbaugh Built. It’s the place where conservative talk radio lives and where progressive talk radio withers and dies.

Seven former Federal Emergency Management Agency administrators, in a letter to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and some congressional committees, urged the government to seek assurances that automakers will maintain AM radio in cars.

It’s understandable that Fox News’s Sean Hannity would sound the alarm. For years, in addition to his popular primetime TV show, Hannity has done a three-hour radio show each afternoon that’s broadcast on more than 700 AM and FM radio stations across the country.

“It’s not complicated to put in a radio system that allows you to have AM FM, Sirius XM, or the ability to plug in your own music from your own phone,” Hannity said. “And I think people want more options, not less options. And this would be a direct hit politically on conservative talk radio in particular, which is what most people go to AM radio to listen to.”

Hannity is right. As The New York Times reports: “Some experts say the reception problems are not insurmountable. Electromagnetic interference could be controlled with shielding cables, filters and careful placement of the electrical components in the vehicle, said Pooja Nair, a communications systems engineer.”

Modifications such as this will cost money, the carmakers will no doubt say. That’s pretty rich when we consider that the average price of one of these vehicles is around $58,000. What are we talking for some shielded cabling and housing — $50 in parts? Maybe $100?

Even hard-left Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey, a member of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, is calling on car manufacturers to maintain free access to broadcast radio as a public safety measure.

Of the 20 automakers surveyed by Markey, eight of them — BMW, Ford, Mazda, Polestar, Rivian, Tesla, Volkswagen, and Volvo — have removed AM radio from their EVs, while 10 others — Honda, Hyundai, Jaguar/Land Rover, Kia, Lucid, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Stellantis, Subaru, and Toyota — still have it.

How many Americans would be affected by the phasing out of AM? According to the Nielsen Company, that number is around 47 million, which represents about 20% of the radio-listening public. As might be expected, AM listeners tend to be older — around a third of them are over 65 — and the amount of time they spend on the AM band has increased slightly over the last five years, to just over two hours a day.

Got that? AM radio has become more popular in recent years, not less so. And it’s not just talk radio. Locally all across the country, listeners count on AM for everything from local news to instant weather reports to sports talk radio to farm-related programming. AM is also the home of countless spirit-lifting Christian radio stations.

At this point, it doesn’t appear that Democrats are colluding with EV makers to eliminate this unique and longstanding communications platform, but if you’re an AM radio consumer, maybe it’s time to call your congressman.