00:02In an increasingly loud world, interference is everywhere on AM radio waves.
00:08So the car charger kills it.
00:11On February 23, ABC Radio Perth will make the switch from 7.20 AM to 102.5 FM in a
00:19once-in-a-generation upgrade.
00:21AM signals can travel long distances, but they're easily disrupted.
00:26FM is far more resilient.
00:29That's not news for those working in radio restoration.
00:33I strip them, put in modern amplifiers, put in Bluetooth,
00:37and it basically changes it from an AM radio to a Bluetooth receiver with a decent amplifier.
00:45And I find the guys with the classic cars love that.
00:47After more than five decades restoring radios, only a handful of Dale's jobs are to keep AM intact.
00:54It would probably be three or four percent at the most are straight restoration of an AM radio.
01:00And that's a sad fact of life that it's becoming redundant.
01:05In older cars like this one from the late 70s, tuning into ABC Radio Perth is easy.
01:10Highly used.
01:12But in newer vehicles such as electric cars, listening to AM radio is not even an option.
01:17A number of modern cars, especially electrics, don't have AM because of the interference generated by the drive systems to
01:24the motor.
01:25So they've just had to drop AM. It wouldn't be functional.
01:28While AM strength serves regional WA, in the city greater reach isn't the priority.
01:34AM is not a thing in most of Europe, in much of the UK, in much of that part of
01:41the world.
01:42And so car manufacturers have no reason really to put it into their cars anymore.
01:46AM designed for a quiet world.
01:48FM for a modern one.
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