AM Radio: Solid Gold

Summary

Podcast Summary: Stuff You Should Know – "AM Radio: Solid Gold"

Release Date: November 18, 2025
Hosts: Josh Clark & Chuck Bryant
Podcast Network: iHeartPodcasts

---

Episode Overview

In this engaging and nostalgic episode, Josh and Chuck take listeners on a journey through the history, culture, and technical wonders of AM radio. Starting from its early 20th-century genesis to its enduring influence and modern-day controversies, the hosts trace AM radio’s social impact—from news and soap operas to Top 40 music and the ongoing debate about its place in new vehicles. True to classic SYSK form, the conversation is playful, insightful, and full of fascinating asides.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Origins and Golden Age of AM Radio

• Early Inventions and Breakthroughs
  • Broadcast innovations converged in the early 1900s, creating the first practical AM radio transmissions ([07:07]).
  • Early broadcasts reached mainly soldiers at sea; commercial broadcasting began post-WWI ([07:59]).
• The First Commercial Broadcast (KDKA, Pittsburgh, 1920):
  • Read the Harding-Cox election results—considered as revolutionary as the arrival of the Internet ([08:35–09:36]).
  • “For the people in the 1920s, it was what people in the early 90s experienced with Internet. …You just know it’s going to change the world.” —Josh ([08:56]).
• AM Radio Spreads Globally:
  • Marconi (the “father of radio”) helped establish stations worldwide.
  • BBC began in 1922; Australia’s first in 1923, Canada’s in 1932 ([10:48–11:21]).
• Radio as a Social Activity
  • Early receivers had speakers, not headphones, making radio listening a family event ([12:07]).

2. Cultural Impact and Public Good

• Presidents and Political Power
  • President Harding and FDR used AM radio for public addresses; FDR’s fireside chats fostered connection and trust ([21:53–22:01]).
  • “It was very clear early on just how much influence it could have on people’s political opinions.” —Josh ([21:53]).
• Entertainment Revolution
  • AM radio pioneered 15-minute drama and variety shows, news, advice, and comedy ([22:01]).
  • Origination of Soap Operas:
    • Aimed at women, sponsored by soap companies—hence, “soap operas.”
    • Guiding Light ran from radio (1937) to TV (2009), 72 straight years ([23:03]).
  • Notable: Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, a ventriloquist act, thrived despite being a visual medium ([25:34]).
• Religious Broadcasting and Controversy
  • Evangelists became media stars; Father Charles Coughlin’s hate speech tested early free speech boundaries ([24:45–25:20]).

3. Technical Aspects & AM vs FM

• AM’s Enduring Appeal
  • Despite FM’s superior sound, AM remained dominant into the late 1970s ([06:55], [13:30]).
  • AM receivers required less power. FM was initially costly and subject to “FM drift” ([13:30–13:54]).
  • AM frequencies defined by the FCC: 535 kHz to 1,700 kHz ([14:29]).
• Community Resource and Accessibility
  • By 1930, 40% of U.S. homes had AM receivers; by 1940, it was 83% ([12:51]).
  • Transistor radios revolutionized listening—portable, personal, and youth-oriented ([11:21]).
• Public Good: The Fairness Doctrine
  • Initiated to ensure equitable broadcast of political viewpoints, prevent commercial monopolization, and maintain radio as a public service ([28:30–29:43]).
  • Its repeal in the 1980s led to the proliferation of talk radio echo chambers ([30:20–30:44]).

4. AM Radio’s Musical & Cultural Heyday

• Top 40 Format & DJ Personalities
  • Todd Storrs (Nebraska) pioneered Top 40 format in early ‘50s, making radio a jukebox-driven medium with superstar DJs like The Big Bopper and Wolfman Jack ([37:53–39:09]).
  • “If you had a station, you had to have a personality. And some of them just happened to be so popular they became international icons, essentially.” —Josh ([39:10]).
• Youth Culture and the Car Radio
  • Transistor and car radios cemented AM as the soundtrack of youth, especially in the 1950s-70s ([42:08]).
• Mellow Gold, Yacht Rock, and ‘Carsick’ Music
  • AM dominated with softer, more melancholy music, later dubbed “yacht rock” or “AM Gold.”
  • Notable banter about the subversive lyrics cloaked in easy-listening tunes ([43:22–45:49]).
  • “When you put constraints on something, it automatically fuels creativity.” —Josh ([43:22]).

5. AM Radio's Technical Quirks & Modern Debate

• AM’s Nighttime Magic
  • At night, AM signals bounce off the ionosphere, traveling hundreds/thousands of miles (hence, cross-state reception) ([31:38–32:24]).
  • “Sometimes you could get an AM station on your radio that’s like four states away.” —Chuck ([31:38]).
• Clear Channel Stations
  • Some stations designated to broadcast 24/7 for national coverage and emergency alerts—not to be confused with the media company ([32:24–33:41]).
• Role in Emergency Broadcasting
  • A reliable backbone for national emergencies, including alerts still funneled preferentially through AM radio ([48:01–50:28]).
  • Crystal radios can pick up AM without batteries—vital for disasters ([49:32]).

6. AM Radio in the 21st Century: The Car Wars

• Current Controversy: AM in Electric Vehicles
  • EV manufacturers (Tesla, BMW, VW, etc.) phasing out AM radios, citing interference from electronics ([48:01]).
  • “Who are carmakers to decide whether AM radio sticks around or not?” —Josh ([51:23]).
  • U.S. government responds with proposed “AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act” to mandate inclusion, citing public safety and rural access ([51:23–52:20]).
• Industry Responses
  • Most Japanese and American brands are keeping AM; some European/luxury brands have dropped it ([52:20–52:56]).
  • Legislative efforts are ongoing as of late 2025.

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On AM’s Revolutionary Impact:
  “It was basically what the Internet was for us in the 90s… you just know it’s going to change the world.” —Josh ([08:56])

• On Family Radio Listening:
  “It was a social activity, listening to all the stuff that was on the radio, which is really important.” —Josh ([12:07])

• On Soap Operas’ Origins:
  “They became known as soap operas… almost exclusively sponsored by cleaning product companies.” —Josh ([23:02])

• On AM’s Unique Reach:
  “Sometimes you could get an AM station on your radio that’s like four states away…” —Chuck ([31:38])

• On AM’s Place in Emergency Response:
  “If you’re going to get an alert… you’re going to probably get that alert over an AM radio station, because that’s what the whole system is set up to do.” —Josh ([49:34])

• On the Battle for AM in Cars:
  “Who are carmakers to decide whether AM radio sticks around or not?” —Josh ([51:23])

• On Yacht Rock and ‘Carsick Music’:
  “Most of them were about getting dumped by women. A lot of sad sack music coming out on AM radio in the 1970s.” —Chuck ([42:55])

• Playful/Jokey Exchanges:
  A running joke about misattributed radio personalities and whether their therapy advice would work for Metallica ([40:00–40:54]), and a tongue-in-cheek debate on songwriting ethics within 70s yacht rock ([44:05–44:57]).

