While I was “supporting the home team” last week, in other words, reading all the news from Barrett Media, I saw Garrett Searight’s conversation with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). Garrett interviewed Sen. Cruz about his podcast that is now available from Premiere Networks as a one-hour weekend show and already has over 100 affiliates.
He talked about the advantages of the podcast format among other things, but Garrett asked him about his sponsorship of The AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act of 2025, a bill introduced by Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), hardly an ideological stablemate.
Ted Cruz offered four reasons why he backs the AM bill:
- Lower barriers to entry on AM, meaning greater diversity of ownership
- Emergency communications
- Coverage in rural areas (Texas has a lot of wide-open spaces)
- Free speech, especially for conservative talk radio
One thing that stood out, for me, in his list was that emergency communications was not the first item. Doing all you can in an emergency is standard practice for broadcasters (or at least, it should be). We’ve heard wonderful stories of broadcasters stepping up when needed, so there’s no need to offer specifics here. But for most of us, this is a once in a lifetime need and other options may be available as well.
In my view, what matters most is day-to-day broadcasting and the need to keep AM stations economically viable, in other words, the need to attract an audience such that owners can make a profit and continue to serve their communities.
The question is whether AM, even if access is required in vehicles, will still be viable. We know the percentage of AQH audience to AM is low, and even if you see a Nielsen estimate, it will be overstated thanks to the thousands of FM translators as well as some FM HD subchannels being utilized by AM broadcasters.
In PPM, translators carry the same code as the originating station (translators can only originate 30 seconds of unique content per hour, so Nielsen rightfully sees no reason to use a separate code for translators). A panelist listening to an AM station on an FM translator is credited to the originating AM station. In the diary service, the same thing happens when a diarykeeper writes in the FM translator frequency of an originating AM station.
While this FM audience to AM stations helps to keep an AM operation viable, it raises the question of whether listeners would know where to find the AM broadcast or even have access if an emergency arose and the translator or HD subchannel went down.
This is a research column, so I did some research by actually reading the Senate bill. Take a look at the bill itself is short, and it won’t take you more than a few minutes to read. The version in the House is essentially the same.
If you don’t want to read the actual bill, here are some highlights:
- The Secretary of Transportation will have one year from the date of enactment to issue a rule regarding AM in cars after consulting with the head of FEMA and the FCC.
- The effective date of that rule will be at least two years out but not more than three years in the future.
- The rule can allow vehicles to pick up digital AM stations instead of analog AM.
- AM should be “easily accessible to drivers”. (It should be interesting to see how that phrase is interpreted with today’s complicated infotainment systems.)
- If a company sold fewer than 40,000 cars in the US in 2022, they would have at least four years from the date the rule is issued to add AM. (When you pick up your new Bentley, Lamborghini, or Aston Martin, it may not have an AM radio even if this becomes law.)
- Until the rule is issued, dealers will have to inform buyers that a vehicle does not have AM radio. Also, they cannot charge extra to install AM. (“It’s $200 extra for the floor mats, but we’ll throw in an AM radio for free!”).
- The Secretary of Transportation must send a report to Congress at least every five years about how the rule is working with respect to public safety.
- The law goes away after ten years.
Assuming the bill pitched by Senators Ted Cruz and Ed Markey becomes law (and it has support from both sides of the aisle as well as NAB lobbying for it), will anything change for AM? Do we have too many underpowered and poorly engineered AM stations? Do listeners expect better sound quality than analog AM can deliver? Most vehicles on North American roads today have AM built-in, but that hasn’t stopped the decline in the band’s popularity.
The AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act of 2025 feels good, but assuming it becomes law this year, will anything be different when the law sunsets in 2035? I doubt it. What do you think?
Let’s meet again next week.
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My first instinct is to smirk, OK laugh at the fact that these politicians are even bringing up AM radio. I understand this is a group that has difficulty wrapping their head around Podcasts, Social media and the internet in general but c’mon, AM signals gave up programming efforts years ago. It’s mostly syndicated talk offerings that’s cost effective and bartered and in some cases free to have their market coverage. AM is gone, much like Cable TV and dial up internet…things change and progress. How about something substantial like free national internet for all. Other countries can do it!