Comments on: Mp3 players and AM radio

Question: Mp3 players and AM radio

xaire — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 17:46:18 -0800

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?

By: holgate

holgate — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 18:11:23 -0800

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.

By: DMan

DMan — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 19:29:51 -0800

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?

By: WCityMike

WCityMike — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 20:35:24 -0800

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.

By: sanka

sanka — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 04:33:45 -0800

I have looked for one of these for over a year. No luck.

By: Wild_Eep

Wild_Eep — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 07:18:17 -0800

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.