---

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [05:28] AM’s foundational role in broadcast standards
• [07:07] Early experimentation and KDKA’s first broadcast
• [10:48] Worldwide spread and impact
• [13:30] AM’s household dominance and the rise of FM
• [21:53] AM radio and presidential power
• [22:01] The diversity of early radio content
• [23:03] Soap operas and their cultural legacy
• [28:30] The Fairness Doctrine and media regulation
• [31:38] Ionosphere explained: cross-state listening magic
• [37:53] Early Top 40/Rock and rise of DJ celebrities
• [42:08] Car radios and AM’s youth culture
• [48:01] Modern debate: AM radio’s place in electric vehicles
• [49:34] The enduring role of AM in emergencies
• [51:23] Legislation and the future of AM radio

---

Conclusion

Josh and Chuck conclude with heartfelt advocacy for AM radio, reminding listeners of its enduring place not just in nostalgia, but as a vital, democratically accessible source for news, information, community, and emergency alerts. In classic SYSK fashion, they blend genuine historical education with affectionate, often hilarious cultural reminiscence, inviting even digital natives to appreciate "solid gold" AM radio’s ongoing story.

Final word:
“Support AM radio. It’s not a relic. It’s still important.” —Chuck ([53:19])

---

For further listening:

The hosts recommend dusting off an AM radio—or the next best thing, a period playlist of AM classics—and tuning in to the signals that still connect America coast to coast.

Transcript

[Chuck Bryant]

This is an Iheart podcast. Want Black Friday prices without the crowds? Lowes gets it. Shop their early Black Friday deals and beat the rush. $99 is all you need to grab a select 7 foot pre lit artificial Christmas tree for the holidays. And don't sweat what gifts to get dad. They have up to 40% off select tools and accessories going on now. That's how Lowe's celebrates Black Friday. Early selection varies by location while supplies last. Hey everyone, I want to talk to you for a sec about Squarespace and specifically Squarespace Payments. If you're running a business and using Squarespace, you're doing the right thing. Because Squarespace Payments is the easiest way to manage your payments in one place. Onboarding is fast and simple. You can get started in just a few clicks and start receiving payments right away. Plus, you can give your customers more ways to pay with very popular payment methods like Klarna ACH direct debit in the US Apple Pay Afterpay in the US and Canada, and Clearpay in the UK. Just go to squarespace.com stuff and you can get a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, use our offer code stuff to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Hey, are you ready for a kid free escape packed with over $1,000 in value? Why don't you try Virgin Voyages all in Voyage pricing the always included luxury that you deserve without extra charges. You don't simple, transparent, fair. Cruise the Caribbean this winter or explore new destinations in 2025 like Aruba or St. Lucia. Plus enjoy their private beach club in Bimini. It's no wonder they've been voted world's best again.

[Josh Clark]

So.

[Chuck Bryant]

So book [e-mail] or contact your travel advisor. Everybody, we have a big announcement. But Josh, I think you need to do your traditional tour announcement. There we go. That means it's tour time, everybody. We took off 2025 because it just felt like the right thing to do. But we are hitting the road again next year and we are super excited.

[Josh Clark]

Yes. Get this. So we're going to start hitting the road in January, starting January 27th at the Paramount Theater in Denver. The next day, we'll be at the Paramount Theater in Seattle. And on January 29th, we'll be back to our beloved sketchfest at the Sidney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco, California.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's right. That's our January run. And then in April, we're gonna hit the Midwest and we're going to some cities we haven't been to yet. And I'm super excited because on April 16, we'll be in Madison, Wisconsin at the Orpheum theater. On the 17th, we'll be back in Chicago at the Chicago Auditorium, a city we love. And then to my wife's hometown, finally, April 18th in Akron, Ohio, at the Goodyear Theater.

[Josh Clark]

That's right. And get this for the January leg. Tickets are on sale now. And we're actually running a Pre sale today. November 18th. You can use our code SYSKLIVE to get tickets early. Go to stuffyouchouknow.com It'll have all the tickets and info that you need. And you can buy Sketchfest tickets right now as well.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's right. Sketchfest on sale 16 November. There's no presale on that one. General on sale is happening as we speak.

[Josh Clark]

That's right. So we'll see you guys in 2026. We're really excited to get back out there. We hope you're excited too. If you're not, just fake it when you see us.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's right. And pay attention, the Great White north, because there is more to come this summer.

[Josh Clark]

That's right. So we'll see you soon.

[Chuck Bryant]

Welcome to Stuff youf Should Know, a production of iHeartradio.

[Josh Clark]

Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh. And there's Chuck. And Jerry's here too. And we're just kicking it old school real mellow style, which is what I understand all the kids say today.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's right. And hey, before we get going, this is probably the perfect episode to mention that our episode on how vinyl works that was released on vinyl is being reprinted because that thing sold out. And I think people would love to have one of these things for Christmas.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, we're releasing it just in time for the holidays. As a matter of fact, it's coming out on Black Friday, November 28th this year, which also happens to be record store day, from what I understand. And our friends at Born Losers Records put this out again. They did the first one to. Did a magnificent job, of course. And they printed 300 red and black marble records that are just beautiful. Those are available [e-mail].

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

And then for the actual record store where you have to leave your home, probably put on a cap because it's late November. Maybe a coat. Go down to your local indie record store. Yeah, do it. There might be a chance that they have one of the 300 gold royalty records. Those are exclusives for record stores.

[Chuck Bryant]

Well, you can bet your boopy I'll Be going to my local record store and supporting ourselves by buying one.

[Josh Clark]

That's awesome. You should draw more people by just spending like a full day there and telling everyone.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, maybe I could work something out with Wuxtree here in town. I can go sit up there and those guys can not talk to me.

[Josh Clark]

We'll see if we can get a cutout of you too, to stand behind you while you sit there.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's great. I'm really excited this is back out though, because people really seem to enjoy it and what is it again? Syskvinyl.com that's right. Awesome.

[Josh Clark]

And thanks again to our friends at Born Losers. You guys are great.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, they're the best.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, they are. Okay, Chuck. So yeah, this is a really good episode to shout out records because we're talking about AM radio and we talked a little bit about it in our beautiful music short stuff. AKA bm.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's right.

[Josh Clark]

I'll never get over. But there's a lot more to AM radio. And in fact, I didn't realize this. Julia helped us with this one. And I didn't realize before that AM broadcasting basically set the standards for all sorts of different things like how news is presented, soap operas, all sorts of different stuff that lasted for decades and decades and decades. It all started with AM radio because ultimately it was the very first form of mass communication that was not printed.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, I mean, top 40 radio started on AM, which is. I mean, I think these days the kids, if they hear of AM radio, probably either don't know what it is or may not. If they have, as we'll see, a newer model car, especially ev, may not even have AM radio or a radio in their house, like a transistor radio or something or receiver. But they may think AM radio as like news talk, sports talk, maybe some foreign language stations, maybe some, if they're driving through a rural community, some weird farm report or something that they've never heard.

