How do you tune an AM Radio station?

[BrockN]

But you can't discount the political influence of those stations. For example, the President of the United States has addressed the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) as follows:

You raise valid engineering considerations, but they may be outweighed by the political and religious considerations.

I absolutely don't discount the political influence. Those people would love to have a captive audience, but that doesn't mean it should pass. Just mandating an AM radio in a vehicle won't cause people to listen to it. Heck, I haven't listened to AM since a local FM station started a rock format when I was a teen. AM sounds terrible and the content (especially now) absolutely sucks. I wouldn't and couldn't justify an extra dollar added to the vehicle purchase price to include an AM receiver.

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[YDR37]

You have the find the HD station that carries the AM station you want. For example in Houston I like to listen to AM740 news radio, so in my cybertruck I tune to 99.1HD2 and that is actually am740. The regular 99.1 is like old pop music but the HD2 channel is am station I want.

here is a list for Houston. Probably have to search for HD radio stations for your city/area…

In this case, the same company happens to owns both an HD FM station (FM 99.1) and a traditional AM station (AM 740). HD radio allows multiple "substations", and in this case the owners have chosen to duplicate the AM broadcast on one of the HD FM substations (99.1-HD2).

That's great for you, because it means you can listen to an AM station even though you don't have an AM radio; the same broadcast is duplicated on HD FM. However, there is no guarantee that any specific AM station will be available in this way. Nationally, and especially outside of big cities, most AM stations probably don't have this kind of arrangement.

 

[REM]

I can't understand the need or want for this. Tesla certainly has made the right call to not bother entertaining efforts to keep the dead standard alive.

 

[CyberGus]

Even FM radio will be phased out eventually in favor of digital. Remember NTSC? Once digital ATSC broadcasters hit a critical mass, NTSC quickly disappeared. Nobody misses it.

 

[CyberGus]

People have criticized the forthcoming Slate truck for not including a car radio as standard equipment, but that is also true of some Teslas right now.

The first new car I bought back in '92 was a base model, and included no music player at all (although the speakers were installed lol). I couldn't afford it.

When I had the cash, I got a factory head unit on eBay, but then I had to install the antenna!

 

[YDR37]

Even FM radio will be phased out eventually in favor of digital. Remember NTSC? Once digital ATSC broadcasters hit a critical mass, NTSC quickly disappeared. Nobody misses it.

National radio in Norway has already dropped traditional analog FM for DAB (similar to HD FM). Maybe it's not a coincidence that Norway is also furthest along in dropping ICE for BEVs.

Total sales of gasoline-powered vehicles in Norway, January 2026: seven.

 

[65SoYoLO]

I used to listen to the New York Met games on AM but no longer, the Mets left the team.

 

[techfoamer]

The TuneIn app works great. I listen to several AM stations in areas where I'd be out of coverage if I was listening over the air. I have briefly tested AM reception with a portable AM radio. The interference issue exists, but you can still listen over the air in a Cybertruck.

 

[YDR37]

If you want more discussion of the EV vs. AM issue, check out this detailed (yet readable) October 2023 report from the Center for Automotive Research: Analog AM Band Interference in Electric Vehicles: Technical Solutions & Cost of Mitigating Electromagnetic Interference

Executive Summary

There is an effort in the US Congress to require automakers to maintain AM radio in all vehicles, including new electric vehicles (EVs). However, the nature of EVs and their operating conditions, including acceleration and deceleration, pose a challenge to ensuring electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) with the analog AM band radio. This study, conducted by the Center for Automotive Research (CAR), shows that mitigating electromagnetic interference (EMI) in an EV is challenging and could lead to added costs for vehicle manufacturers. The cost of mitigation depends upon the electrical architecture of the vehicle and entails several design and engineering tradeoffs. Automakers may mitigate some EMI through vehicle engineering choices, including shielding, filtering, active noise cancellation, and strategic placement of components. These mitigation techniques can improve analog AM band reception. However, a total vehicle system EMC requirement would need to be included from the beginning of any future EV redesign, if not already considered by the automakers, to eliminate the need for piecemeal late-stage mitigations. These costs can be avoided by deleting analog AM radio from vehicles and providing consumers with alternative products for in-vehicle audio content.

