Congress Set to Vote on AM Radio Mandate for New Cars With 300 House Co-Sponsors
Updated
Updated · Fox News · Sep 6
Congress Set to Vote on AM Radio Mandate for New Cars With 300 House Co-Sponsors
2 articles · Updated · Fox News · Sep 6
Summary
A bipartisan bill headed for a congressional vote this week would require every new car sold in the U.S. to include an AM antenna.
More than 300 House members and 60 senators already back the AM Radio For Every Vehicle Act, which supporters frame as a public-safety measure for delivering emergency alerts during cyberattacks or outages.
The push also reflects concern that automakers could phase out AM receivers even though radio remains widely used: estimates in the report say 80%-90% of Americans listen weekly and more than 80% of car owners use radio.
Backers argue preserving AM in vehicles would also help sustain local stations that carry community news, local officials and high school sports as other local media have weakened.
With AM stations rapidly shutting down nationwide, will mandating antennas in new cars truly save this aging emergency broadcast network from going silent?
Why are automakers fighting a mandate to keep AM radio in vehicles despite its proven ability to broadcast through catastrophic infrastructure failures?
If modern digital networks fail during disasters, could century-old AM radio technology actually be the ultimate lifeline hidden in your new car?