This week, the Senate Commerce Committee, led by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), will mark up a bill that is critical for protecting public safety and minority viewpoints. That bill is Sen. Ed Markey’s (D-Mass).AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act, and Congress must pass it as soon as possible.
Although carmakers already make significant sums of money off the data collected throughout our vehicles, they are seeking to clear even more by removing AM radios from our car dashes, forcing data-harvesting digital infotainment systems. The issue, though, is that AM radio is not just an entertainment device. It’s also an irreplaceable public safety tool that cannot be replicated by digital alternatives.
The reason AM radio is so critical to public safety is based in physics. Its signals travel further and can transverse terrains other communications platforms cannot. AM radio also the most resilient communications medium. When power goes out and cell / internet service crash during disasters, AM radio remains available. That’s why AM stations remain the cornerstone of our public alerting systems such as the National Public Warning System and the Emergency Alert System.
Yes, these alert systems incorporate many technologies, but in the worst of times, AM radio is the fail-safe means for our public safety officials to communicate with the public.
Sheriff Shaun Golden, a sheriff in my home state of New Jersey who spearheaded response efforts to Superstorm Sandy, has stated as much.
“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,” he wrote. According to him, that’s why, “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.”
Go just a bit up north from Sheriff Golden’s neck of the woods and you will find NYPD and FDNY leaders pushing the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act for similar reasons. In a letter to congressional leadership, they wrote, “during 9/11, internet and cell networks quickly went down, but radio did not.”
However, the need for AM radio is far from just a Tri State Area or Northeast United States issue.
Immediately after Hurricane Helene, sheriffs and emergency management officials from Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina urged Congress to pass the bill. They emphasized how, although “during and after the storm, roughly six million people in the southeastern United States lacked power, and many did not have cellphone or internet service,” they still received “access to life-saving information because the emergency managers on the ground made significant use of the government’s emergency alerting systems, which rely heavily on AM radio signals.”
Similarly, on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana emergency managers asked Congress to pass the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act in a letter that was led by Lt. Gen Russel Honore, who spearheaded Joint Task Force Katrina.
“We know from experience — from the near-death on-air calls some of us fielded during the height of both disasters to the number of first responders and emergency management professionals who have attested to AM radio being the only communication tool they had during the worst of it all — that AM radio was responsible for saving countless lives,” they wrote.
Fortunately, it looks very likely that Senator Markey’s AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act will breeze through the committee, where it has broad support, including Chairwoman Cantwell. Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries — both of which have been briefed on the bill from the NYPD and FDNY — will absolutely prime it for the full Congress’ review and vote.
There have been few pieces of legislation as bipartisan as the coalition supporting the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act. Public safety has no political party affiliation. Following this week’s committee vote, the full Congress will have the opportunity to pass the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act, putting public safety before unhinged corporate profits, and that’s something we all should be able to cheer about.
