Latest news with #emergencybroadcast
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Congress Set to Require This Old Technology in All New Cars
With a enough support for passage in both the US Senate and US House of Representatives, the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act looks set to become law. Supporters have argued that AM radio benefits rural areas, for continuing access to emergency messaging and farm reports. But the band has largely left the radio dials in many parts of the world, including most of Europe, to little ill effect. The AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act seems headed for passage, having attained 60 co-sponsors in the US Senate (S.315) and 242 in the US House (where it is H.R. 979). The Senate's Commerce Committee passed the bill in February, and its support in the full Senate is considered filibuster-proof. With the argument that AM is essential for older Americans, as a conduit for emergency broadcasts, and for farm reports, the bill would require the Department of Transportation (DOT) to issue a rule requiring that cars made in the US or imported here 'have devices that can receive signals and play content transmitted by AM stations or digital audio AM stations installed as standard equipment and made easily accessible to drivers.' AM is that rare issue that hasn't become much of a political football, and its two main Senate co-sponsors are Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Ed Markey (D-MA). When the bill got its 60th co-sponsor in the upper body, Cruz and Markey said in an April 1 statement, 'From emergency response to sports, entertainment and news, AM radio is a lifeline for tens of millions of Americans.' The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) agrees. According to NAB President and CEO Curtis LeGeyt, 'For more than a century, AM radio has been a lifeline, delivering trusted news, local sports, crop reports and emergency information when and where it matters most. From rural communities to urban centers, from first responders to everyday commuters, over 80 million Americans rely on this free, local service to stay informed and safe every month.' Senator Markey told Autoweek that the bill ensures that AM 'stays standard in every new car, ensuring drivers and passengers have reliable access to emergency alerts when they need them most. 'Tens of millions of Americans have made it clear: They want AM radio in their vehicles, not off the dial. With a filibuster-proof 60 co-sponsors for this bipartisan legislation, I am working aggressively to pass my legislation on the fenate floor and enact it into law.' President Trump supports the bill, and told the National Religious Broadcasters during the 2024 campaign, 'I will protect the content that is pro-God. To that end, at the request of the NRB, I will do my part to protect AM radio in our cars.' He also said in the speech that Christian broadcasting, a lot of it on AM (120 AM stations are NRB members), is 'under siege.' Cameron Coats, online editor of the Radio Ink trade magazine, is confident that the bill will get a full Congressional hearing. 'I do think it will come up for a vote this year, though with all the budget issues it's on a bit of a delay,' he told Autoweek. 'And once it does get to the floor, the votes are there. And the President will sign it.' There'd be no need for such legislation if automakers hadn't started quietly deleting AM from their offerings, and not just in battery EVs (where they claim AM catches electromagnetic interference from the high-voltage electricity). Carmakers that have removed AM in at least some of their EVs include Tesla, Rivian, Mazda, VW, Volvo, Polestar, and BMW. It was out of the electric BMW i3 as early as 2015. Ford axed AM but then brought it back in 2023. Some Volvo plug-in hybrids have also done away with the band. AM is been included in electric cars such as the Hyundai Ioniq 5, the Toyota BZ4X, the Subaru Solterra, and both versions of the Chevrolet Bolt. Also AM-positive are Honda, Jaguar Land Rover, Kia, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Stellantis and Subaru. Eliminating AM is by no means limited to the US. It's already significantly phased out in Europe (where it's called 'medium wave'), including in Austria, Switzerland, Ireland, Germany, Belarus, Albania, and Belgium. AM is still being broadcast in the UK, though the transmitters for BBC 4 on that band were recently shut down across the country. Bauer Media also shut down AM transmitters. AM is holding on in Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Romania, and Spain. Approximately 40 countries have replaced regular broadcast radio with digital radio (DAB+). As of 2017, 420 million people were within reach of DAB. Australia was an early adopter, as was Germany. Norway shut off national FM broadcasting in 2017. The US has HD Radio, but doesn't use DAB+. Opposing the US AM radio requirement are the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, representing automakers, the Zero Emission Transportation Association, and two other groups. They said in a joint 2023 letter: 'Emergency alerts are delivered through several overlapping mediums to provide maximum redundancy, and the FCC is working to continue improving the system to service a broader array of Americans during emergencies. Some make the argument that AM radio is necessary for emergency broadcasts, but in such cases FM radio, Internet streaming services, better rural broadband, and text alerts supplement any loss of AM radio access.' Automakers generally oppose regulation, and EV makers are worried about the interference issue. There's also a cost savings in eliminating AM, though not likely a large one. The mandate, the letter writers said, 'is unnecessary and contrary to the principles of a free-market economy. The requirement would unnecessarily hinder progress in the automotive industry.' Given the political realities, though, it does look like automakers will have to find a way to include AM on their radio dials, including on EVs.
