Carmakers Want to Stop AM Radio

Car manufacturers, led by General Motors, have been lobbying against the “AM for Every Vehicle Act,” which mandates keeping AM radio in car dashboards. In Q2, they spent a total of $7,063,142 on these efforts, comparable to their Q1 spending of $7,401,3541. The bill, championed by bipartisan lawmakers, aims to ensure AM radio remains available in new cars.

According to The Drive, the Center for Automotive Research (an industry think tank) and Alliance for Automotive Innovation last fall released a collaborative document arguing against Congress’s bipartisan AM radio mandate. The groups collectively claim that the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act of 2023 would harm consumers and carmakers alike, identifying various ways they claim this could occur.

They say that an EV’s high-voltage drivetrains cause electromagnetic interference that reduces audio quality, forcing the addition of countermeasures that add weight. Not only would this reduce range, they say, but it’d increase costs by up to $70 per vehicle. By 2030, they say that could add up to $3.8 billion. They also claim that AM radio audiences transitioning to newer forms of mass media also make the feature irrelevant to the majority of car buyers. Additionally, the AAI released a scaremongering blog post claiming that automakers don’t have physical space behind dashboards to include AM receivers.

The battle against AM radio (and the minuscule cost it imposes on carmakers) is one that looks like one the industry will lose. Congress’s AM radio bill is supported by both political parties. It’s also formally supported by current and former FEMA officials, who have urged the current presidential administration to support the bill.

The government’s interest is simple: A mere 75 AM radio stations—a cheap, simple, long-range, and ubiquitous form of broadcast—can reach more than 90 percent of the U.S. population in an emergency. It’s the backbone of our national emergency alert system for a reason. So while political gridlock rules the day in D.C., at least this battle for the airwaves looks like one Americans will win.