Microsoft changes font, exposing my out-of-touch changes

I spend a fair amount of time shaking my head at writers who are out of touch.

But it turns out that I'm the old-timer.

The back story: In July, Microsoft announced that it was changing its default font typeface for its suite of products used by millions of people. The font (type style) used in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and other apps will change from Calibri to a font family called Aptos, which is a little bit east of Santa Cruz. Get it? But enough font jokes.

Aptos apparently used to be called Bierstadt, which I thought was a small microbrewery in the Gateway area of Fairfield. Apparently not. But enough font jokes.

I know you're thinking this isn't important. The change will be seamless and unimportant to most readers. If the typeface in Word documents or in your Outlook email changes to something that insiders say will look better in high-resolution, high-density monitors, so what? In a day or two, you'll get used to it and soon you'll forget how Calibri looked.

But I'm not normal.

My lack of normalcy became more unhinged when this news broke because it clarified something that should have been obvious: Calibri is Word's default font!

There's a reason why 90% of the things I edit in my job – written by others – are in Calibri. It's not because people are old-fashioned or stubborn. It's because Calibri is Microsoft's default font. It's how Word sets your type. It's how the emails arrive. It's the default for PowerPoint slides and Excel documents.

All this time, I thought people were out of touch. Instead, I was obtuse.

As an editor (I don't work at the newspaper, but my job title is editor), I'm stubborn. I want things to look right. So it's common for me to get a document written in Calibri, define it all and change the font to Times New Roman, my preference. 

Times New Roman!

That's my Word document default, a change I make whenever I get a new laptop. It's the font in which the Daily Republic was printed for much of my career (the current font is Dutch 811, which is slightly better than Dutch 810, presumably. But enough font jokes.).

Times New Roman just looks right!

As I read the announcement of Microsoft's change, my eyes bugged out. It was even worse.

"Calibri replaced Times New Roman as the suite's default font in Office 2007."

What? Two thousand-seven? Times New Roman was booted by Microsoft 16 years ago?

All the time I thought I was changing fonts to save colleagues from being old-fashioned, I was making it more old-fashioned!  I was removing their old tube TVs and replacing them with stand-up radios. I was taking them off the train and putting them in a stagecoach.

I've seen the light. I've been educated. My tomfoolery has been exposed.

Times New Roman is old-fashioned. Calibri may look elementary to me, but it's newer than Times New Roman. And Aptos is the new standard.

So the next time I get a document in Calibri or Aptos, I'll realize it's modern.

And then I'll change it to Times New Roman, because that still looks better.

I'm not old-fashioned. I'm classic.

Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@outlook.com.

Ranking the most forgettable teams in major American sports

It's difficult to be a completely forgettable major professional sports franchise.

There are 92 teams among the three major American sports leagues – the NFL, NBA and major league baseball (sorry, WNBA,  NHL and MLS. Major leagues.). Teams spend millions of dollars to make sure we're aware of them, including gear that acts as free advertising. The leagues broadcast games every week.

Everyone knows the Dallas Cowboys. New York Yankees. Los Angeles Lakers, yet there are teams that we forget exist.

These teams generally don't win. They're often from overlooked parts of the nation (no New York or Chicago teams here). They tend to not have big stars (although there are exceptions). The main thing they have in common? When we hear their team name, we say, "Oh yeah, I forgot about them!"

With bonus points for NFL teams (since that's the biggest sport by far, so it's harder to be forgotten), here are the 10 most forgettable major sports teams, in reverse order.

10. Carolina Panthers. Even when they played in the Super Bowl (twice!) I forgot them. Maybe it's because Carolina isn't a town? Maybe it's because they didn't exist when I was a kid?

9. Orlando Magic. The NBA likes to put teams in a small market and hopes it works (Sacramento, Salt Lake City, Charlotte). I guess it does sometimes. Not in this case, though.

8. Atlanta Hawks. They should be memorable since Atlanta is the capital of the South. The Hawks have had exciting players (Dominique Wilkins! Trae Young! Other guys!), but ask me to name NBA teams and I forget they exist.

7. Tennessee Titans. As the Houston Oilers, they were unforgettable. They moved northeast and we forgot them, despite them being good virtually every year. Maybe NFL teams named after states are forgettable?

6. Indiana Pacers. Four former ABA teams joined the NBA in the 1976 merger, so we're nearly five decades into always forgetting the Pacers exist. 