[Josh Clark]

I remember this.

[Chuck Bryant]

And that's kind of what AM radio became. But it launched top 40. It was the. Up until like 1978, it beat FM. And FM had been around since what, like the 30s?

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, it had. And everybody said, nope, we're really happy with AM and stuck with it even after FM came around for quite a while. But let's talk about this because you hit on some really good points and we're going to touch on all of those. But let's start at the very, very beginning when AM radio really started to come around because people had been messing with AM broadcasting since the very early 1900s, there were some inventions that all kind of came together around the same time, and I do not understand how this could possibly happen. But putting these disparate inventions together and figuring out how to broadcast radio waves that have encoded sound in them is just. I mean, hats off. That's like mad genius stuff. But that's what happened in the very early 1900s.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, there were people broadcasting AM signals at the time, and the only people that had these AM receivers that could listen were, like, soldiers at sea or something like that. This is before they made it into the homes of Americans that paused during World War I because they said, hey, we can't have you broadcasting your daughter playing violin, even though our soldiers love it, that are out at sea. We need to kind of lock this down for now. But starting in about 1920. In fact, exactly 1920 was when commercial broadcast AM radio started with KDKA Pittsburgh.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, that was the very first one. I think that they read the results of the Warren Harding election. I can't remember the other guy's name. Somebody. Cox. Warren Harding obviously won, but right after that, I mean, like, this was so clearly a groundbreaking medium. Yeah, it was basically for the people in the 1920s. It was what. What people in the early 90s experienced with Internet. Yeah. It was almost like. Like, holy cow. I can't. Like, you can't even begin to imagine all the different ways that this thing is going to change the world. You just know it's going to change the world. That's kind of what happened. And so right after that first broadcast, it just exploded all over the world. And one reason why it exploded all over the world is because the person who's considered the father of Radio, Guglielmo Marconi, he set up companies everywhere. So very quickly, radio stations started to develop in just a year or two after KDKA went on the air.

[Chuck Bryant]

I'm, by the way, a little mad at you because ever since you sent me the Marconi tidbit this morning, I cannot get We Built the City on Rock and Roll out of my head.

[Josh Clark]

How? Why? That's odd.

[Chuck Bryant]

Marconi played the mamba.

[Josh Clark]

Oh, I never knew that.

[Chuck Bryant]

Listen to the radio.

[Josh Clark]

I gotcha. Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

And I mean, I hate that song so much, and I can't get it out of my head. All because I just saw the word Marconi typed in an email.

[Josh Clark]

I always thought, seriously, it was some gibberish I had in my head. I knew it wasn't right, but it was like. And. And says La Bamba. Something like That I had no idea Marconi was name checked, but that's appropriate.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, I'm not really mad at you, but boy, that thing really gets rooted in your head pretty well. But like you said, by the early 1920s everybody was on board. In 1922, in fact, AT&T had the first radio network built when they linked 38 radio stations by phone lines and could broadcast, you know, weaf out of New York all around the country. So like people, it was, it was literally like you said, like the Internet was. It was American life before and life after. As far as AM radio goes.

[Josh Clark]

Well put, well put. And not just American life too. Like this. Like I said, it spread around the world very quickly. The BBC started broadcasting in 1922. Australia's first radio station, 2SB, which is now ABC Sydney. That's. They started in 1923. Canada got its first one in 1932, XWA out of Montreal. It was just like the Internet. It's not like it was just one country, it was everybody who got involved. Because it was a humanity altering invention.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, for sure. By the late 1920s, the major networks had launched. And you know, these were radio networks, NBC and cbs, these were international broadcasts from the United States all over the world. And you know, they worked by, you know, you had to have a receiver. So early on, you know, vacuum tubes worked with radio receivers connected to loudspeakers. And that's how you could hear things. Later on, transistor radios came along and that's what really changed the game because that's when it was like TVs for the olds. The young people were, had these little radios in their pocket and then they started, you know, putting radios in cars. But it's funny to think about a time when like, yeah, TV's outdated and we want AM radio in our pocket.

[Josh Clark]

And then it came roaring back eventually, thanks to La Law. You mentioned something that I think is worth calling out too. You mentioned that there's a speaker that converts that sound signal back into actual acoustic sound. They weren't headphones, they were speakers. So that meant that early radio was a thing that the family gathered around. It was a social activity, listening to all, all the stuff that was on the radio, which is really important. Cause I mean that's definitely become fragmented and fractured today as personal media has become more and more available. But that was like whatever was on the radio right then, probably whatever your parents wanted to listen to. That's what the family was listening to.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, for better or worse, I think by 1930 there were 40% of US homes had am receivers. Hopefully most of them had speakers. Otherwise they just sit there and look at it. There were more than 600 radio stations in 1930, obviously all of them am. But like we mentioned, FM came along pretty quickly in the 1930s and had a better sound. But you know, it just didn't take over until 1978. I think by 1940 even 83% of the households in America, I mean that's really massive coverage, had AM radio signals like you know, being broadcast through their homes.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, and you said, I mean like FM was around, but people said no, we're sticking with the am. One of the big reasons is because the FM receiver needs more power because of the way FM radio is pumped out. That was a big thing for a long time. That was one reason people stuck around with am. But there's definitely an affection that developed for, for AM radio over the years.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. There's also something called FM drift. Like if you're driving around listening to an FM station, it can kind of go in and out to the left or to the right. I guess you could kind of turn your dial a little bit and try and dial it back in, but that was an issue. And we'll talk about some of the AM radio issues. But if you're looking at the dial AM radio, but According to the FCC, AM waves have to be broadcast on frequencies between 535 MHz and 1.7 and FM is from 88 to 108.

[Josh Clark]

Yep. Sounds legit. That's right. Those check out based on the radio call signs I'm familiar with.

[Chuck Bryant]

Do you ever listen to AM radio anymore?

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, I listened to the Bulldogs game on the way home from Yumi's parents house on Saturday.

[Chuck Bryant]

Wasn't that nice?

[Josh Clark]

The ball game or listening to the radio?

[Chuck Bryant]

Listening to a sports broadcast on the radio.

[Josh Clark]

Yes, I used to do that in college. I can't remember the sportscaster's name. The legendary one for Georgia with the hobnail boot.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, yeah, Larry Munson.

[Josh Clark]

Larry Munson, Yeah. Back in college I would listen to him and watch the game like on mute and hopefully they would sync up.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, that was the preferred method. But I still love. And it doesn't happen a lot because you know, I watch the game on TV generally. But if I'm traveling like you were just talking about or I remember when I built, we couldn't afford to build like to get a fence company to build our fence 20 years ago. And so I built our privacy fence like picket by picket over the course of two months.

