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AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act Update

Something radio-related, some radio-related news that I thought was interesting. This is from digitalmusicnews.com.

Bill's Progress and Industry Impact

The AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act inches closer to becoming law. It says here, the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act is scheduled for a stand-alone floor vote in the U.S. House of Representatives during the week of September 14. On Thursday, a report from the National Association of Broadcasters, the NAB, said, revealed that U.S. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Republican of Louisiana, has scheduled the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act for a standalone floor vote during the week of September 14.

The announcement not only curbs concerns that the legislation might end up sidelined until a lame duck session post-election or attached to a broader transportation legislation, but also suggests that the bill may finally have the support its advocates have been working toward. NAB President and CEO Curtis Legate said this, quote, unquote. This legislation, here's what it does. This would require the Secretary of Transportation to conduct a rulemaking proceeding to be completed in one year that mandates AM receivers to be included in all vehicles sold in the U.S. as a standalone feature without extra costs to buyers.

The bill has 317 co-sponsors in the House and 61 in the Senate. Nick Anderson... the Director of Government Affairs for Salem Media Group and VP of Public Policy for the National Religious Broadcasters, said, quote, our energy has been focused on pushing for a floor vote through the House suspension calendar, and we're talking directly with the White House and House leadership to make that case, to move it now and not later, unquote.

The AM-FM Relationship

Let me stop on that for a moment. Why is this guy, the Director of Government, first of all, why does a company like Salem Media Group And the national religious broadcasters, why do these organizations have a government liaison, if you will? Why are they focused on this piece of legislation? Because AM radio... Well, it's symbiotic. I was going to say AM radio depends on conservative talk radio, political talk radio that's with a conservative bent. And conservative talk radio is very much dependent on AM radio.

The Resurgence of AM Radio

See, when I was a kid, and I'm showing my age a little bit here, but I'm a Gen Xer. When I was growing up, you had AM and FM. I didn't listen to AM radio. Nobody I knew listened to AM radio. And the theory was, and AM radio sounded weird too. It didn't sound as good as FM. So you didn't really want to listen to music on AM. And there was this weird, sometimes it even had this weird whistling sound. AM would sound very strange compared to FM. And it was seen to be a dying medium. There was an assumption that AM radio would eventually just go away.

Because no one cared about AM radio anymore. And then in the 80s, there was this resurgence of AM radio because all these conservative talk radio shows went to AM radio and effectively set like AM radio probably still exists because of conservative talk radio and conservative talk radio was able to flourish because of AM radio. because of the continued existence of AM radio. So at that time, shows like Rush Limbaugh and all the others, and that remains to this day, that interdependence. The two exist because of each other, right?

So AM radio has survived and even thrived because of that. Now, I don't listen to any AM shows, and of course this show is on FM radio. as well as streaming online. But the reason AM continues to survive to this day, I believe, is 100%. because of conservative talk radio. But there are these other concerns about, you know, emergency, you know, communicating during emergencies and so forth that AM is handy for, although I don't know why you can't just do that with FM as well. But again, you know, Steve Scalise, who is a— we don't do politics on this iteration of the show, I realize that, but I'm just saying, Steve Scalise, who is a Republican, of course, you know, a Southern Republican, right, he's from Louisiana— I can see where he might be someone in a position to really be concerned about this and would sponsor a bill like this.

Okay, just a little bit more, and then we've got to get to break, and then Charles will be with us in the third hour.

Concerns and Future of AM Radio

It also says here that Anderson, Nick Anderson, from the Director of Government Affairs for Salem Media Group— Salem Media Group, by the way, that's their specialty, is conservative talk— and the public policy for the national religious broadcasters, Anderson cautioned, that should automakers be permitted to omit AM radio simply because it is cheaper or easier, the same logic could eventually be applied to FM radio, which I would not like, selfishly. I would not like that. And threaten the future of free broadcast radio and vehicles.

The AM radio for every vehicle act was reintroduced in its current... in the current Congress after the previous legislative cycle ended without a floor vote, despite broad bipartisan support. The 119th Congress concludes its session at the end of the year. So there you go. We'll see what happens. I don't want to see AM radio. I mean, I don't listen to AM radio. I don't want to see it go away. Um, but I can see where automakers, if they feel that there's a lack of demand, they may not want to include it if it's cheaper not to, um, You know, one of the interesting things, I'll just say this, I'll stop on this point, as my father used to say.

My father would say that all the time. I'll stop on this point and then ramble for 10 more minutes. But one of the interesting things about getting older, as much as getting older, there's a lot of bad things about it. We'd all like to stay young forever, wouldn't we? But one of the interesting things is seeing what technologies go away, what technologies remain, what technologies everybody thought were going to go away but managed to stick around, like AM radio, what technologies everyone assumed we would always have forever but end up going away.

That's one of the interesting things about getting older is to see what comes and goes and how it comes and goes and what people were right about, what people were wrong about. But AM radio continues to exist, and I don't think it's going anywhere.

Technological Evolution in Cars

And I certainly don't want, oh, but my point, what I was going to say is, new cars, as far as I know, new cars do not have CD players in them. So that's an example of where automakers have adapted to, in terms of what they include in their vehicles, depending on the technological demand for them. So if nobody wants a CD player in their car anymore, they don't bother to put CD players in cars anymore. I'm sure some people would still like to have them. But I think if you buy a new car today, it might depend on the manufacturer.

But chances are there's no CD player. There is a possibility at some point there won't be AM radio either. But we'll see about that. But I think it'll be sticking around.