When I was a little kid, I picked up a few “tells” when watching TV commercials. For example, if the same low-quality ad ran three or more times during the same episode, don’t get too attached to the plotline — ‘cause that show is getting canceled ASAP.
Hey, it’s nothing personal: TV is a business that sells airtime. If the air ain’t selling, that show is going. (And it always seemed to happen to the shows I really liked. I still weep for Sledge Hammer!.)
Another tell I gleaned: If all the ads are targeting someone else, this show wasn’t created with me in mind. So, if I saw something interesting in TV Guide, turned on the show, and saw that all the ads were for Barbie dolls, makeup, and feminine products, I usually nope’d outta there.
Because ad executives aren’t (entirely) stupid. In the Before Time — that forgotten era when the Tech Gods couldn’t digitally surveil our every move — an ad executive’s job was aligning his ad buys with his product’s demo. The ROI was straightforward and testable: The smarter the ad buy, the more products were sold.
It unmasked a show’s real, actual audience.
That brings us to today’s cable news networks, including Fox News, CNN, MS NOW, and Newsmax. What kind of commercials are they showing?
Right: Reverse mortgages. Incontinence medication. Drugs for old people.
It’s not a healthy demo!
Same goes for AM radio. Between 2015 and 2025, we lost over 340 AM stations. Dozens more went off the air in the first half of 2026.
Radio’s economics have shifted: Budgets are birth-strangled. A yuuuge number of news-talk AM stations are now 100% syndicated feeds, plus a few local news reads.
There used to be multiple AM radio hosts in every city — morning, afternoon, and night. They became local celebrities. That model is vanishing, because today’s economics won’t allow it.
There’s less talent and fewer opportunities.
It parallels the painfully noticeable cable TV brain-drain: Once upon a time, landing a prime-time show on Fox News or CNN would make you a power player. It meant you were the best of the best; you had reached the pinnacle of your industry.
Today, most of the top broadcasting talent is monetizing their wares on YouTube, independent media, or a subscription model. Fox News needs them more than they need Fox News. The days of media titans gatekeeping talent have ended.
The culprit? Competition.
We’re digitally wired 24/7. Cable TV and AM radio aren’t just competing against the other stations — they’re also battling Spotify, personal playlists, YouTube, X, Facebook, TikTok, audiobooks, and 3.7 million active podcasts.
I used to listen to radio all the time in my car. Couldn’t imagine traveling without it. Going from city to city, flicking through the dial, and discovering local hosts was almost a ritual.
Now, 99.9% of the time I’m listening to my music playlist (which rocks) or a podcast.
In PR, there’s a maxim: The medium is the message. That is is an overstatement, of course, but the theory behind it — that the medium shapes how the message is received — is true.
Radio and TV are different. (Just ask Richard Nixon in 1960.) TV and podcasts are different. (Just ask Kamala Harris in 2024.) In each example, the losing candidate focused their energies on old media — and was devoured by the new.
There’s a political advantage to staying ahead of the curve.
PRediction: It’s counterintuitive, but AM radio is still worth investing in — and will continue to be a political force.
Don’t get me wrong: It won’t be the mega-power it was during Rush Limbaugh’s heyday. Stations will continue to close, and budgets will continue to shrink.
Because digital competition isn’t going away. It’s still increasing.
But in an era of fear and doomerism, AM stations fulfill a public need that podcasts cannot. They’re the zig to the Internet’s zag.
During times of crisis, AM is there. When a storm knocks out power (and Wi-Fi), AM is there. When you’re driving down the highway and there’s a traffic or weather advisory, it’s usually updated on an AM radio station.
It’s a safety issue. AM radio is still the most cost-efficient way to broadcast news during emergencies.
There’s another reason, too: government shenanigans!
Just a few years earlier, AM was DOA.
The Hill (May 15, 2023): Say Goodbye to AM Radio: Why Carmakers Are Removing It From New Models
Your next car might be missing a button – the one to switch between AM and FM radio. Car manufacturers are increasingly opting to eliminate AM radio in their new vehicles.
BMW, Mazda, Volvo, Volkswagen and Tesla, among others, have either already removed or plan to remove AM radio from at least some electric models. Ford is going even further, reports the Detroit Free Press, and ditching AM in all new cars – gas or electric.
