Micah Loewinger: You're listening to the On The Media midweek podcast. I'm Micah Loewinger.

Katie Thornton: Car makers are taking steps to eliminate AM radio from their newest electric vehicles. BMW, Volkswagen, Mazda, Tesla say they won't include AM radio in their newest models. This announcement drew so much outrage that at least one automaker, Ford, actually said, "Forget it." They reversed their decision.

Micah Loewinger: Conservative talk radio hosts helped lead the backlash against the removal of AM radios from electric fleets, claiming the engineering change was really an act of political sabotage.

Sean Hannity: They finally figured out how to attack conservative talk radio. Whether they're doing this intentionally or not, the consequence will be if the radio industry does not adapt, an all-out attack on AM radio.

Katie Thornton: Sean Hannity, in an appearance on Fox, said something to the effect of, "This is definitely going to have political ramifications because it will quiet conservative talk radio, which is what people turn to AM radio for."

Micah Loewinger: Katie Thornton, freelance journalist and host of OTM's Peabody Award-winning miniseries The Divided Dial.

Katie Thornton: That part really stuck out to me because there is this widespread understanding in the US that AM radio is the home of conservative talk and almost nothing else.

Micah Loewinger: This isn't really a simple story of conservative censorship.

News Clip: Now, a bipartisan group of lawmakers are trying to stop the manufacturers of electric vehicles from excluding AM radio in their new models.

Micah Loewinger: In late June, Senators Ted Cruz and Ed Markey co-wrote a letter to seven major automakers asking them to commit by July 7 to keep radios in their new cars. In May, Senator Markey and Representative Josh Gottheimer, both Democrats, helped introduce bills that would require car companies to include AM radios.

Katie Thornton: It is a bipartisan issue, which I think should immediately raise questions for folks about what else might be on the AM band besides just conservative talk radio.

Micah Loewinger: We'll get there, but just a technical question about what it would mean to require automakers to include AM in their cars. When it comes to electrical vehicles, which is how the brouhaha started, AM doesn't sound good in electrical vehicles, right? There's interference. What does it mean that car companies may be required to include a service that isn't even going to be fully enjoyable to its listeners?

Katie Thornton: Basically, AM radio, it never sounds great. The thing about AM that sets it apart from FM is that it can go really far distances. It can penetrate buildings and mountains and obstacles, really, really well, but the sacrifice is the sound quality. FM, on the other hand, doesn't go very far, but it sounds comparatively crystal clear.

Over the last century or so, as we've had more and more electrical appliances, the buzz and the interference on the AM band has actually gotten worse over the last century. A lot of electrical appliances and devices operate at a somewhat similar wavelength to AM radio, and that's especially true in electric vehicles. Some automakers have figured out a technical workaround.

There are things that you can add to the radio to block interference that likely adds weight. Wouldn't be surprised if some of these automakers are just trying to reduce weight everywhere they can-

Micah Loewinger: -and cost-cutting.

Katie Thornton: It's another cost. It's an engineering workaround. Some of these car makers have actually removed AM radios from their electric vehicles already. Tesla doesn't have it. Audi and BMW models that have already phased out AM radios. I think one of the reasons why this got back onto people's radar is not only that Volkswagen and Mazda have announced that they're going to take out AM radios from their future electric vehicles, but Ford actually announced that they would take out AM radios from all of their vehicles, internal combustion or electric.

They've since gone back on that and said that they're going to keep AM radios in all of their vehicles.

Micah Loewinger: Because of the political pressure and the conservative talk radio backlash?

Katie Thornton: They made the decision around the same time that there was a lot of bipartisan pushback and introduction of this bipartisan bill in Congress, and Ford just went ahead and said, "We'll take care of it ourselves. We will be putting AM radios in all of our vehicles."

Micah Loewinger: I'm curious to hear why you think progressives like Ed Markey are standing up to defend AM radio, given its reputation as a primarily conservative medium, a reputation that you dispute. What is it that Democrats see in AM?

Katie Thornton: The AM band is much more accessible to get onto than the FM band. In my piece for The Guardian, I was able to speak with the person who runs the National Association of Black-Owned Broadcasters, Jim Winston. He noted that getting on the AM band, it's the most accessible way to get on the broadcast spectrum at all.

