Transcript [00:04] Welcome back to the program. Now, [00:06] there's a renewed push to get a pending [00:08] bill that would require AM radio and [00:11] vehicles now that Congress has completed [00:13] the one big beautiful bill act. So, AM [00:15] radio serves as a vital role in our [00:17] nation's emergency infrastructure and as [00:20] the backbone of the emergency alert [00:22] system. So when the power goes out and [00:24] cell networks are down, the car radio is [00:26] often the only way for people to get [00:28] information, sometimes for days at a [00:30] time. National Religious Broadcasters [00:32] President Troy Miller says he will head [00:34] to Capitol Hill this week advocating for [00:36] lawmakers to pass the legislation I've [00:39] just discussed. And full disclosure, I'm [00:41] a member of National Religious [00:43] Broadcasters. It's one of my favorite [00:44] organizations. Joining me now to discuss [00:46] is NRB President and CEO Troy Miller. [00:49] Troy, welcome back. [00:50] >> Oh, thanks for having me back. It's [00:52] great to be with you as always. [00:54] >> You know, I love when you join us [00:55] because there's something so that's so [00:57] important about this. Radio is so [00:59] ubiquitous to us, we don't even really [01:02] think about whether or not it's going to [01:04] be there. It's like the same way that [01:06] you hit a a switch in your house and you [01:08] expect a light to come on or you turn on [01:11] your dishwasher or your washing machine, [01:12] you just press the button, you expect it [01:14] to come on. It's only a problem if [01:16] something doesn't start spinning or if a [01:18] light doesn't, you know, come up. And [01:20] usually then it's not a real problem. [01:22] It's a light bulb. So with radio, [01:24] Americans just expect to be able to [01:26] press I have mine don't even say AMFM in [01:28] my car. It just says mode and I press it [01:31] and I go from my you know uh cable that [01:34] you know connects my phone to uh Sirius [01:37] XM to uh AM radio to FM radio. And I I [01:41] have it memorized. I don't even have to [01:42] look at it. I just press it. If I want [01:43] to hear AM my my stations are preset. I [01:46] love that convenience. And I can't [01:48] imagine buying a vehicle and not having [01:50] all of that at my fingertips. [01:53] >> Yeah. And not having free access to it. [01:55] You know, uh we we know that the car [01:58] already has, you know, a number of [01:59] connected services in it. You talked [02:01] about Sirius XM radio uh [02:03] subscriptionbased service that's uh for [02:06] choice. But what we're really fighting [02:08] for on the AM radio side, and you talked [02:10] about this in your introduction, you [02:12] know, first of all, AM radio is the [02:14] backbone of the emergency alert system. [02:17] There are what we call there are over 70 [02:19] what we call hardened stations across [02:21] this country that have enough uh backup [02:24] generators and fuel to run for at least [02:26] a few weeks if not a few months. Um [02:29] they're the primary source for [02:31] information during all kinds of natural [02:33] disasters whether it be hurricanes uh [02:35] fires in California or the flooding [02:37] that's gone on. Um, and everybody and [02:40] anybody today and people, a lot of [02:42] people still have an AM emergency radio, [02:45] weather radio in their house and don't [02:46] realize that that's an AM radio. Um, so [02:49] AM radio is vital, but the real issue, [02:51] Stacy, is who's going to control that [02:53] content information in the car. The car [02:56] companies would love to have their [02:58] connected dash and then sell you a [03:00] subscription to everything, collect all [03:02] of your data, and then sell that to [03:04] advertisers. [03:06] >> Yeah, that's nonsense. Uh and and so you [03:08] know obviously I am a host on SiriusXM [03:11] but we have a certain demographic that [03:13] is willing to pay for subscription based [03:15] services but when I'm looking for local [03:18] weather related or you know if I'm [03:20] trying to figure out I'm driving across [03:22] the the state tonight I'm going to you [03:24] know I'm going to head to to Kansas [03:25] City. I want to know what the traffic [03:27] patterns are looking like. I am not [03:29] doing that on Sirius. That's national. [03:31] That's all over the North American [03:32] continent. I'm gonna hit my little [03:34] button that I mentioned, my mode button, [03:35] and I'm gonna get to AM radio or FM, but [03:38] sometimes it's AM. Here we have the [03:40] Mighty Mox KOX. They provide weather and [03:42] traffic updates every 15 minutes. And [03:45] sometimes at the seven minute interval, [03:47] if there's a helicopter flying over [03:48] traffic because there's a big accident, [03:50] I'm going to know about that and that's [03:51] the fastest place for me to get it. [03:53] Also, you mentioned weather alerts. With [03:55] the kind of extreme weather we've seen, [03:56] which by the way is not abnormal. We [03:59] have about 50 extreme weather events a [04:01] year in this country. We just it's [04:03] whether or not the media wants