HD radio is just like FM radio was in it's early days!

[Randal Marshall]

It took several decades for FM radio become popular (depending on how you define popular), HD is just like that, right? Somebody debunks that myth here:

http://www.engineeringradio.us/blog/2010/09/hd-radio-2010-fm-radio-1950-not/

 

[davideduardo]

It took several decades for FM radio become popular (depending on how you define popular), HD is just like that, right? Somebody debunks that myth here:

http://www.engineeringradio.us/blog/2010/09/hd-radio-2010-fm-radio-1950-not/

What a crock. Shame on you for posting it.

FM did not achieve parity with AM until 1977. The article, for some reason, uses "1950" as a benchmark year. That's 27 years later! And it took a government edict to make that happen (the 1967 simulcast regulation).

In the pre-war years, there were only, operating, an average or 40 to 50 stations on the 47 mHz band. The FM band moved to the current frequency range right after the war, and the 1946 issues of Broadcasting Magazine are full of ads for various kinds of FM gear, ranging from transmitters and antenna devices to monitors. The article says that the change in band held back FMs development... in fact, since there was very little consumer electronics manufacturing in the War years, this is not true. As soon as consumer products started to become available, people could buy radios if they wanted... all on the new band. But consumers ignored FM, as in the 40's they were not looking for classics on the radio, they were looking for Jack Benny and The Lone Ranger. There was no real need for FM in most homes.

The new FM stations did not interfere with anything because, in general, there was not much on the entire spectrum. Pre-War, there were not even 1,000 stations in the country. Most of the experimental FMs scaled back or went on haitus for much of the war, and even prior to that they had relatively limited schedules. The article does not speak the truth.

The article claims that the FCC "hobbled" FM with low powers and classes of operation. Yet if we look at the CPs and licences granted from 1946 up to the "benchmark" of 1950 used in the article, we find a high percentage of stations with higher power than currently allowed... all the way up to 500,000 watts. Some survive to this day. Irrelevant to HD.

It's claimed that FM had fewer commercials than AM. In fact, it had nearly no commercials... because advertisers then, as today, don't buy ads where nobody is listening. This is a totally irrelevant issue when examinigh HD.

The article disingenuously speaks of low power levels for FM stations and the need to erect receiving antennas. In fact, many of the early post-War FMs had high power, and antennas were needed because most of the US population was not uban in 1950... it was rural. So most listeners resided farther from an FM than anyone does today.

In an outright distortion of the truth, the article says that FM was developed by (commercial) broadcasters at their expense, while NPR (alias, the government) is the largest user of HD. In fact, commercial HD stations vastly and hugely outnumber NPR stations using the system, and the seed capital for iBiquity came from commercial broadcasters and venture capital sources. Amazingly wrong...

 

[Don Juannn]

It took several decades for FM radio become popular (depending on how you define popular), HD is just like that, right? Somebody debunks that myth here:

http://www.engineeringradio.us/blog/2010/09/hd-radio-2010-fm-radio-1950-not/

What a crock. Shame on you for posting it.

Amazingly wrong...

Well, you know what they say:

"Never let the truth get in the way of a good story"!

 

[landtuna]

What a crock. Shame on you for posting it. <snip>

Seems I've read this response before....once or twice.

Any way you can convince the mods to make a permanent copy so you don't have to do all this typing again? ;D

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

It took several decades for FM radio become popular (depending on how you define popular), HD is just like that, right? Somebody debunks that myth here:

http://www.engineeringradio.us/blog/2010/09/hd-radio-2010-fm-radio-1950-not/

What a crock. Shame on you for posting it.

FM did not achieve parity with AM until 1977. The article, for some reason, uses "1950" as a benchmark year. That's 27 years later! And it took a government edict to make that happen (the 1967 simulcast regulation).

In the pre-war years, there were only, operating, an average or 40 to 50 stations on the 47 mHz band. The FM band moved to the current frequency range right after the war, and the 1946 issues of Broadcasting Magazine are full of ads for various kinds of FM gear, ranging from transmitters and antenna devices to monitors. The article says that the change in band held back FMs development... in fact, since there was very little consumer electronics manufacturing in the War years, this is not true. As soon as consumer products started to become available, people could buy radios if they wanted... all on the new band. But consumers ignored FM, as in the 40's they were not looking for classics on the radio, they were looking for Jack Benny and The Lone Ranger. There was no real need for FM in most homes.

The new FM stations did not interfere with anything because, in general, there was not much on the entire spectrum. Pre-War, there were not even 1,000 stations in the country. Most of the experimental FMs scaled back or went on haitus for much of the war, and even prior to that they had relatively limited schedules. The article does not speak the truth.

The article claims that the FCC "hobbled" FM with low powers and classes of operation. Yet if we look at the CPs and licences granted from 1946 up to the "benchmark" of 1950 used in the article, we find a high percentage of stations with higher power than currently allowed... all the way up to 500,000 watts. Some survive to this day. Irrelevant to HD.

