Mp3 players and AM radio

October 15, 2007 5:46 PM

Are there any mp3 players with AM tuners?

I want to get my dad an mp3 player to listen to while working out, but in addition to grooving to Lynyrd Skynyrd, he wants AM radio. I have searched the internet on and off over the past year and had no success, but most information I found on the topic was old (2004 or so). Am I searching in vain? Is the required antenna just too big? Are there any plans to release one in the future?

posted by xaire to technology (5 comments total)

It's not just the size of the bar antenna, but also the need to shield it from RF interference.

These issues are discussed here and explained by the SanDisk people here. And indeed, SanDisk appears to have sold AM/FM/MP3 players for the UK market, but there's only one place selling them, and not cheaply at current exchange rates. (There'd also be the problem that UK AM frequency intervals are different from US ones, so you'd need a hacked firmware.)

So, there's this.
posted by holgate at 6:11 PM on October 15, 2007

I think this is definitely a case where convergence may not be the key--can you just get him a good MP3 player and a small AM radio as well?
posted by DMan at 7:29 PM on October 15, 2007

If it's an issue of wanting to listen to certain AM programs, perhaps you could use something like RadioShark2 to capture his desired programs to MP3, which could then be loaded on a player.
posted by WCityMike at 8:35 PM on October 15, 2007

I have looked for one of these for over a year. No luck.
posted by sanka at 4:33 AM on October 16, 2007

RadioShark is good, but if the programs are streamed over the internet, RadioShift (for the Mac) is a freakin' awesome tool, and is only $32.
posted by Wild_Eep at 7:18 AM on October 16, 2007