# Seattle Mazda drivers can't change their radios off of KUOW **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Tags:** racing-auto-boat\ **Created:** [February 9, 2022, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seattle-mazda-drivers-cant-change-their-radios-off-of-kuow/959162 "2022-02-09T16:02:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2022, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seattle-mazda-drivers-cant-change-their-radios-off-of-kuow/959162/1 "2022-02-09T16:02:31Z")
> **[Stuck in KUOW purgatory: Seattle Mazda drivers can't change the radio dial](https://www.kuow.org/stories/we-didn-t-mean-to-ruin-your-mazda-s-stereo)** > > Over the past couple of weeks some people who listen to KUOW in their Mazdas say their car radio is permanently stuck on 94.9. It’s only affecting KUOW, Mazdas from 2016, and we have no idea why. > Over the past couple of weeks, some people who listen to KUOW in their Mazdas say their car radio is permanently stuck on 94.9 FM. It’s only affecting KUOW, Mazdas from 2016, and we have no idea why… > > It still isn’t clear why specifically KUOW’s signal is affecting some specific Mazda cars. One theory points [to the recent rollout of 5G technology for smartphones](https://www.thedrive.com/tech/43187/how-the-3g-shutdown-in-2022-could-screw-your-car). > > A few weeks ago cellphone companies — and KUOW — switched to a 5G signal. But many cars are still only equipped with 3G and glitch when faced with the newer 5G. Some car companies put out advisories to customers last year ahead of the switch that an issue like this could arise. > > But the 5G theory still doesn’t answer why some Mazdas are only affected by KUOW… KUOW is an NPR affiliate. I listen to the other one, KNKX. (Or ‘college’ music station KEXP.) If you have to get stuck on a radio station, I can think of worse ones than an NPR station. ---
**Author:** ![Folly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folly/32/3219_2.png) [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2022, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seattle-mazda-drivers-cant-change-their-radios-off-of-kuow/959162/2 "2022-02-09T16:13:32Z")
I’m confused, an HD radio station switched over to 5g cellular data frequencies? That seems like something that is not a thing… ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2022, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seattle-mazda-drivers-cant-change-their-radios-off-of-kuow/959162/3 "2022-02-09T16:25:04Z")
Obviously there’s a conspiracy to force Mazda owners to be indoctrinated by public radio. Toyota drivers, they’re coming for you next… \*KUOW secretly stands for Kowtow, U are Owned by Washington. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2022, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seattle-mazda-drivers-cant-change-their-radios-off-of-kuow/959162/4 "2022-02-09T16:32:47Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Toyota drivers, they’re coming for you next… They’ll never get to the F150 owners. I’m not sure what the F stands for - it’s probably Freedom! You’ll have to pry the dial of my radio from my cold, dead hands. All these ignorant liberals want to infringe our radio rights, when they don’t even understand the difference between amplitude modulation and frequency modulation. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2022, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seattle-mazda-drivers-cant-change-their-radios-off-of-kuow/959162/5 "2022-02-09T16:33:31Z")
I have a Mazda, a few years newer than the ones affected by this. A few weeks ago I did happen to notice that the radio/infotainment system “froze” for a minute or two, and the volume, mute, etc. buttons didn’t seem to do anything. The it all went back to normal. Come to think of it it was tuned to the local NPR station at the time. I didn’t try to tun to another station. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2022, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seattle-mazda-drivers-cant-change-their-radios-off-of-kuow/959162/6 "2022-02-09T19:04:03Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > If you have to get stuck on a radio station, I can think of worse ones than an NPR station. I would eat a gun if forced to listen to NPR. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2022, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seattle-mazda-drivers-cant-change-their-radios-off-of-kuow/959162/7 "2022-02-09T19:30:40Z")
Why? Better than ‘News Radio’ (i.e., typically Right-leaning commercial stations with lots of commercials), Country & Western, new music that all sounds the same… ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2022, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seattle-mazda-drivers-cant-change-their-radios-off-of-kuow/959162/8 "2022-02-09T19:36:06Z")
HD Radio broadcasts some text information about the station, the show, song, etc., and many NPR stations also broadcast some sort of time signal. My guess is the information KUOW is broadcasting is either corrupted or correct, but has triggered a bug in the Mazda radios. The Mazda radio is then trusting this input it receives and doing something with it, like overwriting a buffer or whatever stupid programming mistake can be made. Expect a wave of people fuzzing HD radios by embedding unexpected data into the meta data signals, just to see what happens. I wonder what happens if people completely unplug the radio (or the car battery) so it’s properly powered off, not just turning the car off, so the radio stays powered on a little bit to remember stations and the time and stuff. I don’t understand the thing about 5G glitching out 3G. It just won’t work. If a car only has a 3G cell radio, and 3G signals are turned off, then the cell radio just won’t work. If 3G is still available, and 5G is added, the 3G cell radio won’t even notice the 5G signals. I’m not saying it isn’t happening, just that people (including dealer service techs) don’t understand technology so the reports don’t make much sense. Of course, I know nothing about the actual _technical_ details of HD radio, and somebody who does can probably think of tons of things that could go wrong. My guesses are just based on decades of trouble shooting computer technology. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2022, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seattle-mazda-drivers-cant-change-their-radios-off-of-kuow/959162/9 "2022-02-09T22:06:12Z")
