why did older cars have such long antennae when newer cars either don’t have one at all or a tiny nub?

Question

why did older cars have such long antennae when newer cars either don’t have one at all or a tiny nub?

In: 568

Answer 1

The long antennas are primarily for AM radio. People used to return cars for poor radio reception. Not so much anymore. A good FM radio can be packaged as described by others here (in the glass) equivalent performance for AM is just not possible. But it works, just not as well as the old pole antennas (whips).

There’s other issues too: cellphones and other electronics in the car mean that AM radio is just not going to work as well.