AM Radio Will Still Ride Along…For Now | Barrett Media (2024)

In our last chapter on the fight to keep the AM radio in your car, things were not looking so good for the Sunday morning religious shows, exhaustingly predictable talk hosts, and the largely underpaid local news anchors.

But Ford has apparently heard the call from lawmakers, FEMA, and a variety of other concerned citizens, enough at least that they have announced they will back off their plans to do away with AM band in their new vehicles. For now, at least.

So, I will say the U-Turn decision by Ford is nice. Yes, I would venture to say it is nice. But is this a victory or merely a stay of execution?

And since no matter what, AM radio is not disappearing or soon to become unavailable, why don’t we just say this is more a case of bail continued until sentencing day.

What it means is there will be more cars and trucks with AM radios on our roads than we thought there would be last week.

How much of an impact will it make? I don’t think it will make much at all.

There are still a lot more car manufacturers going ahead with their plans to do away with AM so the math will not be grounds for celebration.

The math itself is simple. You don’t use what you don’t want. And you probably won’t use what you don’t believe you need. Even if you might need it now and then.

My vehicle has a trailer hitch. I don’t use that either. I don’t need it. It just happens to be there.

In other words, it does nothing for me and for many people neither does AM radio.

Where do you think these car makers got the idea in the first place to take the AM band out of the vehicles?

I’m sure they asked a few people.

How likely are you to not buy this car if it doesn’t have an AM radio in it?

Ever hear of market research? We did this already.

I’m glad, for now at least, that a few more people will have a choice. We deserve that. We are the ones buying stuff. Treat us with respect.

I have expressed this opinion before. You can put an AM radio everywhere but if the content is not worth the effort, then all it becomes is a receptacle for go-to emergency broadcasts and possibly some inane chatter or white noise to fall asleep by.

I’ve said this before too: Give them something worth listening to and they might listen. They might give it a try and they might actually like it. But here is the trick. Now that you have them, how do you keep them?

Well, now you must be consistently good or at least not awful. That’s harder than it seems, just zigzag across the country and find out.

Oh, when you do you have to turn your AM radio on and keep it on. No cheating, no flipping to the FM or satellite or your own playlists or podcasts or audiobooks.

Could you do it?

The blame for subpar content or a lack of listener-friendly programming is not all the fault of those behind the microphone or those producing, writing, or booking. But you already know that and so do I.

So just look up.

If management or corporate executives are physically upstairs as opposed to around the corner or down the hall. My experience over the last few years has been they are rarely in the building.

But regardless of where they physically might be they are often the ones behind all that glitters or does not.

I have found a good clue to what you might be getting on the air can be taken from a glimpse at the station’s website.

Most stations and managers put a great deal of emphasis on driving viewers, listeners, and readers to their home page. So, go there but go past the landing page with the obligatory three web stories that are less than 24 hours old and delve a bit deeper.

You are most likely to find a lot of material from last week, last month, and even last year if you click on a few sections. Some outlets I have some familiarity with have a mostly corporate-run website with plenty of room though for local elements like news stories, programming schedules, and show host biographies.

You’d think at minimum they would update their lineups, their show schedules, and add some information to entice that reader back to the air product. You’d think.

Nostalgic as I might be, I do not particularly care who was hosting in 2021 nor do I want to listen to an interview with a losing mayoral candidate from a year and a half ago. If your air drives somebody to your website or vice-versa, there should be something of value waiting there for them.

Remember, respect for the audience, the customer is always right, or karma is a …

Back on that cross-country trip, you are likely to find some good things in your travels, largely local and national sports talk, maybe a bit of financial chat, or solid religious conversation. But is it enough to fight off the eviction of AM from your car?

And don’t forget the demographics. The only time my kid listened to the AM band was to hear me (once) and even that took a bit of prompting. Her generation and the one after her, are the last chance to bring on some additional support.

After then, who will be listening?

Tell us why these stations need to stay there when we can generally find them or what they offer in other configurations.

Just as I asked last time, what can AM do that others cannot?

If I know my gene pool, my grandchildren are not going to be fighting for AM radio in their space boats or their flying cars.

CDs maybe.

Grateful and determined at 26 years old, Madison Scarpino has accomplished what takes some journalists their entire career to achieve: becoming a national reporter.

“I would love watching things like the Today Show or Good Morning America or Fox and Friends and just thought, you know, that would be a really cool career,” Scarpino told Barrett News Media over Zoom.

She began her new role at Fox News on December 4th and said she now has the opportunity to work with reporters who’ve inspired her, “Aishah Hasnie is someone that I’ve really enjoyed watching her work and would love to be the type of journalist that she is today.”

The oldest of three, Madison Scarpino says her family were not big news watchers and often moved. “I actually don’t really have a hometown. My dad’s in the Navy, so I moved around every two to three years my whole life, which is kind of crazy.” She added, “Everyone always says like, ‘Oh my gosh, it must be so hard.’ But it’s really all I ever knew and I think it definitely set me up for the stuff that I do now.”