Those plans are now on hold.
USA Today (Sept. 16, 2026): Bill to Require AM Radio in Automobiles Passes House
Members of the House of Representatives passed legislation to require AM broadcast radio devices in all automobiles on Tuesday, Sept. 15, a move to ensure than Americans have access to information during emergencies.
"Tens of millions of Americans tune into broadcast AM radio every day," House Energy & Commence Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie said on the House floor, according to a press release. "Farmers use AM radio for weather forecasts, local information, and crop reports, while older Americans rely on it for local news and programming.
"AM radio is a critical tool for emergency communications. When a disaster hits and a broadband network goes dark, AM radio can continue providing critical emergency information to communities," said Guthrie, a Kentucky representative.
PRojection: Most conservatives, I imagine, are of two minds on this. Generally speaking, we’re not crazy about government interference in private industry — or forcing manufacturers to include old technology that’s been dollar-voted obsolete. It isn’t exactly consistent with laissez-faire governance.
But on the other hand, AM stations are dominated by religious and conservative programming. They've had an enormous impact on political discourse. (Many of our VIPs are ex-Dittoheads — as am I.)
Bottom line?
Keeping AM in cars is good for the GOP.
Are the Republicans overplaying the safety angle to protect a favorable media platform?
Sure. Politics is politics. (If the Democrats were in our shoes, they’d do the same thing.)
But that doesn’t mean the safety issue isn’t legitimate.
I thought this was interesting: On Reddit’s “Politics” message board — which is overwhelmingly left-wing and stridently anti-Trump — the comments were at least 75% pro-AM radio. Safety concerns were their go-to reason.
Which means that this will be an easy sell for the Republicans: Conservatives want to protect AM radio, and liberals fear their own shadow.
Play the safety card — and we’ll win the political benefit.
PRaise: To President Donald Trump for perfectly handling the next great media hysteria, AI and chatbots. His idea of an “AI Force” and an AI czar to mitigate AI doomerism was nothing short of genius.
Honestly? I don’t know what the AI Force is supposed to do. And neither does President Trump. (Or anyone else.)
Because it’s completely irrelevant — and that’s the point: An imaginary problem demanded an imaginary solution!
I’m not a doomer. I believe AI will be transformative, groundbreaking, and trigger vast socioeconomic changes — but these extinction-level pontifications are frickin’ goofy. Any technology with the power to help has the power to hurt, but the idea we’re creating AI deities that will conquer the planet within the decade is pessimistic, misanthropic hubris.
The inconvenient truth is that AI doomerism is the new environmentalism. It’s media hysteria over the next great media platform: AI.
So Trump answered their made-up concerns with a made-up job!
Y’know, sometimes I’m critical of President Trump — mostly because my expectations are so dang high — but I’m sure gonna miss him when he’s gone. Love the guy. His instincts are next-level.
When they made DJT, they broke the mold.
PRedators: Here’s a little media nugget that didn’t get much attention. And I’ll betcha a Diet Coke that Tucker Carlson won’t cover it.
Ars Technica (Sept. 18, 2026): FCC Lets Paramount Sell 49.5% Equity Stake to Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Qatar
The Federal Communications Commission yesterday approved Paramount Skydance’s plan to sell large equity stakes to the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar.
Under US law, companies with licenses to run broadcast stations need FCC approval to have direct or indirect foreign ownership exceeding 25 percent of the company’s stock. Paramount says its indirect foreign ownership will reach 49.5 percent after it receives investments from the sovereign wealth funds and filed a petition asking the FCC to waive the foreign ownership limit.
The Sunni Muslim PR campaign is the biggest, most far-reaching campaign in world history. The amount of money that Qatar and Saudi Arabia have spent to sway U.S. public opinion is already in the hundreds of billions.
Meanwhile, left-wing celebrities like Mark Ruffalo have bitterly attacked the role of Jewish businessmen like Larry and David Ellison for their involvement in the Paramount merger. Ruffalo cited Israel as a contributing factor, too.
Imagine what Ruffalo and Carlson would say if ISRAEL had purchased a 49.5% stake in Paramount!
But because it’s Qatar and Saudi Arabia, it’s no big deal. Relax, guys. Nothin’ to see here.
That’s the media rule: No Jews, no news.