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
‘Catastrophic': Rural public media stations brace for GOP cuts
Public media stations around the country are anxiously awaiting the results of Thursday's House vote that could claw back $1.1 billion from public broadcasting, with leaders warning that the cuts present an existential crisis for public media's future. For smaller stations — many of which are in rural parts of the country — the funding makes up critical chunks of their yearly operating budgets. Many of them are being forced to plan how they'll survive the cuts, if they can at all, public media executives say. Local leaders say the cuts would not only deprive their audiences of news and educational programming, but could also lead to a breakdown of the emergency broadcast message infrastructure that is critical for communities with less reliable internet or cellular service. 'That would mean an almost immediate disappearance of almost half our operating budget,' David Gordon, executive director of KEET in Eureka, California, said of the rescission proposal. 'Assuming [KEET] would continue, it would be in a very, very different form than it is right now.' The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the entity that distributes federal money to public media stations via grants, said about 45 percent of public radio and TV stations it provided grants to in 2023 are in rural areas. Nearly half of those rural stations relied on CPB funding for 25 percent or more of their revenue. But that funding is being targeted for a vote as part of a push from President Donald Trump that also aims to cut $8.3 billion in foreign aid. The rescissions package would cut CPB funding already approved by Congress for the next two fiscal years. The proposal, which only needs approval from a simple majority, must pass both chambers of Congress within 45 legislative days from the day it's introduced. The House is set to vote on Thursday. If the House and Senate follow their current schedules, the deadline to vote on the cuts is July 18. If the deadline passes and Congress has not approved the cuts, the White House will be required to spend the money — but funding could still be cut in future budgets. If approved, the package would codify a series of cuts first picked out by the Department of Government Efficiency earlier this year. Both Trump and Elon Musk, former head of DOGE, have repeatedly accused NPR and PBS of bias against Republicans. In 2023, the Musk-owned social media site X labeled NPR as "state-affiliated media," falsely suggesting the organization produces propaganda. Trump regularly suggested cutting federal funding for public media during his first term. But his second term has brought increased hostility to mainstream media outlets, including the Associated Press, Voice of America, ABC News and CBS News. Approximately 19 percent of NPR member stations count on CPB funding for at least 30 percent of their revenue — a level at which stations would be unlikely to make up if Congress approves the rescissions, according to an NPR spokesperson. Ed Ulman, CEO of Alaska Public Media, predicts over a third of public media stations in Alaska alone would be forced to shut down 'within three to six months' if their federal funding disappears. PBS CEO Paula Kerger said in an interview she expects 'a couple dozen stations' to have 'significant' funding problems 'in the very near term' without federal funding. And she believes more could be in long-term jeopardy even if they survive the immediate aftermath of the cuts. 'A number of [stations] are hesitant to say it publicly,' she said. 'I know that some of our stations are very, very worried about the fact that they might be able to keep it pieced together for a short period of time. But for them, it will be existential.' Smaller stations with high dependency on federal funding may be forced into hard choices about where to make cuts. Some stations are considering cutting some of what little full-time staff they have, or canceling some of the NPR and PBS programming they pay to air. Phil Meyer, CEO of Southern Oregon PBS in Medford, Oregon, said his station will have to get creative just to stay afloat. 'If we eliminated all our staff, it still wouldn't save us enough money,' Meyer said. 'It becomes an existential scenario planning exercise where, if that funding does go away, we would have to look at a different way of doing business.' Some rural stations are worried they won't be able to cover the costs to maintain the satellite and broadcast infrastructure used to relay emergency broadcast messages without the federal grants. In remote areas without reliable broadband or internet coverage, public media stations can be the only way for residents to get natural disaster warnings or hear information about evacuation routes. After Hurricane Helene devastated Western North Carolina last year, leaving the region without electricity for days, Blue Ridge Public Radio in Asheville, North Carolina, provided vital information on road closure and access to drinking water for people using battery-powered and hand-cranked radios. 'I think it's pretty catastrophic,' Sherece Lamke, president and general manager of Pioneer PBS in Granite Falls, Minnesota, said of the potential consequences of losing the 30 percent of her station's budget supplied by CPB. Station managers around the country have made direct pleas to their home congressional delegations in the past year, urging them to protect public broadcasting from the rescission proposal and publicly opposing Trump's executive order calling on CPB to stop providing funding to stations. PBS, NPR and some local stations have sued the Trump administration to block the order. Brian Duggan, general manager of KUNR Public Radio in Reno, Nevada, said he's optimistic about the chances of the House voting down the funding cuts, particularly after talking with his local member of Congress, Rep. Mark Amodei (R-Nev.), who co-signed a statement opposing cuts to public media on Monday. 'I maintain optimism … based on my conversations with the congressman,' Duggan said. 'I will just hold out hope to see what happens ultimately on the House floor.' Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, whose public media stations are among the most dependent on federal grants in the country, told POLITICO on Wednesday she's concerned about stations in her state and is trying to get the package changed. In the wake of Trump administration pressure, some stations have seen an uptick in grassroots donations. But while larger stations in well-populated metro areas have broader, wealthier donor bases to draw on for additional support, many rural stations can only expect so much help from their community. Some of the stations in rural areas are forced to navigate the added complication of asking for donations from Republican voters as Trump rails against the public media ecosystem. 'We live in a very purple district up here,' Sarah Bignall, CEO and general manager of KAXE in Grand Rapids, Minnesota said. 'If we started kind of doing the push and the fundraising efforts that were done in the Twin Cities, it would be very off-putting to a lot of our listeners.' Increases in donations, sponsors and state funding — only some states fund public broadcasting, and other states are pushing their own cuts to public broadcasting — would be unlikely to cover the full loss of smaller stations with heavy dependence on federal grants. 'It's not like we can just go, you know, 'Let's find a million dollars somewhere else.'' Lamke said. 'If we knew how to do that, we would have.' Longtime public media employees have experience in managing the lack of certainty that comes with the nonprofit funding model. But some said that the federal cuts, along with the White House effort to eliminate the public media model, have made forecasting the future of their stations more difficult than ever. 'I think this is the biggest risk that we've had, certainly in the time that I've been in public broadcasting,' Kruger said. 'And I've been in this business 30 years.' Calen Razor contributed to this report.
