Why do I get more stations on my car radio than my home radio?

Your antenna in the car is not physically blocked from the signal the way an antenna attached to the radio inside your house is. If your radio was attached to an antenna on top of your house, you would probably get a lot more stations.

This used to happen to us when I was a little girl, and had moved to MD. Once in a while we would pick up our old NY station in our car that had been our favorite. I would assume you have less interference in the car. The house has all sorts of materials disrupting the radio waves. That’s my guess.

Plus, it might be the time of day. If I remember correctly we only sometimes received The NY station late at night.

@LostInParadise I am assuming you are speaking of FM radio reception, while @JLeslie is describing AM radio reception.

AM radio waves can bounce off the ionosphere so that they can be received at locations that are not line-of-sight from the transmitter. The ionosphere is different during the day when it is disrupted by solar radiation.

FM signals (and also TV signals) need line of sight from the nearest transmitter to the receiver.

The car’s antenna, and radio have been perfectly matched and optimized for their exact placement, wiring length, and surroundings.
Every home situation is unique. You can have walls of reinforced concrete, wood frame, aluminum siding, wood sheathing. The radio antenna placement can be on an inside wall or outside wall. The power can be 60 Hz shielded and filtered or unfiltered. There are so many variables it is impossible to optimize for all cases.

Here’s a fun radio antenna fact. Electrically speaking, a slit in a conductive plane (like a car’s metal roof) can have the same propagation pattern and sensitivity as a conventional metal antenna. On some car models engineers have been experimenting with a slit in the roof panel as a replacement for the conventional mast antenna.
It is a sexy idea but can end up being more complicated and expensive than a simple mast.

True, the station was AM.

@LuckyGuy has it. The car antenna and feedline built into the car have been engineered. The antenna and cable has a nearly perfect SWR. The home system does not have a perfect antenna, especially if it is a telescoping one.

One presumes that is because your car radio gets exposure to a wider range of broadcast towers than your home radio.

How many miles per gallon does your home radio get?

If you want to resolve the problem with your home radio antenna, do what I did: Get a amplified radio antenna, available at your local electronics supply store. It plugs into the wall outlet and it took care of my weak signal problem.