5. Colorado Rockies. Another forgettable team named after a state. They're also forgettable because the Rockies have been largely irrelevant for most of their 30-year history. 

4. Washington Wizards. Arguably professional sports' most blah team over the long haul, which is saying something. They're never good, they're never horrible, they're never memorable. Can you even picture their uniforms? Can you name three players from the past decade?

3. Los Angeles Angels. How can a team that claims to play in Los Angeles (it plays in Anaheim), has arguably the greatest player in the history of baseball (Shohei Ohtani) and had the best player before him (Mike Trout) be so forgettable? I don't know. What team were we talking about again?

2. Charlotte Hornets. Charlotte had an NBA team, lost it to New Orleans and got another team. The NBA figured basketball was big in North Carolina, but who knows? Who even can tell? Who is this again?

1. Jacksonville Jaguars. They could be a playoff team, but as soon as I finish writing this paragraph, I'll forget the Jags exist. Jacksonville is America's 11th largest city by population, yet I know nothing of it. Oh, it has an NFL team? I'd already forgotten.

That's it. The 10 most . . . wait. What about the New Orleans Pelicans of the NBA?

Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@outlook.com.

Whether it's gridders or cagers, ink me up for old-time headlines

When I landed my first sports writer job at age 21, I was thrilled.

Not to get my name in the paper. Not to go to games for free. Not to tell people's stories.

I was thrilled about the chance to write headlines. More specifically, to write headline words.

"Nix" for cancel. "Tilt" for game. "Ink" for sign. "Bucs" for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Newspapers were a sandbox. This was going to be great! The kid who loved newspapers now got to mimic what he'd read growing up.

I loved headline words from a young age, reading news headlines about the "prexy" (president) and "the GOP" (Republican Party). I cherished headlines like "Tribe Thump Chisox" (Cleveland Indians beat Chicago White Sox). 

Imagine my excitement when I got to write headlines for the Eureka Times-Standard sports section.  It was an afternoon paper on weekdays, so I'd roll in before 6 a.m. a few days a week and lay out the sports section before heading to my college classes. What better way to start off a day than writing a headline that said "Bosox, Friars swap hurlers" (Boston Red Sox, San Diego Padres trade pitchers)?

And it wasn't just headlines.

I also could use sports phrases that had been a part of my newspaper experienc. I could call the track team "thinclads." I could write "harriers" while discussing the cross-country team. The football team was "gridders," the basketball team was "cagers" and the wrestling team was the "grapplers."

Of course, there was even more. A student of how metropolitan newspapers reported, the 1984 version of Brad sought ways to breathlessly write breaking news. I particularly enjoyed using the BIG STORY writing style: "Joe Blow will not return in 1985 as the Arcata High junior varsity wrestling coach, the Times-Standard learned late Tuesday." It was breathless! It was a scoop!

Of course, "the Times-Standard learned" about it when Coach Blow called in the results of his team's match and casually mentioned that he was not going to coach the following year.

But the "Times-Standard learned!" "late Tuesday!" It was fun!

Even as I became a veteran (I was a sports writer for two years in Eureka and 18 years in Fairfield before moving to the news side), I loved headline cliches and breathless reporting. As sports editor, I discouraged my staff from using them, but I enjoyed seeing them in a small-town newspaper (or even occasionally a bigger newspaper) while traveling.

We live in a world that's politically splintered. The polar ice caps are melting. We're vulnerable to pandemics. We don't know how to control artificial intelligence. The Dodgers are in contention every year. Gas prices aren't coming down. It's bad news after bad news after bad news.

If newspapers used the old-timey headline words, perhaps the world would seem like a better place.

Wouldn't you like to see headlines about a "gridiron clash" or the "prexy nixing" some legislation or a big free agent "inking a pact" with the Giants?

Well, the Daily Republic learned late Saturday that I would, too.

Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@outlook.com.

What's the Michael Jordan of junk drawer items? Counting them down

You have a junk drawer and so did your parents. Your grandparents did, too (although it probably included World War II ration coupons, a mercury thermometer and castor oil).

The junk drawer is the place where you put items that you rarely use, but you might someday need. Scissors. Maybe a tape measure. Maybe an old stapler. Thumb tacks. The junk drawer is filled with things we rarely need, but when we need them, we need them.

Yours may be in the kitchen. It may be somewhere else. It may serve another purpose, too – perhaps a holding cell for bills or other mail.

