Those fighting to keep radio in the dashboard here in the United States have found an unexpected ally: the Holy See. The Vatican is pressing lawmakers to mandate terrestrial radio receivers in all new cars, given its status as “an essential service” of democracy.
Alessandro Gisotti, Deputy Director of Vatican Media and Vatican Radio’s representative to the European Broadcasting Union, told Vatican Radio’s Sound Magazine that the EBU is pressing European lawmakers to mandate terrestrial radio receivers in all new cars sold across the EU as part of the continent’s pending Digital Networks Act, a telecommunications overhaul expected to be adopted in 2027.
The proposed amendment would require both FM and DAB/DAB+ reception capability, accounting for varied distribution strategies across member states, and the arguments coming out of Brussels will sound familiar to anyone watching Capitol Hill.
“Cars are the place where the radio is most frequently listened to,” Gisotti said, noting that nearly 60% of European radio listening now occurs in vehicles. The US holds a comparable 53% in the same category. Gisotti called radio “an essential service — a true bastion of freedom, benefiting democratic systems and the freedom of information,” citing its resilience during the war in Ukraine and last year’s power blackout across the Iberian Peninsula as evidence that terrestrial radio carries public safety obligations no streaming service can replicate.
Similar arguments have been made on this side of the Atlantic in favor of the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act.
The House Committee on Energy and Commerce voted 48-1 to embed the AM Act’s language into H.R. 7389, the Motor Vehicle Modernization Act of 2026. That legislation could itself be folded into the BUILD America 250 Act as part of the surface transportation reauthorization package working its way to the House floor.
The Vatican’s message comes after the Catholic Church’s recent weighing in on another important tech topic for radio: artificial intelligence.
Pope Leo XIV issued his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, on May 25, calling for robust AI regulation and urging developers to prioritize the common good over profit. The document warns that the “true alternative is not between enthusiasm and fear, but between two paths of development: a progress that serves individuals and peoples, or a progress that subjects them to the mentality of power.”
The NAB has released PSAs in English and Spanish asking radio listeners to contact their members of Congress by texting AM to 39179, urging them to support legislation that ensures AM radio remains in cars. Get them for your station here.
