As technology evolves, concern is mounting that the automobiles of tomorrow may not roll off the assembly line with AM radios in their dashboards — an absence that could raise dangers during times of crisis, cutting Americans off from vital information.
Carmakers say they’re making the move not just to save money but because electric vehicles cause interference with analog AM reception. The European Union, though, has an answer — mandating digital radios in new cars as of 2018, which solves the electromagnetic problem without creating a new one.
In a letter to the 20 major car brands, Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) writes, “Broadcast AM radio, in particular, is a critical mechanism for government authorities to communicate with the public during natural disasters, extreme weather events, and other emergencies.”
This has been the case since, according to Car & Driver, the first car radio was offered for sale in 1930 for $130 — about a quarter of what you’d spend for a Model A Deluxe Coupe. It freed Americans from huddling around furniture-size receivers and allowed them to hit the open road.
No longer was a driver cut off from news of the world, as Illinois farmer Merritt Heaton was until the innovation of Rural Free Mail. In 1988, at 97 years old, he told Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show about a dark day in 1901. “I was out in the yard with my dad and the mailman came along,” he recalled. “He hollered at my dad, and he says, ‘[President] McKinley has been shot!’”
Those who have lived through subsequent national tragedies, terrorist attacks, hurricanes, and earthquakes have relied on radio to play the role of those letter carriers.
Landline telephones also fail — if you can find one. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that three-quarters of those 75 years and older have landlines, while fewer than 5% of those under 25 do, and just 16% of homes built between 2018 and 2019 are hardwired.
Even payphones are disappearing as a fallback option. On May 27, New York City removed at Seventh Avenue and 50th Street what it called “the final public pay telephone.” These were a key mode of communication as recently as the 2003 blackout, although they confounded some younger users.
A car radio is easy to flick on and more robust than those that require being plugged into walls or leave you fumbling in the dark for batteries. When it’s the end of the world as we know it, that radio in your dashboard may be the last place you can turn.
The president of the National Association of Broadcasters, Curtis LeGeyt, said in a statement, “Free, over-the-air radio is critically important to our nation’s emergency communications infrastructure, offering up-to-the-minute news, lifesaving information, and lifeline alerting that keeps Americans out of harm’s way when disaster strikes.”
Writing in South Carolina’s Post and Courier last month in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, a former emergency management director in the state, Jay Marett, said, “Some residents who did not have radios indoors sat in their cars to remain up to speed on the latest developments.”
Mr. Marett called the storm an “unsettling reminder of just how vital the radio remains for public safety,” one that should have automakers “reconsidering whether this cost-cutting move is rational and responsible,” adding that former “FEMA directors have been clear: Eliminating the radio from cars will hamper America’s rescue and recovery operations to a considerable degree.”
AM radio may seem like a relic of the past in our digital world, with The Buggles declaring in their 1979 hit that “Video Killed the Radio Star.” But when disaster strikes, there’s no better way to find a voice in the darkness offering help. Car companies pay heed.
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Dean Karayanis is the host of the History Author Show on iHeartRadio and a Washington Times contributor. A longtime Rush Limbaugh staffer, Karayanis currently produces the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show on 450+ radio stations.
