On Thursday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee will mark up the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act, which will keep AM radios in our cars so that the country’s vital emergency alert systems can remain intact. I’ve spoken with public safety-minded Democratic and Republican political appointees on the state and national levels, and all have said that Congress passing the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act is vital to keeping the public safe.
Shaun Golden, a sheriff in my home state of New Jersey who was perhaps the most important emergency responder during Superstorm Sandy, has said that AM radio is far more than an entertainment device. It’s a public safety lifeline.
During Sandy, thousands of my neighbors depended on AM radio when their cellphones, TVs, and Internet stopped working for days. It was the only way they could get the information they needed from our state and federal government’s emergency management teams to (literally!) stay afloat.
As Sheriff Golden outlined in an op-ed piece for NJ.com:
When Superstorm Sandy first made landfall, more than a million people were tuned into the radio in the New York region during any 15-minute period (which includes five New York counties, nine in New Jersey, and some of Connecticut). In coastal areas, radio listenership was even more pronounced, spiking 367 percent in Stamford and Norwalk, Connecticut, 247 percent in Monmouth County, New Jersey, and 195 percent in Middlesex, Somerset, and Union Counties. With no other means of communication available, these residents who were sitting in the dark tuned into local stations seeking any sort of critical (and, in some cases, life-saving) updates they could get.
Automakers can’t get rid of AM radio — not now. The country’s National Public Warning System was built around AM stations and our warning infrastructure is reliant on AM signals for assured functionality.
Don’t get me wrong. Apple and Google’s in-car streaming services and entertainment devices are great. I use them myself! But they aren’t life-saving emergency management devices. They aren’t going to save any of us in a disaster like AM radio did during Superstorm Sandy, the Maui wildfires, and dozens of other cases. That is why every former leader of FEMA from the Clinton through Trump administrations all agree that we should pass the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act and protect this critical tool.
Another side benefit of this legislation is that it will protect minority communities’ access to programs tailor-made for their needs and interest. AM radio hosts over half of minority owned radio stations across our country, including hundreds of Spanish language channels. Millions of minorities rely on these stations for news, information, and weather – as well as emergency information in times of crisis.
AM radio is free and licensed to serve the public interest. Hence why a coalition of diversity organizations, including the National Urban League, Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council; and the National Association of Black-Owned Broadcasters, asked Congress to pass the bill not long ago. In a letter to Congress, they wrote that “communities of color and underrepresented groups…have a limited number of media outlets that cater to their specific needs” and “AM radio helps to fill that gap by providing a platform for locally produced content that is relevant to their audience and speaks to their unique cultural and linguistic needs.”
Many of my neighbors are avid AM radio listeners for this very reason. While protecting these programs may not be a standalone reason to pass this legislation, it’s a great side-benefit to the bill.
I commend the House Energy and Commerce Committee for moving this bill, which a majority of the U.S. Congress has already signed onto, and I hope the bill gets put on President Biden’s desk for signature soon!
Demetrius Terry is a New Jersey civil rights and Democratic political activist. He was a 2024 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drum Major Award Honoree and a former Executive Director for the Greenville Health Access Coalition.