Smartphone manufactures are deliberately disabling the FM/AM chip that is already onboard their device's electronics. This does two things, it forces you to use more data from your carrier by having to stream local radio, but it also requires to you purchase streaming packages from leagues such as MLB, NFL, and now even university sports, because the leagues prohibit the local stations from streaming the games on their local stream. The issue is that the local broadcasts are free to the public on terrestrial radio, yet the local stations are prohibited to stream the exact same broadcast through their online stream.

Requiring someone to purchase a streaming service if they are outside of the local broadcast area is a reasonable expectation. You are demanding a service that requires infrastructure for transmission, and that requires support. Denying someone access to a local broadcast on an FM/AM receiver already built into a phone's hardware, but being deliberately disabled, is unfair to the consumers and must be put to an end.

Enabling our smartphones to receive terrestrial AM/FM transmissions also affords the public an additional level of safety and security as it will provide the public with the ability to hear land based broadcasts in the case of a catastrophe that would interrupt Internet and thus bringing the streaming service down, rendering our primary communication devices worthless. Fewer and fewer people have FM/AM radios in their homes. This is a very real concern.

Please sign this petition to have regulation passed to require the installation and support of AM/FM chips on all cell phones and the complete support in these devices receiving the terrestrial transmissions of all stations within the range of the device.