Good to see Congress wasting yet more taxpayer money, but dinosaurs protecting dinosaurs seems somehow not surprising.Update:
Scoop: Congress moves to preserve AM radio in cars
A bipartisan group of lawmakers wants to make it illegal for carmakers to eliminate AM radio.www.axios.com
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Car Makes & Models with No AM Band.
- Thread starter davideduardo
- Start date
Poorly written legislation. Will kill AM radio in the long run.
I agree. My favorite points:
So let me get this straight: Companies are required to include AM. Those who don't, are required to let consumers know. Wow.
AND the GAO will study more effective alternatives to AM. Great job. Just what we needed.
I would like the government to explain how AM radio would provide essential emergency information as it pertains to the broadcasting landscape of 2023 and beyond, not that of 60, 70 or 80 years ago. While they’re at it, explain why they think FM is not capable of doing the same job?
"Dear consumer: Just to let you know, that Tesla you bought from us several months ago has no AM Radio. Regards - Elon"
The legislation specifically states that a car maker can satisfy the AM radio requirement by putting in a radio that only receives HD, but a MA3 digital only station does not count as HD. This incentivizes AM stations to turn on hybrid mode back on, especially at night. Remember why stations turned off nighttime hybrid over a decade ago? This is going to kill a ton of small stations because of adjacent channel hash and trash.
I'm not aware that stations turned off HD out of concern of causing interference. I'm reminded of Bob Savage, owner of Rochester's WHYL, who ran a campaign against WBZ in Boston. He complained to the FCC, to the point where they refused to take his calls or respond to him anymore. Ultimately WBZ just stopped using HD because it didn't experience any benefit from it. That's been the primary reason why AM-HD has almost completely gone away. The fact that some new legislation might mention AM-HD without actually providing any money is hardly an incentive.
What most companies are doing is putting their AM station on an FM HD-2. So the rule, as stated, doesn't really encourage stations to buy new HD-AM chips from Xpiri and require consumers to buy HD-AM radios. My current car receives HD-FM just fine.
Hence why we need to assure that any legislation mandates FM and FM HD to remain on the dash.
But I don't see any penalties for non-compliance. Other than they must inform consumers in advance.
I'd like to think that the *first* person to
Not 'if', but 'when'.
We don’t need any of that legislation. If people want it, great. The market will determine that.
The market can't determine it if the option isn't available. On the other hand the market didn't determine that cars should have Sirius receivers installed. That was a private deal done by car companies without market input. It was imposed on car buyers.
The AM band is not a private company that can pay for inclusion. It's government-run spectrum. It needs the government to support it. Because it's obvious that the radio companies that use AM are making other plans for content distribution.
The market can determine because no one is flipping a switch and poof, it’s not available anywhere.
The government managing the spectrum is all well and good. They don’t need to be injecting themselves into what kind of electronic entertainment options every car maker needs to include. Much as people want to protest to the contrary, it’s not a safety device. I’m far from a no-regulation extremist, but there are a multitude of things the government has no business sticking its nose into.
The government managing the spectrum is all well and good. They don’t need to be injecting themselves into what kind of electronic entertainment options every car maker needs to include. Much as people want to protest to the contrary, it’s not a safety device. I’m far from a no-regulation extremist, but there are a multitude of things the government has no business sticking its nose into.
They already have by passing a law to assist consumers in subscribing to broadband. I can run as many internet radio stations as I want, but the government restricts the number of broadcast stations I can own. I can play the most obscene music I want on my internet station, but the government restricts what I can play on broadcast. The government has put its finger on electronic entertainment to the benefit of technology companies and to the detriment of broadcasting. The government is not requiring people to listen to AM. People can listen to anything they want. The government is simply saying, with no penalties, that the choice needs to be available. I believe in giving people a choice.
It's actually an NAB campaign that Audacy is supporting
We Are Broadcasters | Depend on AM Radio
From reporting the latest weather updates and providing vital emergency warnings to covering the local high school football game, communities across the country depend on AM radio.
Sample Live Reads
While NAB leads broadcast advocacy in Washington, D.C., local radio stations have an important role to play in touting the benefits of AM radio. NAB has developed tools to allow AM listeners to tell their members of Congress to advocate for AM radio in vehicles.
Which, if I were the venal CEO of an automaker, would be the starting gun to drop AM before the bill passes. I'd rather write the form letter than be committed by law to a device that is of limited demand.
The reality is getting such a bill to the floor will take a while, and getting it passed in this congress is unlikely.
So yes, they have lots of time to make their changes before any requirements (with no real penalties) are made.
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