[Josh Clark]

Oh wow.

[Chuck Bryant]

And a lot of that was spent with me listening to Georgia Bulldogs on the radio. I mean it was pre podcast even. And it's just, it's still to me a great way to catch a game.

[Josh Clark]

For sure.

[Chuck Bryant]

Not even nostalgia wise. Like it really is a great way to listen to catch a game.

[Josh Clark]

Oh yeah, the play calling is like you have to be really good. There's no assist there. You're telling everybody what's going on, you know. Yeah, I say we take a break cause we're getting nostalgic already. What do you think?

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, I'm going to park that and we'll stick to the facts.

[Josh Clark]

Okay baby. We're taking a break everybody. We'll be right back. Imagine a vacation where everything's taken care of. Virgin Voyages all in Voyage pricing includes over $1,000 in value with Wi Fi 20 plus dining options, group fitness, classes and entertainment all included.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's right, it's luxury without the hidden charges. These are kid free cruises built for adults where wellness, nightlife and unforgettable experiences come together. Set sail this winter from Miami for week long Caribbean escapes to Grand Cayman, Jamaica, Puerto Rico or the Dominican Republic. Plus soak up sun at their exclusive beach club in bimini.

[Josh Clark]

And in 2025 and 2026, they're going even further. Think Aruba, St. Lucia, and even new routes from New York, LA and Seattle aboard their newest ship, Brilliant Lady. With themed sailings, music and parties all, there's never a dull moment on board. It's no wonder they're award winning again. Book now@virgin voyages.com or contact your travel advisor. Living with a rare autoimmune condition comes with challenges but also incredible strength, especially for those living with conditions like myasthenia gravis or mg and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, otherwise known as cidp. Finding empowerment in the community is is critical.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's right. And in the latest season of Untold Life with a Severe Autoimmune Condition, a Ruby Studio production in partnership with Argenics host Martine Hackett explores what it means to reclaim your identity, discover resilience and cultivate self advocacy.

[Josh Clark]

From the frustration of misdiagnosis to the small victories that fuel hope, every story told is meant to unite, uplift and empower. And that inspires us all to take one step closer to being a better advocate and seeing life from a different point of view.

[Chuck Bryant]

So if you or a loved one are living with an autoimmune condition, find inspiration along your path. Listen to untold life with a severe autoimmune condition. On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Sponsor/Guest Voice]

Let's talk about something you probably haven't thought about. Your couch.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, that thing you nap on, eat on, cry on.

[Sponsor/Guest Voice]

Turns out that most Silvas are basically bacteria playgrounds.

[Josh Clark]

It's true. We looked it up. It's not good.

[Sponsor/Guest Voice]

But Anabe changes that it's washable, like fully washable. Take the covers off, throw them in the machine, boom, clean.

[Josh Clark]

Also, it's actually affordable, which is surprisingly rare.

[Sponsor/Guest Voice]

So, yeah, if you're gonna sit on something every day, maybe don't make it a biohazard. And here's the kicker. It's not just practical, it's affordable. Starting at just $699, you can make your sofa as clean as it is comfy.

[Josh Clark]

Plus, with their Black Friday sale, you can even get up to 60% off your annabe sofa right now.

[Sponsor/Guest Voice]

Because, let's be real, you deserve better than a germ factory. For a place to rest your head, check out washablesofas.com now and give your couch the upgrade it's begging for.

[Chuck Bryant]

So if we're talking the golden age of radio as a whole, that was about a three to four decade period from the 20s through the mid-50s or so. That was when AM radio starred. We'll also talk a little bit later about sort of the 70s period when AM radio music was like, you know, the mellow gold stuff was a big deal. But that, you know, that first decade of radio ushered in, you know, it was blowing people's minds like they had never heard sometimes any of this stuff or certainly had not heard any of this stuff live, like a live broadcast. And speaking of sports, in 1921, over about 125,000 square miles from where it broadcasts out of Jersey City, New Jersey, people listened to the heavyweight boxing championship. And I can't imagine what that was like to hear a sports broadcast like that for the first time as it happened.

[Josh Clark]

Well, hopefully the commentator knew what he was doing too. And when there weren't like long pauses like the boom goes the dynamite guy.

[Chuck Bryant]

One of them's punching another one repeatedly.

[Josh Clark]

Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention Carpentier just went down.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's right.

[Josh Clark]

One of the other things that we'll see about AM radio too, Chuck, is that it was long considered a public good, so that the government had a little more willingness to be like, no, you can say this and you can't say that. And you have to do this. One of the reasons why is because it was very quickly used to kind of spread public information. Like presidents took to it very quickly. Remember I said that KDKA announced the results of the Harding election within just a couple of years. Warren Harding was using it to. To talk to America. And FDR was probably the most famous president who used the radio to talk to America. He had a series of like just informal speeches basically called fireside chats. Yeah, that really made a lot of the countries just fall in love with them. But it was very clear early on just how much influence it could have on people's political opinions.

[Chuck Bryant]

Well, and it was a lot of people the first time they ever heard the President's voice speak.

[Josh Clark]

Is that what he sounds like?

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. It wasn't around during Lincoln because everyone would have been like, really? But yeah, there was definitely public good and we'll dive into that a little bit, along with tons of entertainment. You know, it was basically like 15 minute chunks for a long, long time of all over the map, variety style stuff, kind of reminiscent of vaudeville. Like there were hosts of shows, but the DJ thing didn't come along till much later. So you had advice shows and news shows and obviously comedy stuff, game shows. Radio dramas were a big, big deal.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, that's where soap operas came from too. They were broadcast almost exclusively with women as their target audience. And at the time, this is just post World War I, where women had helped the war effort in the factories. The men came back and they were like, get back in the house. And women were stuck in the house all day. So these radio dramas were broadcast to them and they were almost exclusively sponsored by cleaning product companies.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's right.

[Josh Clark]

So they became known as soap operas. And one of the longer lasting soap operas of all time actually made the jump successfully from radio to tv. That was Guiding Light.

[Chuck Bryant]

No way.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. It started in 1937 on the radio and was finally canceled in 2009. On TV, it was 72 years of guiding Light every weekday too.

[Chuck Bryant]

I had a very, very brief foray into soap operas. I guess it was in college or something. I don't know why, but I got hooked for. I mean, not too long, but I was hooked. I was like, these things are stupid. I was like, yeah, but what happens?

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, the same thing happened to me again in college too. And I cannot remember the name of it, but it was just off the chain. I know there's a main character named Marlena and she was possessed by the devil at one point.

[Chuck Bryant]

Someone will remember.

[Josh Clark]

And later. Yeah, certainly that's like a very famous plotline that was going on when I was hooked on him. And then I got hooked on him enough that I would switch channels during ads and see what was on other soap operas and on General Hospital. Once there was a scene where this couple was in bed and they did such a poor job of editing that they left in the director saying cut. And the two actors roll out of bed. I'll never forget it. It was one of the greatest things I've ever seen on television.

