Conservative Media Claims Conspiracy Killing AM Radios in Cars, Not Dying Format

Liberals won’t kill the AM radio star, inattention will.

Although roughly eight in 10 people older than 12 reports listening to terrestrial radio each week, according to Pew Research, most of those listeners are for FM bands. Just one in five dial into AM radio, according to Inside Radio. Those aren’t promising prospects for people who make a living on AM talk radio.

Pundits such as Sean Hannity are speculating that automakers leaving AM radios out of new cars—particularly EVs—is a politically motivated move to silence conservative talk radio, which predominately airs across AM bands. 

“I think people want more options, not less options. And this would be a direct hit politically on conservative talk radio in particular, which is what most people go to AM radio to listen to,” the host said on Fox News. “So is there a political component to it? Certainly feels like it.” 

Feels is the operative word there because facts won’t work, grammatically or logically. Everything from poorer audio quality, dwindling listeners, electromagnetic interference, changing formats in Europe from AM to DAB, available satellite internet and radio, smartphone-compatible infotainment systems, and rising Bluetooth popularity—they’re all facts with substantiated data to attribute to AM radio’s decline. Nefarious conspiracy by Democrats to silence a voting bloc? Not so much.

EVs from Audi, Porsche, Tesla, and Volvo have already dropped the band and did so before or during the Trump administration. The 2024 Ford Mustang will skip AM band in its radio, but not because Ford is in on the leftist takeover of our airwaves. They just acknowledged that “countries and automakers globally are modernizing radio by offering internet streaming through mobile apps, FM, or digital.”