Adding (or in most cases retaining) AM radio won't hurt that one bit.
Once again, this law only affects a handful of models from perhaps only two or three car companies.
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Saving AM Radio
- Thread starter BruceB
- Start date
Adding (or in most cases retaining) AM radio won't hurt that one bit.
Once again, this law only affects a handful of models from perhaps only two or three car companies.
The US auto industry is in some degree of peril. They're getting it on all sides:
- Stellantis recently forced its CEO to resign, as well as some of its US brand chiefs in the face of sharp sales declines in certain brands.
- The pandemic may have permanently changed the US car industry, as sales (units per year) in the US remain below 2019 levels.
- The UAW negotiated a major wage increase
- US Makers have become uncompetitive abroad, as few customers in poorer nations can afford the land yachts that General Motors, Ford & Chrysler now specialize in, and Chinese & South Korean manufacturers produce the economy cars for places like Australia and South America. 20 years ago, General Motors was the worlds #1 automaker, today they are #5.
- Automakers are dependent on the global supply chain. Semiconductors from Taiwan, plastics from China, wiring harnesses from Romania, spark plugs from Japan, windshields from Illinois and bolts from India. Threatened duties will not make US car exports more competitive.
- Electrification has required massive investment, while the winds of political change have made that market less important -- both in the US and in countries like Canada and Germany.
It's obviously not "top of mind" of anyone. But if the congress is serious in its support of DHS, it's up to them to protect this small thing.
That's all this is: Retaining and protecting the audio chain from DHS to the dashboard. Nothing else.
If it we up to me, I'd shut down major market AMs and confine AM radio to sparsely populated areas between the Appalachians and the Rockies (plus a few other remote regions). Electrical interference would be less of a problem and FM is at a disadvantage in the boondocks in the amount of territory a station can reach.
Cold Coffee
Banned
Hold on, it's only in some major markets where some AM's are making money. Small town AM's need an FM translator to survive.
How will you shut down the private companies? You cant just tell a business to close because you feel it's unfair that they have too much power in the big city, while the little town in the electric noise deprived woods doesn't have enough reach. I'd be interested in hearing more about this campaign to improve listening choice in the boondocks, especially how it will become profitable and self sustaining.
How was it done when Prohibition was enacted? Some breweries retooled to make soft drinks, but others went out of business. Their owners didn't lawyer up and sue the government. They just shut down and the owners tried to find some other way to make money.
The AM In Every Car act passed the Senate Commerce Committee yesterday, and is ready for full senate vote:
radioink.com
AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act Again Eligible For Full Senate Vote - Radio Ink
One week after the legislation's reintroduction to Congress, the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act is now eligible for a full Senate vote.
radioink.com
Cold Coffee
Banned
We old dogs want our new cars to have AM as well.
That does not match the reality of radio.
First, there are very few higher power AMs in sparsely populated areas. And, even if allowed, nobody would pay money to build a station with no revenue prospects.
Second, as Cold Coffee said, it is the FM translator that keeps most AMs alive in smaller markets. If they could, I'd say that 90% would turn the AM off.
There are a number of highly successful and profitable AMs in major markets. There are few AM-onlys making money in smaller ones.
Reference: Start with KFI, WOR, WABC, WGN, and the AMs run by Good Karma. Then add Howard Kalmenson's AMs, the ones doing ethnic programming as a real service in some of the largest cities and the religious stations.
No way.
Apples and oranges. You're talking about taking away a 50,000 radio station that is either on making revenue for its owner or is not. Prohibition was a one time thing which will never be repeated. If they want to fix our health and ban things, they should ban tobacco...and other smokable things. But they won't because they don't really have the power.
Cruz is a politician. And sure he's going to say that. And in a way, he's right. It's not just conservatives that use AM for speech. Ethnic stations have talk, news, etc. as well. And the religious talk stations have a right to free speech. So do the ethnic and other programs on brokered AM stations.
So no, it's not really 'case closed'. Radio is a speech as well as music and entertainment medium, AM included. Defunding the CPB, for example, which would affect the 1220 public radio stations in the US, would have an effect on free speech as well, regardless of any individual public stations' good or bad ratings. Even though most of those stations are FM, there are a lot of news, opinion, and other shows on public radio stations. All radio is important. Any attack on radio is an attack on speech or expression in one form or another.
And like I said upthread, people in the fire prone regions of the LA metro probably weren't listening to FM music stations for information, nor were they probably getting much on their cell phone if they lived within a mile or so radio of one of the burning, flametorch cell towers. They were probably listening to KNX 1070.
All the programming you cite is available online with CarPlay, Alexa, etc. That's the future (or something else we don't even know about yet.)
Your last paragraph is the only valid argument for saving the AM band. But that's not why Cruz says he wants it saved in cars. He showed his hand, and that's pure hypocrisy, IMO.
With all due respect, sir, I am not talking about markets (which are basically metro areas defined by the census bureau) but the area between markets and outside the limited reach of FM stations within those markets. I cite the example of the CBC which shut down or sold off most of their AM stations in favor of FM in the cities. As a result, those FM stations no longer reach many former ex-urban listeners. High powered stations, which were given that status to serve rural areas, can be relocated. AM radio is obsolete. The only way it still has any use is to find niches where it has an advantage.
You deceptively edited the Cruz comment. Here's the rest of it from that same article:
The main reason for this bill is access to emergency alerts.
In radio, we don't use the markets (Metropolitan Statistical Areas) defined by the government (not the Census Bureau, though). We use the Metro Survey Area defined by Nielsen, often very, very different.
They use a network of low power FMs to cover the rest of the nation, just as they did with low power AMs back in the day.
There are no high power stations in the USA on AM. And if relocated, what ad revenue would they exist on?
It is not totally obsolete, as many specialized formats, from Farsi in LA to Russian in NYC, from religious stations to talk and sports stations are still doing well.
P.S. The United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB) defines metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs)
I stand corrected.
I didn't notice the word "emergency" at the end of the paragraph, but it certainly wasn't his main thrust. I still believe saving conservative talk is his goal.
BTW, I like Ted Cruz but I'm willing to call out hypocrisy when I see it.
There have been a number of posts here talking about the NAB's lobbying effort for the AM in Every Car bill. Now we know how much the auto industry has spent on lobbying to defeat the bill: More than $26 million:
radioink.com
Automakers Spent $26.73M Lobbying Against AM Radio in 2024 - Radio Ink
Q4 lobbying disclosures reveal the full extent of automakers' efforts to oppose a mandate of AM radio in vehicles as a safety feature.
radioink.com