When the FM band opened up and it left the AM band in some ways languishing before finding its saving grace in talk radio, it became much more affordable. It's generally the most affordable way to get on the broadcast spectrum. That has meant that a ton of folks who have not had access to get onto, say, television or FM radio, have found a home on AM radio as well.

AM radio continues to be home to some increasingly rare locally-owned stations, non-English language stations. The diversity of ownership on the AM band is significantly higher than the FM band. Even though it is certainly the case that these nationally syndicated conservative voices dominate, there is a lot more on the AM band. What I think is really important to consider is that those nationally syndicated conservative voices, I mean, you'll hear them all over the country.

Basically, chain radio stations are everywhere from big cities to small towns, and they sound almost exactly the same day in, day out. Those companies are often massive conglomerates. They have a lot of financial resources. They're in podcasting, they're on social media, they're on YouTube, they're everywhere. A lot of these locally-owned AM stations haven't had the resources that these massive media conglomerates have had.

Those are the stations that I think would really be in the most dire straits if there are major changes that come to the AM band.

Micah Loewinger: AM radio didn't always skew right. There was a time, thanks in part to government regulation, that the AM band was home to a diverse spectrum of political viewpoints. Can you give us a bit of that history?

Katie Thornton: There was absolutely a time when radio thrived on differing perspectives. Some of this, as you said, was organic, but there was also a role that government regulation played. They started with the advent of radio when the government said you have to serve the public interest.

That was part of the original mandate to get on the radio back in the 1920s. After World War II in particular, they clarified that that meant that you had to share multiple perspectives on issues that were considered controversial. In the late '40s and through the 1950s and into the '60s, this was actually really a boon for conservative talk and conservative political pundits who used this regulation to get airtime.

During the 1960s, there was also massive media justice initiative that was happening within the civil rights movement. There was one court case in particular that clarified some of these rules about how stations can go about serving the public interest and ended up getting a lot of civil rights voices on the air on stations that had never broadcast or had refused to broadcast voices from the civil rights movement previously. Throughout the decades, there has been government and legal decisions that have enabled a lot of different voices to get on the airwaves.

A lot of that started to be eroded in the early 1980s and increasingly through the 1990s.

Micah Loewinger: This was when there was basically a series of sweeping deregulations, as you've described them, that helped some businesses consolidate power and influence by buying up lots of radio stations. This was also around the time that we saw the rise of a breakout star on the AM band, Rush Limbaugh.

Katie Thornton: Rush Limbaugh. He goes into national syndication in 1988. The owner of the show ended up using what was at that time a pretty novel approach. It's now known as barter-based syndication. Basically, they would give the show away for free to stations that wanted the show in exchange for nothing more than the advertising time on that station. The Rush Limbaugh Show could get these big national advertisers and say, "Look, we have an audience here, we have an audience on this coast, we have an audience in the Midwest, et cetera, et cetera," and use that to sell their show to advertisers.

That's really sort of how he explodes into national syndication in 1988. This is again happening at the same time that there's all of this widespread deregulation happening. Crucially in the 1980s, there is the erasure of the requirement that you air multiple perspectives of controversial issues. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the long-standing policy that said that a single company could only own a relatively small handful of radio stations across the country, those policies had been changing. The number of stations that a company could own nationwide was steadily increasing.

By 1996, that number was at 40. A single company could own 40 radio stations across the country. With the 1996 Telecommunications Act, that national cap was eliminated. There was one company that within a decade exploded to own over 1,200 stations. That company was Clear Channel, also now known as iHeart. That company, come 1998, owned The Rush Limbaugh Show. That made it quite easy for them to put this show on many, many, many of their stations that they now owned across the country.

Micah Loewinger: Yes, and to your point, AM isn't a monolith today either. Many public radio stations, including WNYC, broadcast on AM, but in the public imagination, AM is still synonymous with conservative talk radio, which you've described as, "A myth that has dangerous implications for the medium." What do you mean by that?

Katie Thornton: Yes, the thing is there is so much more. This is where we have a greater diversity of ownership than the FM band. This is where we still have some of our locally-owned stations. It's a vital resource for rural communities because the signal can travel so far and penetrate obstacles and mountains and terrain so well. It's also a vital resource in a lot of cities. It's where there's a lot of non-English language programming. Even though certainly, like nationally syndicated conservative talkers are very, very, very well-platformed on the AM band, there's so much more to it.

