What's Really Happening to AM Radio Infrastructure Artwork

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ID10T Techcast

What's Really Happening to AM Radio Infrastructure

May 11, 2026 • Tyler Woodward • Episode 24

0:00 | 14:09

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The fight over AM radio isn't really about whether you listen to it. It's about what happens when the land under a tower is worth more than the station on it. Licenses keep declining, copper theft keeps getting worse, and the push to pull AM from new cars is only part of the story. I get into the infrastructure side: why towers are worth more as real estate than as signals, why the federal government and emergency managers still call AM vital, and why the bills to protect it are sitting in Congress waiting for a vote. When the internet goes down, AM is still on. That's not nostalgia, that's the design. AM isn't dead yet, but if nobody pays attention to the infrastructure, the decision gets made by default, one parking lot at a time. All opinions and views expressed in this episode are my own and do not represent my employer or any affiliated organizations.

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WEBVTT

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Every time I post something about AM radio, somebody's

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got to show up in the comments with, radio is

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dead. I have Spotify. And I get it. But the framing

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misses almost everything that's actually interesting

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about this story. I'm Tyler. This is the Tyler

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Woodward Project at tylerwoodward .me. And everything

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in this episode is my opinion. Now today, I want

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to talk about what's really happening to AM radio.

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Not the consumer side, but the infrastructure

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side, because those are very two different conversations

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and only one of them really matters. Let's start

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where things actually stand. The FCC had about

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a little over 4 ,300 licensed AM stations as

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of early 2026, down from the peak of nearly 5

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,000 back in 1991, and down about 7 % over the

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last decade. Commercial FM has only slipped about

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2 % over the same period. The decline is real,

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it's definitely measurable in specifically hitting

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AM radio. But... The license count doesn't tell

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you what's actually happening. It's not the whole

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story a station can hold a license and be completely

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silent at any given moment and Well, there's

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roughly about 100 a .m. Stations that are licensed

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in dark right now and the FCC has a 12 month

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rule if you go silent for a year Your license

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automatically expires recent FCC decisions have

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been pretty clear that financial reasons don't

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qualify for the hardship exemption you choose

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to go dark you choose to lose the license which

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means groups have been quietly making a choice

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in early 2025 cumulus and town square both of

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those guys silenced more than 20 stations in

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a single month wftw 1260 fort walton beach on

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the air for over 70 years just gone Not sold.

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Not reformatted. Off. Townsquares, COO said that

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these stations are losing money on tower leases

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and utility costs. That's not a spin. That's

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the actual problem. Because, well, the dirt is

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worth more than the signal. The thing that explains

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AM's decline more than any audience number metric

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is this. For a lot of stations in major markets,

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the transmitter site itself is worth substantially

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more than the broadcast license. Cumulus sold

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WMAL 630, the transmitter site in Bethesda, to

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a home builder for $74 million. A Clear Channel

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AM in New Jersey sold its tower property to a

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warehouse developer for $51 million. million.

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iHeart sold off hundreds of tower sites to third

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-party owners and leased them back. The real

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estate transactions, they're not incidental to

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the story, they are the story. And on the operating

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side, a 50 ,000 watt AM in New Jersey can run

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eight to nine thousand dollars a month in electricity

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alone. That's before tower maintenance, before

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the FAA repainting requirement that runs Anywhere

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up to a hundred thousand per tower every few

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years before the ground system And get this speaking

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of the ground system an AM directional antenna

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Needs hundreds of buried copper radials people

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literally dig these things up and sell them for

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scrap I Don't recommend doing it because AM is

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quite dangerous if you decide to touch it while

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it's live, but you know you do you All I'll say

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is stations have gone dark for over a year because

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of copper theft that's just where we are when

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ad revenue is falling and the dirt under your

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tower is worth eight figures the math on keeping

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the transmitter running well it's stops working

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pretty fast the group owners they've all made

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their decision the major groups are each handling

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this a little differently but They're all trending

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in the same direction. iHeart has been running

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its AMs primarily as a feeder for its FM translators.

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The AM stays licensed so the translator can exist,

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but the FM is where the audience went. Broadcast

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radio revenue fell three years running to 1 .63

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billion in 2025. Odyssey! Came out of bankruptcy

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last fall and reformatted WCBS 880 in New York

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Nearly 60 years of all news as now ESP in New

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York KGO 810 San Francisco one of the defining

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news talk brands in the country retired its call

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letters on January 1st Cumulus silenced it after

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dropping the format The pattern is the same everywhere

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you look. Move the valuable content over the

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FM or digital, let the AM run as long as it has

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to, then decide whether the real estate is worth

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more than the license. Of course, we can't talk

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about AM right now without talking about what

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just happened to KNX. And it's the freshest example

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of all this. Last week, Just last week, Odyssey

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announced that KNX news 1070 in Los Angeles is

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losing. It's simulcast on FM. KNX has been on

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the air since 1921. It's a 50 ,000 watt class

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a clear channel station. As I would call it an

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AM flamethrower, one of the most recognizable

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all news brands in this country. I stream it

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up here in Wisconsin. It's been so it's. It's

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been simulcasting on 97 .1 FM for the last few

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years, which gave it reach into cars with FM

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only tuners and newer vehicles that had stopped

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supporting AM. As of May 11th this year, 97 .1

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goes to sports, 97 .1 the fan. KNX news, it'll

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stay over on 1070 AM and it'll... Pick up 97

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.1 HD 2 which in practical terms nobody's listening

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to Well, I shouldn't say that I guess in cars.

