[hotpotamus]

I keep a Baofeng VHF/UHF radio in my car now (~$22 on Amazon) to scan around when I'm stuck in traffic. It doesn't have AM, but there are VHF weather stations[0] (and military and first responder frequencies and all that - you can see how HAM nerds get into it) if you want. In theory you can also broadcast on certain frequencies with it, but you also get into FCC licensing territory with that. Overall it seems a lot more useful than an AM radio.

[0]https://www.weather.gov/nwr/station_listing

[galleywest200]

This is all well and good, but my state (Washington) actively uses specific AM stations for traffic and weather alerts. You will see signs on the freeways saying "tune to 750AM for emergency weather alerts now" (or whatever the frequency is).

[poulsbohemian]

Also Washington and I can tell you there are a whole lot of people here in the hinterlands of the east who are regular AM listeners for weather, the sports ball games, and various other things. I know several radio station owners in the area and have to wonder if this will be the final nail in the coffin for them.

[throw0101c]

> first responder frequencies

More and more services are moving to P25 and encrypting it:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_25

* https://www.taitradioacademy.com/topic/introduction-to-p25-e...