On one hand, fuck AM radio. All the worst right wing talk shows are there.
On the other, in the event of a crisis AM radio just keeps on trucking.
this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2026
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Our department of transportation gives updates over AM radio and it’s easier to do while driving vs going into the 511 app to see what’s up. And since it’s statewide it’s pretty useful. That’s the only thing I use AM for. They’ve got signs in major corridors that flash to tell you there’s a new message. Old school, but reliable.
That’s a good point, there are still a lot of those information/alert radios around and they’re basically all a low powered AM station. That could be important for people driving by and not having that option reduces safety. I have a hard time believing that AM receivers are that expensive for cars that it’s really worth the trade-off. It’s probably not something that gets used often, but when it’s needed you want people to have it.
have a hard time believing that AM receivers are that expensive for cars that it’s really worth the trade-of
Its not about the cost of the radio, the hardware for a digital am receiver at this point is pennies... The issue is electric and hybrid drivetrains generate a lot of very strong localized EMI from the motors and motor inverter drives, and AM is inherently bad at rejecting it so it usually wipes out most stations. It gets really expensive trying to reduce or filter that out.
It's got good stuff mixed in with the religious snake oil sales pitch right wing wackos. It's got local sports and usually someone playing continuous music, not always good music but not interrupted very often. But it's mostly shit. I imagine that you could have fun with a large antenna and a fine tuner receiver. Get stuff from far away. I have a good portable radio receiver that picks up some good range. I take it camping and scan about. Soft hits of the 60s 70s and 80s stations are great
In NYC metro area, I regularly listen to sports radio and NPR on AM. Sure, there's other stuff too but I don't tune into it. It's the best place to get live Yankees broadcasts and coverage of the Giants, Mets, Jets, Nets, Knicks, Islanders, and Rangers.
I wonder what it would cost to balance that out by broadcasting secular and left-wing media. Wouldn't it be rad if AM was transformed into something great? Of course even as I'm typing this I can just see the future where some startup sees a monetization strategy in AM and does something shitty with it, like filling it up with LLM generated talk shows, especially if it's low cost.
The problem is running it costs money, and the billionaires only fund the right-wing stuff.
The non-right-wing radio is NPR.
Would have to be pirate radio. You think this fcc is gonna be handing out licenses to left-wing secular media?
The UK used to have powerful AM stations which operated from ships outside of territorial waters, they're long gone except for Caroline which still exists (they even have their ship still) but as a legal station.
It's kind of challenging to do it on the land as a clandestine pirate since physics demands a large (as in hundreds of feet) aerial to radiate anything decent as well as usually a large set of radials for the aerial to work against. It's a more annoying version of the same problem amateur radio people have when using the 160 metre band. Of course it can be done, and people did it with much worse tech than what we have now, but it's not something to do at high power lightly. The voltage at the end of an AM/MW transmitter aerial is often pretty bracing for example.
Better call Christian Slater.
Good point. If Brandan Carr or whatever the fuck the cuck in charge of the FCC is named requires talk shows like Kimmel to do equal time for both candidates, it's only fair that we have both sides forced onto AM.
Sure, it'll be a bunch of ranting talking heads at 6 AM, but like others have said, you don't have to listen.
This will probably end up backfiring when Stephen Colbert or Matt Stone/Trey Parker take over AM radio with guest spots, using clips of Alex Jones on 55 AM "The Frog".
A nationwide AM radio network with syndicated shows like The Majority Report, I’ve Had It, and Breaking Points? The Reaction Podcast? Kyle Kulinski Power Hour?
Ok I made that last one up but can you imagine?
Air America lasted about 5 years in the 2000s, and it was exactly this. The Republicans would never let their stations die like Air America did.
AM radios are also dead simple to implement compared to FM radios too, which is great if you're the prepper kind.
How do we listen to am radio on our phones?
Man that’s one thing they should have never taken from phones, AM/FM radio. So now you can’t just tune to a station, you gotta download their fucking app that’s filled with extra ads.
In the event of a crisis, the only thing I need isn't radio. The last thing I need is to be told "everything is under control & being handled by the best people" right before "the best people" destroy the planet.
You should re-evaluate your crisis planning. Communication is a key safety item, even if it is one-way. I've got a pair of GMRS walkie-talkies that can pretty reliably broadcast a little over a mile. Put them in scan mode and you can pickup chatter from other sources. This has fuck all to do with an AM radio, but they also have the ability to pick up the automated weather reports from the airport. So when it looks real stormy out, I turn one on (to test it) and to get continuous updates directly from the weather station instead of waiting for the news to catch up. Communication in a crisis, even if it's just one way, is still a critical lifeline.
If I was 10 years younger, sure; I'd be worried about this.
I'm old enough now to know that I've already done the best things I could do & I did them before the apocalypse.
You'll thank me when you find 20 Terabytes of data collected over 25 years, buried in lead containers at the location I sent out 12 years ago.
... consider it a side quest.
(But in all honesty, you seem to have your shit together when it comes to this. Hopefully dire situations need not arise or require this knowledge, but I'm glad you have it.)
Many of the mountain towns rely on AM because it travels better...
This has serious implications for a nation already crippled by stupidity, fear & hate.
All the real hipsters use amplitude modulation. Posers use frequency modulation.
Does circuit bending a keyboard count?
...'cause that I can do.
Manipulators use QAM
I mean, without AM... the options become FM and 5G/WWW. FM is a known quantity and the WWW is waayy worse than AM: the Klan broadcasts over the WWW.
What if...
(motions you to come closer)
^morse ^code ^can ^say ^racist ^bullshit ^also
I'm gonna transmit my fascist pepe memes over SSTV
Exactly. Just because a medium can be used to broadcast rascist bullshit doesn't mean we should eliminate it.
No, but I'll turn the other way if you want to eliminate racist bullshit
I think any lessons they have to teach, has already been learned from enough
Priorities
Yay! America is saved!
This is the kind of meaningful change our current governmental system can muster... Fucking pathetic.
He's 80 fucking years old...
He probably thinks this is super important and that is undoubtedly the real problem.
We need to face the harsh truth that a lot of politicians are suffering from the same age related mental decline, as literally every single peraon who manages to live past 60.
It's not like a switch gets flipped, but 20 years of it is significant.
If we don't have real age limits based on science, people will still in office till they die. Because the life of a Senator/House Rep is very comfortable. It's literally no harder than living in a retirement home. If you don't care because of lack of empathy or just lack of comprehension, there's zero mental/emotional stress. And they rarely even have to show up to an office. So no physical stress.
Obviously their bodies will cling on long past their minds being gone.