On Fri, 17 Dec 2004 20:38:04 -0700, "Spike"
wrote:

For those youngsters among us who were not around,
the antennas for automobile radios were not on top of
automobiles until generally around 1935. Where were
they you ask? They were located along and under the
running boards. Generally with a pair of insulators and
an insulated metal band. Trivia..I was there..W6BWY


Because people aren't willing to pay for a decent AM radio for the
car. They want a CD player and good amps and speakers. The AM part
of the sound system is typically a "one chip" design. The FM tuner
isn't much better either. The old AM radios were horses. They were
multi-tube, multi-conversion designs with selectivity and sensitivity
to spare. It's all there was at the time. Modern cars, in fact all
modern consumer devices are designed to be manufactured as quickly and
as cheaply as possible. When it breaks, throw it away and get a new
one. Besides, it'll be obsolete next week anyway. You will never see
a classic '98 Olds in fifty years, it won't last that long. Of
course, I'm leaving out the whole discussion of "high fidelity" in the
car. Hint: wind noise is the loudest thing in the car at highway
speeds.

Russ