A lot of this stuff is highly suspicious considering how long governments have been trying to ban VPNs and encrypted messaging. At some point I’d expect someone in favor of bans to commit activities like this to push services to block and governments to ban.
FM is more affected by physical barriers (buildings, etc.). Range is around 30 miles. AM range is around 100 miles during the day and further at night.
Don’t states with frequent hurricanes still recommend switching to AM in the event of disaster? There are a lot of situations where cell phones or FM may not work, but you could get an AM signal.