In our last chapter on the fight to keep the AM radio in your car, things were not looking so good for the Sunday morning religious shows, exhaustingly predictable talk hosts, and the largely underpaid local news anchors.
But Ford has apparently heard the call from lawmakers, FEMA, and a variety of other concerned citizens, enough at least that they have announced they will back off their plans to do away with AM band in their new vehicles. For now, at least.
So, I will say the U-Turn decision by Ford is nice. Yes, I would venture to say it is nice. But is this a victory or merely a stay of execution?
And since no matter what, AM radio is not disappearing or soon to become unavailable, why don’t we just say this is more a case of bail continued until sentencing day.
What it means is there will be more cars and trucks with AM radios on our roads than we thought there would be last week.
How much of an impact will it make? I don’t think it will make much at all.
There are still a lot more car manufacturers going ahead with their plans to do away with AM so the math will not be grounds for celebration.
The math itself is simple. You don’t use what you don’t want. And you probably won’t use what you don’t believe you need. Even if you might need it now and then.
My vehicle has a trailer hitch. I don’t use that either. I don’t need it. It just happens to be there.
In other words, it does nothing for me and for many people neither does AM radio.
Where do you think these car makers got the idea in the first place to take the AM band out of the vehicles?
I’m sure they asked a few people.
How likely are you to not buy this car if it doesn’t have an AM radio in it?
Ever hear of market research? We did this already.
I’m glad, for now at least, that a few more people will have a choice. We deserve that. We are the ones buying stuff. Treat us with respect.
I have expressed this opinion before. You can put an AM radio everywhere but if the content is not worth the effort, then all it becomes is a receptacle for go-to emergency broadcasts and possibly some inane chatter or white noise to fall asleep by.
I’ve said this before too: Give them something worth listening to and they might listen. They might give it a try and they might actually like it. But here is the trick. Now that you have them, how do you keep them?
Well, now you must be consistently good or at least not awful. That’s harder than it seems, just zigzag across the country and find out.
Oh, when you do you have to turn your AM radio on and keep it on. No cheating, no flipping to the FM or satellite or your own playlists or podcasts or audiobooks.
Could you do it?
The blame for subpar content or a lack of listener-friendly programming is not all the fault of those behind the microphone or those producing, writing, or booking. But you already know that and so do I.
So just look up.
If management or corporate executives are physically upstairs as opposed to around the corner or down the hall. My experience over the last few years has been they are rarely in the building.
But regardless of where they physically might be they are often the ones behind all that glitters or does not.
I have found a good clue to what you might be getting on the air can be taken from a glimpse at the station’s website.
Most stations and managers put a great deal of emphasis on driving viewers, listeners, and readers to their home page. So, go there but go past the landing page with the obligatory three web stories that are less than 24 hours old and delve a bit deeper.
You are most likely to find a lot of material from last week, last month, and even last year if you click on a few sections. Some outlets I have some familiarity with have a mostly corporate-run website with plenty of room though for local elements like news stories, programming schedules, and show host biographies.
You’d think at minimum they would update their lineups, their show schedules, and add some information to entice that reader back to the air product. You’d think.
Nostalgic as I might be, I do not particularly care who was hosting in 2021 nor do I want to listen to an interview with a losing mayoral candidate from a year and a half ago. If your air drives somebody to your website or vice-versa, there should be something of value waiting there for them.
Remember, respect for the audience, the customer is always right, or karma is a …
Back on that cross-country trip, you are likely to find some good things in your travels, largely local and national sports talk, maybe a bit of financial chat, or solid religious conversation. But is it enough to fight off the eviction of AM from your car?
And don’t forget the demographics. The only time my kid listened to the AM band was to hear me (once) and even that took a bit of prompting. Her generation and the one after her, are the last chance to bring on some additional support.
After then, who will be listening?
Tell us why these stations need to stay there when we can generally find them or what they offer in other configurations.
Just as I asked last time, what can AM do that others cannot?
If I know my gene pool, my grandchildren are not going to be fighting for AM radio in their space boats or their flying cars.
CDs maybe.
