First FM broadcasting

[Telecolor 3007]

In what country took place the first FM radio broadcasting (for the public, not experimental). Din in the '50's existed FM radios which broadcasted Rock And Roll in Memphis, TN area?
Here, in Romania,we had the first FM broadcasting in May 1963.

[Celt]

My earliest memories of FM in the Mid-South was of KASU 91.9 (college station) in Jonesboro, Arkansas and of WMC FM-100 in Memphis, Tennessee. That around 1965.

[Telecolor 3007]

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[Telecolor 3007]

And in what year did take place the fist public FM broadcasting?

[Nick_the_'Nole]

July 18, 1939. W2MXN 42.8mhz in Alpine, NJ. That was on the original FM band, but still public and regularly scheduled.

[Charlie]

The 88-108 mhz band as we know today... didn't this start showing up on radios around 1947 or 48? I guess that's when FM started to become popular?

I recall re-capping a 1948 Airline for someone a few years back... it had the 88-108 FM band. Seems that was the earliest set for FM that I've had my hands on.

[Nick_the_'Nole]

It was officially mandated in 1945, but I don't know for sure how long it took for radios to switch. Prolly was '47 or so before it really went into effect.

[Reece]

As stated, the first FM broadcasts were mostly around NY and New England (Yankee Network) in the late 30's, early 40's, on the old FM band. The war interrupted this. David Sarnoff of RCA/NBC was not interested in FM at the time as he was busy developing TV. The whole story of Sarnoff vs. Armstong etc. has been well documented elsewhere: pretty complicated.

Anyway, the war interrupted development of FM and stopped production of any domestic radio sets. After the war, production started up again, but the FCC moved the FM broadcasting band to the present frequencies to make room for TV: Sarnoff had a hand in this. For awhile, some sets had both the old and new FM bands on them, late 40's sets.

FM was not very popular during the 50's and what there was often just sounded like Muzak or elevator music. There were some classical stations, too. The Golden Age of Radio was not yet dead in the 50's, but TV was gradually doing it in. There were still comedy, drama, etc. shows on the AM radio during the 50's, and popular music too. Radio as it had been known during the 30's and 40's was pretty much dead at the end of the 50's and radio became a music and news medium. Pop music was still on AM.

Popular music did not start really moving over to FM until the late 60's and into the 70's.

Reece

[Tom Bavis]

I have a Zenith floor model radio (8H061) with both old and new FM bands, marked FM40 and FM100. It is a 1946 model - which under normal conditions would have been fall of 1945. But I think the '46 models were not out until mid '46 due to World War II

In this area (North central NY state), two FM stations were on the air by 1940. I do not know when they moved to the current band - I think it was requred by 1948.

[Sandy G]

I have an EH Scott 800B from '47-'48 & it has the 88-108 FM band on it. But I also have a Zenith tabletop set that has BOTH FM bands on it. As far as when FM "kicked in" I remember Knoxville had a station, WEZK 97.5 that played "easy listening" "music" by the late '60s. But I also remember some wags saying "FM" meant "Find Me" even into the '70s. My gran had one of those Zenith wooden tabletop 731 sets & kept it set on the Black Mountain NC station-IIRC, it was at the top of the dial-105 or 107 or so,& they played classical & Billy Graham all the time. FM doesn't work too well here in the mountains, but sometimes WILL surprise you-I have picked up Atlanta & Lexington, Ky stations here. But the "skip" has to be just right...-Sandy G.

[Telecolor 3007]

By why the FM moved to 88-108 MHz?

[Sandy G]

If any of you guys ever run across a copy of "Behind the Tube:A History of Broadcasting Technology & Business",by Andrew Inglis, don't hesitate: Buy it! It gives a very good history of the entire radio/TV business from the 1920s til '88 or so, by a guy who was there. Kinda heavy into the "hardware" you get to see a lot of experimental TVs, cameras, etc. You get to see what an SOB Sarnoff was, but how he & a few others basically created not one, but two industries-radio & television. Anyway, sez here that on 27 june 1945, the FCC decided to move the FM band from 42-50 MC to 88-108 MC, because"stations at distances of one to two thousand miles would suffer substantial sky-wave interferennce at the outer edges of their service areas, & it was felt that at the higher freqencies, the interference would be neligible .-Sandy G.

[Telecolor 3007]

Well, here in Romania, the first public F.M. broadcasting took place on May the 5th, 1963; on radio “Programul trei (Programme 3)”, which could be recived only in Bucharest and in the souranding area. The post was broadcasting in working days form 21 (9 P.M.) untill 23 (11 P.M.) and on the red-letters day form 19.30 (7.30 P.M.) untill 23.00 (11.00 P.M.). Of course, the televsions programmes could be recived by radios with F.M. too. Later, (about 1967) “Programme 3” became “Radio 3 - Romania Tineret (Radio 3 - Romania Youth).
The funny thing is that Romania started to manufacture radios with F.M. before the F.M. broadcastings started. The first radio of this kynd was called “Enescu” (after a famous Romaninan composer), it was produced in 1960 at “Electronica [former Radio Popular (People’s Radio)]” Plants form Bucharest , and it was equiped with electronic tubes. The first Romanian portable radio with F.M. “Mamaia S651T” (produced in1965) was also produced at “Electonica” Plants, but this time with imported components from Japan (made by “Hitachi”)(I have one in my collection); later versions where equiped with Romanian components. The first F.M. stereo radio, “Maestro” was produced in 1972 (Romanian radios where never A.M. stereo, because we didn’t have A.M. stereo broadcastings in Romnaia)
With the Soviet tv sets imported between 1956 and 1962 you could also recvive F.M. broadcastings.
Before 1989 Romania used the Eastern Europeanen F.M. standard, F.M. O.I.R.T.. This meant that theF.M. radios broadcasted between 65 & 73 Mhz. After 1989 (the downfalling of Commnuinsm in Romania) Romania past to the 88…108 Mhz standard.
Well, if you came to Romania you can haer the names “ultrascurte” or U.K.W. Well “ultrascurte” or “unde ultrascurte (ultrashort waves)” cames from the German name of the F.M. “ultrakurz welle”, which initials are U.KW.

[Sandy G]

AM stereo-now THERE's an answer to a question nobody asked ! I had an '88 Jeep Wagoneer Limited that had an AM stereo radio on it. Mine would decode only the Motorola-system broadcasts-all the rest it picked up as regular Angel Modulation. There was a station in Kingsport that did/does broadcast in AM stereo- but big deal, its AM & low-fidelity & lots of big-band music that isn't even in true stereo in the 1st place. I think a fair number of the larger towns had AM stereo stations,& some of the bg nitetime powerhouses, but unless you had a radio that would decode whatever system yr local station used,you were basically out of luck. Besides, big deal, AM stereo didn't offer any REAL advantages over regular AM & stations were turning away from music & going w/sports or talk in droves. Kinda like quad-if the FCC had said everybody's gonna use THIS system, AM stereo might have had a chance, but the way it was (mis)-handled, it certainly didn't.-Sandy G.

[Chad Hauris]

A lot of the advantage of the AM stereo radios is that they had a wider IF bandwidth (some only when a stereo signal was detected). I used to work at an AM station that was in stereo, we used a Carver tuner to monitor the station. The stereo separation was not quite as good as on FM, but you could definitely hear that stereo program material was coming through as stereo.

The major systems were Motorola C-QUAM and Kahn...there was also a Magnavox and other systems proposed in the early 80's when AM stereo was being developed. I think eventually the FCC might have mandated the Motorola system be used...this is what all the stations were using in the 90's.