The Clock Is Ticking

(By Deborah Parenti) January 3, 2025 is a day that may very well decide the future of our industry. Mark it in your calendar. Put a note on your desk. Etch it in your memory. It’s a critically important date for every radio broadcaster in this country.

It’s the date that the 118th Congress ends its session.

If S.1669, better known as the “AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act” is not passed by then, we will have to start over from the very beginning. Why? Congressional sessions run two years, the current one having opened on January 3, 2023, and due to end January 3, 2025. At the conclusion of each session:

• All pending legislation that hasn’t passed by the end of the session expires. 
• A new Congress begins, with potentially new members and leadership, and with that, the prospect of new focuses and objectives that may not include “old business” of the prior session.
• The legislative process starts totally anew. Put bluntly, it’s reset time. There is no participation trophy.

We’ve had the votes — a supermajority, in fact — since May, but unless that bill has been signed into law by January 3, 2025, all that time and effort toward getting this into law will have been in vain.

No one can legitimately refute the importance of AM in times of emergency. We’ve cited examples, studies, and testimonials again and again in these pages and our daily headlines over the past two years — and before.

But let me be clear: this is an existential threat to radio as we know it. To lose our progress is more than just a total loss of momentum. It shows automakers that they can do as they please when it comes to radio, AM or otherwise, without consequence. As of Q3 2023, 45% of all AM/FM listening happened in-vehicle, per Edison Research. That would be an unfathomable loss. We cannot let this go.

Here are some action items that should be on your radar now through the end of the year:

• If your station is not airing the NAB spots in support of the “AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act,” start running them today.
• Ask your talk show hosts to educate and encourage their listeners to keep the heat on Congress.
• Support your state broadcast association and the NAB — verbally and financially — in their efforts to make “AM Radio for Every Vehicle” a reality.

We have already come so far, but it’s only because we’ve banded together. 

We cannot slow our efforts. For that matter, we can’t even continue at the same pace. Radio must pull out all the stops and get this done so our industry can continue to thrive and continue to serve all of our communities.

Deborah Parenti is President and Publisher of Radio Ink. Reach Deborah at [email protected]. Read her Radio Ink digital archives here or get her latest Publisher’s Beat each month with a digital or print subscription here.