New Tesla? It might not have a radio in it

Next year’s cheapest Tesla, the base-model Tesla Model 3 Standard 2026, won’t have a radio.

Teslas have never had AM radios, as I understand it, but at US $38,630, the Tesla Model 3 Standard doesn’t even list an FM radio in its list of options, according to a report in Motortrends - “we had seen that there would be a less powerful radio option, but we weren’t expecting the loss of a terrestrial radio connection in the Standard trim’s content.” I’ve also spotted this in Tesla’s US website.

In a Tesla, the owner’s manual says you have access to TuneIn and Apple Music, both of which do live radio stations; but you’ll need some access to data. If you do want to access music and media streaming in your car, you’ll need to buy access to Premium Connectivity, which is US $9.99 a month, or use Bluetooth to your mobile. Oh, and Tesla doesn’t support Apple CarPlay or Android Auto either.

Tesla has seen sales slump in Europe (Jan-Aug sales down 43% in the EU, and down 33% in Europe as a whole); and its market share in the US is the lowest since 2017. Pulling the radio out completely is hardly going to help the company’s already battered reputation.

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In Brisbane, the commercial talk station 4BC has lost its breakfast presenter. On Friday morning, an hour after Peter Fegan had told listeners that he’d be “back 5.30 Monday morning”, it was announced that, actually, no he wouldn’t be (audio). Fegan - who’d been doing the show for just thirteen months - wasn’t allowed to say goodbye: another example of Australian commercial radio not caring about its audience. Albeit there wasn’t much of an audience to care about.

Fegan had a 3.6% share on breakfast; talk competitor ABC Radio Brisbane had 10.1%. For whatever reason, Australia likes to focus on listening share: but 4BC’s share is driven by its high time spent listening, and a share figure hides how badly the station was actually doing in terms of audience. For the 5.30-9am slot, just 77,000 listened to Fegan on 4BC, in comparison to 172,000 to ABC Radio Brisbane (Craig Zonca and Loretta Ryan, then AM at 8, then Steve Austin at 8.30), 69,000 to ABC News Radio, and a pitiful 33,000 to ABC Radio National. (And, we shouldn’t forget that all these figures are taken over the last two survey periods and averaged. 4BC will have access to the more private one-survey numbers - and those may have shown a further trend down).

I listened to Friday’s 7am-8am. I heard Fegan run a very divisive phone-in subject on whether there should be a “Greater Brisbane”, set up for lots of callers to say how much they hated other parts of Brisbane, egged-on by Fegan; an anti renewable-energy rant; an aside about how the government is losing it; a ten-minute mobile phone interview with a Courier-Mail journalist on the “Greater Brisbane” idea and how bad it was (the journo was a bit more positive); and five minutes of sports talk with a studio guest. He voiced five ads; we also heard six traffic reports (with various sponsor credits), and seven minutes of commercials. I heard nothing to make me proud of living here, though perhaps that’s not the point.

He’s being filled-in temporarily by a Channel 9 weather reporter.

Brett Debritz, who’d worked for the station as a producer for a while, and is clearly still a committed listener, suggests that what works in Sydney - raging, angry announcers keen to berate and shout about whatever little thing upsets them - is not what works in Brisbane. And he may have a point: the talk personalities that seem to work in this market are people who you’d like to spend time with in the pub - whether it’s Steve Austin, Loret ta Ryan, Craig Zonca, Sofie Formica, Bill McDonald, Ellen Fanning or others.

• In the UK, media regulator Ofcom is running a consultation on the availability of radio on smart speakers - suggesting that guaranteed access to UK radio will be required for Alexa, Google and Apple devices. Trade body Radiocentre has explained what the legislation might mean. As ever, this is good thinking from Ofcom.

• An interesting piece from Westwood One about how to make audio ads better. “Brand early and often” is decent - I had a rule of “client name at least three times in every ad”, though they’re rather more aggressive - “less is more” is also on the button, focusing on one thing to say and saying it well; humour works; and using music as a sonic brand anchor.

Where I am speaking next

• Radiodays Europe, Riga, Latvia, (Mar 22-24, 2026)

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Selected bits from Radioland are in RadioInfo in Australia, and RAIN News in the US
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