TAMPA — In recent weeks, the subject of AM radio’s continued presence in electric vehicles, or all vehicles, for that matter, has generated much discussion and concern from a wide variety of radio industry leaders.
Now, a Florida licensee of AM radio stations has teamed up with a broadcast engineer to launch an initiative they say can “force” the big EV manufacturers to stop causing interference to the AM band.
The effort comes courtesy of NIA Broadcasting President Neal Ardman, who is working with Kyle Magrill, President of CircuitWerkes, Inc.
Ardman is the licensee of WTMP-AM 1150, a Class B authorized to transmit digitally that reaches the entire Tampa-St. Petersburg market and the nearby cities of Bradenton and Lakeland.
“EVs don’t just cause noise to the radios built into the EV,” says Ardman. “They also cause harmful interference to the cars that are nearby.”
Magrill adds, “The RF noise from EVs has caused so much interference on the AM band that the EV manufacturers have chosen to remove AM radio from the cars rather than solve
the interference problem. While that hides the problem in the EV, it makes it impossible for the person driving next to the EV to enjoy AM radio in their own car.”
For Ardman, that’s a problem, as AM radio is, in his view, protected from unintended interference by law.
WTMP-AM could be heard playing a classic KC & The Sunshine Band song in the 4pm hour on Wednesday. Its programming focus is Classic R&B and largely targets African-American listeners.
Meanwhile, other AM stations in Tampa-St. Petersburg serve the Hispanic community, as well as other small minority groups.
Given the unique multicultural appeal of these stations, opposed to FM stations owned by Beasley Media Group, Cox Media Group, Spanish Broadcasting System and iHeartMedia, Ardman and Magrill believe not protecting AM radio in an electric vehicle has much deeper consequences.
Ardman and Magrill has hired veteran Washington, D.C., communications attorney John C. Trent to assist in their fight, which has already seen a discussion with Xperi Corp. representatives and those with the NAB.
What’s Ardman’s hoped-for resolution? “We are hoping to work something out with the makers of EV cars without having to file law suits in any federal court,” he says.
But, if Ardman must file to protect the AM band from any incursion caused by EV interference, it will do just that.
NIA Broadcasting was founded in 1994 by Neal Ardman and currently owns and operates radio stations in Florida and Georgia. The company is also in the television syndication business on a national level.
CircuitWerkes Inc. was founded in 1989 and is a manufacturer of products for radio such as broadcast transmitters and remote controls. It also owns and operates FM translators in Florida.