The big question: What's the most critical item in your junk drawer? What is the Abraham Lincoln or Michael Jordan or Meryl Streep of junk drawer items?

Good thing you asked, because I have answers.

Like when I ranked kitchen appliances, pizzas, fictional holiday characters, fruits, office supplies and much more, I'm here to set the power rankings for junk drawer items. Counting down the top 10.

10. Paper clips. Best to have a variety. Big ones. Little ones. Maybe one of those oversized clips that can really pinch your fingers.

9. Flashlight. We have one on our mobile phones, but we still keep a flashlight in the junk drawer. Because  . . . maybe our phone won't work someday? Who knows, but we keep flashlights.

8. Rubber bands. Rarely needed, but crucial. The recommended practice is to have at least four or five scattered in the drawer.

7. Post-it notes/scratch paper. At some point, you need to write a note. Even for yourself. How else do you remind yourself to not forget something? Putting a note in your phone isn't as effective as a Post-it note on the front door.

6. Pens/pencils. When it's time for that note, you need a working pen or pencil. You actually need several, because most pens in your junk drawer have gone dry.

5. Scissors. Maybe these are too important for the junk drawer, but that's where most of us keep them. If you need scissors, what else are you going to use, a knife? Not unless you're Davy Crockett (although box cutters fit this category).

4. Tools, fasteners. A small screwdriver. A hex key or two. Some screws. A nail or two. This is the JV team for your toolbox, filled with things that don't quite make it to the big leagues.

3. Matches/lighters. Needed for birthday cakes candles, regular candles or to start a barbecue. Because it takes too long to start a fire another way.

2. Scotch tape. There's no replacement for this. If you run out of scotch tape, what are you going to do? Use duct tape to wrap a package? Glue it? Come on, man.

1. Batteries. The kings of the junk drawer because when we need them, it's urgent. For remote controls. Fire and/or smoke alarms. Or insulin pumps. And good luck getting that flashlight in the drawer to work without some batteries.

Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@outlook.com.

Your dinner time shows whether you are a true American

You probably eat dinner around the same time each night and there's probably a reason for it.

It might start during the first commercial break of the 5:30 p.m. episode of "Shark Tank." It might be 30 minutes after you arrive home from work. It might be 12 hours after you got out of bed to start your day. It might be when the microwave finally finishes cooking those Hot Pockets you put in a 6 p.m.

It's probably not that exact, but most of us have a general dinner time. Now have data that determines whether we are normal or some sort of freak who should close our curtains so we don't scare the neighbors with our peculiar dinner time. 

A guy named Nathan Yau has a fascinating blog called FlowingData, where he charts various statistics in interesting ways (home run distance in different ballparks, what Americans drink, how smoke from Canadian wildfires travels across the U.S.). Recently, he used data from the American Time Use Survey (who knew there was such a thing?) to track when we eat dinner.

Broadly, data showed that most American households eat dinner between 5:07 p.m. and 8:19 p.m. Oh, sure, that's pretty general. But want specifics?

According to Yau, the peak time – the period at which the highest number of households are eating dinner – is 6:19 p.m.

That's right. If you're eating dinner at 6:19 p.m., you're a normal American. And by "normal American," I mean a Californian since that's the peak time in the Golden State. We're the only state whose peak time coincides with the national peak, again proving that we're the most American of Americans, something made clear by the fact that we have Hollywood and Disneyland and Bakersfield.

Californians are normal, eating at a reasonable time (presuming dinner time is around 20 minutes, that means our start time is from 5:59 to 6:19 p.m.). Other states are pretty close to the median: Of the 50 states, 41 hit peak dinner time within 20 minutes of the golden (state) time of 6:19 p.m. The other nine, plus the District of Columbia? Early and late-eating freaks – but I think I know why, although I'm too lazy to do the research.

First, the two states that are really early. 

In Pennsylvania, peak dinner time is 5:37 p.m., which is presumably attributable to the large Amish population not using electricity and having to feed their oxen at 6 p.m. (those are guesses. I don't know how many Amish actually live in Pennsylvania, I'm not sure whether they own oxen nor whether they use electricity).

The other early state is Maine, where people have peak dinner time at 5:40 p.m. That's attributable to the sun going down at 12:30 p.m. every day from Halloween until April 1 (that may not be accurate either).

People in four states, plus the District of Columbia, eat at 7 p.m. or later. Again, there are reasons that they're such freaks.

