KENT, Ohio — Congressman Bob Latta's push to keep AM radios in newer cars is getting some traction. 

Ford Motor’s CEO said the automaker will include AM radios in all of its 2024 Ford and Lincoln vehicles.

What You Need To Know

  • Latta penned a letter to several car executives expressing how important those AM radios can be

  • In his letters to car manufacturers, he explained how 45 million listeners rely on AM radios for natural disasters and local emergencies every month

  • Latta asked for a response to his letter by Friday and Ford motors is obliging, deciding to keep those AM radios in cars

It comes after Latta, R-Bowling Green, penned a letter to several car executives expressing how important those AM radios can be.

The infotainment systems in most new cars are equipped with modern features like Bluetooth, satellite radio and a jack to plug your phone into. But while new bells and whistles can be nice to have, there still can be an important use for the AM radio.

“The concern that they’re raising in terms of the legislation is what if there’s not cellular service how do you have emergency broadcast reach people,” said Mitch McKenney, a journalism professor at Kent State University. “As we have more electric cars join the market, they often don’t have an AM radio because there is interference. There’s an electromagnetic buzz that they right now don’t have a solution for."

But the decision to get rid of them concerns Latta. In his letters to car manufacturers, he explained how 45 million listeners rely on AM radios for natural disasters and local emergencies every month. They’re especially important to people in rural areas where internet connectivity and cellphone service may be limited or unavailable. 

“Some of the other discussion they have is that the rural areas depend on very small AM stations and that’s where a lot of very local and not syndicated programming is happening,” McKenney said.  

If car manufacturers decided to move forward with not installing AM radios, McKenney said there are other alternatives. The AM stations could be simulcast on FM stations or people could stream the AM stations.

“Streaming right now of radio is up over 10%, somewhere between 12-15% of radio listening is by streaming according to the Neilsen statistics and it has been growing,” he said.  

Latta asked for a response to his letter by Friday and Ford motors is obliging, deciding to keep those AM radios in cars. But his fight is far from over.

“We haven’t seen a fall-off in AM radio audience with the advent of Teslas and the other electric cars that don’t have an AM radio set in them,” McKenney said. “And again, that argument will probably come up next month when they talk about this in Congress.”