Car Makers Try to Short-Circuit AM Radio, But Their Excuse Is On The Wrong Frequency.
When I was a kid, I was a sports fan, and I listened to all my sports on my faithful transistor radio on AM stations. For my friends and me, FM radio wasn’t a major part of our lives until we became teenagers, and then all the rock and pop stations were on FM. Still, if we were listening to sports, we went back to AM.
As I got older, that split remained, though sports gave way to mostly news and information channels. For instance, at work, driving from appointment to appointment, I listened to Rush Limbaugh, Paul Harvey, and others on AM. If I was in the mood for music, I would flip over to FM and get my music fix.
Speaking of the Late, Great Rush, he dominated AM Radio, much to the chagrin of Liberal Democrats. But it wasn’t always that way.
By 1988, FM was dominating radio. More people preferred music to news, especially in their vehicles. They could watch the news on TV; during the day, they preferred music. Then, along came Rush.
Within a decade, Limbaugh’s audience expanded from 250,000 to 20 million. By the time he passed away in 2021, he was attracting 15.5 million weekly listeners across nearly 600 stations. He held the title of the No. 1 radio show in the country for 30 consecutive years and played a significant role in revitalizing the format along the way.
Conservative figures such as Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Glenn Beck, and Dan Bongino entered the talk radio scene behind him. By 2020, 12 of the top 15 talk radio hosts in America were conservative.
Liberals hated this. So, in an attempt to reclaim their share of the market, they started Air America in 2004, but by 2010 it was defunct and off the air.
Knowing how Democrats operate, you knew it wouldn’t end without some type of nefarious/illegal activity. Eight automakers—BMW, Ford, Mazda, Polestar, Rivian, Tesla, Volkswagen, and Volvo—have removed AM radio receivers from their electric vehicles. BMW initiated this trend with its i3 model in 2014. Ford has taken it a step further by announcing plans to eliminate AM radio from its gasoline-powered cars as well.
Here’s the best part: the reason they gave was electromagnetic interference from EV motors. Ford claimed that fewer than 5 percent of its customers listened to AM. Which doesn’t make sense, because if that number is accurate, it raises the obvious question: why absorb the regulatory and public relations headache of stripping out a feature that barely anyone uses? And the interference argument collapses entirely when applied to gasoline-powered cars, where no EV motor exists to cause it.
Their percentages are also a lie: 30.9 percent of all U.S. radio listeners (roughly 82 million Americans aged 12+) listen to AM radio each month, representing about one out of every three AM/FM radio listeners. Of that group, about 57 percent of AM radio listeners listen specifically to news and talk-format stations, meaning they listened to conservative stations.
What the Democrats were trying to do didn’t escape Ted Cruz’s attention. He reminded everyone of the names Limbaugh, Hannity, Levin, and Beck, stating that silencing these voices would be “enormously harmful to both free speech and a robust democratic process.”
The House passed the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act, H.R. 979, with over 300 co-sponsors. The companion bill in the Senate already has 60 co-sponsors, which is the exact number needed to overcome a filibuster. Additionally, Cruz chairs the Commerce Committee that oversees its progression to the floor for a vote.
Speaker Mike Johnson highlighted Louisiana communities that rely on AM radio during hurricane season. Senator Ed Markey, the lead Democratic co-sponsor, described AM radio as “irreplaceable” in emergencies.
Under the bill, the Department of Transportation will have one year after enactment to issue a rule mandating AM as standard equipment in all new passenger vehicles at no cost to consumers.
Any automaker selling vehicles without AM during the transition must disclose this upfront and cannot charge extra to restore the capability they removed.
AM radio is the messenger, and Democrats are trying desperately to violate the metaphor that says “Don’t kill the messenger.”
This is one of the things that Democrats do well behind the scenes that most people would never be able to connect the dots on. Much goes on behind the curtain that influences American life, and Democrat puppeteers are responsible.
These midterm elections are vital to America’s future. The Democrats have added another poisoned arrow to their quiver, and this time they are not hiding their intentions. Socialism/communism is their goal, along with the destruction of American values and Western Culture.
There is no middle ground here. They will do anything to silence their opposition. It’s time to rise up and speak out. Yes, America needs you, but the world needs us to remain the cornerstone of freedom.
