As part of this year’s World Radio Day celebration, which marked 100 years of radio, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) called upon the technology and automotive industries to ensure that radio remains available in cars.
The statement comes as AM radio advocates continue the fight on Capitol Hill to keep the senior band as a mainstay in electric vehicles and new models, some of which have already dropped the service.
In a joint statement issued on Feb. 13, UNESCO and a notable contingent of worldwide broadcast organizations, including AMARC International, the European Broadcasting Union, the Public Media Alliance and the World Radio Alliance, urged the design of future automobile models to include broadcast radio.
“Radio has its place in the digital transformation of the information ecosystem, complementing the internet and digital platforms,” the statement read. “The evolution of communication technologies should advance people’s right to receive information and ideas through any media — instead of regressing it.”
UNESCO lauded radio for proving itself as a “crucial medium” in times of crisis, including when broadband service is unavailable or power is disrupted. Radio was also highlighted for demonstrating the trust it has with citizens through “repeated studies” — ranked above television, the internet or social media.
“Radio is a triumph of accessibility, immediacy and intimacy and there’s a strong public-interest case for protecting it and our access to it,” UNESCO said.
UNESCO said it believes that the exclusion of radio from vehicles would limit people’s access to information solely to online platforms. Regardless of how radio broadcasts are received, via analog or digital means or delivered through terrestrial over-the-air signals or internet streams, the statement underscores that “radio in cars should not just be easy to find, it must be impossible to miss.”
The joint statement concludes by calling upon “governments, regulatory bodies, the technology and automotive industries, and all members of the global radio community to put safeguards in place to ensure that radio continues to thrive; to protect the free and unfettered access radio provides to a plurality of opinions and to trusted information.”
