The NAB says the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act has “overwhelming bipartisan support” in Congress as well as the backing of President Trump. The Senate Commerce Committee has approved the bill, and the House Energy and Commerce Committee included it in a proposed transportation reauthorization package.
But taking no chances, broadcasters from 31 states went to the Hill to push for its passage on Tuesday.
The next day, we asked NAB President and CEO Curtis LeGeyt for a post-visit report.
Radio World: How did the campaign go?
Curtis LeGeyt: I don’t think the week could have gone better, frankly.
The reason to bring not just broadcasters from 31 states, which is pretty incredible, but also representatives from partner organizations who’ve been working in support of this bill — AARP, National Urban League, the International Association of Fire Chiefs — the reason to do this right now is that in some ways, we’re a victim of our own success.
We were so fast out of the gate this Congress in terms of tremendous co-sponsorship of the bills. We’re now at close to 320 co-sponsors in the House, 61 in the Senate, with passage through both the Senate Commerce and House Energy and Commerce Committees.
Time in Washington moves very quickly. Looking at the legislative calendar and understanding the limited number of legislative days left in the year and the number of priorities still on every member of Congress’s docket, we felt that we needed to make a refreshed push to ensure that the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act remained at the top of these policymakers’ agendas.
Over the last few weeks, as we were talking to certain members of Congress, we found that they assumed the bill was already passed because of its broad support. We needed to remind them that it hasn’t, and there’s still more work to do.
Whether it’s the last two weeks of this month before lawmakers head out for the August recess, the brief period they’re back in September before the midterms, or the lame duck, we’re hopeful that opportunities are going to arise to get this bill over the finish line.
In that respect, it’s been tremendously successful. Our local broadcasters and community partners had close to 200 meetings with members of Congress and their staffs.
Congressional leadership are making hard choices as to how they’re going to use their floor time. This is about assuring that this remains at the top of the agenda, and that members who support us remind their leadership of the importance of getting this bill done.
RW: I’ll ask you to play the whip. It sounds like you think you have the votes, that the obstacle is more a process one. From outside of Washington, one might say, “Okay, you’ve got all that support, what’s the big holdup here?”
LeGeyt: We were fortunate to have this provision on the House side included in the larger surface transportation package that Congress is going to need to consider at some point this year. But we also want to have optionality as to how we get this over the finish line.
When you talk about including this in a larger vehicle, does then backing away and considering it separately somehow speak positively or negatively to that vehicle? These are the kinds of sausage-making dynamics we’re dealing with.
We’re in the game of creating optionality for ourselves on both the House and Senate sides, whether it’s this bill moving as a standalone or whether as part of a larger vehicle.
Depending on who you talk to on Capitol Hill, you can handicap “must-pass” pieces of legislation in different ways. We want to make sure we’re in the discussion where there’s a policy nexus.
I would handicap us pretty strongly. For any bill that the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act is included in, I think we’re going to be additive because of our strong bipartisan support and the prioritization that members have put on this.
The president came out again this week, reaffirming his support for the bill. That is really helpful in keeping this top of mind in Washington, when there are so many distractions right now.
Anyone who’s reading the “inside the beltway” news understands how narrowly divided these margins are in both the House and the Senate, how the deliberations as to how to keep the floor open and productively considering legislation in the House of Representatives are very difficult for Speaker Johnson under these narrow margins.
Amidst all of that swirl, we’ve got to find our place. It’s only going to happen if we come in and tell our own story, which is what broadcasters from 31 states did this week. (Text continues below.)
RW: Opponents, including carmakers and the CTA, have lobbying heft of their own. Did the broadcasters meet with lawmakers who have been a “no”? Do you feel they changed minds, or is this more about reaffirming support you already have?
LeGeyt: First and foremost, it’s about reaffirming the support that we have, which in and of itself is strong enough bipartisan majorities to get this firmly over the finish line with a lot of cushion. And it’s about ensuring that those supporters will go the next mile, to make some hard asks of leadership to find a way to get this done.
We’re in constant communication with lawmakers who have expressed some concerns over the bill, and those conversations continue. But our focus is on ensuring the supporters that we have, which is an overwhelming majority of Congress.
Keep in mind, we’re also only talking about co-sponsors. The number of what we would project as “yes” votes is significantly higher than just our co-sponsor numbers. We feel like we’re in a really, really strong place to get this over the finish line. So while we’re going to have discussions with any member of Congress who wants to discuss the policy and concerns they may have, our focus is how do we advance, process-wise, with the support that we have.
RW: Is there any consideration at this point about adding FM to this discussion?
LeGeyt: As a practical matter, this legislation — what it will require of the automakers to keep AM in the automobile and readily accessible to the listener — will benefit FM radio as well.
The policy considerations around this bill have some uniquely AM elements, so given our legislative momentum, I don’t anticipate meaningful substantive changes to the bill at this stage in the process. But make no mistake, this legislation enacted into law will benefit all of radio, not just AM stations. And it will benefit all radio listeners.
RW: You’re getting a lot of local news coverage on this push. But I saw a headline from Oklahoma today: “Believe It or Not, Over 83% of Americans Still Listen to AM/FM Radio.” That “believe it or not” is a reminder that there’s a perception in the culture of radio being very much out of date. This would seem to be a big problem. Sometimes it seems to me that you’re fighting a rear-guard action. That’s a big wall to get over, isn’t it?
LeGeyt: This is where media perceptions may be trumped by reality.
This entire process has been very reaffirming for broadcasters across the country. You’ve had nearly a million radio listeners reach out to their members of Congress and talk about how important it is to pass legislation to ensure that they continue to have access to AM radio in the car.
Those listeners aren’t doing that because it’s charitable, they’re doing it because they rely on this medium.
It’s so easy to get distracted by all of the media disruption — the latest with the streaming services, everything that’s going on with sports — but at the end of the day, the numbers speak for themselves, that you have millions of listeners across the country. Nielsen says 82 million listeners per month just on the AM band. It is still an overwhelmingly popular medium.
I do think that surprises a certain demographic of journalists. But for the American people, this has been very reaffirming. This is still the most listened to medium. And the amount of congressional support for this bill underscores that.
RW: Am I correct that you’re trying to get this done by the end of the current session because you’d have to start over again in January otherwise?
LeGeyt: That’s correct.
You’ve got to measure areas of import for the industry against areas of opportunity in a current congressional of administrative environment. Our view is that the AM radio for Every Vehicle Act right now is both of high importance for the industry and in the right congressional landscape to get it over the finish line.
The number of our member companies and local stations that have engaged on the issue underscores the import to the industry. And although there’s a very high hurdle to get things done, the number of co-sponsors and the quick committee process underscore that this is uniquely an issue where members of Congress from both sides of the aisle have come together.
We want to seize the moment because we don’t know what next year looks like.
RW: Briefly on other issues, we learned today that the FCC is going to vote in August about TV ownership. And it would appear likely that the FCC will vote 2–1 to make that change. Do you have insight into whether that heralds a follow-up vote anytime soon on radio?
LeGeyt: We’re tremendously grateful to Chairman Carr for prioritizing the national ownership cap and the ownership issues. He has expressed from the outset of this administration that this was an area that he was open to taking a hard look at; and it has taken a tremendous amount of work on his part, on his staff’s part, on the Media Bureau’s part to get this order to the point of what he announced today.
Similarly, he has shown a real openness to reconsidering the local radio rules. We’re continuing to have active dialogue with his staff, as are local broadcasters across the country. Numerous groups have gone in and had meetings with the chairman and the FCC. We’re very grateful for his willingness to put in the time that’s necessary to take a fresh look at these rules.
