After months of advocacy from broadcasters, legislators, and the public, the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act has failed to gain inclusion in the final major legislation of the 118th Congress, the Continuing Resolution aimed at averting a government shutdown.
Despite the numerous additional provisions added to the stopgap measure now poised to pass the House and move to the Senate, the mandate that automakers include AM radio in all new vehicles has been left out. The setback comes after a long and hard-fought battle for the AM Act, which had strong bipartisan support, with 271 co-sponsors in the House and a supermajority of 63 in the Senate.
The bill had been awaiting a vote in the House since September.
Many hoped the AM Act would be part of the sweeping deal along with billions in disaster aid for hurricane-impacted communities and support for farmers – two groups largely dependent on AM. But as negotiations tightened, the AM Act was removed, leaving its backers disappointed at what they see as a missed opportunity to protect a critical communication channel – especially in times of crisis.
NAB CEO Curtis LeGeyt commented, “While we are disappointed the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act did not pass this Congress, the overwhelming bipartisan and bicameral support underscores the vital role AM radio plays in keeping Americans safe during emergencies and connected to their local communities. We are grateful to the bill’s sponsors, more than 125 supportive organizations, hundreds of thousands of listeners who contacted their lawmakers and more than 330 members of Congress who championed this effort.”
“Their voices reflect the urgent need to preserve this essential service, which millions of listeners rely on every day for lifesaving information and trusted local news. NAB remains committed to working with the next Congress to swiftly pass this legislation and ensure AM radio’s critical role is preserved in automobiles for all Americans.”
First to thebiga: Shutting down AM and concentrating on FM would be fine IF the FCC transitioned the AM station’s FM translator license(s) to primary, rather than secondary status so they can be permanent and couldn’t be kicked off the air by other services, AND with a reasonable power level of say a minimum of 1,000 watts. 250 watts, as is the maximum now, is not even one-twentieth of the power of even the lowest power class of FM station (6,000 watts). Now for everyone else that’s anti-AM: So let’s look at this realistically. As an owner/operator, I want as many signals, and different formats to sell in my market, and I’m not going to give up an AM, unless there is somewhat of an equivalent permanent FM. Accepting a 1,000 watt permanent FM translator, as a minimum, would be a gracious concession. There are too many GREAT AM radio stations in existence to let them just fall by the wayside because auto manufacturers don’t want to keep AM in the receivers. Is it okay if TV set manufacturers just decide to remove the VHF channels from their tuners just because there has been a massive migration to UHF, and where those remaining VHF stations can’t have access to UHF due to the overpacking of the UHF TV band in order for the government to reclaim some of the 600 MHz spectrum for 5G services? The answer is NO. So, why should AM stations be discriminated against simply because they are using the best technology that was available 100 years ago, and little opportunity to transition to FM now that everyone is in an uproar about it being okay to delete AM, especially as I’ve mentioned previously that AM stations are actually producing high quality signals, and it is only the receiver manufacturers, who have been allowed to deliberately reduce the quality and thus cause the public to lose interest. Is it okay if the same manufacturers decide to reduce the quality of FM to help drive listening to paid services that they may have a financial interest in? Is it okay if TV set manufacturers started making the tuners in TV sets only capable of SD reception instead of HD again to drive viewers to paid streaming services that they may have a financial interest in. Remember, these streaming services do not require FCC publicly licensed airwaves, so every bit of entertainment in an auto is something you will pay for, and not have the luxury of a wide variety of entertainment that is now available for free. Finally, and mostly what the AM Act primarily focuses on is AM’s availability and reliability in times of crisis. There is no question that AM is the most reliable means of delivering critical and important information. AM signals literally hug the ground, and are listenable on every hilltop, every valley, and everywhere in between (just not under bridges). FM, and any cellular, 5g or other is dependent on line-of-sight. So, while we have already seen during many disasters that cell coverage has gone out and FM stations, many of whose towers are on mountaintops with less reliable AC power, it is the AM stations (local, regional and national) who are the most important and reliable ones that are still providing critical life-saving information and support to the affected communities. Conclusion: AM needs to remain on all radios at least until the entire radio system is revamped maybe in 10 – 20 years.
The market should determine this matter, not Congress. Show me where in the Constitution is AM radio a guaranteed right? I use AM most of the time, but it’s because I CHOSE TO.
Having corporate auto makers decide isn’t letting the market determine. They decided to add satellite radio because they got paid. That wasn’t letting the market decide either.
Protect AM Radio Stall …. best radio
Seems like the automakers are just playing the usual long game and going after AM as a stepping stone to fully monitize the dashboard. AM isnt as irrelavant as some of you might think either. there is a lot of remote towns/communities that have zero or little internet and cell service that rely on AM still. But with LEOS filling the orbit thats making it more and more likely to fix those issues. Except not all of the people that live in those small communities can afford to pay the cost associated with those services.
Bob MacKay is partially correct; AM station licensees are hammered by expensive upkeep on AM sites (especially directional) and the facilities get run down as a result. Downgrades of full service AM stations cut listeners the stations already have, in addition to messing up co-channel and adjacent channel allocations for other affected AM’s. One directional AM recently downgraded because of site vandalism (no insurance?). 50 years ago, radio people owned radio stations and took care of the facilities. Bean counting consolidated owners care less.
