Congress Fights to Keep AM Radio in Cars
7th October 2024
A lament about the demise of AM radio has been rising in the halls of Congress.
Several automakers, most notably Tesla and Ford, have decided to stop putting AM radios in their electric vehicles. They claim their electric motors interfere with the audio quality of the signal and insist that FM and satellite radio are enough.
Given that people who listen to radio tend to primarily do so while driving, a trend like this could threaten the commercial viability of the over 4,000 AM stations currently broadcasting in the U.S.
Which is why they’re doing it. Every AM station in my area is doubled by an FM sub-station that is typically a few seconds behind it, timing-wise. We don’t need AM radio; anybody who wants to listen to the “AM station” can tune into its FM replica and get the same programming with higher quality sound.
The radio industry has been fighting back, lobbying for legislation that would force carmakers to install AM radios as a matter of public interest.
I.e. fat donations to politicians to mandate an obsolete technology for commercial purposes. Your democracy at work … and play. To paraphrase Samual Johnson, legislation is the last refuge of the uncompetitive.
U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who sponsored the bill in the Senate, described free AM radio as “an essential tool in emergencies, a crucial part of our diverse media ecosystem, and an irreplaceable source for news, weather, sports, and entertainment for tens of millions of listeners.”
Democrats: Best legislators money can buy. If he wants to support “an essential tool in emergencies”, he ought to support ham radio, which I notice that he doesn’t mention. “Diverse media ecosystem” is Woke-speak for “let’s continue what we’re doing so long as it brings in lobbying money”; there is no such thing as a “media ecosystem”. Nor is it an “irreplaceable source” for anything — people have been listening to FM radio for new, weather, sports, and entertainment since I was a kid in the 1960s. This is just bought-politician boilerplate that fools nobody.
As a media historian, I welcome hearing AM radio described as a public utility, particularly after decades of free-market orthodoxy dominating discussions of its fate.’
In other words, the author is a progressive media shill who is quite happy to see “free-market orthodoxy” displaced by government-regulated behavior under the Clever Plastic Disguise of “public utility”.