Senator Amy Klobuchar is one of the co-sponsors of the AM for Every Vehicle Act. The Minnesota Democrat says the bipartisan legislation would direct regulators to require automakers to maintain AM broadcast radio in new vehicles.
Klobuchar says; “This bill basically says that you’ve got to have AM in the cars, you can’t charge more for it. And we need to pass it as soon as possible because I really think this would be damaging to people in rural areas especially.”
She says AM radio is essential to rural America and agriculture; “It’s unbelievable. You’ve got 80 million people across the country to listen to AM radio every month. Tens of millions of them using AM radio when cell service is spotty, when they want to hear the news, weather, sports, entertainment, and especially our farmers rely on it for weather, market reports and can’t be able to do business if they’re not able to tune in. But it’s more than that, it’s about long term market crop reports all of those kinds of things.”
Klobuchar adds that there is some pushback from automakers on the issue.
She says; “They always are going to make their case, but given all the stuff they’ve got in cars right now and how souped up with every technology that, you know, back up and it beeps, you do this and it beeps, and if you mean again I am radio that is literally the only source for so many of our people in rural areas to get dependable news? I just don’t think their use of knowing what it’s really like out there.”
Story provided by NAFB News Service and Joe Gill, KASM, Albany, Minnesota
