I felt that this was the best place to post this piece as it could effect business if this becomes widespread. A relative of mine recently got a new little HD radio. Specifically, he wanted to pick up a certain rim-shot signal, so he was on the look-out for a radio with good pick-up. Enter this peculiar looking unit with only one knob in its center from which you can access the controls, and the remote which is what is being used. I was curious about its AM radio pick-up as this guy had been a pretty solid listener to AM talk radio for a long time. He said it only picks up FM, but did take the time to look over the remote to see if it could go to AM. No luck. I also noticed that since there is not radio dial as we know it. You instead set stations on the preset and then access them easily via the remote. The problem there is, that he used to be a dial searcher, and would find interesting things just by looking around. Not anymore. He's got 4 stations, including non-comms, on the preset and those are the only ones he listens to.
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The AM Band missing
- Thread starter johnbasalla
- Start date
I remember back in the early FM days that radio manufacturer's did not want to spend the extra money to include an FM tuner on their AM radio's. Had the FCC not steped in and said all radio's manufactured after XXXX date will include both AM and FM as a standard or they will not be FCC type accepted and will not be allowed for sale. Had this not been done things for FM radio might have turned out very differently today. Maybe this should be considered for the AM tuner and sections of radio now, no AM no FCC type acceptance no sale.
Gatekeeper007 said:
Except...that never happened.
Congress did mandate that all TVs sold after 1964 include both VHF and UHF tuners, and there was talk after that of a similar "All-Channels Act" for radio, but no such mandate was ever passed. As late as the mid-80s, you could still walk into your neighborhood Radio Shack and pick up an AM-only radio, and within the last decade you could still get an AM-only radio in some low-end new cars.
It did, It did, It did. End rant.
I just can't a reference for it. As an OTH FM listener, I can remember this being a big step forward for FM. The bigger step forward, being the elimination of simulcasts. Which now seem to be making a comeback with AM on translators and all news simulcasts.
I just can't a reference for it. As an OTH FM listener, I can remember this being a big step forward for FM. The bigger step forward, being the elimination of simulcasts. Which now seem to be making a comeback with AM on translators and all news simulcasts.
You say there was no order for this but I do remember one radio equiment company that wasn't pleased about including FM tuners in their equiment due to extra cost but did so after some one droped a word in their ear. You can say it was simply a good marketing idea but I think there was a little more to it than just that.
K6JHU said:
That is because there was no such law or regulation. FM was never required to be provided on all radios in the US.
As I mentioned in another section, I bought a '75 Ford Mustang and had to pay extra for FM... AM only radios in cars continued to be standard in low-end vehicles for several more years.
Gatekeeper007 said:
There was never even a hint of any pressure or regulatory requirements for inclusion of FM in radios...
In any case, we are talking about radio receivers, not radio equipment. Radio equipment is, broadly speaking, either audio (and not band specific) or RF... in which case, it is either AM or FM but not both.
I was doing a search on the NAFMB and by luck this Google/Billboard entry was top of the search.
http://books.google.com/books?id=3A...m=4&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=NAFMB&f=false
At one point, FM only operators had wanted an all channel legislation for consumer radio receivers. However, FM took off and the rest was history. Efforts to push for all channel ended when the marketplace demanded FM receivers along with AM.
http://books.google.com/books?id=3A...m=4&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=NAFMB&f=false
At one point, FM only operators had wanted an all channel legislation for consumer radio receivers. However, FM took off and the rest was history. Efforts to push for all channel ended when the marketplace demanded FM receivers along with AM.
Ok my sister worked as an engineer for a large company (very large) in the 60's that didn't want to include FM tuners in their broadcast equiment. I remember her talking about the board of directors raising &^%$(* about being pushed to do this by the FCC. This was a hot topic while eating supper only trouble was she was the only one who knew anything about it as no one else in my family was into electronics except me and I was 6 years old at the time and my sister was 20 years older than me. She was an engineer on the project to upgrade their receivers with FM tuners, IF strips, and such which had her concerned since the company was doing this againest their will. I am not going to say who the company was but they were often refered to by three letters, they later went chapter 11 in 1986 and was bought out by another big corporation that is still using their name today.
