Another thing about crappy AM is bandwidth. Normally it is narrow and will not reproduce the highs well. I guess they were going for selectivity and lower noise. With FM the frequency response remains but a narrow bandwidth IF will increase distortion. Some high end FM tuners had switchable bandwidth which allowed for the lower distortion (especially in stereo) when set to wide and better selectivity when set to narrow. I remember seeing an AM with that feature but for the life of me can't remember what make or model. I think it had shortwave.

If you want talk radio shortwave is the way to go, especially the forbidden band. I don't know exactly what frequencies are forbidden but all you have to do is look at the in the stores or read the specs, you will find frequency ranges missing. The politically incorrect go there, like American Dissident Voices. Those bands are omitted ostensibly because the programming is US based and intended for non-domestic audiences.

The same FCC are the ones that mandated tuners must have both AM and FM. This is one reason, people with separate tuners want high fidelity and are not concerned with AM.