Do We Have Our Wires Crossed?

Just recently, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Ed Markey’s (D-Mass.) bipartisan AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act surpassed majority support in both the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, setting it on the straightaway for passage. However, in a last-ditch effort, the auto industry is aggressively lobbying Congress to stop it. Leveraging the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board to draw attention to their argument by intimating that any bill introduced to retain AM radio in cars is nothing more than a “sop” to AM broadcasters, they painted the bill as mere government overreach exerting its power to rescue an outdated technology headed for the junkyard. Of course, it wasn’t considered an overreach when the government stepped in to pass the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) in 2008 that bailed the auto industry out of its insolvent business practices with taxpayer dollars, but now, those same auto companies want to use this backwards logic to justify putting profits before public safety.

The AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act simply requires domestic auto manufacturers and imported vehicles to have a device that can receive, and play AM analog or AM digital broadcast stations as standard equipment, or, for AM-incompatible vehicles manufactured before the bill’s effective date, to clearly communicate to buyers that the vehicle does not. It also includes a stipulation that the Government Accountability Office must research and report on whether another reliable alternative emergency communications system exists that considers the cost to drivers and passengers, and the cost and time required to develop and implement the alternative.

To the point though, is there any valid argument for ditching America’s most robust, resilient, and cost- effective emergency communications network in exchange for new technology?

In its editorial, The Journal argued that other means of mass communication, such as satellite radio, have superseded the emergency warning and notification functions of AM, making the possibility of AM-less Americans not receiving emergency information “minuscule.”

Unfortunately, this is just not true. While some of these technologies may have qualities or capabilities with the potential to supersede AM radio, they have not yet achieved the resilience and robustness required to ensure their reliability as a staple of our Emergency Alert System. This is especially true during some of our most vulnerable moments when we are in our vehicles. When traveling by personal vehicle, we are away from home, often alone, with limited supplies, and our most valuable tool is information.

The reason the federal government, the emergency response community at large, every single FEMA administrator from Clinton’s presidency to Trump’s, and millions of taxpaying, voting Americans stand ardently behind this bill regardless of their political preferences is because, in an emergency, the AM broadcast radio band works reliably. Cellphones and the Internet do not.

AM radio has proven itself repeatedly since the government made it the center of the United States’ Emergency Broadcasting System in 1953. If another technology were to prove itself with similar or better capabilities, resilience, and affordability, most of these supporters would have no problem adopting it and moving on from AM radio, but that day has not yet come.

Consider last year’s Maui wildfires. During that crisis, residents ran to their cars to receive critical news updates as the devastating fire raged, destroying Lahaina, killing over 100 people, and decimating over 2,200 homes and buildings. Recognizing that AM radio was effectively Hawaii residents’ lifeline during this disaster, as cell service remained down while the fires and winds disrupted Internet service, the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency scrambled to purchase more portable emergency advisory radio systems in an attempt to keep everyone safe. Realizing how critical their broadcasts were at the time, local AM station operators refused to go home because they knew their listeners had no other way of getting the information they needed. How much worse could the death toll have been had these residents not had access to information that they only had available on their vehicle’s AM radio.

Maui is far from the only example. Interview any emergency management professional who has dealt with a hurricane or other tragic event that has taken out their region’s cellphone and Internet reception, and they will tell you the same thing: America still needs AM radio, as emergency management professionals can’t yet depend on the newer technology The Journal cited as suitable replacements.

In addition, the new technology that the auto industry and The Journal propose consumers use to receive emergency alerts instead of AM radio – namely, satellite radio – is currently sequestered behind digital paywalls and proprietary rights that must be purchased by subscription or premium fees to the auto manufacturers themselves or their close partners. Not to mention the foreign entities that provide the coding and server access to the digital sources of those technologies, who may or may not be bound to the same legal ethics for customer privacy that the opponents of this bill naively assume they are. Car buyers would have to pay more for a less effective, less reliable, less secure system than they have for free now.

As part of its argument The Journal has asserted that Congress’ AM radio bill would, by increasing automakers’ expenses, ultimately raise car prices. However, the cost of noise cancellation devices is negligible, and the Congressional Budget Office already found that the bill won’t increase production costs much at all.  To suggest so is like advocating that lawmakers decrease car prices by removing “Big Polyester’s” seatbelt mandate.

I would like to highlight a few of the commonsense reasons why we must insist that, until a new technology proves itself worthy to replace AM radio, we keep it widely available in every American vehicle:

• The United States has an incredibly robust radio infrastructure that consistently remains widely available and free for Americans to receive official emergency information in times of disaster long after cellular and satellite signals have been shut down or overwhelmed
• The 77 radio stations across the United States that serve as Primary Entry Points (PEPs) for the Emergency Alert System (EAS), most of which are AM stations, reach 90 percent of the American population (far more than cellular towers can) and provide direct information from the federal, state, and local government during an emergency, accessible to anyone with a simple radio device.
• Broadcasters maintain emergency plans, along with the additional hardware and facilities needed to keep their signals on air and operational during disasters.
• Public broadcasting mandates include the placement of spare transmitters and local power generators at strategic locations to ensure continuity of operations even after other essential infrastructure has been compromised.
• Many radio broadcasters are equipped to rapidly deploy and establish mobile self-powered AM/FM transmitting stations in a crisis area.
• More than 82 million Americans listen to AM radio each month. That number always spikes dramatically during times of crisis, when Americans often can’t obtain news and information through any other medium.
• Unlike most other communications mechanisms today, AM radio analog signals are highly resistant to cyber-attacks.
• AM radio is an essential medium for non-English-speaking Americans. Roughly 600 AM stations throughout the country provide broadcasts in Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese, Creole, and many other foreign languages, according to Nielsen ratings. These ratings also show that more than 93 percent of all Hispanics (approximately 40 million) listen to an average of 12 hours of radio each week.

As the American Farm Bureau Federation and a coalition of over 20 agricultural groups has pointed out, it is also essential for large swaths of rural America, much of which can’t even reliably connect to alternative communications services on clear and sunny days.

• Just one AM radio station can reach up to 700 miles away, through mountains and buildings, providing vital real-time emergency information to residents who work outside or travel throughout rural areas where broadband and cellular service don’t provide adequate coverage.

When it comes down to it, the sheer reach and reliability of AM radio in conjunction with its institutionalized role in American crisis communications cannot be matched by anything automakers can currently offer in the digital space. Cutting off Americans from free, lifesaving, real- time information so they save on some production costs does not seem like a fair business practice. Somewhere between their profit margins and production, automaker executives may have gotten their wires crossed. The AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act merely serves to bail us out from the consequences of their shortsightedness.

Ryan Betancur is a U.S. Army veteran and emergency manager with a vital skill set in crisis management and preparedness fundamentals, including risk assessment, hazard mitigation, incident management, business continuity, and strategic planning.