Gatekeeper007 said:
What "broadcast equipment" has tuners of any kind in it?
(I suppose a frequency agile mod monitor is in a sense a tuner, but mod monitors are one band only.)
Via a process of elimination, that would seem to be RCA, a brand now owned by Thompson who also has the Philipps home electronics brand in its family.
This seems to indicate that you are not talking about broadcast equipment (see http://www.davidgleason.com/Archive Miscellaneous/RCA Audio 1968.pdf for an example of RCA Broadcast equipment) but about consumer electronics of the sort one would have bought in Sears or J.C. Penney in the 70's... TV sets, radios, record players and cassette decks, etc.
In the consumer electronics area of radios and receivers, RCA faded long ago. But the driving force was the consumer, and if there was consumer interest in having FM along with AM, it did not take a government edict to make manufacturers offer that option. It just made good business sense.
The year of the FM simulcast prohibition, 1967, found RCA selling an AM FM radio for $24.95... it sure does not seem that RCA resisted putting out and promoting dual band products. RCA stopped making radios in the US in 1974, and closed the Indianapolis facility that made them... the last models offered actually were Japanese designs.
RCA never went into receivership. RCA, including NBC, was bought by GE in 1986, and the consumer lines of RC were sold to Thompson in 1988.
RCA made an FM receiver in 1946, but used a circuit it did not have to license from Maj. Armstong due to the quarrel between Sarnoff and the Major (who had been RCA's biggest shareholder at one time). In the mid-50's, there were a variety of RCA table radios, and I owned an RCA portable (when portables were still often plug-in models) in about 1960 when I had been working at an FM station. So RCA did incorporate FM in its product line, going back to the time the band moved from 46 mHz to the current location.
What RCA vehemently disliked was making FM devices that used Armstrong's patents. And, as long as they did not violate the patented inventions of Major Armstrong, they could do whatever they wanted... You may have mistaken a discussion of the patent issue for one regarding FM in general... RCA was one of the first manufacturers of FM gear after the War, and many of us, regrettably, have worked on the later vintage FM rigs. Fortunately, they stopped building them.
You are right they filled for receivership in 1986 but were bought out by GE.
Gatekeeper007 said:
When did RCA file for receivership? It did not. Nor did it get "bought out" as RCA and GE merged... a hostile merger, but a merger nonetheless.
First reference: "NEW YORK, Feb. 13 (1986) /PRNewswire/ -- RCA Corp. (NYSE: RCA) share- holders today approved a merger between RCA and General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE). Holders of more than 61.6 percent of the RCA shares entitled to vote at a special meeting approved the merger. General Electric shareholders were not required to vote on the merger because GE stock is not involved in the transaction. "
When a company's shareholders still have rights and get shares in the merged entity there is no bankruptcy, as shareholders are owners, not creditors.
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-4134552.html
Then, in February of 1986, RCA reported record sales and nearly $400 million in profits for 1985. "NEW YORK, Jan. 22 (1986) /PRNewswire/ -- RCA Corp. (NYSE: RCA) had record sales and earnings for the full year 1985, Robert R. Frederick, president and chief executive officer, reported today. Earnings rose 8 percent to a record $369.1 million from $341 million in 1984. Primary earnings per share increased to $4.04 from $3.30 a year earlier. Sales for the year increased 3 percent to a record $8.97 billion from $8.67 billion in 1984. Earnings for the three months ended Dec. 31, 1985, declined 8 percent to $94.4 million, equal to $1 per share from $102.8 million, … "
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-4106542.html
So, RCA was not bankrupt. If you search, you find that some of the independent suppliers to RCA closed, as RCA had moved production offshore. But those companies were not part of RCA, just contractors.
This is the second time, in a brief period, that someone has confused this issue. The last time, the original poster acknowledged that they had confused it with the "All Channel Act" that required all televisions to receive VHF and UHF. It's a little like the long since dismissed bill that caused churches to believe that religious broadcasting would be abolished and I still hear about it from time to time!
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