The latest-eating residents are those in D.C. because they all work for the federal government and presumably have to meet lobbyists for dinner. Lobbyists are allegedly late eaters.

The four states where peak dinner time is 7 p.m. or later are Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi and Texas – states that are connected.

You may not find this in "history" books, but I've heard that when the South surrendered after the Civil War, they agreed to wait until Northerners were done eating dinner before they started.

It seems weird now, but in 1865, it made sense. Trust me: I eat dinner at 6:19 p.m. every night. All Americans who eat at dramatically different times have excuses, albeit strange ones.

Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@outlook.com.

The semi-definitive list of the columns of lists I've written

Over the years, I've ranked many things. Many dumb things.

So many things, that it makes sense to keep them in one place, so if you, dear reader, ever have a question about (for instance) how to rank household furniture, you can look here.

A non-exhaustive list of my power rankings over the years:

Bay Area sports owners

Current commercial jingles

Bay Area sports figures (2025)

Most disappointing foods

Best months

Types of tape

Christmas traditions

Best leftover foods

Fingers

Most forgettable teams in major sports

Junk drawer items

Types of pizzas

Fictional holiday figures

Thanksgiving foods

Current Bay Area sports figures (2022)

Pieces of household furniture

Bay Area sports dynasties

Fruits

Office supplies

Bay Area sports figures (2020)

Kitchen appliances

Bay Area sports decades

Christmas songs

Days of the week

Minor U.S. holidays

Most hated Bay Area athletes

Solano County's seasons

Punctuation marks

Decades since 1960s

Generations

Modern inventions

Holidays

Best Bay Area sports figures (2014)

Biggest Bay Area sports star (2013)

Months

Greatest Warriors (2012)

Best Bay Area sports figures (2011)

Life lesson comes from Antwerp's tough nest-building birds

The nest built by the tough birds of Antwerp (Photo by Alexander Schippers).

Everyone knows birds are creative when building nests. They'll use almost anything – paper, twigs, dog hair, human hair, Bigfoot hair, leaves, garbage, a copy of TV Guide from Dec. 17, 1977, with the cast of "One Day at a Time" on the cover – to get the structure they want. And birds will be persistent once they find a good place.

At our house, Mrs. Brad resorted to stuffing balls of aluminum foil in the eaves where our neighborhood birds consistently kept trying to build a nest. A few times, I found the foil balls on the ground and wondered (assumed?) that the birds had hired a subcontractor to pull them out so they could build there.

Birds are tough: Anyone who has had a seagull swipe their food or come face-to-face with a turkey or tried to fool a roadrunner with an explosive device purchased from the Acme Co. knows this.

But birds in Antwerp recently took it to another level. They didn't just pull out foil balls. They did the equivalent of what your older sibling did (grabbing your arm and making you hit yourself, then asking you why you were hitting yourself. Although that may just be a flashback that would be better told in a counseling session.)

Anyway, those Antwerp birds. Those tough, rough, fearless Antwerp birds, specifically Eurasian magpies. They're the toughest birds in the world now. They are the Mike Tyson of birds.

Because they built the toughest nest in the history of nests.

Researchers from two natural history museums in Belgium – which all museum experts know are the Naturalis Biodiversity Center and the Natural History Museum Rotterdam – discovered the remarkable nests, according to a press release issued by Naturalis.

First some background: Think about anti-nesting spikes that people and municipalities use to keep birds from building nests. I'm talking about the spikes that make it impossible for birds to get comfortable and build a home. That's the only purpose of the nests. They're like aluminum foil balls, but meaner and more durable.

Now the twist: A couple of Antwerp magpies took those spikes – about 1,500 of them – and built a nest with them.

Yes!

They took the thing designed to prevent them from building a nest and used it to build the baddest, coolest, toughest nest in Antwerp. These birds have a metal nests!

The nest isn't solely made out of the spikes: The birds also used regular nest stuff (twigs, Bigfoot hair, leaves, that TV guide from 1977, marble kitchen counters), too. But experts estimate that the birds pulled about 150 feet of the pins to get enough for their punk nest. Even better, the magpies – who always build a "roof" on their nests to keep predators away – used spikes for that reason: To keep other birds away. Remarkable.

Apparently, this is extreme, but not unprecedented.

An article in the scientific journal Deinsea describes other magpie nests made with anti-bird spikes, as well as barbed wire and knitting needles.

Previous articles reported on the use of face masks and plastic plants in bird nests. Also used: condoms, fireworks, cocaine wraps, sunglasses and windshield wipers.

