Few expected the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act to stall for three years after lawmakers introduced it. NAB President and CEO Curtis LeGeyt sat down with Barrett Media to discuss a variety of items. Included in the chat, is his reflection on the road so far, what remains, and where the association’s focus turns next.
For LeGeyt, the AM radio effort stands apart from the other issues he has worked on at the NAB. Mostly because of who drove it: more than 1 million radio listeners contacted their members of Congress. He walks through the bill’s journey from its introduction to its current spot on the Senate’s doorstep. He explains the institutional hurdles that have kept it from becoming law. Additionally, he also estimates the hundreds of meetings and thousands of hours the effort has required.
LeGeyt also explains why ownership deregulation is one of the next big items on the NAB’s agenda. He discusses how the NAB Show New York brings radio, television, podcasting, and digital creators together as their industries converge. He closes with the association’s priorities heading into 2027, including sports rights and the impact of AI on local news.
The Road to the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act
Garrett Searight: Can you take me from the introduction of the act three years ago to where we are today? What has the process been like for the NAB to try to get this pushed across the finish line?
Curtis LeGeyt: Yeah, absolutely, I appreciate the question. I think it’s important to rewind and be cognizant that this whole effort started because several lawmakers reached out to the major automakers. They were expressing concerns that they were hearing from their constituents about those automakers’ plans to potentially remove radio from the automobile. It was coupled with the fact that those manufacturers weren’t including it in the first place. Those automakers wouldn’t provide the lawmakers any assurance that radio was going to remain a fixture in the car.
As a result of that, Senators Cruz (R-TX) and Markey (D-MA) introduced the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act. There was a House counterpart, with a number of legislators involved, but that ultimately became the Bilirakis-Pallone bill. Those bills, last Congress, advanced through committee somewhat overwhelmingly. But they couldn’t get over the finish line before the end of the last Congress. Very quickly at the start of this Congress, they were reintroduced. They moved through the House Energy and Commerce and Senate Commerce committees near unanimously.
Then, obviously, as you know, last week it passed the U.S. House of Representatives by a voice vote after moving on suspension.
I think what’s important to emphasize about this bill is the degree to which it’s been driven by radio listeners. As much as the industry has a great lobbying team here in Washington, D.C., led by the NAB, and many of our partner member companies, this, to me — of all the issues we’ve advocated on over my time at NAB — stands out because of the degree to which it’s been driven by listeners. More than 1 million radio listeners reached out to their Congress members asking them to support this bill to ensure that radio maintains its place as a fixture in the automobile.
We are really encouraged by that. In light of everything going on in Washington, D.C., all the noise, it’s an election year, those issues that are pulling at members’ attention. For this to have finally cut through, gotten a floor vote in mid-September in the House of Representatives, and now sitting on the doorstep in the U.S. Senate, it’s entirely a tribute to listeners’ passion around this issue.
What’s Taken So Long?
GS: That sort of piggybacks into my next question. Some in the industry have been critical of the NAB. And Congress, frankly, for the lack of movement on the bill. What hangup has kept lawmakers from enacting it?
CL: Listen, I think when you are trying to get something done, there are a lot of institutional impediments that make that very challenging in Washington, D.C. As much as this piece of legislation has had a lot of support, there have been different variations in the bill that was first introduced in the House. As well as the one that was reported out of committee. The endorsement that came from President Trump was very significant in terms of advancing the conversation with House leadership. Those gaps needed to be worked out.
And we needed to ensure there was a consensus on the legislation. And that there was support from all those corners to move. We finally got there in the U.S. House, but all of those conversations take time. Especially in an environment where the House has not been in session for all that many legislative weeks over the course of the summer.
Then you shift over to the Senate. Where, by definition, any one piece of legislation can take a significant amount of floor time if any one senator wants to exercise their right. That puts you in a place where you really need to work out as many concerns as possible before you’re going to find a path to get a bill over the finish line as a standalone in the U.S. Senate.
As much as the bill has a filibuster-proof majority co-sponsoring it, we’d love to see it move by unanimous consent. Meaning no one member objects, so that the Senate doesn’t need to spend a week of floor time on it. That floor time is precious. And it’s going to be very difficult to see a bill like this getting that type of standalone consideration. That’s the process we are working through right now, and I’m very confident we’re going to get there.
GS: How many meetings and hours were spent trying to get this bill passed?
CL: I can tell you for certain, hundreds of meetings, thousands of hours across our team. No question about that, because it’s not just the meetings with members of Congress. Those, I think, we probably could tally up. You haven’t done it, but it might be a fun exercise at the end of the day. You’ve got to think about the degree to which NAB and our partner organizations have been involved.