[Chuck Bryant]

They're like the sheets are pulled up, you know, to their bare skin, and then they roll out of bed and they have on like blue jeans.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. I don'. Remember what they were wearing or anything, but yeah, I'm sure it was just like that.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's really funny. Oh, God. To have that time again where you could just like maybe sort of get hooked on a soap for no reason.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, for sure.

[Chuck Bryant]

Religion was also a big deal early on. AM radio. All of a sudden evangelists could broadcast far and wide from what they called the electric pulpit. And they became like, you know, big time personalities and stars during the Depression era.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. One of the first people that the question of freedom of speech was raised around was Father Charles Coughlin, who was a bigoted hate speech Catholic priest who really kind of pushed the envelope, you could say. I think he said the Nazis didn't go far enough during Kristallnacht. Like he was that kind of guy.

[Chuck Bryant]

Wow.

[Josh Clark]

So he definitely rose to prominence during this time. On the lighter side, one of the most popular long running shows was the Edgar bergen and Charlie McCarthy show.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

Which was a ventriloquist act on the radio. Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

I mean, the jokes still work, but it's definitely a visual medium for sure.

[Josh Clark]

But he managed to make it like super radio friendly and it was super popular. You said that the golden age of radio ended around the 1962. And we should say this was. This depends on your perspective because a lot of people say no golden age of radio went all the way to the 70s. This would be like the first wave of golden age radio where it wasn't music. It was like dramas, scripted comedies, like sports, all this stuff like what TV is today. This was the first iteration of radio and it was all AM radio. But there was a year, 1962, when two shows were canceled, two long running shows. And people point to their cancellation as essentially the end of that era.

[Chuck Bryant]

What were those?

[Josh Clark]

Yours truly, Johnny Dollar.

[Chuck Bryant]

Okay.

[Josh Clark]

It was about an insurance fraud investigator.

[Chuck Bryant]

Sounds like true crime.

[Josh Clark]

It is. It sounds interesting. Each Episode was a flashback of him going over the line items for his expense report for that particular case. And then each line item would kind of bring up like a new scene. Pretty interesting.

[Chuck Bryant]

The radio network guy's like, can he kill his lover?

[Josh Clark]

And then suspense was another one. And it sounds like it was a little bit of a predecessor to like Alfred Hitchcock Presents and maybe the Twilight Zone here or there. And both of those were really well produced shows. And they got canceled the same year. And everybody said, that's it, that's the end of the golden age. And they spat on the floor.

[Chuck Bryant]

Well, you mentioned the public good starting in the 1920s to jump back a little bit. You know, like you mentioned president speaking. Inaugural addresses were being broadcast and the government really realized, hey, like, we have a sort of a public service we need to enact when we're sharing information, because we got to get the word out about stuff sometimes, and this is the way to do it. So the USDA Radio Service began talking to farmers in 1926. The U.S. bureau of Home Economics had a chat program they launched, I believe, in the same year where they could talk about like, you know, any emergencies happening in regards to kids, like health and safety, stuff like a new disease going around that your kid maybe should get vaccinated against, stuff like that newfangled polio. But by the end of the 1920s, they were like, hey, there's a limited bandwidth and people are getting political messages out. And we need to make sure that everyone in America is getting sort of equal access to these messages. So no particular message gets out more than any other. And that's where the Fairness Doctrine came about, right?

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, we talked about that in the presidential debates episode, but I think it deserves its own episode. It's so controversial. But basically the Fairness Doctrine is what I was talking about earlier when I said the government wasn't shy about getting involved in regulating radio because of what you just said. Like, you can't just use radio at the time, you couldn't to just put out one, say, specific political viewpoint. So the Fairness Doctrine said you have to have equal time when you're talking about political matters. You have to give equal time to both opposing viewpoints. It also said some other stuff too that I thought was pretty cool. It made sure that commercial concerns did not eclipse social ones, so you couldn't screw over the public for your own bottom line, which is just refreshing these days. The radio served the public good and that you have like a kind of public programming that's essentially like, in addition to all of the ventriloquist acts and soap operas and all that. You have, like stuff that makes people, helps people be more informed citizens. Like, that was what the government was getting involved in radio for.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, maybe. Perhaps if we would have been around at the time, it might have been stuff you should know.

[Josh Clark]

I could see that. I could see that. Yeah, we would have been great for AM radio. I think, as a matter of fact, we should probably just stop podcasting and start broadcasting on AM radio.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, we gotta get the message of jackhammers out far and wide.

[Josh Clark]

That's right.

[Chuck Bryant]

You know, the fairness doctrine went away and, you know, like you said, we should do a whole episode on that. But one of the things that happened was, you know, the FM becoming a dominant force and just way more choices and way more bandwidth for radio, so they didn't need it anymore.

[Josh Clark]

Right.

[Chuck Bryant]

So then, you know, that's where that's really literally where the echo chamber of politics started. Where you could turn into just your person who only talked about things that you agreed with.

[Josh Clark]

Yep, absolutely.

[Chuck Bryant]

And that's it.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. Not coincidentally, 1980s is when talk radio like really started to become a thing with like people like Rush Limbaugh. That did not exist before that kind of thing.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. And you know, fm, when that came around, it did create that echo chamber, but it was mostly like a wealthy educated crowd that could afford FM receivers. They were more expensive, like you were talking about. I think there were more than 2,000am stations on the air in the 1950s. Some of them would broadcast on both. I definitely remember, you know, both AM FM stations. But FM did have some, and still do have some sort of things that weren't in their favor. Like if you were inside a building sometime, the AM signal could get blocked and get a little more difficult to get. A lot of AM stations, I think most of them in fact have to either reduce their power or just go off the air at night. So, you know, back in the day, and maybe still you hear those sign offs at the end of the night, which is kind of fun, where they play like the Star Spangled Banner or something and it just goes dead.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, like in Poltergeist.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's right. But another cool thing about AM is if you've ever been like driving around out west or something and, you know, probably not these days, but back when I was taking my big out west trips, when all I had was like a cassette player and the radio, once the sun went down, sometimes you could get an AM station on your radio that's like four states away because of those airwaves bouncing off the ionosphere and saying, we'll take it from here.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. During the day, the ionosphere is super ionized. That's where it gets its name. At night, it's less ionized. So there's, for some reason, AM radio signals can bounce off of it easier and like you said, end up down in Mexico, for goodness sake.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

Which is pretty cool. For that reason, though, that's why they stopped transmitting at night. A lot of them, like, I'm with you, I don't know if they still do or not. Seems like the kind of thing that maybe was licked, but it also seems so fundamental that maybe it's still a problem. But there were some stations that were designated clear channels. They were allowed to broadcast 24 hours a day. And they were spread out both physically around the country and in Canada and Mexico and also spread out on the dial so that their, their signals wouldn't interfere with one another when they traveled really far distances. And one of the reasons why they had AM stations designated to operate 24 hours a day is again part of that public good, which was a service that AM radio offers that is kind of overlooked a lot here in the United States, which is. It is like a national security alert system, essentially. We'll talk a little more about that later. But that's why the Clear Channel thing is a thing.

