Why is Ford bringing back AM radios for all new cars?

Record players will be cool again in 2023. You can even buy your favorite vinyl player at Ikea. It was also designed by a Dutchman. More things from the past are back now. For example, Ford will once again equip cars with an old-fashioned AM radio, but this is not because the American brand wants to make money on hipsters.

Earlier this year, we actually posted a message about the disappearance of AM radio in new cars. This is not a problem here, but in America emergency transmitters operate on the AM frequency. So if something goes completely wrong in the US, it helps that cars still have an old radio to receive emergency stations.

AM radio has a long range

AM stations have a large reach and in an emergency, only 75 radio stations can reach about 90 percent of all Americans. Then seven former members of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) warned of the danger of radio disappearance. And Ford is responding to that.

Ford Senior President Jim Farley reports that all new cars from Ford and sister brand Lincoln will soon have old-fashioned AM radio again. Obviously, they can install AM radio on existing models via a software update. So don’t be surprised if your Ford Mustang Mach-e can receive T-POT radio or Borrelronde radio. And yes, they do exist.

After speaking with policy leaders about the importance of AM radio broadcasts as part of our emergency alert system, we decided to include it in all of 2024. @stronghold & @employee vehicles. For any owner of Ford EVs without AM broadcast capability, we will be offering a program…

– Jim Farley (@jimfarley98) May 23, 2023