It's claimed that FM had fewer commercials than AM. In fact, it had nearly no commercials... because advertisers then, as today, don't buy ads where nobody is listening. This is a totally irrelevant issue when examinigh HD.

The article disingenuously speaks of low power levels for FM stations and the need to erect receiving antennas. In fact, many of the early post-War FMs had high power, and antennas were needed because most of the US population was not uban in 1950... it was rural. So most listeners resided farther from an FM than anyone does today.

In an outright distortion of the truth, the article says that FM was developed by (commercial) broadcasters at their expense, while NPR (alias, the government) is the largest user of HD. In fact, commercial HD stations vastly and hugely outnumber NPR stations using the system, and the seed capital for iBiquity came from commercial broadcasters and venture capital sources. Amazingly wrong...

The old maximum ERP was 1 kW/250 feet HAAT for Class A and 20 kW/500 feet for Class B. Superpower was allowed outside the Zone I of that time. Zone I did not include Michigan, Ohio, and Illinois (and I think California wasn't a separate zone) at the time, and those are three states that had a lot of superpower stations. There still weren't that many above 50 kW. Another big limiting factor was collocating on AM towers which were usually in lower terrain areas and had HAAT between 150 and 250 feet.

 

[davideduardo]

The old maximum ERP was 1 kW/250 feet HAAT for Class A and 20 kW/500 feet for Class B. Superpower was allowed outside the Zone I of that time. Zone I did not include Michigan, Ohio, and Illinois (and I think California wasn't a separate zone) at the time, and those are three states that had a lot of superpower stations. There still weren't that many above 50 kW. Another big limiting factor was collocating on AM towers which were usually in lower terrain areas and had HAAT between 150 and 250 feet.

If you look at the FCC rules in the 1948 Broadcasting Yearbook, page 538 to 540, you see that Class A stations were intended for non-metropolitan areas, and B's were intended for larger centers of population. The A's were essentially the same as they have been more recently. Outside the restricted area, stations were "encouraged" to use higher power as long as such operation did not interfere with other assignments.

We saw superpower stations all over the country... ones like KQUE in Houston, WYOR in Miami, WMC FM in Memphis, WRVA in Richmond, WSLC and WDBJ's FMs in Roanoke... There was even a 370 kw FM in Birmingham, AL (Same Yearbook, page 286). A nice one was KSBR at 4000 feet with 250 kw in San Francisco.

In Iowa, we had a 400 kw one in Council Bluffs and a 540 kw one in Waterloo (the very promotion minded Josh Higgins built it).

The interesting thing is looking at the late 50's to early 60's... many of the high power stations had dropped back, and few of the new station had maximum facilities... it was simply too costly. As the number of FMs in 1958 was about 400 less than in 1948 (a decline of more than a third) the remaining stations economized by conserving power and other costs. In fact, even in the late 40's a majority of B's did not even have the possible 20 kw at 500 feet.

 

[davideduardo]

What a crock. Shame on you for posting it. <snip>

Seems I've read this response before....once or twice.

Any way you can convince the mods to make a permanent copy so you don't have to do all this typing again? ;D

There are some posters with an agenda (generally related to oldies, HD, dance or the viability of AM) who so dramatically twist the truth that there is a good deal of fun to be had in finding so many errors or omissions. ;D

 

[W2JUV_AL]

The linked article from engineeringradio.us may not be perfect, but it certainly is not a crock.

"CPB has spent millions of taxpayer dollars on HD".......Agree, should say wasted dollars.

"FM broadcasting began by offering programming unique from AM stations".....Not correct. Most FM's simulcasted AM programming well into the 1960's

RCA definetely slowed the developement of FM, and purposely. RCA derived much profit from sale of AM broadcast equipment and wanted to preserve that cash cow. RCA manipulated the FCC to move FM from 42-48Mc to 88-108Mc. This affected receiver sales for years because consumers feared the FCC would pull another switch.

 

[davideduardo]

"CPB has spent millions of taxpayer dollars on HD".......Agree, should say wasted dollars.

Yet if there is any place where HD is actually working well, it is with non-coms who have moved programming options, like jazz and classical, to HD and are finding fundraising efforts are enhanced.

"FM broadcasting began by offering programming unique from AM stations".....Not correct. Most FM's simulcasted AM programming well into the 1960's

In the early years of FM (from '46 on, as the prior 47 mHz years were mostly experimental and there was nearly nothing on the air towards the end of W.W.II) FMs did try independent programming, to no avail. Many that were not part of a big AM closed (thus the decline by about a third in stations between 1948 and 1958) or gave up separate programming and simulcast.

The FCC ended simulcasting in 1967 (with some exceptions such as daytimers in small markets, etc).

RCA definetely slowed the developement of FM, and purposely. RCA derived much profit from sale of AM broadcast equipment and wanted to preserve that cash cow. RCA manipulated the FCC to move FM from 42-48Mc to 88-108Mc. This affected receiver sales for years because consumers feared the FCC would pull another switch.