[Chuck Bryant]

Right. And to be clear, I didn't even mean that. Not to be confused with former iHeartMedia company Clear Channel.

[Josh Clark]

No, but I bet that's where they get their name.

[Chuck Bryant]

Man, that'd be a real coincidence, huh?

[Josh Clark]

Wasn't that the name of the city that was built on rock and roll? Clear Channel. Yeah. Clear Channel City.

[Chuck Bryant]

I'm not falling for anything you ever say anymore, so don't even try. Should we take another break?

[Josh Clark]

Yes.

[Chuck Bryant]

All right, we'll take another break. Talk about the rise of TV and, you know, music on AM radio right after.

[Josh Clark]

Imagine a vacation where everything's taken care of. Virgin voyages all in voyage. Pricing includes over $1,000 in value with Wi Fi 20 plus dining options, group fitness classes and entertainment all included.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's right. It's luxury without the hidden charges. These are kid free cruises built for adults where wellness, nightlife, unforgettable experiences come together. Set sail this winter from Miami for week long Caribbean escapes to Grand Cayman, Jamaica, Puerto Rico or the Dominican Republic. Plus soak up sun at their exclusive beach club in Bimini.

[Josh Clark]

And in 2025 and 2026, they're going even further. Think Aruba St. Lucia and even new routes from New York, LA and Seattle aboard their newest ship, Brilliant Lady. With themed sailings, music and parties all year long, there's never a dull moment on board. It's no wonder they're award winning again. Book now@virgin voyages.com or contact your travel advisor. Living with a rare autoimmune condition comes with challenges but also incredible strength. Especially for those living with conditions like myasthenia gravis or mg, and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, otherwise known as cidp, finding empowerment in the community is critical.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's right. And in the latest season of Untold Life with a Severe Autoimmune Condition, a Ruby Studio production in partnership with Argenics host Martine Hackett explores what it means to reclaim your identity, discover resilience, and cultivate self advocacy.

[Josh Clark]

From the frustration of misdiagnosis to the small victories that fuel hope, every story told is meant to unite, uplift and empower. And that inspires us all to take one step closer to being a better advocate and seeing life from a different point of view.

[Chuck Bryant]

So if you or a loved one are living with an autoimmune condition, find inspiration along your path. Listen to Untold Life with a Severe Autoimmune condition on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Sponsor/Guest Voice]

Let's talk about something you probably haven't thought about. Your couch.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, that thing you nap on, eat on, cry on.

[Sponsor/Guest Voice]

Turns out that most sofa alphas are basically bacteria playgrounds.

[Josh Clark]

It's true. We looked it up. It's not good.

[Sponsor/Guest Voice]

But Anabe changes that it's washable. Like fully washable. Take the covers off, throw them in the machine. Boom, clean.

[Josh Clark]

Also, it's actually affordable, which is surprisingly rare.

[Sponsor/Guest Voice]

So, yeah, if you're gonna sit on something every day, maybe don't make it a biohazard. And here's the kicker. It's not just practical, it's affordable. Starting at just $699, you can make your sofa as clean as it is comfy.

[Josh Clark]

Plus, with their Black Friday sale, you can even get up to 60% off your annabe sofa right now.

[Sponsor/Guest Voice]

Because, let's be real, you deserve better than a germ factory. For a place to rest your head, check out washablesofas.com now and give your couch the upgrade. It's begging.

[Josh Clark]

Okay, Chuck, we're back. And we're we talked about how the golden age of radio ended, but that was what the oldsters considered the golden age. If you were Young and hip hop. The golden age was still yet to come.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's right. I mentioned Top 40 was invented on AM and it was specifically developed by a station owner named Todd Storrs in Nebraska at the beginning of the 1950s, I guess. And he said, hey, radio has all these great shows. I love those puppets. That ventriloquism is great, but we've got rock and roll now and R and B and soon, you know, pop music coming our way. Pop music. Who was that? Is that Falco?

[Josh Clark]

No. I shouldn't have opened my big mouth because I don't remember I even have that on my phone. So maybe I'll look sometime soon.

[Chuck Bryant]

But he said, hey, let's start playing this music. Let's create a. What Julia calls a jukebox driven media and, you know, play people stuff. You know, DJs became a thing. That's when they became personalities. Each station started having, you know, these sort of wacky. That's where those first, you know, like the Wolfman and all those sort of wacky early DJs came from that were like real personalities people would tune into just to listen to their specific show.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, like each station had to have their own personality. Like the Big Bopper, one of the most famous of all time.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

He was DJing for a station in Beaumont, Texas. Like, it had. Like, if you had a station, you had to have a personality. And some of them just happened to be so popular that they became international icons, essentially.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, it's amazing.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. Like, the Wolfman went on to own a furniture store in North Georgia called Gallery Furniture. You wanted a waterbed, you would go ask for the Wolfman.

[Chuck Bryant]

Boy, that's a niche joke. Should we even explain it or not?

[Josh Clark]

Nah.

[Chuck Bryant]

Okay, good.

[Josh Clark]

I think if you go onto YouTube and you look up Gallery Furniture and the Wolfman, there'll be something on there.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, sure, but that wasn't Wolfman.

[Josh Clark]

Jack, are you sure?

[Chuck Bryant]

You didn't really think it was the same guy, did you?

[Josh Clark]

No.

[Chuck Bryant]

Okay. See, I don't know what to believe anymore.

[Josh Clark]

I'm not trying, you know, I just wanted to come clean about this.

[Chuck Bryant]

Okay?

[Josh Clark]

I've never tried to fool you. That was a thing that just kind of evolved. I've just been making dry, random jokes all this time, but it's never been to fool you. You took that and ran with it. I've never done it directly to fool you.

[Chuck Bryant]

This is not what you said during our therapy session last week.

[Josh Clark]

Well, Dr. Krantz said that, Dr. Katz.

[Chuck Bryant]

That'S who we should have gotten.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. Dr. Katz said that I needed to make more stuff up, so. That's right.

[Chuck Bryant]

We're not in therapy together, by the way, everybody, that was a joke. But if we did, we'd get the guy who therapied Metallica. Right?

[Josh Clark]

Oh, I forgot that they were in therapy together. Yeah, I guess it worked. That's a.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's not. I'm not knocking it at all. I mean, we haven't had to do it, but I think that's a great idea for any kind of partnership, you know.

[Josh Clark]

Agreed. Okay, good. Was that the therapist that talked Metallica out of their emo phase?

