AM radio has a big victory this week. Voted out of Committee 45-2.

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday morning. Well, what’s going on with AM radio? While we have an update with us this morning is Dave Donovan, who has been leading the fight in New York State and our country on AM radio and he is from the president of the New York State Broadcasters Association. Well, Dave, what’s going on?

0:23 Speaker 2 Well, good morning, John, and the American public had a good day. On Wednesday, the House Commerce Committee voted overwhelmingly forty five to two to pass a law which would require automobile makers to keep AM radios in their cars as standard equipment, with no extra charge and in a conspicuous manner, in a spicicuous place. The key point about

0:55 that is that the AM radio was you know, because you’re one of those. WABC is one of the key stations. Is absolutely essential for our emergency alert services. So where does this go from here? That law passed forty five to two. I want to we should thank in particular Representative Frank Polone, who is the ranking member of the

1:19 House Commerce Committee, Representative of Vett Clark from the ninth District down in the City of New York, and Representative Paul Tonko from Albany, because they are the members of the Commerce Committee from the state of New York, and all of them were strong supporters of this bill.

1:39 Speaker 1 And gush bill of Rackings from Florida. I understand what we’re.

1:42 Speaker 2 Heading into absolutely. Gus was on the Republican side and Frank Plone was on the Democratic side. This is a bipartisan bill. There’s over there’s two hundred and sixty two members of the House of Representatives that support this bill.

1:59 In this sixty two members of the Senate that support this bill, including Senator Kristen gillibrand Majority Leader Schumer supports the bill as well. Where this goes from here as a matter of congressional procedure, the bottom line is is that with this amount of support, you can bring this bill to the House floor for a vote. On the

2:26 Senate side, it has overwhelming support and you can bring it to the Senate floor for a vote. The issue really is one of time, As you know, we are in an election year. But there’s enough support to pass this bill as a separate bill, or if need be attached this bill to a larger what we call must

2:46 pass bill, for example, the National Defense Authorization Act, and it would make sense to attach it to that because after all, this is a national defense issue. Emergency alerts are the core of warning people in national defense emergencies.

3:03 So we are optimistic that this bill will move this year. It may not be before the election, but it will move this year.

3:15 Speaker 1 Well, thank you for the update, Dave, and we’d like you to keep us informed because we’d like to be able to discuss it with our local legislators and our national legislators and urged them to vote for it and make it happen. Is there anybody in particular in New York’s that hasn’t voted it, voted on it.

3:43 Speaker 2 Well, I think there’s some key people in New York. You have to look for. First, Senator Schumer, who’s a majority leader in the Senate in terms of moving this procedurally, but he supports us. Kim Jeffries, who’s the Democratic leader obviously from New York. Our discussions with staff indicates that he supports the bill, and the two of them together

4:02 can be prime movers and getting this bill forward. There are also some other folks that I think really need to we really should focus on a little bit. One is Andrew Garbino, who has We’ve had very good meetings with him, but he hasn’t necessarily signed on to the bill yet. Also Representative Nieks, Representative Torres, and AOC. We’re

4:28 talking right now to two members of the New York Delegation, Tom Swazi and Tim Kennedy out of Buffalo. But if we focus on these members, I think we’ll be able to get what is unique in New York history is get both Republicans and Democrats on the same page. We already have nineteen members of the New York Delegation, both

4:53 Democrat and Republican, who support this bill, support AM radio, and support consumers being able to receive emergency alert.

5:02 Speaker 1 Well, I believe in unity, and Democrats and Republicans should work more together, and this is one of the bills that they are working together, and it should be unanimous.

5:14 Speaker 2 Absolutely. I mean, we have a leased Stefanak who’s a leader in the Republican Party in the House, and Representative Jerry Nabler both supporting this and that just goes to show you how important this is to New Yorkers and the American people at large.

5:30 Speaker 1 Well, Dave Donovan, president of New York State Broadcasting Association, thank you for the information and keep us informed and keep all of our million listeners informed.

5:44 Speaker 2 Thank you John, and thank you for all your work in getting this message out as well. You’ve done a great job. Thank you.