Bob wrote:
A few decades back there was an "all channel radio bill" introduced in
Congress that would have mandated that all radios over $15 be FM
capable. Did that ever get off the ground?

Y'know, I don't know!

Of course, today there are a lot of radios out there that *only* get FM.
(usually not very well...)

I'm inclined to think the relative extra cost of adding NOAA to an
inexpensive AM/FM portable today would be considerably greater to that
of adding FM to a early-1970s AM set. You'd need an alphanumeric
display and enough buttons to handle programming. Either that, or you'd
put in a NOAA receiver that simply opens up whenever it detects modem
tones, without bothering to decode the data. I suspect most customers
wouldn't stand for that. The addition of FM to an AM set simply
involved adding an AM/FM switch and inscribing a few more numbers on the
existing dial.

And then, there's the question of battery life.

--
Doug Smith W9WI
Pleasant View (Nashville), TN EM66
http://www.w9wi.com