Good news: A legislative push to save AM radio is almost certain to succeed, which means that America’s weirdest auditory wavelength will continue to survive for the foreseeable future.
The “AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act” is a bipartisan bill that was introduced by Senator Edward Markey (D-Mass) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) that would force automotive companies to include an AM radio in all of the cars that they produce. As it stands now, the bill is currently backed by 60 U.S. Senators and also has the support of 246 House co-sponsors, Markey and Cruz have said. With that kind of support, it seems highly likely that it will become law.
Once America’s dominant broadcasting channel, AM has fallen on hard times in recent years. While it still enjoys tens of millions of listeners, fewer and fewer people have been tuning in. As its popularity has waned, car manufacturers have made a concerted push to discontinue its availability in newer vehicle models. If the bill currently before Congress passes, that won’t happen—and the inclusion of AM radio in new cars will become a federal mandate. So hey, call your senator and tell them what you think.
“Democrats and Republicans are tuning in to the millions of listeners, thousands of broadcasters, and countless emergency management officials who depend on AM radio in their vehicles,” said Markey and Cruz in a statement. “AM radio is a lifeline for people in every corner of the United States to get news, sports, and local updates in times of emergencies. Our commonsense bill makes sure this fundamental, essential tool doesn’t get lost on the dial.”
Some people have tried to make AM radio a partisan issue. But it’s not. It’s just a radio frequency, one that happens to have some conservative talk shows on it. So does FM radio. So does Sirius XM. So does Twitter. Pretty much anywhere you go—from cable television to social media—you will find the same situation.
If you’re a liberal, you shouldn’t let a few right-wing broadcasters (okay, maybe more than a few) ruin AM radio for you. Why? Because AM is just fun. It’s weird. It’s interesting. You hear the most random stuff when you tune in. I was at my parents’ house recently and decided to play around with an old radio in the garage; on AM, I stumbled upon some weird, high-frequency squall that sounded like a deep space message spawned by aliens. I later found out that I was listening to WWV, a continuous time signal that has been broadcast by the U.S. government since 1945. In short: AM lets its freak flag fly, which is an admirable quality in any person, institution, or broadcasting system.
The reason why car companies don’t want to support AM radio is pretty obvious: because it’s going to cost them a little bit more money. To that, I say: who cares? Pony up, Tesla. Give Americans the weird-ass radio we deserve.
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