Moving across the country, Scarpino’s experienced so many parts of the United States but to keep things simple she often says, “I’m from Florida because I lived in Jacksonville twice. And then I graduated high school in Tampa.”

Tampa — also known as “The Big Guava” — is where Scarpino feels the most connected because she said, “I loved my high school experience,” adding, “I went to school, called Tampa Catholic and made some really good friends there and, you know, I think it’s a pretty diverse place.”



One unexpected love of Scarpino’s from her Tampa days? Cuban culture.

“There’s a big Cuban population there and a lot of my friends are Cuban. I fell in love with that culture and just everything,” she later added, “I’m Italian and we take family very seriously. And just that having that tight-knit circle, I think it’s very similar to the Cuban culture. I also love the food that they make. One of my best friend’s mom makes like the best Mojo pork.”

She attended The University of Mississippi and graduated in 2020. Of her time at Ole Miss she said, “I did go to a lot of games in the Grove, which is just, you go to any city school and they have these big blowout tailgates and celebrations like pre-game, during the game, post-game.”

However, her favorite memory from college is not Rebel football but, “The school news station, though, that is just where I fell in love with what now is my absolute passion.” Scarpino continued to say. “Once I started at Newswatch [at] Ole Miss and majored in broadcast journalism, I figured, let’s try this out.”

Starting out as a weather reporter, she told herself, “If I don’t like being in front of the camera, I feel uncomfortable. I don’t have to do this. I could do radio, I could do print.” She said of herself then.“I was very nervous at first. But being a weather reporter was a lot of ad-libbing at Ole Miss versus following an actual script and I just became more and more comfortable at it.”

Becoming more comfortable on air, she later found her journalistic passion. “I started kind of doing more hard news stories and, you know, just more local news type stuff and that’s when I kind of realized this is more what I think I’m good at,” she added, “Being able to tell people’s stories, especially when it comes to big breaking news, things that a lot of people care about being able to do that just meant a lot to me.”

From the Ole Miss Newsroom, she became an MMJ in Huntsville, Alabama. She worked out of the bureau for the rural counties in the Tennessee Valley on NBC affiliate WFAA 48. Madison Scarpino then moved on to Fox’s MMR program.

Created in 2011, the rigorous program sends reporters across the country to shoot, produce, edit, and report content for Fox News Media platforms. In a press release, the network said after two years the hope is to help reporters become stronger journalists in the field. Many new faces within the Fox conglomerate began in the MMR program including correspondents Garrett Tenney, Hillary Vaughn, Maddy Rivera, and Madison Scarpino.


Of her time in the program Scarpino said, “I think that being in MMR has really set me up for success in this position. Again, I have to earn that and I’m looking forward to working as hard as I can and being the best journalist that I can at this level.”

She added, “Being able to really only focus on national news and know how network news works and just travel around the country, I get to see many different parts of it and cultures. I think without that I would not be ready for the position that I am in today.”

During Scarpino’s tenure in the MMR program, she was sent across the country to cover several mass shootings including the ones in Highland Park, Dallas, and the Covenant School in Nashville. “I’ll never forget the people in that area were more than willing to talk to me and just wanted to say like, how amazing of a community it was and just like how the people want to come together [after a tragedy like] this,” Scarpino said. “When you get to actually talk to people in the community and see how they’re feeling. That’s what sticks with me the most.”

For those looking to follow in Scarpino’s footsteps her advice is simple. “There are going to be days that you have to come in early and stay late or go the extra mile to make it far in this industry. And that’s not always the most fun thing to do. But if you really love this career, it will pay off.”

Madison Scarpino recognizes the timing of her accomplishments is rare but said, “I feel very lucky to be in the position that I’m in.” She said her goal right now is simple, “I want to focus on just being the best journalist that I can [and] become someone who people trust and want to watch.”

TikTok is a controversial app. Some believe it is an arm of the Chinese government. Others believe it is extremely time-consuming and has taken America’s kids off track. Interestingly, both theories haven’t ever been fully debunked.

While they could hold some truth, the fact of the matter is TikTok and its algorithm have changed how we use social media forever. The ability to consume snackable content that is succinct, to the point, and covers many different aspects of our society is what makes it so unique. It is packaged as a product you can use while on the go or when you can’t find anything to watch on TV. It’s an idea generator and a product that humanizes your neighbor next door, your best friend, or that celebrity who doesn’t speak much during press runs.

TikTok and its format are the future of media. The future is here now and it will only continue to evolve. Because of this, it is so important for news companies, both local and national, to put more resources into TikTok and into creating a scrollable conclave of content for their own apps and operations. The biggest problem going into the election is how quickly rumors spread on social media, particularly on TikTok.

Last week, rumors spread that TD Jakes, the leader of a Dallas megachurch, was involved in a sex scandal that was orchestrated by Diddy. The rumor wasn’t reported by an entertainment news site. It wasn’t reported by a reporter and it wasn’t even reported by a random blogger who normally participates in rumor-mongering and gets one or two reports out of 100 correct. It was “reported” by a random woman sitting in her room making a TikTok.

