FM reception over cable

[upstate29651]

I remember primarily in the 1980's, many cable tv systems carried fm service, allowing reception of local & more distant stations.  When I was younger & lived in Vermont for 2 years in the early 80's (hated it!), the local cable company offered this service.  Using it, we could hear stations as far away as Montreal & Albany, NY (and of course, 94.5 on Mt. Washington).Do any cable companies still offer fm over cable?  And on a related note, how reliable is an active cable line as an FM antenna?

 

[mr_mark_taylor]

i remember living in new hampshire in the mid 80s and Channel 11 (The PBS network in NH) went off the air at 12:30 and the cable company carried a messege board and simulcasted Wish 99.5 from Boston....as for today, most of the cable access stations I've seen carry music choice when not running programming...and as for the over the air stations that sign off, on cable they just go to a black screen

 

[gr8oldies]

It was great in the late 70s when some cable systems carried the whole band. It was like having your own 300 foot antenna. Some great DX!

 

[CrankyYankee]

Methnks many cable companies that at one time carried FM on their systems found it more profitable to usethat space for another TV channel, be it a shopping or regular channel.

 

[oldiesradiousa]

Comcast in San Francisco area dropped FM service. But the customers complained so loud that they added it back on the digital tv box for $5 per month!But they chose which fm stations were included.

 

[georgetown3ham]

There are actually two reasons why cable dropped carrying FM stations. The first is bandwidth, they use 88-108 for additional channels. The second reason is a change in FCC rules in the 90's. When the FCC started requiring cable system to have written permission from stations carried on their systems, this required contacting dozens of FM stations, and if a station did not respond, or refused permission, than they would have to filter out those stations. Too expensive for a service they didn't make money on. I remember working at a department store in Dover, Delaware in the early 90's and when we hooked up the Cable-tv to stereo receivers, we got not just the local FM station, but several from the Baltimore area including WXCY in Harve De Grace, Maryland. It was probably picked up by the channel 2 antenna, which covers the lower VHF channels. The local Milford FM station was not on cable, to the south only UHF antennas to pick up channel 16 and 47 from Salisbury, Maryland.