2 ms·

This is the dumbest goddamned bill to ever exist and it dismays me to see everyone cheering on the iHeartmedia and Audacy bribery. The cover story is that thes

This is the dumbest goddamned bill to ever exist and it dismays me to see everyone cheering on the iHeartmedia and Audacy bribery. The cover story is that these stations are needed in cases of emergency. If that was actually what was going on congress would allocate funding to distribute portable AM radios to citizens-- radios that can be used when your car is destroyed or inaccessible like it will be in a hurricane, flood, or blizzard. If you even have a car.

CivBase 2y ago
Do you have any idea how much it would cost for the government to distribute portable AM radios to everyone? This law is way less expensive and it's good enough for most use cases.
- Der_Einzige 2y ago
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volksempf%C3%A4nger https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volksempf%C3%A4nger Hitler basically sort of did this and it was wildly successful for them.
- massysett 2y ago
  My guess: probably about what it cost to distribute Covid tests, but how much that was I don’t know.
thsksbd 2y ago
20 years ago everyone had very many AM radios (car, kitchen radio, alarm clocks, etc). Even today the vast majority of households have at least one AM radio in their car. The best part is that the poorer you are, the more likely you are to have an AM radio. The only people congress would need to subsidize AM radios for are upper middle class laptop warriors.
msla 2y ago
The problem is that radio stations typically don't have anyone in the booth most of the time, if ever: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minot_train_derailment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minot_train_derailment > The Minot train derailment occurred just west of Minot, North Dakota, United States, on January 18, 2002, when a Canadian Pacific Railway freight train derailed, spreading ammonia gas across the city, delaying rescue operations. The cause was found to be small fatigue cracks in the rails and joint bars, not detectable by the inspection routines then enforced by Canadian Pacific. [snip] > Because it was the middle of the night, there were few people at local radio stations, all operated by Clear Channel with mostly automated programming. No formal emergency warnings were issued for several hours while Minot officials located station managers at home. North Dakota's public radio network, Prairie Public Broadcasting, was notified and did broadcast warnings to citizens. And Minot is one of the bigger cities in North Dakota.

CivBase 2y ago

Do you have any idea how much it would cost for the government to distribute portable AM radios to everyone? This law is way less expensive and it's good enough for most use cases.

Der_Einzige 2y ago
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volksempf%C3%A4nger https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volksempf%C3%A4nger Hitler basically sort of did this and it was wildly successful for them.
massysett 2y ago
My guess: probably about what it cost to distribute Covid tests, but how much that was I don’t know.

thsksbd 2y ago

20 years ago everyone had very many AM radios (car, kitchen radio, alarm clocks, etc). Even today the vast majority of households have at least one AM radio in their car. The best part is that the poorer you are, the more likely you are to have an AM radio. The only people congress would need to subsidize AM radios for are upper middle class laptop warriors.

msla 2y ago

The problem is that radio stations typically don't have anyone in the booth most of the time, if ever: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minot_train_derailment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minot_train_derailment > The Minot train derailment occurred just west of Minot, North Dakota, United States, on January 18, 2002, when a Canadian Pacific Railway freight train derailed, spreading ammonia gas across the city, delaying rescue operations. The cause was found to be small fatigue cracks in the rails and joint bars, not detectable by the inspection routines then enforced by Canadian Pacific. [snip] > Because it was the middle of the night, there were few people at local radio stations, all operated by Clear Channel with mostly automated programming. No formal emergency warnings were issued for several hours while Minot officials located station managers at home. North Dakota's public radio network, Prairie Public Broadcasting, was notified and did broadcast warnings to citizens. And Minot is one of the bigger cities in North Dakota.