The woman has no history in reporting. No history or connection with TD Jakes, Diddy, music, churches, entertainment reporting, or anything in between. It is literally just a random woman who decided to give a random take and post it. Her TikTok went viral and was reposted onto other social media sites. It went so viral that TD Jakes addressed the rumors himself while conducting Christmas service at his church. His organization released a statement denying the claims and referred to the woman on TikTok.

She posted a video afterward reacting with shock, amazement, and an unwavering yet ironic glee that her random thoughts became such a powerful mechanism for speculation that it forced Jakes to respond. Even she knew through her reaction without saying it that she doesn’t have a legitimate backing or history to be taken seriously when it comes to gathering and distributing reputable information.

It is only a matter of time before another random person decides to post unsolicited thoughts and conspiracies about the election that eventually go viral. How will the news networks respond? As of now, all of the major broadcast and cable news networks except for Fox News are on TikTok. They all do a great job of promoting clips from their television shows into TikTok content. They also do a great job, especially CNN, of creating native TikTok content that fits the ethos of the app. CNN has even launched its own version of TikTok on its own app that uses the same type of formatted video.

As 2024 draws near, it is imperative that each network continues to put resources into the app that American youth are using the most. It’s also important to create even more content that is native to the site to attract a diverse audience who depends on them for facts. It may not be monetizable, but going live on TikTok with a specific stream made for the app or participating in the app’s unique features will help in providing a reliable bond between young people and their brands – especially during a time when the app’s users have quickly become more susceptible to following pages and people that fit their political views rather than the truth.

The biggest key to success is to latch on to trends as quickly as possible. Whenever someone goes viral with what they have to say about a specific candidate, it is imperative news organizations blanket the app with the facts and truth of the matter. Some things may sound crazy. Some things may sound like common sense.

But those are the same things that can alter the state of the election and what people believe about what is happening in the world around them. TikTok and the ability to be unique on the app will set news organizations apart from the rest of the pack.

You already know what you’re going to get from the news media in 2024. If you’re a radio talk host or a reporter or (heaven forbid) a cable news pundit, you know — pretty much — what you’re going to be doing, even if the details aren’t quite formed yet.

You will, despite endless entreaties from people like me, treat the entire year as a horse race, analyzing polls, and each twist and turn of the news with “What does this mean for (insert name of candidate here)?”

You will do this, no matter how you feel about it, and you will be criticized for it, and nothing I say here will change that. It’s unavoidable, and since we’ve trained generations to expect it and to treat election years like the Super Bowl and root for their team, you really have to do it to some extent.

But you don’t have to do it the same way everyone else does it, and if you’re a local talker, reporter, or columnist, you have a great option. It’s a variant of the old “All politics is local” trope: just explain to your audience what, in every election story, it will mean to them, on a local, individual basis. Bring everything down to how it affects the listener, viewer, or reader, and make it specific to your own area.

Doing this will make the big issues less abstract, less theoretical, less doesn’t-matter-to-me to the people you’re trying to reach. You can boil economy stories down to pocketbook level, job stories to whether your local area is benefiting, democracy issues – hard to believe we’re debating whether to preserve democracy, but here we are – to whether, and how, your state is interfering with voting rights.

You can talk about whether your representatives have been successful in bringing jobs and grants to your districts, or whether they’ve gotten mired in the performative aspects of Congress. People glaze over when you report on the economy until you talk about what it means at the grocery store and gas pump, or the rent, or their taxes, and those vary by state, county, and even city. (Example: Gas prices have plummeted, but whereas it’s no longer an issue in places where the price is low, it’s still higher than comfortable in, say, California, so the discussion is different depending on where you are.)

There are myriad ways of taking pretty much any political issue and focusing on aspects that are germane to your audience’s everyday lives. Candidates go to primary states to make a show of caring about what Iowans and New Hampshire voters need, and then forget it the moment the primaries are over. You, on the other hand, aren’t moving on to the next state. You’re still there, in the community. You can keep the focus on what matters to your audience. You can leave the national perspective to the national media.

That, after all, is your strategic advantage in competing with the national press, your ability to focus on the local angle. Besides, whenever the national reporters deign to look at anything local, they end up just interviewing randos at diners, and you can do a lot better than that. (If you do talk radio, your callers are randos, but at least they’re your randos.)

If you are indeed a local news person, let that be your 2024 resolution. Aspire to do better than reporting the horse race. And if you’re in the national news business, try to do the same. That’s not too much to ask, is it?

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On a personal note, looking back at 2023, I’m just happy to have made it to the end of the year. (Assuming, that is, that I make it through the next few days. Can’t be certain about anything these days.) I’m grateful to Jason Barrett for giving me a great platform to continue this column, and I’m looking forward to annoying everyone every week in 2024 and pursuing new creative opportunities, whatever they may be.

If there are topics about which you’d like me to bloviate, or projects for which I might be a good fit, you can reach me at [emailprotected].

Oh, yeah. Happy New Year. This one oughta be interesting.