FM broadcasting in the USA: Encyclopedia II - FM broadcasting in the USA - History of FM radio in the US

FM broadcasting in the USA - History of FM radio in the US

Main article: History of radio, FM radio.

In the United States, FM radio stations broadcast at frequencies of 88–108 MHz. FM radio, and later stereo FM radio, were both developed in the United States primarily by Edwin Armstrong.

W1XOJ was the first FM radio station, granted a construction permit by the FCC in 1937. On January 5, 1940 FM radio was demonstrated to the FCC for the first time. FM radio was assigned the 42 to 50 MHz band of the spectrum in 1940.

After World War II, the FCC moved FM to the frequencies between 88 and 106 MHz on June 27, 1945. The change in frequency was to said to be for avoiding possible interference problems between stations in nearby cities and to make "room" for more FM radio channels. However, it has been alleged that the FCC was influenced by RCA chairman David Sarnoff, and that the change had the covert goal of disrupting the successful FM network that Edwin Armstrong had established on the old band. Radios built for the original FM radio band could be retrofitted with converters, but many were just replaced. The greater expense was to the radio stations themselves that had to rebuild their stations for the new FM radio band. The move of the FM band, an organized campaign of misinformation by RCA (a company that competed with FM radio by focusing on AM radio and the emerging technology of television), and adverse rulings by the FCC severely set back the development of FM radio. On March 1, 1945 W47NV began operations in Nashville, Tennessee, becoming the first modern commercial FM radio station. However, FM radio did not recover from the setback until the upsurge in high fidelity equipment in the late 1950s.

During the 1970s, FM radio experienced a golden age of integrity programming, with disc jockeys playing what they wanted, including album cuts not designated as "singles" and lengthy prog rock tracks. The film FM (1978) portrays a fictional group of Los Angeles "maverick" FM disc jockeys reacting against the new formatting changes at their station.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History of FM radio in the US", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki