Either You Are for Limited Government or Not!
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There’s an old quip out there, you can’t get a little bit pregnant. And kind of go along with that. Either you’re for limited government or you’re not for limited government. And here’s an example of this. And again, this is something where I would be biased. I would be biased because, again, this act of government intervention would benefit my business. I don’t care.
disagree with it. I got to give kudos to Rand Paul right now. He’s trying to stop legislation that would require automakers to continue to put dashboard AM radio in cars. It would also, at the same time while he’s doing this, would also eliminate electric vehicle subsidies, which I totally agree on. Anyway,
Yeah, Ed Markey, Democrat Ed Markey, he’s about as left as left could be, introduced the AM for Every Vehicle Act with the goal of ensuring that this, may I quote, that this resilient and popular communications tool does not become a relic of the past. Well, Ed, couldn’t someone make the argument for, I don’t know, eight tracks in your car? What about cassette?
tapes, CD players, they don’t even put them in cars anymore. But no, we gotta force car makers to continue to put AM radios in the cars. Again, if it was so great and it was so resilient, car manufacturers would be falling all over one another to continue to provide it. Eight of the 20 major automobile companies have ceased offering the service.
Again, I got Ted Cruz on board with this. Now, why do you think this is? Marquis and Cruz. Well, again, they got people in the broadcasting business, people that own multiple radio stations and whatnot that are saying, you gotta hook me up here, guys. You gotta hook us up. We need to continue to have this in cars. And again, will it lead?
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be leading towards a demise of the medium to some degree? Yeah. Yeah, and guess what? That’s capitalism, Ed, Ted, this thing, Joseph Schumpert’s called creative destruction, and I’m in it. Full disclosure here, okay? I’m on hundreds of radio stations, many of them AM around the country. Now,
Currently, many of these AM stations are also starting to broadcast on FM signals as well. But consumer tastes have changed. It’s the reality of the terrain. They’ve changed. People consume media differently. Now, I started seeing this coming, you know, several years ago, started doing podcasts.
You know, then you know what, maybe I should start doing video, start doing vlogs and start trying to build my way up in this medium. And it takes time. It takes time. I last year, again, I can’t track. Almost impossible. You can’t even believe the ratings that you get from various different radio stations. It’s all nonsensical, but I can see the amount of downloads that I’m getting, the amount of people that sign up for our podcast, the amount of people that download it. And I…
I think the medium is great. Do I love AM radio? Do I love radio as a whole? I absolutely adore it. I think it’s great. But radio stationals are gonna have to adjust. They’re gonna have to start working deals with FM broadcasters and working together because again, that’s life. It is what it is. And again, going into the fact that, you know, you have a choice, people. You know, Ted Cruz, again, the big conservative guy out there.
You know, he says this is about protecting free speech. How is it about protecting free speech? How? I don’t get that. I get it. There’s a lot of conservative talkers out there and I’m sure a lot of people are going to be upset. A lot of Christian broadcasting that is done on AM radio. Well, they’re going to have to figure it out. Get an FM.
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license or work with an FM broadcaster, see some consolidation within that industry and move forward.
The debate over free speech as listed in the First Amendment is that government shall pass no law, said Rand Paul. It has nothing to do with forcing your manufacturer to have AM radio. This legislation attempts to insert Congress’s judgment into a question best decided by American consumers. And I agree. I agree, he’s right. It’s bad for business for me. But he’s right. Watchdogonwallstreet.com.