I’ll say it’s the NAB’s fault for not having the “AM Act” not included in the final legislation of the 118th Congress. They should have reached out to each and every AM station to provide support, and walk them hand in hand through the process to make their thoughts heard. Simply publishing such an effort doesn’t reach every small operator who ultimately is most effected by the potential loss of inclusion of AM on each and every car radio. Also, in any future attempt to resurrect mandating AM radio remain on the dashboard, there should be a minimum quality standard for AM frequency response of the receiver. The majority of the public doesn’t listen to AM radio because it sounds inferior. While AM will never sound like FM, the transmitted signal, which is the station’s choice of either 5 kHz (mostly talk) or 10 kHz (music) in frequency response, 10 kHz audio when reproduced properly on a receiver actually sounds very good, and close to that of FM especially when good audio processing is utilized. However, car manufacturers, with the intention of not wanting to hear complaints about engine noise, bad overhead city AC wiring, Christmas lights in neighborhoods, etc., that all potentially cause interference, purposely reduce the high-end frequency response of AM such that it sound more like a landline telephone. As a result, in addition to sounding muffled, manufacturers have started attenuating low frequencies as well to really sound like an old telephone. The FCC did adopt the NRSC standard for transmission decades ago to improve overall performance, and AM broadcasters are required to implement that. Some car manufacturers did voluntarily follow that in the 1980s, and their AM radios sounded great. Unfortunately, others reverted back to narrowing the frequency response, and now ultimately to an all-time low in fidelity for AM car radios. Take any good portable AM/FM radio, and connect it’s headphone output to a car’s auxiliary audio input jack, or by Bluetooth, if possible, and you will hear a tremendous difference in the sound quality to show how good AM can sound in a car. With today’s technology, and a few already have it, it’s very easy for the car radio itself to automatically provide “wide” high fidelity audio for strong signals, and reduce frequency response gradually as a signal weakens. There should also be a user setting to decide what effect is desired as signal levels change, just like most cars have a setting whereby the radio can be set to get a little louder the faster your driving to overcome tire noise, and then drops in volume as you slow down. Many technical enhancements that have added costs in the past, can now be programmed very easily into the chips used in making radios with barely a few cents increase in the cost of production. So, if there is one more opportunity for AM inclusion in the next Congress, EVERYONE from top to bottom needs to work on it, and make their opinions known. If the trend continues where more auto manufacturers remove AM, and AM listening continues to diminish, the FCC will be faced with a very serious issue of how to deal with an ever increasing demand for a diversity of voices to be heard. The FM band is already crammed to its limit by current rule standards, but the FCC’s Rules and Regulations for FM allocations and spacing standards are 60+ years old, and were designed at a time when FM radios used tubes instead of transistors, and had tuning dials where the radios continually drifted in frequency as they warmed up as opposed to the digitally-locked radios of today. In addition, today’s FM radios are all much more selective in separating adjacent FM stations, yet the Rules still pretend that we are all still using FM radios made in the 1960s. It’s time to take advantage of all technical advances available to keep both AM and FM thriving as an industry and for the public at large.
“They should have reached out to each and every AM station to provide support, and walk them hand in hand through the process to make their thoughts heard.”
Craig, that’s a funny comment. My view is that AM owners, including small ones, were not very passionate about this bill. Most of them have FM translators and would love to have the FCC allow them to shut down their AMs so they could save money and concentrate on the FM. I think the NAB knows this and that’s why they didn’t do more to get this passed.
Craig, good points and theBigA’s input is spot on too, imo. Most radio station owners are rich, most of them conservative and they believe that government should have less regulations, and stay out of business.
Except of course when it comes to saving their AM’s. For that, they want government regulation and intervention, because AM without government involvement, cannot save itself. Ironic.
Another L for Radio, as they just can’t create and communicate a persuasive message.
If AM radio was still relevant to the
American public (it is not), there wouldn’t even be an issue about keeping AM in cars.
Broadcast companies like Salem Radio, IHeart, Beasley, and Audacy are responsible for the fall of AM. They have turned the AM band into an audio ghetto of Chri$tian infomercial$ for pastor donations, and syndicated far right wing nut jobs who appeal to shut ins and the elderly.
The only company on your list that uses AM for Christian infomercials is Salem. The others do original programming. Audacy specifically uses AM stations such as WPHT and WBEN for local talk. iHeart has KFI and WLW with local talk. Beasley does local Oldies format with WMTR. What’s your problem with Christian radio or conservative talk?
The only reason car companies are looking to drop AM is because of signal issues. Not because of programming.
Wrong. Automakers want to drop AM because the vast majority of car buyers could care less about AM.
And look at the ratings in the top 30 markets… for all those markets, AT BEST there is 1 AM station in the top. 20 markets. That says it all.
Regarding Salem… running Christian infomercial$ is hardly in the public interest lol. 99% of the radio audience will never tune into that leased airtime programming.
The public interest and the public airwaves are not served, by a station owner like Salem just re-selling public airwaves to sleazy 3rd parties for a profit.
“Regarding Salem… running Christian infomercial$ is hardly in the public interest”
Wow. You should go to church and tell them that. Religious people think everything they do is in the public interest. They want to force their beliefs on everyone else, and pass laws to do it.