FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai Is An AM Radio Fan

Ajit Pai

FCC Commissioner AJIT PAI is featured in an article in THE NEW YORK TIMES, championing AM Radio. THE TIMES notes, "The digital age is killing AM radio, an American institution that brought the nation fireside chats, CASEY KASEM’s Top 40 and scratchy broadcasts of the World Series. Long surpassed by FM and more recently cast aside by satellite radio and PANDORA, AM is now under siege from a new threat: rising interference from smartphones and consumer electronics that reduce many AM stations to little more than static. Its audience has sunk to historical lows."

But PAI, who cites his love of AM from listening as a child, is urging the FCC to overhaul the band, which he calls "the audible core of our national culture," because of its coverage of local news, sports, talk and religious broadcasts.

"AM radio is localism, it is community," said PAI. "When the power goes out, when you can’t get a good cell signal, when the Internet goes down, people turn to battery-powered AM radios to get the information they need.

Read the full article here.

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