“Everybody should pick up the phone and call their United States senator and tell them how important it is to have this,” said Congressman Jeff Crank (R-CO), urging broadcasters and listeners to keep pressure on lawmakers about the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act.
The AM Act passed the House on September 16 with broad bipartisan support and now awaits action in the Senate. The bill would require automakers to keep AM radio as standard equipment in new vehicles.
For Rep. Crank, who appeared on the NAB’s AirTime podcast, the issue carries a personal dimension few of his colleagues share. Before he was elected to represent Colorado’s 5th Congressional District in 2024, Crank spent 14 years hosting a talk show on KVOR-AM 740 in Colorado Springs. “To survive in talk radio, you have to be talking about the things that a family would talk about at the dinner table,” Crank said. “You don’t want to ever be talking about some strange thing that nobody cares about. So you’re always trying to have your pulse really on the community and what the community cares about and is talking about.”
That background shapes how Crank views AM radio’s role beyond entertainment, particularly in rural parts of the West. “I represent Colorado, but out in the West, we have many rural areas,” Crank said. “I’m an outdoorsman and a hunter, and I have grown up often in places where you might not have cell service, or it’s spotty. That is a link. AM radio is certainly a safety link in a lot of ways to the outside community.”
With the bill now in the Senate’s hands, Crank says, “It’s an issue of freedom, but it’s also an issue of free market choice and opportunity for all Americans. It doesn’t matter if they’re a Democrat or Republican. This is a bill they should be able to get behind and get across the goal line.”
