There is still value in AM radio. That has been made tremendously clear over the last few months as Congress has rallied to fight against automakers eliminating the band from the dashboard in 2024 models.
The arguments were effective for at least one company, as Ford has decided to reverse course and preserve AM radio in their cars. The same cannot be said though for the other seven car manufacturers. They aren’t interested in being in the amplitude modulation business anymore.
Our industry is taking up a worthwhile cause, but the arguments being made on Capitol Hill and in open letters ring hollow. Even though I am not rooting for cars to be manufactured in a way that makes it harder for any listener to hear their favorite station, I can see the carmakers’ point of view. I get why they wouldn’t be swayed by these arguments.
Remember what we are fighting here. No one wants to outlaw AM radio. No one is trying to pass a bill to make it illegal to carry legal advice and gardening shows.
Carmakers are making a business decision. Electric vehicles’ engines interfere with AM signals. Making the necessary changes in order to keep that from happening costs money that they don’t see as a necessary expense. How do we combat that?
Instead, we are talking about EAS systems. That has nothing to do with the fight we are fighting. I have worked at AM stations. I have worked at FM stations. We carry those alerts on both bands. In the event of severe weather or national emergency, both bands go to wall-to-wall coverage.
If we aren’t trying to fight a bill that makes AM radio illegal, then this argument is irrelevant. Even if stations go out of business, if AM is imperative for distributing emergency information, the government has a responsibility to find ways to keep that distribution system operational.
We talk about how important the band is for sports fans. We romanticize listening to a game on the radio. Nostalgia is great if your audience has the nostalgia, but what if they don’t?
I grew up having to listen to Alabama games on AM radio. Guess what? It sounded like shit. I’m not eager to experience it again.
Some of right-wing talk radio’s biggest stars have made the argument that this is another step in silencing conservative voices. That can easily be disproven by the fact that Elon Musk’s Tesla was the first automaker to announce the removal of the AM band. You can also simply pointing to the number of FM talk stations that carry those very same programs.
“No one is loyal to amplitude modulation or frequency modulation,” Larry Rosin told me before this year’s BSM Summit. Our audience chooses content 100% of the time. They are not loyal to AM or FM. They aren’t even loyal to a particular station. They are loyal to themselves, and that is perfectly understandable.
The one time I tried to watch an episode of Yellowstone, I was positive the people that call it the best thing on TV were playing a prank on me. I didn’t give it a second chance because it didn’t entertain me in the least. It had nothing to do with preferring streaming to cable or a vendetta against Paramount Network.
Seriously, there’s a joke I’m not in on, right? Yellowstone is bad.
Again, I am not advocating for the end of AM radio. I am advocating for making smarter arguments and fighting the right fight.
If AM radio is harder to access, stations will lose money and that means that they will likely cut staff. Job losses are not good for people being able to make ends meet, let alone buy new cars. That is an argument to make to elected officials who want to win future elections and to carmakers that want to sell new cars.
Yes, people can find the information they need on an FM station in the event of an emergency. Doesn’t it make sense to preserve all choices in a car though? If an AM radio listener switches to streaming music or podcasts because the content they want isn’t readily available, they could miss that emergency information.
Now, it sucks, but there is one more thing to consider here.
Maybe this is a war AM radio cannot win. Maybe the best we can do is win some individual battles and buy ourselves a little time.
Technology is ever-evolving and that isn’t going to change. We have already seen it. Newspapers struggle in the age of the internet. Tape decks are replaced in cars by CD players. Even when you go to the movies, it is rare that you are watching film being projected onto the screen. Now it is digital video.
Better ways of delivering information and entertainment come along all the time and slowly replace what we have always relied on. NAB and radio groups are fighting to preserve AM radio. They should also be making sure that their listeners and advertisers are well-acquainted with all of the ways to access their content.
Fighting to keep AM radio on the car dashboard is worthwhile, but when you’re fighting technical innovation, any victory is temporary. Let’s not be so narrowly focused that we forget that the ultimate goal for the stations on AM is that the content survives.
Demetri Ravanos is a columnist and features writer for Barrett Media. He is also the creator of The Sports Podcast Festival, and a previous host on the Chewing Clock and Media Noise podcasts. He occasionally fills in on stations across the Carolinas in addition to hosting Panthers and College Football podcasts. His radio resume includes stops at WAVH and WZEW in Mobile, AL, WBPT in Birmingham, AL and WBBB, WPTK and WDNC in Raleigh, NC.
You can find him on Twitter @DemetriRavanos or reach him by email at DemetriTheGreek@gmail.com.