All of that involves strategic conversations. Extend that down to the state broadcast associations that have really helped to quarterback our grassroots at the station level. Then there are the non-broadcast organizations, roughly 125 of them. Whether you’re talking about emergency management groups, the NAACP, the National Urban League, AARP, you go through the list of partner organizations that have engaged in this bill.
All of that is the product of real time spent with our teams sitting down with their teams and educating them on how AM radio impacts their constituencies. Most of these groups don’t just wake up thinking about how the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act is necessarily relevant to their agenda. So it takes some real education to do that. That’s before you get to the meetings with the members of Congress and the administration.
Quantifying it may be difficult. But I feel very confident in saying that if you were to throw a number out there, the reality is probably a larger number than that one.
Why Ownership Deregulation Matters
GS: I know ownership deregulation has been one of the top priorities for the NAB in recent months. Can you take me through the organization’s position on that and why it’s such an important topic?
CL: Yeah, absolutely. Look, if you step back, the fact of the matter is both radio and television broadcasters are competing for advertising dollars, for audience, and increasingly for sports rights with other entities that are completely unregulated. We have seen the impact that Facebook and Google have had on the advertising marketplace.
We have seen the migration of eyeballs and ears away from some broadcast over to Amazon and Netflix. And now I look at the increasingly dominant role that some of these streamers are playing when it comes to sports. And we need to ensure that we can have the scale to compete. That doesn’t mean I think the broadcast industry would be best served by having one company running the entire industry.
There may be some counterpoints of view on that. What it does suggest is that I’d like to give my member companies the ability to make the business decisions that are in the best interest of being able to invest in local journalism, local programming, serving their audiences, and continuing to provide over-the-air content, meeting those audiences where they are.
In certain cases, that is going to be benefited by scale, because journalism and localism and sports are expensive. From an advocacy perspective, that’s really how we have anchored this. I don’t think there’s a one-size-fits-all solution. But I do think, both at a national and a local level, broadcasters need scale to compete with those behemoths for those advertising dollars, those audience eyeballs and ears, and those programming rights.
Looking Ahead to the NAB Show New York
GS: The NAB Show New York is coming up next month. Some in the industry believe there has been a deemphasis of radio when it comes to the show. How delicate of a balance is it to try to make the NAB Show straddle the lines for all sectors of the industry and the business? How difficult of a dance is that for the NAB?
CL: I think in the past it’s been a challenge. But, increasingly, that’s where the real value is derived from the show. We know, and you’re living this, you’re reporting on it every day, that all of these sectors are converging. If you’re having a conversation about how to engage audience, you’re thinking about that through the lens of, yes, your broadcast, but also your stream, your podcast, your digital newsletter. This is going to be slightly different for television versus radio.
But we see all of this converging. One of the things that excites me so much about NAB New York is it gives not only our members but all of media the opportunity to explore other elements of the business that may not be front and center for them. When you think about the technologies that are going to help all media, including broadcasters, continue to enhance those relationships, whether you’re talking about AI or the latest and greatest tech, all of that breaks down across sectors.
I think it’s an opportunity for us to break down those boundaries when we’re thinking of what’s the future of media, what’s the future of storytelling, where do the individual content creators fit in. To me, all these lines are blurring. And I really think that for more traditional media, our shows can provide a lens into how other forms of media are doing it differently and what we should learn from that, and vice versa. There’s a whole lot that more traditional forms of media are doing well on the business side that these newer content creators can really take advantage of as well. I look at all of it as creating synergies.
What’s the Next Big Project?
GS: What else is on the priority list for the NAB going forward? And what will be the hot-button topics for the organization as 2026 concludes and we go into 2027?
CL: Well, I think sports is at the very top of our priority list. We need to ensure policymakers are educated about the harm when premier sporting events migrate from broadcast to streaming. We are seeing study after study that shows the mounting consumer frustration with needing to buy a new subscription service just to follow your favorite team. I think the NFL is playing with fire by pushing more and more games off to Amazon, Netflix, and YouTube. Policymakers are asking a lot of questions about this.
I testified in front of the House Judiciary Committee earlier this year on this topic. We’re going to continue to have these conversations as to this public access bargain that really lies at the heart of the Sports Broadcasting Act, which was enacted 60 years ago and allows these pro leagues to pool rights and resell them … I think there’s a lot of interest in this.
We’re going to be very vigilant about AI’s impact on the local broadcast industry. We have seen the harm that’s been posed to local newsrooms as Google and Facebook have siphoned so much market share on the advertising side away from traditional broadcasters. AI, in my view, is going to put all of that on steroids.
There’s no shortage of issues that we know Washington is going to be looking at. Every one of these members of Congress values the ability to access premier sports and to consume fact-based, trusted local journalism through our member companies. And we’re going to be telling the story as to how policies can help advance that.
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