> [@echoreply](#): > > HD Radio broadcasts some text information about the station, the show, song, etc., and many NPR stations also broadcast some sort of time signal. **My guess is the information KUOW is broadcasting is either corrupted** or correct, but has triggered a bug in the Mazda radios. The Mazda radio is then trusting this input it receives and doing something with it, like overwriting a buffer or whatever stupid programming mistake can be made. It’s thought to be album images sent w/o an extension (.jpg) so you pretty much nailed it. [Drive](https://www.thedrive.com/news/44219/mazda-owners-say-tuning-to-npr-is-breaking-their-infotainment-systems) article on it, . ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2022, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seattle-mazda-drivers-cant-change-their-radios-off-of-kuow/959162/10 "2022-02-09T22:42:59Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > It’s thought to be album images sent w/o an extension (.jpg) so you pretty much nailed it. I’m not a software developer, I mean, I cobble together spaghetti out of `bash` and call it good enough, but even I know that if I get a file that doesn’t end in `.jpg` I shouldn’t explode. ```bash # Mazda radio code # Figure out what to do with the image data from the HD stream based on file extension case ${filename##*.} in jpg) display_jpeg($filename) ;; jpeg) display_jpeg($filename) ;; gif) display_gif($filename) ;; *) bootloader_write($filename) ;; esac ``` Makes sense. I actually wouldn’t be surprised if it gets a filename with an extension it doesn’t understand it does the right thing, but if it gets an extension that is `null` it shits the bed (technical term). ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2022, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seattle-mazda-drivers-cant-change-their-radios-off-of-kuow/959162/11 "2022-02-09T23:02:28Z")
Another Mazda radio issue – it has problems with the “99% Invisible” podcast. > **[The Roman Mars Mazda Virus - 99% Invisible](https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-roman-mars-mazda-virus/)** > > It’s the crossover event you’ve all been waiting for: Reply All‘s Super Tech Support takes on an annoyingly specific technology problem involving 99% Invisible. Ben loves podcasts, but he has a problem. When he tries to listen to 99% Invisible in... TLDR: It has something to do with the %I, but a firm conclusion isn’t there. Brian ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2022, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seattle-mazda-drivers-cant-change-their-radios-off-of-kuow/959162/12 "2022-02-09T23:23:32Z")
What about Pulse Width Modulation? Or Spread Spectrum? ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2022, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seattle-mazda-drivers-cant-change-their-radios-off-of-kuow/959162/13 "2022-02-09T23:25:35Z")
I’ve heard the phrase, “eat a bullet” before. This one’s new to me. I admire people of big appetites, though, so … ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2022, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seattle-mazda-drivers-cant-change-their-radios-off-of-kuow/959162/14 "2022-02-10T00:55:40Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > I would eat a gun if forced to listen to NPR. Don’t have a KUOW man! ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2022, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seattle-mazda-drivers-cant-change-their-radios-off-of-kuow/959162/15 "2022-02-10T01:39:01Z")
I can sympathize. Since the beginning of the year, the clock on the navigation system in my 2010 Honda Fit resets to 12:00 January 1, 2002 when the car is restarted. Prior to that, the time was exactly correct. Supposedly the issue will resolve on its own in August. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2022, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seattle-mazda-drivers-cant-change-their-radios-off-of-kuow/959162/16 "2022-02-10T02:13:20Z")
Why August? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2022, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seattle-mazda-drivers-cant-change-their-radios-off-of-kuow/959162/17 "2022-02-10T02:28:48Z")
> [@echoreply](#): > > I’m not a software developer, I mean, I cobble together spaghetti out of `bash` and call it good enough, but even I know that if I get a file that doesn’t end in `.jpg` I shouldn’t explode. It’s a pretty dumb software bug. But what’s even dumber it that it requires making a service appointment to fix, and apparently a hardware swap. A lot of people don’t seem to like over-the-air updates for their car… but this is the alternative. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2022, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seattle-mazda-drivers-cant-change-their-radios-off-of-kuow/959162/18 "2022-02-10T07:05:44Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > KUOW is an NPR affiliate. I listen to the other one, KNKX. (Or ‘college’ music station KEXP.) If you have to get stuck on a radio station, I can think of worse ones than an NPR station. Go down to Olympia and check out KAOS. I guest hosted a couple shows there back in my college days. I assume it still exists. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2022, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seattle-mazda-drivers-cant-change-their-radios-off-of-kuow/959162/19 "2022-02-10T12:56:05Z")
> [@DavidNRockies](#): > > I admire people of big appetites, though, so … [Ever checked out Katina?](https://youtube.com/c/KatinaEatsKilos) ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2022, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seattle-mazda-drivers-cant-change-their-radios-off-of-kuow/959162/20 "2022-02-10T13:19:12Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Go down to Olympia and check out KAOS. I guest hosted a couple shows there back in my college days. I assume it still exists. It do. > **[KAOS (FM)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KAOS_(FM))** > > KAOS (89.3 FM) is a hybrid college/community radio station licensed to the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. It broadcasts with an effective radiated power of 1.25 kilowatts, and streams via the internet. The station offers radio broadcasting training to students of the college as well as members of the local community. > Dean Katz of The Evergreen State College founded KAOS. When he traveled to Seattle to apply for the station license, his official papers had the radio station's cal... [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seattle-mazda-drivers-cant-change-their-radios-off-of-kuow/959162.md?page=2)