There’s a reason why automakers are stripping AM radios from car interiors — hardly anyone listens to them. But apparently lawmakers haven’t gotten the memo.
A U.S. House of Representatives committee just advanced a bill mandating all new cars come equipped with AM radios. The AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act still has to clear a full House vote, the Senate and then get signed into law by the president. But it’s well on its way.
Critics, of course, say it’s absolutely ridiculous. Not only is AM radio a relic, but it requires difficult and expensive measures to prevent high voltage electrical systems in hybrid and electric vehicles from interfering with its radio signal.
Proponents, however, aren’t dissuaded. They say AM radio is necessary to communicate warnings in the event of national emergencies. Some have even gone so far as to say it’s a cultural staple, where people can go to listen to terrestrial baseball broadcasts.
“But it’s 2024, and I haven’t listened to a terrestrial radio station of any form for at least a decade, and haven’t listened to an AM band station in my entire life,” automotive writer Bradley Brownell rants on Jalopnik. “A full 97 percent of Americans have cell phones, and the vast majority of those are smartphones. If you want to broadcast an emergency to the American people, it’s far easier and more effective to do it by phone. I’ve lived in the path of tornadoes and wild fires, and I haven’t once turned on an AM radio to figure out my next emergency move.”
He has a point. AM Radio is for all intents and purposes dead.
So far, the only lawmaker to publicly oppose the bill is Rep. John James of Michigan, who said: “I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. We’re putting an unfunded, unnecessary mandate for a problem that doesn’t exist. This is exactly why people hate Washington.”
Indeed, it is.