It’s a century-old medium that has endured across North America, from the nation’s biggest cities to the most rural of communities. At the same time, the last two years have seen the likes of Cumulus Media, Saga Communications, Beasley Media Group and Audacy Corp. each turn in the licenses of senior-band radio stations as part of schemes to sell the land these broadcast facilities’ towers sat on, as the land had more value than the stations.
Such is the state of AM radio as the second quarter of 2023 begins. To some, it is an antiquated form of broadcast communication that was shut off for good in nations across the globe. To the NAB, it is something Americans should depend on.
That’s why the National Association of Broadcasters has launched a new campaign that highlights the importance of AM radio in the car for news, community engagement, entertainment and vital public safety information.
It arrives in an era where Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) has publicly chastised eight automakers for their removal of AM radio in OEM in-vehicle receivers. It also sees the NAB go on the defense of AM radio at a time when FM radio consumption dominates, and digital delivery of radio via streaming audio is only increasing.
Still, while some may sniff at AM radio as a relic of bygone days replete with “Boss Radio” jocks, Amos & Andy, and Walter Winchell references, stations on the kHz band remain vitally important in markets such as New York and Los Angeles. At the same time, AM radio stations may be the only sources for news and information in large, rural swaths of the U.S. — areas where data on a smartphone may be nonexistent.
That’s precisely what’s fueling the message behind the NAB campaign, which includes a website with a grassroots call to action and new tools for stations to highlight the importance of AM radio. “The NAB is urging all radio stations to participate in reminding listeners what makes AM radio unique,” it says. The NAB’s “Depend on AM Radio” campaign, the association adds, “will share the dire implications of this decision and will amplify the voices of the more than 82 million Americans that AM radio reaches each month.”
Still, the “dire implications” of this decision could be seen by some as more financially impactful to big radio station ownership groups than to Americans faced with an emergency event. The nation’s No. 1 owner of radio stations, iHeartMedia, is the owner of many AM properties in markets large and small. Los Angeles, however, is a key market for iHeartMedia’s AM success, as it is the owner of heritage Talker KFI-AM 640 and Sports Talk KLAC-AM 570, the Los Angeles Dodgers audio flagship partner. There are no HD1 FM signals for these stations. In New York, WOR-AM 710 is presently in a heated Talk battle with John Catsimatidis‘ rejuvenated WABC-AM 770. Neither of these properties have a FM home.
Then, there is Jordan, Montana. The county seat of Garfield County, it has a population of just under 400 people and known by paleontologists and those seeking to see an abundance of wildlife. Here, 16 radio stations are audible, and all are on AM; seven are Canadian. In fact, the closest signal comes courtesy of KATL-AM 770 in Miles City, Mont.
That’s why public safety officials, policymakers, consumers and broadcasters alike have been sounding the alarm on the public safety consequences for removing AM radio from cars and trucks, as locales as disparate as Miles City and New York City rely on it.
In addition to Markey, New Jersey Democratic House Member Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5) announced a series of steps he is taking to ensure all cars have AM radio. FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington, who was raised in rural Saskatchewan, has said that the Commission “should make clear the vital importance of AM radio.”
As Curtis LeGeyt, the NAB’s President/CEO, notes, “With a monthly audience of 82 million Americans, AM radio is a cornerstone of everyday life for many that also serves a critical, life-saving function during extreme weather and natural disasters. Implementing cost cutting measures at the expense of our nation’s emergency communications abilities is reckless and will have dire consequences for Americans that rely on AM radio in times of crisis. NAB’s ‘Depend on AM Radio’ campaign will elevate the voices of listeners who depend on AM radio and share opposition to removing the medium with automakers and members of Congress.”
RBR+TVBR OBSERVATION, by Editor-in Chief Adam R Jacobson
The website DependonAM.com has been created by the NAB as part of a campaign, launching on April 3, 2023, to save the kHz band. But, what’s really driving this effort? Public safety concerns from NAB Members are fueling his push, while some may instead point to the potential lost revenue for the nation’s biggest radio ownership groups from lack of access to AM radio stations they own.
While the effort is welcomed, we ask if it is long overdue. We recall the 1988 Toyota Camry, with a great OEM radio that included an AM Stereo receiver. Stations that used the technology sounded great. But, in Upstate New York, stations that used it were few and far between. And, with docket 80/90 FM drop-ins arriving just months after AM Stereo’s availability in vehicles, the superior sound of FM Stereo easily won out over AM Stereo, which wasn’t immune to interference caused by everything from power lines to lightning storms. In retrospect, those new FM radio stations took listening away from AM radio because the consumers demanded it. In a way, they were technologically behind those in bigger cities where FM radio station consumption had grown like wildfire across the 1980s. Why was there no campaign to “save AM radio” back then, when stations such as WLS-AM, once the nation’s most-listened-to pop music station, had shifted to Talk and was struggling in myriad ways?
The answer is simple: There was no fear of any removal of an AM radio from vehicles, and that was a programming issue, not anything more. Fast-forward to 2023, and some 35 years later, and AM radio has experienced an uneven recent history. Some of the biggest AM successes are owned by iHeartMedia — KFI/Los Angeles, WBZ/Boston, WOR/New York. Even Audacy Corp., which shut down two AMs in Las Vegas, has a big crosstown property in KXNT. It is siblings to WTIC-AM, which reaches nearly all of Connecticut and Western Massachusetts.
Then, there are the mom-and-pop owners of AMs in towns dotted across the U.S. that may be the lone source for news, information and entertainment for miles around, like in Miles City, Mont. We admit that it took us some convincing that streaming audio and even a rejuvenation of HD Radio could simply replace AM radio like it did in Europe, and that anything between 540 kHz-1690 kHz was as useful as a cassette player. Rather, AM radio is much like the record player. It never fully went away and now, for the first time in decades, vinyl records have outsold CDs.
For AM radio today, as silly as it may seem to some given its 100-year-old status, it isn’t a thing of the past in North America. It is a medium of the present and of the future. We are not Europe. We are a unique culture, with unique geography and unique needs.
AM radio simply can’t go away. If it does, so will the consumer’s ability to stay in touch at a moment’s need. And, that cannot happen, no matter what technological advances Big Silicon Valley Inc. is advocating for. This is at the heart of the NAB’s efforts, perhaps the most significant for Radio in decades. We thank the NAB for its push, and call on automakers to rethink their decision-making and protect AM radios from the interference their EVs cause.
The views expressed in a RBR+TVBR Observation are those of the editor-in-chief and not necessarily those of Streamline Publishing or its associated radio industry titles.
