AM radio has been pretty much abandoned in the US. if you want a good AM receiver, look for receivers for eastern europe and asian markets -- lots of those places are still like the U.S. southwest from the 1940's -- large expanses of open space poorly served by big-money media conglomerates. you often get oddball (for the U.S.) shortwave thrown in for free.
modern AM radio chips use in commodity "stereos" clip bass and highs to get speech-tolerable loud sound and lowest possible cost. in the 50's and 60's there was at least some concern for audio fidelity but that's been abandoned now in AM.
a highlight of my southwest desert trips in my '63 rambler classic wagon was listening to KTNN am radio. one of the few "clear channel" stations (so designated in the cold war CONELRAD days, remember those? :-) you get great hopi and navajo music, OLD country and western, and "mary in whiterock has a washing machine for sale" radio ads... ahhh radio culture!
i just built another whack-job rambler that i intend to do long road trips in, starting mid Nov. though as a roadster there will not be much radio listening done, sadly.
