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FM Expansion of 2008

M

MarioMania

What really happened?

Did the public not care or not want to buy a new Radio (Even in the 2010's) ?

I just assumed they just ignored it, Now in 2025, Some City's the FM Band is full with Full Power Stations, FM Tranlators & LPFM's

From Wikipedia

In March 2008, the FCC requested public comment on turning the bandwidth currently occupied by analog television channels 5 and 6 (76–88 MHz) over to extending the FM broadcast band when the digital television transition was to be completed in February 2009 (ultimately delayed to June 2009).[20] This proposed allocation would have effectively assigned frequencies corresponding to the existing Japanese FM radio service (which begins at 76 MHz) for use as an extension to the existing North American FM broadcast band.
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It had nothing to do with consumers. The proposal to reallocate a portion of the VHF TV band to FM broadcast was never approved by the FCC. Fundamentally, many radio broadcasters supported the idea, but TV broadcasters opposed it. But no consumer ever had a choice in the matter.

I went looking for the exact date when the FCC rendered its decision, but could not find it. It looks like the advocacy group, "Broadcast Maximization Committee" which petitioned for reallocating the FM band to take over former TV channels 5 & 6 folded around 2013.

There certainly was some discussion about whether consumers would buy new tuners for an expanded FM band, in threads here and in trade magazines like Radio World. But it's not clear that was a part of the FCC's decision at all.
 
It's just as well that it never happened as it would have led to a massive expansion of the FM band as both advertising revenue and listener interest in broadcast radio were in decline.
 
PTBoardOp93 said:
There certainly was some discussion about whether consumers would buy new tuners for an expanded FM band, in threads here and in trade magazines like Radio World. But it's not clear that was a part of the FCC's decision at all.
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Even by then, they would not. Streaming was starting to take off by then, and radios other than in stereos and cars were starting to become nonexistent. I never believed that the FCC had any intention to withdraw Channels 5 and 6 from TV use. Ever.
 


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