When families shop for a new car, they expect certain basics to come standard — and for millions of Americans, AM radio has long been one of them. Now, a debate in Washington over whether to mandate AM radio in new vehicles is raising real questions about what drivers will pay, what they might lose, and who gets left behind.
The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the “AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act of 2025” last month. The bipartisan bill would require automakers to include AM radio in all new passenger vehicles. It now awaits action in the Senate. Earlier versions of the legislation, dating back to 2023, failed to advance.
The push comes as a growing number of automakers — including BMW, Mazda, Tesla, and Volkswagen — have quietly dropped AM radio from electric vehicle models. The reason is technical: electric vehicle motors can create interference with AM signals, leading manufacturers to either engineer around the problem or simply remove AM receivers entirely.
What This Means for Your Wallet
The debate boils down to a straightforward question for everyday car buyers: Should AM radio be a standard, free feature — or will families eventually have to pay a monthly subscription fee just to hear news and emergency alerts during their commute?
Don Brown, who owns AM and FM stations in Nevada and Arizona, warns that without a federal requirement, automakers will keep stripping free radio from vehicles until the only listening option left is a paid subscription service. That means families who buy a new car could find themselves paying $10 to $20 a month or more for services like Spotify or SiriusXM just to get basic audio — costs that add up to hundreds of dollars a year on top of an already expensive purchase.
“You’re driving cross country and you have a crisis coming, weather issues, you’re not going to hear it on the internet,” Brown said. “You’re not going to hear it on your Spotify.”
Opponents of the mandate, however, argue it amounts to a hidden cost passed on to consumers at the point of sale. Gary Shapiro, executive chair of the Consumer Technology Association, framed the requirement bluntly:
“America is about choice, and given how few people actually listen to AM radio, it seems wasteful and harmful to electric vehicles to require an AM radio in every car,”
Shapiro said in a written statement. He also asked,
“Why should every American have to pay a radio tax when they buy a new car?”
That “radio tax” framing raises a fair point for budget-conscious buyers — but it cuts both ways. If AM is removed and replaced by nothing, families who can’t afford monthly streaming subscriptions lose access to free local news, weather, and emergency alerts altogether. The mandate would also prohibit automakers from charging any fee for AM radio access, keeping it free for consumers who have it.
John Bozzella, president and CEO of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, also opposed the mandate before a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee in April 2024.
“Automakers consider several factors when making decisions on vehicle design and features,”
Bozzella said in a witness statement.
“This may vary among manufacturers but is based on extensive research, testing and regulatory analysis – while prioritizing safety and consumer preferences.”
The Alliance for Automotive Innovation did not respond to a request for comment about the House bill’s passage.
Rural and Low-Income Communities Face the Biggest Risk
For families in rural areas — particularly lower-income households — the stakes are even higher. Streaming services require reliable internet or cellular service, which is far from guaranteed across much of the American West and Southwest. If AM disappears from new vehicles and those families can’t afford a subscription alternative, they lose access to the one free, universally available source of emergency information.
In 2023, seven former FEMA leaders sent a letter to then-Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg urging the agency to protect AM radio in vehicles, warning that the National Public Warning System depends on it.
“Because of the great distances that its signal carries, and due to its resiliency during even the worst natural disasters, the success of the National Public Warning System hinges on the use of AM radio,”
the letter stated.
Loris Taylor, president and CEO of Native Public Media, which supports Native American radio and TV stations nationwide, said the issue is particularly acute for tribal communities spread across vast rural stretches of Arizona and the Southwest.
“Perhaps because cellular service is not robust, or where electrical service can go out during a severe storm, it makes the reliance of AM radio essential for information,”
Taylor said.
One of those stations is KTNN, which broadcasts in both English and Navajo on AM and FM from Window Rock, Arizona — the capital of the Navajo Nation. Justin C. Ahasteen, then the Executive Director of the Navajo Nation Washington Office, testified before Congress in 2024 that while KTNN does offer an FM signal with better audio quality, the AM signal reaches far more people across the Nation’s more than 27,000 square miles.
“Most remote communities across the reservation exclusively use and rely on AM radio to stay informed with current world and local news in the Navajo language,”
Ahasteen told the subcommittee.
Taylor also noted that tribal stations provide life-saving, hyperlocal programming that no national streaming platform would carry.
“You’ll hear perhaps a program on the cultural activities of the community,”
she said.
“You’ll hear about public affairs relating to the civic health of their community, which may be a focus on education one day, perhaps on Hantavirus for some of the Arizona stations or some of the Southwest stations.”
“For rural communities, it’s super important that our communities are not left behind during emergencies and that we have access to information when it really matters,”
Taylor added.
Local Stations Serving Families Every Day
It’s not just emergency alerts on the line. In Phoenix, Laura Madrid runs an AM/FM station that broadcasts live Spanish-language news throughout Maricopa County, serving as a trusted information source for the Latino community since 2005.
“We’ve been keeping the public informed since 2005, whether it be policy, whether it be pandemic, whether it be during the 2008 Recession,”
she said.
“It’s important for us to be able to continue to do that.”
Brown’s Phoenix AM station reaches listeners from Wickenburg to Casa Grande, broadcasting Latino music for an 18-to-34-year-old audience and airing local live programming — all for free, to anyone with a receiver. The moment that receiver disappears from new car dashboards, those listeners must either keep older vehicles, buy a separate radio, or pay for a subscription service to replace something that was always free.
Shapiro of the Consumer Technology Association believes many automakers will continue including AM radios voluntarily.
“Many car manufacturers would simply like the legal ability to remove AM radios for certain models aimed at certain demographics or regions,”
he said — a position that critics argue would effectively price out rural and lower-income buyers from free emergency access based on which vehicle they can afford.
If the bill clears the Senate and is signed into law, it would also require the Government Accountability Office to study how emergency alerts reach the public. Any mandate for manufacturers would sunset ten years after implementation. For vehicles sold without AM radio before the mandate takes effect, automakers would be required to notify buyers through clear labeling — and would be prohibited from charging any subscription fee for AM access.
Follow related political and election coverage from Arizona, and stay up to date with the Arizona Voter Guide. Recent related reporting includes coverage of the AZ Supreme Court siding with third-party candidates in a Clean Elections Commission dispute, efforts by state officials to restore voting access for blocked Maricopa County citizens, and how a crackdown on noncitizen voting left 25 citizens disenfranchised, as covered by Mark Brodie on The Show. Also watch the Arizona treasurer’s race, covered by Camryn Sanchez and Wayne Schutsky.
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