The Feb. 8 editorial, “Congress, don’t touch that AM radio dial,” discussed proposed legislation that would mandate all cars come equipped with AM radios, despite declining consumer demand, increased cost and signal interference from electric motors. Specifically, the editorial cited AM radio as a conduit for Americans’ access to information during emergencies: Sens. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) “want the Government Accountability Office to report on whether any alternative communications systems could achieve the same reach and reliability as AM broadcast radio during emergencies.”
At the Consumer Technology Association, we did just that. Last year, we commissioned a study on how Americans received the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System and Wireless Emergency Alerts on Oct. 4. The results shouldn’t be surprising: Ninety-five percent of respondents, or 245 million American adults, received the alert via their mobile phones.
Though it’s important for Americans to access vital information during emergencies, it’s clear that they are far more likely to get it from sources other than AM radio. A federal mandate that every car comes equipped with an AM radio in 2024 and beyond is like mandating that they come equipped with ashtrays or 8-track players. This mandate would only increase prices for consumers, further delay a transition to electric vehicles and trample on Americans’ freedom of choice.
Gary Shapiro, Arlington
The writer is president and chief executive of the Consumer Technology Association.
AM radio in cars isn’t a both-sides issue. Some in Congress want to require analog AM radio in all new vehicles. That’s unprecedented. And unnecessary.
Consumers have access to a lot of (superior) options while driving: digital AM and FM, internet-based radio, streaming and satellite radio. By the way, there’s finite real estate in dashboards to house these newer technologies.
In electric vehicles, the analog AM radio issue is especially acute. The high-voltage electrical systems generate interference that distorts AM signals and makes already fuzzy AM basically inaudible. Techniques to reduce interference mess with battery range (by adding weight) and would cost an estimated $3.8 billion through 2030. That used to be called an unfunded mandate.
Safety? Air bags, brakes and seat belts are necessary for safety (and mandated). FEMA recently tested an emergency alert, and only 1 percent of adults heard it on AM.
I suppose Congress could pass not only a law requiring AM radio in every vehicle but also a law requiring every American to listen to it, too.
Otherwise (and on this we agree): “It isn’t Congress’s role to prop up the [radio] industry by forcing automakers to install a feature the market says isn’t worth the while.”
John Bozzella, Washington
The writer is president and chief executive of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation.
May I be allowed to expand a little on the Feb. 8 editorial in praise of AM radio? Its legacy has a transatlantic dimension. In the early 1920s, it was Westinghouse’s Metropolitan, through its British descendant Metrovicks, that pioneered radio broadcasting in Manchester at the same time as Guglielmo Marconi in London. Together, they formed the BBC.
In the 1940s, British listeners were introduced to big-band music and jazz by the American Forces Network, and their tastes changed forever.
Texan entrepreneurs created the most successful commercial radio stations in Britain in the 1960s: Wonderful Radio London, Swinging Radio England and pirate radio, which broadcast from ships to break the state monopoly.
International business executives and American DJs in the 1980s replicated that success with Laser 558, which still broadcast to Europe from a ship and still use AM.
It is thanks to these American pioneers that the British public enjoys a thriving, competitive, popular radio sector.
Richard Eames, Merseyside, Britain
