XM and AM Radio Work Around

[SDRick]

I just ordered a new loaded model S but I believe they no longer come with XM or AM radio. I find myself flipping through XM & AM news stations during commercials using the button on the steering wheel. For those who would like the XM and AM radio bands, what workarounds are there?

I am also losing lifetime supercharging and the powered sunroof. These are the kind of things that gives me pause to go from my current S to new. Any help out there?

 

[michidragon]

AM, they don't have - I wish they did. XM though, I do not believe that has been eliminated. I've been looking into some AM solutions; a third party Bluetooth SW radio (which covered AM) did exist for a while, and even showed the stations as 'tracks' over Bluetooth - but that no longer seems to be available.

 

[KerryOH]

If cellular data is not an issue for you. XM radio app on your phone works with Bluetooth They have a promotion right now with 3months for $1 per month.

 

[SDRick]

If cellular data is not an issue for you. XM radio app on your phone works with Bluetooth They have a promotion right now with 3months for $1 per month.

The disadvantage of the Bluetooth phone interface is that the steering wheel buttons will not change the stations requiring you to take your eye off the road and poke at a cell phone screen. Not ideal and a step backwards for me unless I am missing something.

 

[llirk]

When did they eliminate AM and XM?

 

[johnnyS]

I had a loaner recently and could not find AM stations. I only had the loaner for a day so I did not have time to play with it. I listen to news and sports on AM regularly. If my baseball team is playing I have it on the radio. I have heard that some AM stations are available on HD2 FM stations. I think you could find many of your stations on tunein. I will be interest to learn how others are dealing with this issue. I believe I heard model 3 does not have AM.

 

[SDRick]

The model S website does still show XM radio compatibility, so maybe XM is still being offered?

 

[michidragon]

It is available. AM is not. XM is. XM is available on every configuration of S/X. It is only AM that was eliminated.

 

[bob_p]

For new Model S, XM should be available for activation. The XM antenna used to be available only in S with sunroof - now with sunroof no longer an option, Tesla includes the XM hardware in all cars.

Our 2017 S has AM/FM/XM while our 2018 X has FM/XM. Many of the AM stations are broadcast on HD radio as a subchannel on FM. You get significantly less range with HD radio, but when you do receive the broadcast the audio is much clearer than AM. What would be extremely helpful would be if Tesla would simulate an AM radio by providing the normal AM radio tuner interface, and then automatically mapping the AM stations to the FM/HD radio stations. But they don't have that, so you're forced into single stepping through the FM stations and each of the subchannels, looking for the AM station you want - and then setting that as a Favorite (so you don't have to repeat this process every time).

Using a combination of HD/FM and XM with our X and occasionally using the XM app on our smartphone, we've been able to workaround the lack of AM radio, though it does require more work the first time you're looking for a specific station...