AM Radio in trouble? Car makers looking to boot frequency

AM radio still matters in Chicago as local media rallies around medium 

A lot of electronic ink has been written in recent years about the demise of linear TV, but there’s a communications medium in even more dire straits whose fate isn’t being helped by the auto industry. 

Numerous carmakers – especially those who produce electric vehicles, are looking to boot AM radio from their cars, citing electromagnetic interference and feel it isn’t a worthwhile item to have. 

But the idea received pushback – not only from customers and the National Association of Broadcasters, but also from politicians on Capitol Hill on both sides of the aisle. 

The Chicago media has taken notice. On Tuesday, the Sun-Times published an article on AM radio’s fate and how it would impact Chicagoans followed a day later by another article on the same subject in the Chicago Tribune. The Sun-Times published an editorial Wednesday urging automakers to keep AM radio in cars and the paper’s Neil Steinberg also chimed in. 

Despite an overall decline in radio usage, Chicago’s AM band remains strong. According to Nielsen’s latest PPM numbers, all-news WBBM-AM (who also has an FM counterpart in WCFS-FM) placed fourth; WGN-AM placed tenth; and all-sports WSCR-AM placed in a tie for twelfth. Much like linear television in recent years, the biggest strengths on the AM band are news, talk, and sports – the Cubs are still a huge draw and Good Karma’s WMVP/ESPN 1000 paid big bucks to lure Chicago Bears football away from WBBM-AM as the sports station’s ratings are expected to increase. According to Nielsen, Chicago is tied with Milwaukee for highest AM radio usage at 48 percent – no doubt helped by the Chicago area as a whole skews older than other big media markets, such as New York and Los Angeles as older people are less likely to adapt developing technologies such as streaming.

AM radio certainly has deep roots in Chicago – Howard Miller and WIND were dominant in Chicago morning radio until 1968, when Wally Phillips and WGN took over as with a few exceptions (namely WGCI-FM), the then-Tribune station finished at the top of the ratings until the mid-2000s, when portable people meters went into use. Another Chicago cultural point was the rivalry between music stations WLS-AM and WCFL from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s, producing stars such as Larry Lujack, Fred Winston, Bob Sirott, Clark Weber, and countless others. Most of these are 50,000 watt “clear channel” stations, meaning they can be heard across the country.

Other cities had their own legacy AM stations. Los Angeles had “Boss Radio” on KHJ 93. New York had WMCA. Detroit had “The Big 8” CKLW-AM, based across the border in Windsor, Ontario. And so on. 

In a hearing on Capitol Hill Tuesday, lawmakers grilled auto makers saying the band is very valuable in emergencies as cell phone towers are very vulnerable to very severe weather, such as hurricanes. Congress is now looking to mandate having AM radio in cars without any kind of fee or payment – this follows Ford’s decision to remove AM radio from cars only to reverse their decision after a huge outcry. Of course, mandating cars with AM radio could draw the wrath of Elon Musk, who owns the all-electric Tesla brand and hasn’t had AM radio in his cars in years. Given Musk has aligned with right-wing politicians since his purchase of Twitter, he may carry more weight than one thinks.

Some in the auto industry are firing back. In the Sun-Times story, the CEO of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation – a Washington-based lobbying group, said legislation mandating AM radio is a waste and isn’t necessary, saying there are other ways to rely emergency information (ironically, Musk’s Tesla isn’t part of this group.)

One would ask why it would be necessary for Congress to mandate something in a car, especially after the government mandated the V-Chip to manufactured in TV sets and made it instrumental to establish a TV ratings council (TV-G, TV-14, etc.) – tools viewers do not use for the most part. But this is different, as newfound technologies sometimes may not be all that dependable, such as apps like Waze – not to mention Sirius/XM eliminating their weather and traffic channels several years ago. 

There are hundreds of thousands of Chicagoans who still listen to AM radio, whether if its for news, political talk, listening to the game, or entertainment. Auto makers are underestimating the purchasing power we consumers have. If AM does indeed fade away, it would impact listeners in the nation’s third-largest radio market the most.