[Chuck Bryant]

Right.

[Josh Clark]

Because hats off to that therapist, maybe. Oh, yeah. We were talking about what was going on with this transition to music.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

One of the reasons why AM radio transitioned to music and away from things like soap operas and all that stuff was because those things ended up on tv. The older people followed those. Remember, they're like radios the pits now because the golden era is over. And then they turn on their TVs and they're like, oh, the golden era is over here now, let's just keep going and watching now instead of just listening. And that left the kids to fill this vacuum, which was AM radio. And like you said, the top 40 format started there. The like big internationally known DJs started there. And it just kind of took off little by little, but really picked up steam when a few things kind of came together. And one of them you already mentioned, which was transistor radios. So now you didn't just have to sit at home with the oldsters to listen to your favorite hits. And then also AM radio started to show up in cars essentially as not even an option after a while, like you got the AM radio whether you wanted it or not.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. I think more than half of American cars had AM radio receivers factory installed by the 1950s. And that was a huge, huge deal, obviously. And you know, it was the dominant paradigm for music until 78. And there was that period from kind of the early 70s to the early 80s, little under 10 years where that, you know, sort of yacht, rocky, am, mellow gold stuff really, really took over. Yeah, you had to kind of watch what you put on the radio because FM was playing, you know, they were playing the AOR album oriented rock stuff that had a little more machismo and testosterone fueled, like, you know, rock bands.

[Josh Clark]

Big hair.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, exactly. Big hair, long hair, not a mustache in sight. Unless it was part of a beard probably. But wasn't the case on AM with yacht rock, they were Mustachioed dudes, generally sensitive guys. The songs weren't about usually, like, conquering women. Most of them were about getting dumped by women. A lot of sad sack music coming out on AM radio in the 1970s. I still listen to a lot of that stuff.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. And a lot of the constraints. I found this to be true throughout my life, that when you put constraints on something, it automatically fuels creativity because it doesn't mean you don't still want to get across subversive ideas. You just have to cloak them within the confines of these constraints. And it makes you more creative than just saying the idea out loud. Right. Which is why album rockers are typically dumb compared to yacht rockers as far as the artists go.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. So, like, if you're a songwriter and you're like, I'm a yacht rocker, I'm not going to sing about, you know, teenage girls. I'm going to sing about things I like, like pina coladas and. And getting caught in the rain.

[Josh Clark]

Man, that guy, I think he's one of the most reprehensible songwriters of all time.

[Chuck Bryant]

I hate that song.

[Josh Clark]

Not just that song, the Pina Colada song. Have you ever heard the song? Him? His song? Him?

[Chuck Bryant]

I don't know. I don't know it by name. Would I recognize it, you think?

[Josh Clark]

I don't know. It's considered yacht rock. But it's a really despicable song about this guy whose girlfriend is sleeping around on him, so he's gotta teach her a lesson to basically bring her back to heel. And how he's not heartbroken or hurt, he's just mad that this guy, he says, like, nobody should get it for free. Yeah, that's what he's upset about. It's a nutso song. Go listen to it. But, yeah, Rupert Holmes, I don't think he, like, embodies the. The seven. Like the worst part of men in the 70s, I think.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. I mean, I really don't like that song at all. But I do love most yacht rock. And I know we've probably talked about it briefly at some point as a recommend, but the yacht rock documentary that came out last year is really, really good. And we do definitely want to say that that term was not coined until the 2000s, when a comedy web series spoofing the genre made up the name yacht rock. Before that, I think, like, you know, Time Life put out the AM Gold series of CDs. I think AM Gold or Mello or Easy Listening, that sort of is what we called it. Right.

[Josh Clark]

Isn't that what you called it easy listening. Yeah, that's what I was first introduced to it as.

[Chuck Bryant]

Our mutual friend Allison, who we used to work with. My friend Eddie's wife calls it carsick music because it just brings back days of like riding backwards in a station wagon and being car sick and that stuff just droning on and on.

[Josh Clark]

That's a perfect name for it.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, it's good.

[Josh Clark]

But when, you know, when you're familiar with the idea that they had to kind of cloak subversive ideas in like non obvious terms and you go back and listen to some of this mellow gold stuff, it's like, whoa. They were really. It's a little crazier than you thought. Like, for example, love grows Where My Rosemary Goes is code for let's smoke some dmt. Yeah, that was the only one I turned up.

[Chuck Bryant]

I mean, what do you think Ride like the Wind is about? Come on.

[Josh Clark]

Right. That's about DMT as well.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, wow. All right.

[Josh Clark]

But he's talking about what it's like to be on dmt, not just inviting you to smoke dmt.

[Chuck Bryant]

Well, you know what's funny? I think Christopher Cross wrote Ride like the Wind when he was on lsd.

[Josh Clark]

I believe that.

[Chuck Bryant]

I think he said that in that yacht rock doc.

[Josh Clark]

Did he really? Yeah, It's a great song.

[Chuck Bryant]

It's a great song and has one of the, like most. One of the greatest guitar solos because he's a killer guitar player. But it's so buried in the mix. And there's all kinds of YouTube videos now where they're like, yeah, let's bring it up in the mix and talk about this solo and like how amazing it is.

[Josh Clark]

That's kind of like those videos of Van Halen with nothing but David Lee Roth's vocals. Have you heard those?

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, those are. Those are very funny. And to be clear, it's a rip and solo for yacht rock. It's. No. So it's not like the solo for My Sharona or anything, but it's still good.

[Josh Clark]

I don't. Yeah. Neither of the solos stand out to me. I can't bring either one to mind.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, man. The. My Sharona solo is a top five guitar solo of all time for me. And you got to listen to the radio version. Cut out a full minute. It's like 90 plus seconds. The full version.

[Josh Clark]

Wow.

[Chuck Bryant]

And they cut out 2/3 of it for the radio version, so you gotta listen to the real full version. It's like. It's way better than it should be for that song.

[Josh Clark]

That would Be the album edit, right?

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, I guess so. It's killer.

[Josh Clark]

Or the 12 inch version.

[Chuck Bryant]

I don't know about the 12 inch.

[Josh Clark]

Okay, well, regardless, go listen to some mellow gold. It'll make you happy for sure.

[Chuck Bryant]

But where are we these days with AM radio?

