Congress can’t protect radio without protecting artists

Here’s a question for Congress: What good is radio without music?

Imagine you’re a hard-working musician who has spent years perfecting your craft. Your tracks have been heard by millions of listeners. Your guitar riff is the hook that keeps commuters tuned in during rush hour. Your voice is the reason a trucker stays locked on a station through the night.

And for all of that, terrestrial AM and FM radio pay you nothing — not a single penny.

There are thousands of artists across America — some of whom you know, most of whom you don’t — whose performances are the product that AM and FM radio use to earn nearly $14 billion in advertising revenue each year. And unlike every other democracy, the U.S. still does not require radio corporations to pay the artists for that privilege.

This is the backdrop against which some in the radio industry are now calling on Congress to pass the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act, legislation that would mandate automakers include AM radio in every new car sold in America.

They want Congress to hand the broadcast radio industry an historic, government-mandated lifeline, forcing automakers to install their technology in every vehicle on the road, without asking broadcasters to do anything in return for the artists whose music is the reason people turn on the radio in the first place.

At its core, the AM for Every Vehicle Act is a gift to big corporations like iHeart, Cumulus, and Audacy. It will lock in their distribution channel for years to come, ensuring a captive audience in every car that rolls off the assembly line. These are not struggling mom-and-pop operations. They are sophisticated, consolidated media conglomerates that spend millions lobbying Congress each year to protect and expand their business model.

Meanwhile, that business model has a gaping hole at its center: It pays nothing for its primary input. AM and FM radio is the only major music platform in America that does not pay performance royalties to the artists whose recordings it uses. Streaming services pay. Satellite radio pays. Internet radio pays. But terrestrial radio rides free on the public airwaves while profiting off the work of others — a sweetheart deal that has persisted for well over a century.

And because American broadcasters don’t pay artists, foreign radio stations withhold hundreds of millions of dollars from American artists as well. This would end, of course, if we finally closed the radio loophole.

That’s why it is critical that if Congress passes the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act, it needs to pair it with the American Music Fairness Act, bipartisan legislation that requires AM/FM corporations to start paying artists fairly.

The American Music Fairness Act was introduced last year by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.). It has strong support across the aisle with both Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill. President Trump supports the bill. So do major conservative policy groups and more than 300 major recording artists.

The American Music Fairness Act is narrowly tailored to protect small and community broadcasters with annual fees as low as $10, while asking big radio corporations to finally pay their fair share. It levels the playing field for radio with other music platforms. It brings back money that’s wrongfully held overseas. And it corrects an injustice that artists from Frank Sinatra to Randy Travis to Gene Simmons have been asking Congress to fix for decades.

These two issues are inextricably linked. That’s why Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) stopped the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act from being included in the continuing funding resolution at the end of 2024. He recognized that massive corporations shouldn’t profit off of musicians unless those musicians are compensated for their work that keeps radio alive.

If Congress has the desire to fast-track a government mandate forcing AM and FM radio into every new car, it can surely find the time to also ensure that the people who make radio worth listening to are paid fairly for their work.

Some will say this is the wrong time, or the wrong vehicle, or that the issues should be handled separately. But we have heard those arguments for decades, and they have kept artists from being fairly paid for over a century. The broadcast industry and their armies of lobbyists will always have a reason to delay. There will never be a convenient moment for the most powerful players in the room to volunteer to pay for something they’ve gotten for free for 100 years.

Congress must pass both bills, protecting AM radio in every vehicle and protecting the artists who make every recording.

Do that, and you will have accomplished something genuinely historic — not just preserving a century-old technology, but finally bringing it into the modern era where the people who create the content are respected and compensated.

That’s not just good copyright policy — it is the American way.

Michael Huppe is president and CEO of SoundExchange.

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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