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Yes, there is still HD tuners. So I don't get

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the HD fans upset the journalism it didn't get

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worse the reporting didn't deteriorate a 105

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year old news operation got bumped off of FM

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because a sports format is worth more money on

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that frequency in 2026. That's the whole story

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in one example. We got to talk about the part

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that changes this conversation. PEP, it's a network

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of 77 radio stations. About 85 % of them are

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AM, specifically hardened to stay operational

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during national emergency. Reinforced shelters,

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independent fuel storage, backup transmitters,

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a direct line to FEMA's Mount Weather Operations

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Center that bypasses the public internet. WBZ

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1030 Boston, WWL 870 New Orleans, KIRO 710 Seattle.

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These are not just commercial broadcast stations.

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They are nodes in a federal warning system covering

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90 % of the U .S. population and They're built

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on top of a commercial medium whose economics

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are, let's be honest, collapsing. When Hurricane

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Maria hit Puerto Rico in 2017, it took out 95

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% of all cell sites. WAPA 680 was broadcasting

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through the landfall. Its audience grew by a

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hundred thousand listeners because it was the

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only game left in town. When Hurricane Helene

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hit North Carolina in 2024, one of those Once

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every thousand year rainfall events, roads were

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gone, cell coverage gone. WWNC 570 Asheville

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ran continuous coverage. People were calling

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in about missing persons and dam failures. That

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was the information lifeline for communities

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that had nothing else. AM works in those scenarios

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because it doesn't need any of the infrastructure

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that fails first. It has long range propagation.

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Battery powered receivers can pick it up. Toss

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in a couple AA batteries. AAAs. AM radio doesn't

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need cell networks. It doesn't need the internet.

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No subscription required. In 2023, seven former

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FEMA administrators from both parties, President

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Clinton up through President Trump, sent a letter

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to Secretary Buttigieg saying, This directly

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quote the success of the national public warning

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system hinges on the use of AM radio. These are

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not people who love radio for sentimental reasons.

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These are emergency management professionals

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looking at the infrastructure. These are not

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people who love radio for sentimental reasons.

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These are emergency management professionals

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looking at the infrastructure. The funding comparison

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is worth sitting with The 2021 infrastructure

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law committed 42 billion dollars to royal broadband

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FEMA's entire PEP hardening program is somewhere

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between 50 and 115 million dollars both real

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investments not connected to each other in any

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policy conversation though and we also need to

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talk about the bill that can't get a floor vote.

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Tesla announced last October that its 2026 base

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Model 3 and Model Y would ship with no AM and

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no FM. First mainstream U .S. car manufacturer

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to drop over the air radio entirely. The technical

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argument is EMI. Electromagnetic interference

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from EV drive motors. But, let's be honest, Stellantis,

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Toyota, Hyundai, they all solved it. Using shielded

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cables and isolated receivers. It's an engineering

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problem that Tesla just were too lazy to fix.

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There's known solutions. Congress? Introduced

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the AM radio for every vehicle act in 2023. It

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cleared the Senate commerce vote. Uh, you know,

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it cleared the house energy commerce 45 to two

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in 2024 had over 270 co -sponsors in the house

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and 63 in the Senate expired without a floor

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vote. And then it got reintroduced in 2025. cleared

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the committees again, and both chambers now has

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around 375 co -sponsors, one of the most broadly

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supported bills in this Congress. President Trump

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endorsed it in January. The NAB ran national

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PSA campaigns. Still, no floor vote. The commercial

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AM market is, well, failing for real reasons.

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And the numbers are clear about that. But a failing

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commercial market and a relevant piece of infrastructure

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are two different things. And it's worth being

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precise about which one we're actually talking

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about here. FEMA built a national emergency warning

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system on AM radio. Congress agrees it needs

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protecting. The bill to protect it can't even

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get scheduled for a vote. And the newest news

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station to lose its FM home is a 105 year old

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operation in Los Angeles that most people would

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have called a landmark a decade ago. Radio is

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Dead isn't wrong about where the business is

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headed. It's just not the point. Listen to more

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episodes at tylerwoodward .me slash podcast.

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Make sure you head over to tylerwoodward .me

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slash subscribe to get subscribed and never miss

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out on a future episode. I'll catch you next

00:13:59.519 --> 00:13:59.740
week.