Automakers are dropping AM from new cars, even as it remains the backbone of the national emergency alert system. And the technology that puts a station's logo and now-playing on a modern dashboard, RadioDNS, never even defined analog AM. So AM has been shut out of the modern dial twice, physically and digitally. We fixed the second one. Every licensed US AM station already has a free, signed digital identity here, ready to claim.
Several automakers have removed AM from new vehicles, especially EVs, citing electric-motor interference. For millions of listeners the dashboard is where radio lives, and AM is being designed out of it.
AM carries the country's public warning backbone. FEMA's national alert network leans on high-power AM stations precisely because the signal travels far and survives when other systems fail.
The bipartisan AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act would require automakers to keep AM in new cars. The fight over whether AM has a future is happening right now.
RadioDNS, the open standard behind station logos, program guides, and now-playing art on hybrid receivers, defines FM, DAB, and HD. It never defined a coded identity for analog AM. So even where AM survives, it shows up as a blank.
We computed a coded, DNSSEC-signed identity for every licensed US AM station, straight from its public FCC license. It is the first coded identity standard for analog AM, reproducible by anyone, owned by no one. Each identity is dormant until the station claims it, free, and it gives AM the same thing FM and HD already get: a logo, live now-playing with album art, and a place in the modern dial. AM does not get to be a blank anymore.
We are not the official RadioDNS, and we do not pretend to be. We resolve through to them and add the layer they left out. This is held by no network and no ideology, it is free to claim and free to leave, and the whole thing is reproducible from public data. Our promises, in writing.
UndertowIQ · the neutral identity layer for American radio · The state of the dial