Cool and tough. The sunglasses nests would be pretty tough looking.

But nobody beats those Antwerp birds, making nests out of anti-nesting spikes.

It's time to update the old lemons-lemonade saying to this: When life gives you anti-nesting spikes, make a nest out of them.

Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@outlook.com.

 

 

 

Extraction of groundwater is harming Earth . . . and dart-throwing

If it feels like you're more likely to stumble now than a few decades ago, there's a reason: The Earth's tilt is shifting.

Really.

The reason? We're sucking out so much groundwater that the globe is leaning to the east at a rate of about 1.7 inches per year. Talk about East Coast bias!

According to a study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters in mid-June, our constant extraction of groundwater has shifted the axis on which Earth rotates. So when you miscalculate while stepping off the curb and stumble, it's not your fault. It's the fault of water hogs. They're really pumping it out!

A CNN report on the study included this: "Between 1993 and 2010, the period examined in the study, humans extracted more than 2,150 gigatons of groundwater from inside Earth, mostly in western North America and northwestern India, according to estimates published in 2010."

I suspect the term "gigaton" is made up, but that seems like a lot. And it's . . . wait, what? "Mostly in western North America?" That's, that's, that's . . . that's us!

We're in western North America! We're making the Earth tilt!

Of course, you might be able to explain the tilt otherwise. The Earth spins on its north-south axis at about 1,000 mph, which explains why your ears sometimes pop and you get carsick while sitting on a couch (or are both those just me?). Plenty of things can affect the rotation of the Earth: Changes in glaciers, changes in air pressure, changes in attitude, changes in latitude, as Jimmy Buffet fans can attest.

However, this one seems significant and tough to change, since it's not like humans are extracting water from the top layer of the Earth's crust for giggles. We need water for food, we need water to survive. Can you imagine making Ramen, for instance, without water? Or making coffee without water? I'm sure there are other uses of water, but I can't think of any off the top of my head.

Oh yeah – imagine a world where you can't make Tang. Nightmarish.

According to the study, this has been going on for a while. Redistributing groundwater has shifted the rotational axis by more than 31 inches in less than 20 years, according to models created by the study's authors. Thirty-one inches! No wonder it's harder to shoot a basketball now than it was in the 1990s: The hoop has moved nearly three feet. No wonder we're so terrible at darts now: The board is 31 inches to the east! (the science behind my claims has not been verified by independent sources).

There are important long-term effects of changing the angle of the Earth, such as changes from season to season (for instance, how we experience summer). And the aforementioned dart throwing.

Since we're taking too much water out of the Earth, I propose simple solution: We just pump more back in.

Seriously. Let's all turn on our sprinklers and let the water soak into the Earth. We can return things to their natural state and improve our dart-throwing and basketball-shooting at the same time.

Where will we get this water? Simple: Just turn on the sprinklers. We can save the future of Ramen, Tang, dart-throwing and return the Earth to its normal axis.

You're welcome, Earth.

Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@outlook.com.

How AM radio shaped me: NBA from Seattle, MLB from Anaheim, music from Portland

In late elementary school and junior high, my nighttime ritual was simple: I'd go to bed, turn on my Panasonic radio and begin searching for sports.

I lived in Humboldt County, about five hours north of San Francisco and seven hours south of Portland. Other than Giants and 49ers games broadcast on a Eureka radio station, there was no sports on local radio. We got two TV stations (no cable for my family), so I'd see national sports broadcasts on weekends only.

Laying in bed, I would find AM radio stations from far-off cities and tune in. Play-by-play of the NBA's Portland Trail Blazers and Seattle SuperSonics. Baseball games involving the Oakland A's, Seattle Mariners, California Angels and even the hated Los Angeles Dodgers. University of Southern California football and University of San Francisco basketball. The Denver Bears, then the top minor-league baseball affiliate of the Montreal Expos. Even the Bay Area Golden Gaters of World Team Tennis had games broadcast on a radio station I could pick up.

Those cities were hundreds – sometimes thousands – of miles from my bedroom, yet I could listen in. The broadcasts faded in and out, but I could hear them.

I also listened to a Portland station play the most-requested of the day every night. I listened to Ronn Owens host his talk show on San Francisco's KGO radio, unaware that I was hearing the early stages of arguably the greatest local talk show host career in radio history.

Those were – for me, at least – the glory days of AM radio.

