Ford Reverses Plan To Drop AM Radio Stations From New Vehicles After Backlash
Jason Cohen on May 23, 2023
Ford Motor Company will install AM radios in all of its 2024 models after previously saying they would not be included, CEO Jim Farley announced on Tuesday following backlash the company received.
“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 & @LincolnMotorCo vehicles,” Farley tweeted. AM radio station owners, listeners, first responders and politicians across party lines all previously pushed back against car companies, including Ford, when they announced they would be eliminating AM radios from new models, according to The Washington Post.
A bipartisan group of senators introduced the AM for Every Vehicle Act on Wednesday, which would mandate that car manufacturers continue including AM radios in new models without raising prices.
“I applaud Ford for tuning into the concerns of millions of listeners, thousands of broadcasters and countless emergency management officials who have called for automakers to keep AM radio in their vehicles,” co-author of the bill, Democratic Sen. Edward Markey of Massachusetts said in a statement following the announcement. “AM radio is more than just an essential safety feature—it’s a free, accessible source for anyone to listen to music, news, sports, and entertainment.”
“Innovation in the automotive industry should mean more features, not fewer, for consumers,” he added. “Ford’s reversal reflects an overdue realization about the importance of AM radio, but too many automakers are still going in the wrong direction.”
A Ford spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation that “There will be no additional costs for customers because the 23MY EVs were built with the hardware that the 21/22MY EVs had to reduce the interference since we were in transition of making the full change in the manufacturing process. So we’re able to enable AM radio reception via software update to those vehicles – and it will match the capability in the earlier model year products.”
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