Why AM Radio is Important
Yesterday afternoon, a number of tornado warnings were issued across the state, primarily in eastern Iowa. For most of the later afternoon, KXEL joined our coverage partners at TV9 for live wall-to-wall coverage.
The warnings targeted a significant area that is within KXEL’s primary service zone. And while a majority of our audience was not in the path of such a storm, it was part of our duty of serving the public interest, convenience and necessity to break in with coverage. That “public interest, convenience and necessity” standard is written in federal law and governs the license we have to operate as granted by the federal government.
This is one of the reasons why so many…not just in the industry…have been pushing legislation in Congress to mandate AM radio in every car. Not so we can sell commercials and make money, not so you can hear a certain political viewpoint…but because in time of emergency, AM stations typically reach farther than FM stations…this one certainly does, the entire state by day and half the country at night. And from an operational and programming standpoint, if your local AM radio station did not convey emergency information like tornado warnings…then we’re nothing but a jukebox that plays news and spoken word programming.
I know virtually all of you understand our mission, and why we do what we do…that doesn’t mean you aren’t frustrated when someone like Sean Hannity is cut off in mid-sentence, and I can appreciate that.
But imagine if you were traveling in your car and all of a sudden the skies turned dark. Having those warnings and information conveyed on AM radio may make a difference. And that’s enough for us. Thanks for understanding.
