OPs like this should be against the FUG.

I did read the article previously, so the OP's question in the title was sufficient for me, but I see your point of view.

In my opinion, AM is under threat in NZ.

Interestingly, when trying to replace my car radio a few years ago, I encountered pushback from suppliers and installers on my must have criteria of good AM.

As in, no-one listens to AM, everyone just streams, car radios don't do AM very well now, etc etc.

I didn't think to ask on here at the time and it just got too hard, so travelling Wellington to Whangarei has multiple silent stretches.

It's the usual dumbness - no one in charge understands how things work, "this is expensive so how about we just stop."  In this case it turns out that a major part of funding for the AM network came from the budget to run Parliament (!)

Similar story to chopping up Marsden Pt and then discovering that we use refinery outputs other than petrol & diesel.  Good thing politicians don't drink beer or drive on roads or they'd notice.

I now have a ham radio license and an HF radio so when the infrastructure falls over in my neck of the woods at least one person on our block can communicate with the outside world.

Note to interested onlookers - radio goes further the lower the frequency.  This is why the AM stations at e.g. 567kHz have such good range - high power plus low frequency.  The cellular network is all high frequency (700Mhz is the lowest), and of course cell sites need a connection back to Auckland/etc to connect calls between you and your neighbour.

HF radio at e.g. 7MHz can reach around the country / world depending on power and atmospheric conditions, and I can run my HF radio off a car battery.  No, you can't get anything near the capacity of a cellular network, but when the power goes out and the bridges carrying the fibre cables get hit by slash, you can still call for help.

AM frequencies have much better range in emergency situations so removing them would be short sighted.
Doesn't help when cell phones either only use FM or have dropped radios altogether. 
I guess most households still have portable AM receivers.
A lot of tradies use radios onsite, my Makita 18v radio still has AM/FM. 
I was told couple of years ago by a commercial radio installer that some car radios were dropping AM because of the need for a longer antenna.

If AM is under threat, what will use those frequencies instead? Perhaps this is an opportunity for some other long-range emergency notification service to be installed?

I'm curious about what you want to listen to on AM on your Wellington to Whangarei drives? If it's music, the best answer I have is to use a BT -> FM modulator, which are cheap as chips and allow you to play *your* music from your phone to your FM car radio. I have several GB of music I like on my phone. Also good for long drives or long-haul flights are audio books.

frankv:

 

I'm curious about what you want to listen to on AM on your Wellington to Whangarei drives?

 

National Radio. When available I select a variety of stations on FM. If the current song doesn't suit, I change stations (on FM) I like to hear new music, keeps me young. I need all the help I can get there.

I used to play CD's but after scratching several while inserting them while driving I stopped doing that.

Not really wanting to load the phone up with music.

AM radio's future is held primarily, in my view, in it's emergency broadcast capacity, due to the ability to cover a massive range relatively easily and cheaply (compared to FM, cell networks, etc). We've surely seen enough examples recently where otherwise more 'modern' comms channels become unavailable due to infrastructure damage or disruption, 

paulgr:

 

AM frequencies have much better range in emergency situations so removing them would be short sighted.
Doesn't help when cell phones either only use FM or have dropped radios altogether. 
I guess most households still have portable AM receivers.

 

I think you'd be pretty surprised how many households, particularly millennial-aged households/flatmates etc... no longer have battery operated radios.  When we were plunged into darkness I came across two households who were very ill prepared.  One had no idea what was going on around them as they didn't have a battery radio and referred to our two or three radios as "old school".  I firmly bit my tongue as I almost said "no, just informed during a major disaster!".  Despite them charging their phones in their car they didn't bother using the car radio either.  In normal times they stream "radio" so no data, no radio.

Another example of short sighted are the cable cutters who defiantly take their TV aerials off the roof then their modem/broadband fails and have no TV at all for a few days.  Don't get me wrong streaming is great but you shouldn't burn your bridges with the broadcast world when it's passively sitting there to use for free.

deadlyllama: It's the usual dumbness - no one in charge understands how things work, "this is expensive so how about we just stop."  In this case it turns out that a major part of funding for the AM network came from the budget to run Parliament (!)

frankv:

 

If AM is under threat, what will use those frequencies instead? Perhaps this is an opportunity for some other long-range emergency notification service to be installed?

 

No, because AM technology is widespread, well understood and cheap as chips, 

There is no other emergency broadcast standard or system that comes anywhere near the range or price, 

its also fun to watch peoples faces when you tell them you can listen to it without batteries and they line you up for the ducking stool ... :)

deadlyllama:

It's the usual dumbness - no one in charge understands how things work, "this is expensive so how about we just stop."  In this case it turns out that a major part of funding for the AM network came from the budget to run Parliament (!)

Similar story to chopping up Marsden Pt and then discovering that we use refinery outputs other than petrol & diesel.  Good thing politicians don't drink beer or drive on roads or they'd notice.

Bung:

Marsden Point was private industry not government. Control costs money.

Nevertheless, unintended consequences that apparently no one thought was important enough to raise a warning about.

Bung:

 

Marsden Point was private industry not government. Control costs money.

Yes but:

Documents show Refining NZ asked the government early last year what options it was looking when it came to the "strategic importance" of keeping the refinery open.

Officials in turn, asked the company "what would it take to make continuing to refine in NZ work?"
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/nz-naive-to-shut-down-marsden-point-australian-analyst/I6WITZ3OSC3CSNXIKLYPN5DIZU/

Clearly it was looked at, there was some (redacted) path to keeping the darn thing open.

My only radios are on an old home theater reciver or a couple of retro boomboxes I got because they looked cool. And in the car. And apparently the tesla has no AM radio in it which I never noticed because when I picked it up I linked my tidal account and its been on that ever since I got it. At least it was on george when I picked it up, I wonder if the look at the age of the person picking the car up and pre-set the oldies to ZB or something.

I have also got a little SDR off aliexpress that is USB charged and lists AM among the bands it can recieve, but I have not taken it away from the house to try it so when I did try it just got a whole lot of noise on it. Might work. FM and the aircraft freqs all work fine on it.

Anyway, I would be able to drag something out to listen to the radio on AM if I really needed to.