to make [04:05] them a national story. With those things [04:08] happening, I'd like to know, you know, [04:10] if I want my alert that actually comes [04:13] from a siren that's located somewhere [04:14] here in St. Louis County, but if I want [04:16] to know about tornado alerts and keep up [04:18] with it, and I I don't have power for a [04:20] television, we have a little ham radio [04:22] that we can use to access if there's no [04:24] power at all. But I just use my phone [04:26] and I navigate to an AM radio station [04:29] here locally, usually KOX, and get live [04:31] updates on what's going on with [04:33] tornadoes, if there are tornadoes [04:35] touching down. It It's so important. I I [04:37] know it's it's like a benefit of living [04:40] in America where everything's so [04:41] advanced and we're so used to [04:42] everything, but then, as you mentioned, [04:45] the economic pressure for these car [04:47] companies to try to make a buck off of [04:49] the sale of our information could impact [04:51] our access, [04:53] >> right? And so we look at this, the [04:55] reason, you know, we've been, of course, [04:56] we have 120 uh radio station, AM radio [05:00] stations that are our members and and [05:01] it's important for them to be able to [05:03] stay on the air. There are 80 million [05:05] people that still listen to AM radio. [05:08] That's a lot of people across America. [05:11] Uh so it'd be hardressed to say, oh, [05:13] technolog is moving on. Technologies [05:16] moved past AM radio. 80 million people [05:18] is not technology moving on. Um because [05:21] most rural people depend on as you said [05:23] for weather reports, farm reports. It [05:25] really AM radio is still the backbone [05:27] offormational radio. You know, the top [05:30] genres, the top programming on AM radio [05:33] uh is conservative talk, it's [05:35] information programming, it's news, it's [05:38] sports, it's it's Christian talk and [05:40] teach. And it's also the home for a [05:44] large amount of second language radio. [05:48] So Spanish radio and Korean radio and [05:52] Arabic radio um are all on the AM uh [05:55] dial because it's easier for them to [05:57] reach a bigger broader audience out [05:59] there. So So look, we we we're not [06:02] about, you know, stopping advancements [06:05] in technology. We're all about that. But [06:08] we just think that people should have a [06:10] choice and they should continue to have [06:12] a choice for free broadcasting as well [06:15] as doing Siri XM or anything else they [06:17] want to subscribe to. [06:19] >> Yeah. And so I I what I'm hearing from [06:21] you is let's add not subtract, right? So [06:24] you add in any of these new services [06:26] like when you when these these different [06:28] stations added Arabic and and Spanish [06:31] and all the other languages, I didn't [06:33] notice because I don't speak those. But [06:35] the people who wanted access to that [06:37] were able to get it. And so it's [06:39] additional options. And you know, it [06:42] becomes a little more segmented, a [06:43] little more niche. But at the end of the [06:44] day, you mentioned the rural parts of [06:46] our country. We have multiple tens of [06:48] millions of people who are rural in [06:50] America, and we need them to have access [06:52] to these services because they're the [06:54] ones who provide our food. They're the [06:56] ones, you know, there's there's a lot [06:57] going on out there. Most major [06:59] factories, if they're big, huge [07:01] factories, they're rural. I we noticed [07:03] that. We were, of course, driving across [07:05] Missouri and I saw the cargo plant and I [07:08] thought to myself, how far away? The [07:10] only thing out here is the cargo plant. [07:13] Um, some rural towns that are tiny and a [07:15] a a huge prison system that's out there. [07:18] It's like, you know, you can drive by [07:19] the prison system and then you can like [07:21] count to 10 and then there's the cargo [07:22] plant and you're driving by the cargo [07:24] plant for a full five minutes. Like [07:26] that's how big it is. It's just keeps [07:27] going on and on and on. So, a lot of [07:29] companies use the rural area to do that. [07:32] You know, I love NRB. NRB onx and Troy [07:35] Miller, you're the best. Thank you so [07:37] much for joining to keep us up to date. [07:39] >> Well, thank you for having me and [07:41] talking about this important issue. [07:43] >> Good to have you and we'll talk again [07:44] soon. Coming up next, we take a look at [07:47] Gavin Newsome's ever evolving makeover [07:49] as Democrats continue to react to New [07:51] York City's developing mayoral contest. [07:54] Stay with us. [08:00] >> Yep. Your worst nightmare. Your car [08:02] broke down. Now you're worried if it's [08:04] going to cost you a fortune in repair [08:06] bills. Unless you already call Car [08:09] Shield, the legit number one auto [08:11] protection company in the country. When [08:14] you're protected with a plan through Car [08:15] Shield, the process is smooth like ice [08:19] and done in as little as three steps. 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