 

[YDR37]

... a total vehicle system EMC requirement would need to be included from the beginning of any future EV redesign, if not already considered by the automakers, to eliminate the need for piecemeal late-stage mitigations. These costs can be avoided by deleting analog AM radio from vehicles and providing consumers with alternative products for in-vehicle audio content.

I can just imagine those options playing out at Tesla during the development of the Model 3:

Tesla Engineer: "Well sir, the new low-cost model is coming along, but unfortunately it seems like we need to re-evaluate every aspect of the initial design to ensure total vehicle system electromagnetic compatibility with AM radio."

Elon Musk: "Can't we just delete the AM radio??"

 

[Darmie]

You have the find the HD station that carries the AM station you want. For example in Houston I like to listen to AM740 news radio, so in my cybertruck I tune to 99.1HD2 and that is actually am740. The regular 99.1 is like old pop music but the HD2 channel is am station I want.

here is a list for Houston. Probably have to search for HD radio stations for your city/area…

That's what I listen to thanks to TuneIn all the way up in Ohio.

 

[TyPope]

Listening to AM radio via streaming kind of misses the point of having an actual broadcast of AM radio. If you are out of range of FM, you could switch to AM to get some content. At least, that's how we used AM radio.

Saying "AM radio is available via streaming" misses the point. If streaming is down, you could listen to FM or AM if it's available. In a contested radio frequency spectrum, it would be good to be able to fall back on a broadcast signal in emergencies. Removing those receivers and antennas loses that ability.

 

[YDR37]

Saying "AM radio is available via streaming" misses the point. If streaming is down, you could listen to FM or AM if it's available. In a contested radio frequency spectrum, it would be good to be able to fall back on a broadcast signal in emergencies. Removing those receivers and antennas loses that ability.

The rural-area emergency scenario is probably the most-cited argument in favor of the "AM Radio for Every Vehicle" Act:

The bill is a direct response to recent decisions by several automakers, particularly in the electric vehicle sector, to eliminate AM radios due to concerns about interference and evolving consumer habits. Lawmakers argue that doing so jeopardizes the resilience of national emergency communications — especially in rural areas.

And it looks like the bill has a good chance to finally become law this year:

The September 30 government shutdown stalled House business for over a month, creating a legislative logjam. Despite this setback, leaders including Speaker Mike Johnson, Whip Tom Emmer, and Majority Leader Steve Scalise have committed to bringing the measure to a floor vote early in 2026.

If the bill passes, the President will sign it. Trump reiterated his support in January 2026:

President Trump agreed that the AM measure carries great significance, describing it as “a very popular thing” .... “I like the AM radio in every car. I like that. I’m in favor of it,” Trump said. “It’s interesting. A lot of people don’t know about that, but it’s actually a very big subject. Oh, it’s a huge deal. We’re going to be doing something on that.”

 

[PungoteagueDave]

Listening to AM radio via streaming kind of misses the point of having an actual broadcast of AM radio. If you are out of range of FM, you could switch to AM to get some content. At least, that's how we used AM radio.

Saying "AM radio is available via streaming" misses the point. If streaming is down, you could listen to FM or AM if it's available. In a contested radio frequency spectrum, it would be good to be able to fall back on a broadcast signal in emergencies. Removing those receivers and antennas loses that ability.

“When streaming is down” is a big “if”. You could say that about any app. Yes, the internet is important to today’s tech. If streaming isn’t available we have bigger issues than trying to tune an AM radio.

TuneIn is magic. I’ve been using it for more than 20 years, zero issues, lets me listen realtime to stations from around the country and world (especially good when overseas to listen to sports back in the U.S.). SiriusXM took away some of that joy through streaming rights, so I have that now too.

Sorry, but demanding to maintain legacy hardware for anachronistic tech is a nonstarter when good alternatives exist for identical results.

 

[YDR37]

The rural-area emergency scenario is probably the most-cited argument in favor of the "AM Radio for Every Vehicle" Act ... it looks like the bill has a good chance to finally become law this year ... If the bill passes, the President will sign it

China: "We are working hard to put next-generation solid-state batteries into EVs"

Europe: "We are working hard to put high-performance permanent-magnet motors into EVs"

USA: "We are working hard to put AM radios into EVs"

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