Ford Motor Company made a U-turn Tuesday, as CEO Jim Farley announced on LinkedIn that the automaker will keep AM radios in its vehicles, after all, a change from the company’s announced plan to remove the widely used broadcast system from its 2024 models.
The decision applies to both gasoline-powered and electric vehicles in Ford’s lineup, Farley said, acknowledging the role AM radios have in the emergency alert system ecosystem.
“After speaking with policy leaders about the importance of AM broadcast radio as a part of the emergency alert system, we’ve decided to include it on all 2024 Ford & Lincoln vehicles,” Farley wrote.
Farley also said the company would come up with a solution for owners of electric Ford vehicles that don’t have AM radios, by providing software updates to these electric vehicles owners so they can install them.
“Customers can currently listen to AM radio content in a variety of ways in our vehicles — including via streaming — and we will continue to innovate to deliver even better in-vehicle entertainment and emergency notification options in the future,” he said.
Other carmakers that earlier said they will eliminate AM radios in upcoming models — ostensibly because they interfere with the car electronics — have not yet made a similar announcement. That list includes Tesla, BMS, Mazda, and Volkswagen.
Gotta keep it just in case Biden gets an itchy finger.
No its called damage control after releasing rainbow edition Raptor. They have seen what happend with the other woke decisions.
its to get rid of conservative talk radio thats why
We have a winner.
Ford…put your money where your mouth is!!! I’m sick and tired of these companies threatening to make things more difficult for the public!!! Go Woke, lose business. Go green, lose business. It’s your choice!!!!
Go green go broke? How’s that?
YOU TELL’EM CAPTAIN KIRK! ITS WE THE DANG PEOPLE NOTWE THE BRODBAND CAR STEREO. I DONT LISTEN IN THE CAR CUZ THEY ARE LISTENING TO ME!!!!
There’s one button on your car radio that universally works to control AM radio. It’s called the on/off button. Newer model cars have an AM/FM switch. And the high techies can actually change channels……..AM or FM. What will they think of next?
Apparently MRAK has some real stroke with Ford!
The funny part about this story is that what looks like an attack on talk radio ended up being an actual attack on minority owned and operated AM radio. In most major markets, 40 – 50% of all AM stations are owned and operated and listened to by minorities. Talk radio is less than 20%. Source for this is Radio-locator.com. Cheers –
From everything I’ve seen, it’s not the AM radios interfering with cars’ electronics, but electric engines causing static in AM radios.
I never saw what the big deal was. In the day of internet radio and podcasts, plus you still can use FM which delivers a stronger signal. But, choices are still good.
This really shows your age, and the age of your readers, Suzanne – nobody but baby boomers cares about AM radio. What decade is it?? If I want to hear some conservative talking head prattle on about the “alphabet mafia” or “leftists” I can find it on Spotify or the Internet – AM radio is going the way of the dinosaurs. Sorry old folks.
I’m a boomer and I haven’t listened to AM radio in decades. Good ole WHB out of KC. The geeter with the heater.
Live, local broadcasting has become a thing of the past, with the exception of AM radio. It gives less opportunities for editing and omissions. This is a holdover from the past that needs to be continued. I do wish that more music was still available. In aviation, when all of the electronic gizmos fail, you can always tune up a strong AM station in your ADF for directional reference. Since it is a receiver, it can’t interfere with any known electronic devices as the claim states.
Sadly, there’s a simple solution. Get an aftermarket radio put in will all the gadgets you want.
I can recommend a guy in Juneau
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