Farley’s Reversal On AM Radio Could Keep Ford Out Of Culture Wars

Ford Motor wants no part of the growing corporate culture wars. At bottom, that’s one reason CEO Jim Farley recently decided to make an about face for the company and put AM radio capabilities back into the F-150 Lightning after lower-ranking decision-makers apparently kept it out. The company also announced that it would now not be removing AM radios from other 2024 Ford and Lincoln vehicles, though it left open the issue for subsequent model years.

Farley cited concerns that were raised by an odd-bedfellow coalition in Congress led by Senators Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.). The bipartisan group recently introduced the AM for Every Vehicle Act, which calls on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to require automakers to keep AM radio in their cars.

It came after a number of automakers — including BMW, Tesla and Volvo — began taking AM radio out of the dashes of their electric vehicles. They’ve all cited the expense and engineering difficulty of shielding electromagnetism produced by their battery arrays from interfering significantly with AM signals.

And while Farley clearly supported the aim of this legislation, which also would affect the Lightning all-electric pickup truck, Ford’s savvy CEO also understands that his company can’t afford to offend the legacy customer base for F-150 internal-combustion models, millions of whom really appreciate having AM radio in their vehicles.

A significant chunk of this constituency must transfer their F-150 loyalties to the Lightning at some point for the EV version of the company’s iconic truck model to make it commercially, and stealing their treasured AM band isn’t exactly the way to begin the relationship. As it is, Ford’s EV sales have been struggling in recent months even after the automaker took a trailblazing position in the industry’s transition, creating some of the first all-electric versions of existing popular nameplates, including Mustang and the F-150.

As someone who came up through Toyota and then Ford as a sales and then marketing guru, and someone with a personal lifelong association with his company and its brand, Farley well understood the feeling of betrayal that’s been experienced by many F-150 owners and potential customers at the disappearance of AM radio from Lightning. The traditional customer base includes millions of blue-collar, self-employed, rural and suburban, red-state Americans. At root, they could look at it as a cultural microaggression for Ford to negate an earpiece to the outside world that has been so important to them for news, information, opinion and emergency communication.

And more than many CEOs who never made it to the upper ranks of marketing before becoming a chief, Farley recognizes the toll that can be taken on brands and companies when they’re perceived to cross their legacy customer bases in favor of chasing new perceived shifts in the cultural, political and practical priorities of Americans.

Of course, Farley also is conscious of the fact that other automakers, including Hyundai-Kia and the main Japanese companies, have resolved the signal problem in their electric vehicles and have indicated no plan to take AM out of their models.

There are no signs yet that any of the European or new automakers, who have very different customer bases in the United States, are planning to reverse field and put AM radio back in their vehicles.

These carmakers now find themselves in the crosshairs of not just Congress but also of America’s leading public safety and emergency-management officers. Because AM radio is the linchpin of the National Public Warning System (the principal tool the federal government uses to keep the public informed) and the Emergency Alert System (the tool used by federal, state, and local officials to keep the public safe and informed before, during and after natural disasters), every former administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Administration from the last four presidential administrations has warned that automakers who remove AM radio are threatening public safety. The leadership of the Federal Communications Commission has also made its disappointment known, stating that “the issue of the continued inclusion of AM radios in electric vehicles deserves urgent attention.”

While getting on the wrong side of nearly everyone in Washington is never a good thing for business, getting on the wrong side of one’s consumer base is even more problematic. Unfortunately for these automakers, their removal of AM radio may be having that effect, too.

Following the bad press automakers received for this move on my own platform here for Forbes, in my op-ed in the Detroit News, in Kelley Blue Book, the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, and elsewhere, many car buyers have become infuriated by what they perceive as automakers, on the one hand, receiving tens of billions of taxpayer dollars in the form of government subsidies and tax credits, while on the other hand seeming to be heedless about their comfort, safety and well-being while in the vehicle.

Consumers have come to expect the removal of free carry-ons and comfortable seats on airplanes, but never did they think they would lose one of the most trusted, tried-and-true sources of free news and entertainment (and yes, access to life-saving emergency information) from their cars — one that tens of millions of Americans tune into each week.

Today’s consumers can be quick to abandon brands that they feel no longer care about them — check on Bud Light sales lately. Farley knows that. Maybe other automaker executives will follow his lead.