Micah Loewinger: As you mentioned, AM radio has become an essential news source, especially in rural areas. For your piece, you spoke to the general manager at KSDP in Sand Point, Alaska on the Aleutian Islands where they've only recently acquired satellite internet. They have an enormous service area that's about twice the size of Massachusetts. Paint a picture for us about the role that AM plays in disseminating news in very remote places like Sand Point.

Katie Thornton: Yes, certainly. Sand Point in particular is largely serving an audience of folks who are out doing commercial fishing work. AM radio carries very, very well over water, and so folks are able to pick up the signal way far out on these boats and also way far out on different islands that they may be living on. FM radio, again, doesn't have the same physical reach that AM radio has. A lot of folks who may live on distant islands or who may be out working for many, many days at a time on these boats are not necessarily able to attend community meetings in a specific town on a specific island. Things like this.

There's hyper-local content. There are broadcasts of local high school sports. There are broadcasts of community meetings and town hall conversations and forums and political meetings. It's a connection to civic engagement in places where it's just physically hard to do so. That area is served by some newspapers, but it is very difficult to distribute newspapers across an area twice the size of Massachusetts. AM radio has ease of distribution that something like newspapers do not.

Micah Loewinger: Then, of course, there's the fact that AM transmissions from America's national public warning system have saved lives during natural disasters, especially when people lose power and cell service and need something reliable like AM radio.

Katie Thornton: The emergency alert system is still crucially important. As you said, in rural areas often, but in urban areas as well during times of power outages. This is a really resilient, reliable technology. It's been around for a very long time and it is required that some stations in any given market broadcast these emergency alerts. Not everybody has a smartphone. Not everybody can afford internet access. Not everywhere has internet infrastructure built out. This is an essential life-saving technology and life-saving medium.

Micah Loewinger: We're really talking about the loss of AM radio in electric cars. These are vehicles that are less popular in rural areas, so what makes you concerned that this is like the beginning of the end of AM [chuckles]?

Katie Thornton: Yes, I don't know if I would say it's the beginning of the end of AM. I think that since radio's birth, there have been rumors of its death. Radio remains an incredibly influential medium. Over 80% of Americans hear the radio every week. Only about 20% of those folks say they're specifically listening to AM, but that's still a pretty large number. I don't necessarily think that this is the beginning of the end of AM radio. I'll also say that the areas where AM is often most vital in these rural areas is often the areas where the infrastructure for electric vehicles is not yet built out.

I think that some of the reason why there's backlash right now is because the right has made it yet another culture war issue. I will also say that listenership has been dwindling for years. It is an audience that is certainly getting older. AM radio is facing changes. It's facing challenges. There are so many other places where many people are getting their news and information. There are many people who cannot get news and information anywhere other than the radio, and some stations and personalities and voices can only be heard on AM radio.

Micah Loewinger: Can you give an example of some AM resource, whether a station or a show, that offers a rare tool for civic engagement? Some really hyper-local content that maybe won't find a home anywhere else?

Katie Thornton: Yes. In the piece that I did for The Guardian, I had the privilege of speaking to a man named Reggie George, who is the program director and one of two paid staff at KYNR, which is an AM radio station on the Yakama Reservation in Washington. That station has about a 60-mile radius, so quite a significant reach. It is run by the tribal organization. They have public service announcements and they have coverage of local events like government meetings and powwows as well, and also a mix of music. Reggie George is the program director, host, an oldie show on the station that he loves and that is well-loved in the community.

He said that whenever they have any issues with their transmitters, if there's inclement weather or anything like this, they get calls right away. People are listening and they know that the station is off the air. That is a station that hasn't had the resources to be able to afford a web stream, let alone an FM translator, let alone podcasting, or a swanky app. This is the kind of station that can only be found on AM that is a vital community resource. While I don't think that in the short term they will be majorly affected by AM radio being removed from some electric vehicles, I do think that deprioritization of AM or any other changes that might come to the AM band.

These are the stations that are going to be hardest hit, because unlike someone like a Salem radio station or an iHeartMedia radio station, they haven't had the resources to get out on other platforms, and that's a huge loss.

Micah Loewinger: Katie, thank you very much.

Katie Thornton: Thank you so much for talking with me. Nice to be back.

Micah Loewinger: Katie Thornton is a freelance journalist and host of On The Media's Peabody Award-winning miniseries, "The Divided Dial." Check out all five episodes in our feed. Thanks for listening.

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