| March 27 |  |
Editor says, what if the Reagan Administration had quadrupled FM radio frequencies? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 1981, on this day the new head of the FCC issued a directive to his staff that no new TV broadcast licenses would be issued in the VHF portion of the radio spectrum.
The Death of Commercial AM RadioThis covered TV station 2-13 in three separate portions of the band. Existing TV licenses would continue indefinitely on these frequencies but no new licenses would be issued and existing stations would be encouraged to migrate to the UHF frequencies of the band. As a second new rule FM radio stations would be permitted to broadcast on the same three VHF frequency ranges as the TV stations 2-13 wherever such stations would not conflict with existing TV stations. The new frequencies would be redefined as FM low (TV frequencies for 2-4), Extended FM (TV frequencies 5-6) and FM High (TV frequencies for 7-13). Each TV station takes up as much band width as 30 commercial FM stations so this rule change could have been seen as a purely money making scheme for the FCC, 360 radio stations would fill the new FM roster in place of the 12 TV stations. Japan was able to ship new FM radio's with the Extended FM frequencies immediately as those used for TV 5 & 6 in the USA were already used for commercial radio in Japan. Adding the Low and High FM bands to transistor radio's was a simple design change and new multi band radio's were on the market for Christmas 1981.
A new article by Allen W. McDonnellThe quadrupling of the FM radio frequencies by the Reagan Administration was the last straw in commercial AM broadcasting, with all the new slots available nobody was really interested in commercialy broadcasting AM signals in the band formerly reserved for that technology. In 1983 the AM band was formally declared an Amateur radio band and commercial traffic was no longer allowed, only low power privately held radios were licensed to use it. The Powerhouse AM stations like WJR Detroit and WGN Chicago gladly moved their broadcasts to the new Low FM band where AM stations had right of transfer under the 1983 regulations of the FCC. The Low FM band became the home of News/Talk Radio and NPR became the biggest owner of stations in that band. By the time of the September 11, 2001 attack's on the USA only a few TV stations still held licenses in the three FM bands and when the digital conversion took place in 2009 none were allowed to remain in the VHF spectrum. Commercial FM was far too big of a money maker for the FCC to be interfered with by the last three VHF stations in New York, Detroit and Saint Louis, they were required to move to the UHF band and the era of VHF TV ended at the time of the Digital Transition.
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Allen W. McDonnell
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Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: FM, AM, Ronald Reagan, Broadcasting, Radio. Editor says, in the USA FM Radio occupies the frequencies 88-108 MHz, in Japan 76-90 MHz and the former USSR 65.8 to 74 MHz. USA TV station band for 5&6 are just below the regular USA FM band radio frequencies and it was recommended that the FCC expand FM to cover these 60 additional radio channels when the digital conversion took place in 2009. So far the FCC has been dragging its feet in doing so despite the massive backlog of people who want to build FM radio station's but who can not get licenses due to frequency crowding. In Japan FM radio is just the 60 station band covered by American TV 5&6+ 10 radio stations. The former USSR system occupies the frequencies that make up USA TV 4 and a portion of the frequencies between TV 4&5 that are used for other devices in the USA. My ATL avoids the entire issue nearly painlessly, and gets rid of the commercial AM band which has been an FCC irritation since the late 1980's. It is likely that all countries in North and South America would follow close behind the USA plan, they have done so to promote commerce in electronics from the beginning of the electronics industry. Japan and Europe might not follow immediately but if the change was a big success they would do so as well. The former USSR now uses both their original TV 4+ frequency band and they have been adding Western European band stations as well so they are currently using two separate FM bands in several of the countries that make up the former USSR.
~ Talk about video killing the radio star, LOL...
~ ^- Nice one.
~ I'm not nearly knowledgable enough to comment. My brother the radio hobbyist would be a lot better for this.
~ Surely you mean VHF, not VHS. Fixed - thanks. Ed
As for the placement of the TV bands for channels 5 and 6, that brings back memories: many years ago I was able to pick up the audio portion of my local Channel 6 by tuning my FM radio to its lowest channel setting.
~ Honest typo, not sure what my brain was thinking or if my spell checker was to blame but everywhere it says VHS it should say VHF.
Currently NPR is seeking sanctions through the FCC to prevent low power TV stations, which are not yet digital, on Chanel 6 from broadcasting radio on the 87.75 frequency, which is the FM audio feed for those stations. Several LPTV license holders have been doing so since the digital conversion in NYC and Los Angeles as well as Chicago and several other locations. By taking out an LPTV 6 license they are able broadcast despite all of the FM radio frequencies being held by other broadcasters on a frequency most FM radio's can receive.
© Today in Alternate History, 2013-. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
