An AM radio can be put together for pennies. I’ve gotten them as giveaway swag before. This is the stupidest controversy. You could give everyone in America an AM radio for the cost of this lawsuit and they could just stick it in their car with the stereo jack.

I take no position on this. Seems to me the cost should be negligible if there are forced to include them and the harm will be negligible if they are removed.

My guess is this has been made a big deal by right wing media who see it as a threat to their ability to reach imbeciles listeners and this would be a footnote otherwise.

That being said, having an EBS receiver in cars isn’t a bad thing. Cell networks are unreliable in emergencies. Cell phones didn’t work for days after 9/11. Not that car radios would be particularly helpful in NYC with super low car ownership.

No, AM radio is part of the infrastructure governments can reliably use to inform citizens of danger etc. so it should not easily be removed. And if it’s so cheap it can easily be included.

That only works if people actively tune into AM radio. The person you’re replying to, I think, is implying that the number of people that would be affected by an emergency communication not going over AM radio… while tragic, costs less than losing the ability to have folks like Alex Jones get tiny pockets of crazy scattered all over funneled into one convenient silo.

Ability for AM radios to interrupt other playback for announcements has been around at least since the 90s. Back then it was commonly used to pause cassette playback when traffic announcements were made.

This just requires for the device to monitor radio when on, and to be on - and with how integrated it is in modern days cars functionality I’d say the chance for them to be on is higher than it was in the 90s. So having that functionality is a pretty good way to reach a lot of car drivers.

That is straight up not true.

AM radio cannot, has not ever, and will not ever be able to pause a cassette.

Wtf are you smoking?