[Josh Clark]

Well, there's this battle over it. Just like absolutely every single other thing that people, more than one person talks about in America, AM radios actually managed to become politicized. A bunch of carmakers, from what I can tell, led by Tesla, I think they were the first ones to announce this back in 2020, that they were going to discontinue AM radios in their cars. Boo. Yeah. And I think now you can kind of imagine why. It's a politicized idea. But the ostensible reason is that the AM stereo is interfered with by the ev. Long story short, AM waves are much more susceptible to noise because of electrical interference. Well, an electrical vehicle is lousy with electrical interference. And so the whole car industry is like, we're going to have to spend a bunch of money just to keep the same radio in there. And the US Government is a pretty adamant that AM radio needs to stick around again, not just for the public good thing, the nostalgia factor, but also because if you are going to get an alert that, you know, the Cubans have invaded, you're going to probably get that alert over an AM radio station, because that's what the whole system is set up to do. Not because it's antiquated, but because AM radio does all sorts of things. Those, they could. The waves can travel very far, so it reaches a lot of people. Rural people listen to AM radio still today. Like it's just part of rural life. So it's. Everybody is reached by AM one way or another. And I didn't know this, but you can make a type of radio, a crystal receiver radio that can play AM radio broadcasts without any battery or power source. The, the crystal manages to take the energy in the radio carrier wave and use that alone to basically reproduce the sound. So for all those reasons, AM, like radio really makes a lot of sense to put all of your eggs in that basket as far as getting like emergency broadcasts out. So the government said, long story short, you need to keep AM radios in cars. And they're trying to figure out how to get that mandated.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, I mean, it's called the Emergency Alert System now. It used to be the ebs, the Emergency Broadcast System. And if you're thinking like, man, I get my Amber alerts, like all that stuff comes through my Phone now. And this isn't like Gen X are saying like, oh, you're too reliant on your phones. But if you expect that phone to always work in all cases for the rest of time, you're sorely mistaken. Because if that system is taken out, then you're gonna rely on something like AM radio to get important information out. You know, I mean, that's why it's still there. That's why they're going to the car makers and saying like, hey, like, you may not listen to it, you may think it's old fashioned, but There are still 4,000am stations and 80 million listeners a month that some of them rely on this stuff to get information. And you can't just say like, well, it seems old timey, so we don't. And it interferes with our stuff, so we don't want it anymore.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, I do kind of have the feeling that there is like a certain scorn toward the nostalgic factor of AM radio and that that's part of maybe what's driving it, which really ticks me off because who are carmakers to decide whether AM radio sticks around or not? Congress says no. We actually have come up with a law called the AM Radio for Every Vehicle act that basically says if you sell a car in the United States, it has to have AM radio as a feature, not even an option. And a lot of car makers are like, sure, fine, we're on board with that. Honda, Hyundai, Jaguar, Kia, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Stellantis, Subaru, Toyota all said we're keeping AM radio. Ford had said they weren't and they said, okay. We didn't realize AM radio was so popular. We're going to keep it too. So I guess if you want to show your support for AM radio, everybody should just go out and buy a Jaguar.

[Chuck Bryant]

Well, Tesla, Rivian, Polestar, BMW, Volkswagen and Volvo dispensed with AM radio and some of their new car models. I don't think completely across the board for each of those manufacturers, but that. That every am for every vehicle act failed in 2024. Unfortunately, it was reintroduced this year in 2025, just I think recently in September, and has a lot of support, like on both sides of the aisle. So if the 119th Congress ever decides to do anything at all, perhaps that will be reconsidered.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, it's got legs like an intern carrying coffee back to the office is how they put it in Washington.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's good. That was the original ZZ Top Line, but it was a little baggy, don't.

[Josh Clark]

Forget the ZZ Top Eliminator video trilogy or feminist.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's right.

[Josh Clark]

You got anything else, man?

[Chuck Bryant]

No, I think that was good support AM radio, it's not a relic. It's still important.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, well put, dude. If you want to know more about AM radio, start listening to AM radio. And since I started to sign off this episode like it was one of the OG episodes, that means it's time for listener mail.

[Chuck Bryant]

This is from Kara. Just kind of a thank you. Cara started listening in 2008 when she was sick at home from high school with pneumonia. Yours was the very first podcast ever listened to, back when hardly anyone knew what a podcast was. I've been an avid listener to a lot of shows since. But you have been a content through the end of high school, college, grad school and beyond. Your voices have always been a sense of comfort and familiarity when things in life got really difficult. I went to see you live in Boston three times.

[Josh Clark]

Nice.

[Chuck Bryant]

Always on my own. And each show felt like a small celebration for myself of something that had carried me through so many years.

[Josh Clark]

I wonder if that's the person who had the laugh that we called out in Boston every time.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, I don't know. Maybe. I think Kara would have mentioned that. Probably.

[Josh Clark]

Probably.

[Chuck Bryant]

One rule with Stuff youf Should Know for me though, is I could not listen to a new episode until I could really pay attention. Like other shows were background podcasts for me, but not yours. The only downside was that I fell further and further behind unless I had the focus to listen this year. I've had to do a lot of driving though, and things have settled down some. So I made it a goal to catch up in time to listen to the 2025 Halloween Special on Halloween.

[Josh Clark]

Oh, neat.

[Chuck Bryant]

Also told myself if I did it, it'd finally write in and tell you how much I appreciate the information, banter, humor and movie recs and stuff like that. So this is a day before Halloween email coming from Kara or Kara K A R A.

[Josh Clark]

That's awesome. Thanks, Kara. Kara, you're obviously very goal motivated and I appreciate that. And thank you for listening to to all of our shows for so long. That means a lot that we have friends who are travelers like you, you know?

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. I mean, we've said it before. If there weren't the Caracaras, then we would not exist as a show anymore.

[Josh Clark]

Absolutely. That sounds like a T shirt if you ask me.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. And caracara sounds like, I don't know, like a food.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, like a place.

[Chuck Bryant]

Okay.

[Josh Clark]

If you want to get in touch with us like Cara Car Cara did and let us know what we meant to you. We love those emails. You can wrap it up, spank it on the bottom, and send it off to Stuff podcastheartradio.com.

[Chuck Bryant]

Stuff you should know is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts My Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app. Apple Podcasts are wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

[Josh Clark]

Living with a rare autoimmune condition comes with challenges but also incredible strength. Especially for those living with conditions like myasthenia gravis or mg, and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, otherwise known as cidp, finding empowerment in the community is critical. Untold Stories Life with a Severe Autoimmune Condition, a Ruby Studio production in partnership with Argenics explores people discovering strength in the most unexpected places. Listen to Untold Stories on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Banking with Capital One helps you keep more money in your wallet with no fees or minimums on checking accounts and no overdraft fees. Just ask the Capital One bank guy. It's pretty much all he talks about in a good way. He'd also tell you that this podcast is his favorite podcast too. Thanks Capital One Bank Guy. What's in your wallet? Terms apply. See capitalone.com bank capital1na member fdic.

[Chuck Bryant]

Shh. You won't believe what my new friend just told me about dinosaurs. Is your child having conversations you never imagined? Are they learning without realizing it? It's not a tablet.

[Josh Clark]

It's not a toy.

[Chuck Bryant]

It's Meco Mini plus, the AI powered companion that turns curiosity into endless learning. Hear the future of playtime. Meet the extraordinary Miko Mini Plus, Only at Costco. This is an I Heart Podcast.