The consumers in the 50's and 60's had no memory of the experimental FM band... which never got even close to 100 stations on the air. And the issue was not "RCA" but the huge fight between Armstrong and Sarnoff; Armstrong had been RCA's biggest shareholde and Sarnoff did not want to have to licence his patents. Sarnoff even tried marketing FM radios in the 50's that did not use Armstrong patents.

RCA was among the very first to offer FM transmitters, first the xxA series (1, 5 and 10 kw) in about 1942, with a change in frequency design in 1946. The B series debuted in about 1947, with 250 watt, 1 kw and 5 and 10 kw units, as well as antennas, etc.

RCA wanted to make money with FM, but Sarnoff did not want any of it to go to Armstrong.

 

[W2JUV_AL]

The FCC ended simulcasting in 1967 (with some exceptions such as daytimers in small markets, etc).

Really? From the 1969 Broadcasting Yearbook:
WABC-FM duplicates WABC 40%
WNBC-FM duplicates WNBC 35%
WQXR-FM duplicates WQXR 50%
WOR-FM duplicates WOR

WBZ-FM duplicates WBZ 40%
WRKO-FM duplicates WRKO 40%
WBOS-FM duplicates WBOS 80%

Top four stations in NYC, next three in Boston, not exactly small markets

 

[davideduardo]

The FCC ended simulcasting in 1967 (with some exceptions such as daytimers in small markets, etc).

Really? From the 1969 Broadcasting Yearbook:
WABC-FM duplicates WABC 40%
WNBC-FM duplicates WNBC 35%
WQXR-FM duplicates WQXR 50%
WOR-FM duplicates WOR

WBZ-FM duplicates WBZ 40%
WRKO-FM duplicates WRKO 40%
WBOS-FM duplicates WBOS 80%

Top four stations in NYC, next three in Boston, not exactly small markets

WOR-FM was well entrenched and pretty much separate from the AM by 1966. It had a rock 40 format and "hippie graphics" featured in trade ads.

WRKO FM was, like the other RKO FM's except for WGMS, running a Drake created format, separately. It was automated hits until 68, when it started running Drakes Hit Parade 68 format 24/7.

WBZ FM simulcast the WBZ morning show until 1971 and played classics the rest of the day. In '71 they became a Top 40 station (Westinghouse trying to hurt WRKO).

WABC-FM became album rock in 1967, and by 1970 was WPLJ and continued its AOR format.

The only major market exceptions were for Classical... WGMS, WQXR, KFAC, etc. would have qualified as the FCC highly protected classical formats in that era. A few ethnic stations got extensions based on service... WHOM AM&FM was one of these.

I find it unlikely that any of the others were allowed to simulcast anything beyond the maximum... IIRC it was a total of 40% or so, but much of it had to be in "off hours2"

 

[davideduardo]

The FCC ended simulcasting in 1967 (with some exceptions such as daytimers in small markets, etc).

I left out a couple of words here... should be "daytimers and stations in small markets.."

A good example of a daytime simulcast was WPGC in the DC market... in '69 they upgraded the FM, and soon found that move got them better ratings than the AM alone did... to WEAM's intense displeasure.

And I should have said... as has been pointed out already... that the prohibition was intended to eliminate 100% simulcasts. Some programming could be duplicated, but most of a non-excluded FM's schedule had to be separate.

 

[davideduardo]

WOR-FM was well entrenched and pretty much separate from the AM by 1966. It had a rock 40 format and "hippie graphics" featured in trade ads.

For anyone interested in the very "early" promotion of a rock FM...

http://www.davidgleason.com/Broadcasting Individual Issues Guide.htm

... and pick 1966's 08-01 edition which has the WOR-FM ad on the front cover. This may be the first cover ad for an FM in Broadcasting... and a very dramatic departure from the "fine music" approach of most FMs of the day.

 

[landtuna]

I have an hour-long recording of WOR in 1970 and it was definitely rock oriented by then.

 

[Savage]

I have a two-hour aircheck of WOR-FM with the C-R-C Doc Severinsen jingles, Scott Muni on-air, on one of its first weekends as a Top 40 outlet in October 1966. Good stuff; it's unscoped.

 

[davideduardo]

I have a two-hour aircheck of WOR-FM with the C-R-C Doc Severinsen jingles, Scott Muni on-air, on one of its first weekends as a Top 40 outlet in October 1966. Good stuff; it's unscoped.

That's a real gem. There does not seem to be much in the way of airchecks of the earlier FM formats. Have you posted it anywhere?

I've always wanted to have some early Beautiful Music station airchecks, particularly Shulke and Bonneville, and never found any. I do have, from a slightly later period, another syndicated Beautiful Music format at...

http://www.davidgleason.com/Archive Miami Scans/Musica-en-flor-Demo side 2.mp3

I'd also love to hear some Hit Parade ('68, '69, '70) Drake Chennault airchecks.

 

[semoochie]

There were several rule changes that I remember as 1969. One of them was dropping simulcasts to 50%. This set up a situation where daytimers were just barely over the line. A local station solved the problem by rearranging its Sunday morning religious/public affairs programming so most people didn't even notice the adjustment.