I wrote a week ago about car manufacturers removing AM radio from many models. It made me sad because I loved AM radio. As a kid, it was my window to the rest of the world.

The AM signal travels farther (and has lower sound quality) than FM radio. Thus I could hear stations in Denver or Salt Lake City or Los Angeles or Seattle.

In 2023, it seems quaint. It sounds like how when old people used to talk about going to silent movies. In the internet era, when you can stream almost anything to your phone, the idea of a 13-year-old searching the radio band for a far-away baseball or NBA game seems ancient.

Yet AM radio had an impact. My favorite NBA team was the Sonics, not the Warriors (whose broadcasts I couldn't find). My dream job was being the play-by-play announcer for the Giants. My musical tastes were cemented by listening to the top-40 station in Portland playing the most-requested songs every night (which eliminated the chance for me to ever like hard rock).

AM radio is fading. Why listen to talk radio when you can hear a podcast? Why listen to static-filled music when you can stream it to your phone or car? Why find a distant radio station for baseball when the MLB app has all the broadcasts?

I don't believe childhood was better in the 1970s than it is now. I don't believe technology is ruining the world. I don't believe we were better off without the internet.

I just know I still have fond memories of listening to Bob Blackburn broadcasting Sonics games on KOMO radio and Bob Clarke presenting the most required songs of the day on KEX radio from Portland. In my childhood, AM radio brought the world outside my small town to my bedroom every night.

Decades from now, someone will talk about how obscure podcasts and TikTok shaped their childhood and it will seem similarly old-timey.

Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@outlook.com.

AM radio in cars may soon be a thing of the past

Another staple of Americana could soon go away, joining the trash compactor, mustard-yellow appliances, Mary Tyler Moore, cars with stick shifts and a TV universe with just three networks.

Many car manufacturers will no longer offer AM radio, limiting their audio options to FM, satellite radio and streaming apps.

The first blow was struck by electric car manufacturers, partially because electric motors interfere with AM radio signals. Tesla, Mazda, Volkswagen, BMW and other electric car manufacturers removed AM from some models over the past few years and it kind of makes sense: There is a constant buzz while listening to AM radio when driving an electric car. At least that's my experience: When we bought our first Prius about 15 years ago, I couldn't listen to Giants games (available then only on AM radio) or most talk radio. It was FM or CDs or (later) streaming via Bluetooth.

So AM radio doesn't work well with electric cars (although that seems like it's fixable, right? They figured out how to make a car run on electricity, but can't they get it to stop interfering with the AM signal? Come on, man). But the snuffing out of AM radios in cars won't stop there.

A May article in the Detroit Free Press revealed that Ford would eliminate AM radios from its fleet. Next year.

My first thought was it was Ford's payback for the old AM radio jingle of, "Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet." Revenge is a dish best-served cold.

AM radio is a part of our history. Radio and cars emerged around the same time and by the 1940s, about 40% of cars had radios. Within a few decades, virtually every car had an AM radio. Some had FM, some had cassette (or 8-track) players, but all had AM.

Car AM radios were how we heard traffic reports and news and music. "Morning drive time" and "evening drive time" were a crucial part of the radio universe – formats built around the fact that people were driving to or from work while listening to the radio. AM radio stations dominated ratings until at least the turn of the 21st century (KGO radio, an AM powerhouse, was the Bay Area's top-rated radio station from 1978-2008. Thirty years!).

With the emergence of FM radio (with much better sound), music moved away and AM stations became the world of talk radio, sports, religious and non-English-speaking radio. The format has increasingly struggled to keep listeners.

But . . . auto manufacturers who elect to drop it are finding resistance. There are still 4,000 AM radio stations in the U.S. and they emphasize that AM radio remains the front line of the Emergency Alert system, which seems an old-timey reason, but maybe it's good enough.  Anyway, there were protests. And they worked: In the days following that report that Ford would discontinue AM radios in many models, elected officials protested the move. Ultimately, Ford relented and said AM radios will be part of its entire fleet in 2024.

But the first shot was fired. AM radio's decline continues. We're seeing the beginning of the end.

Someday soon, we'll look back on AM radio like we do celebrity-hosted TV variety shows and "The Lone Ranger" on radio and pre-Starbucks coffee shops. It already is something that we have warm memories of, but don't use anymore.

AM radios will still be in many cars for a while, but is anyone listening?

I hope so, if only for our memories.

Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@outlook.com.