When did people start moving to FM?

[gr8oldies]

My parents bought a Ford Custom 500 in early 1965 wo/radio, in the mid-1970s, I considered putting in an under dash AM/FM(mono) radio (w/built in speaker - clever idea - not need to take the dashboard off to install a speaker) from (IIRC) Radio Shack, but I didn't.

Their 1978 Ford Fairmont had a dealer installed AM/FM stereo radio w/2 small in dash speakers.


Any info about whether car FM radios were mostly stereo, a fairly even mix of mono FM and stereo FM or mostly mono in the early days of car FM radios?


Kirk Bayne

My Grandma's 1965 Mercury was mono only, the 1970 Buick I bought in 1975 was stereo but left and right was front and back

 

[seatownmedia]

My fam bought a super cool ‘65 Ford galaxie. Gawd what a beautiful car. I think it was a V8 but not sure. White with a black hardtop. This would have been age 6-10 when they decided to trade for an LTD wagon, as if they were expecting more children! That car had an unbelievable philco radio that could dx like no other! Their next purchase, unfortunately, was a Granada. Ick.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

At least they paid the $5 extra for the closed emissions system -- otherwise it would've vented the crankcase fumes and oil directly on the ground. That's the reason why old highways had a black strip of grime down the middle of each lane:

Woah Downtown LA in the early 1970's.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

The rockers, jazz fans and the beautiful music fans went to FM early on, during the 70s.. The pop music people followed later on, during the early 80s. Same with country.

I remember looking at some of the FM stations started out as "Full Service" in the early days or simulcasted AM like in some parts of the country.

In this case KRHM Los Angeles on 94.7 FM aired niche music like Folk according to this aircheck link.

My take here is that by the 1970's pop moving from AM to FM took place in this general timeframe. I know that around the 1980's KHJ Los Angeles fell out of favor with Los Angeles radio audiences for Top 40 and CHR and the transition to KIIS was big around this timeframe. Note KIIS-FM 102.7 FM at one point had an AM simulcast from the 1970s and 1980's until management and previous owners determined that they didn't need AM to air music.

Also KHJ facing a license dispute along with WRKO, WNAC, WOR, KFRC from the FCC due to RKO management dispute with Fidelity over it's broadcasting license to run KHJ-TV and KHJ-AM.

In the case of San Francisco we seen pop music move from KFRC-AM to various Bay Area FM stations like KIOI , KMEL, KITS-FM, during this same timeframe late 1970's to early 1980's.

Communications Media Center at New York Law School

https://pastdaily.com/2014/10/19/billy-faier-and-leon-bibb-the-les-claypool-show-krhm-1959-past-daily-pop-chronicles

While AM Radio had comfortable domination over most homes in America, FM Radio was relegated to that segment of the population known as The Audiophile Crowd. These were people who either had massive home stereo systems, or were eclectic in their appreciation of music. Because FM catered to a crowd that listened exclusively to Jazz, Classical and Folk. Rock n’ Roll was not a staple in the diet of FM, and wouldn’t be until the last years of the 60s.
The formats were loose and were occasionally haphazard. But the one thing FM radio excelled at was the ability to offer live music sounding in a way it never could on AM radio. And concerts and in-studio sessions were a big deal in this freeform atmosphere.
One of the bigger FM stations in Los Angeles was KRHM. It is long gone and in reality, didn’t quite make it into the 60s before it was sold and had its call letter changed to KMET and was turned into an automated “good music” station. Years later it became one of the premier underground Rock stations in Los Angeles, along with KPPC and the revolution in sound was on.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

Here is an interesting site archive. There were some airchecks from the 1970's to early 1980's when Stereo AM was hyped as the wave of the future and was supposed to have better sound quality apparently until the market leaned in favor of FM.

The Official AM STEREO Web Site

The Official AM Stereo Web Site is a free resource for AM Stereo radio broadcasters and listeners.

www.amstereo.org

 

[michael hagerty]

My fam bought a super cool ‘65 Ford galaxie. Gawd what a beautiful car. I think it was a V8 but not sure. White with a black hardtop. This would have been age 6-10 when they decided to trade for an LTD wagon, as if they were expecting more children! That car had an unbelievable philco radio that could dx like no other! Their next purchase, unfortunately, was a Granada. Ick.

Ford’s Philco AMs had incredible reception.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

WLS AM Stereo 89 - The Rock of Chicago!

Here is one WLS Chicago was one of ABC's last top40 on AM all the way up to 1989 when it became a full time talk station. Note WLS started adding talk in 1986 as a result of CapCities taking over ABC around this time.

The WLS Schedule

Deleted dangerous link.

 

[Mikey Radio]

True. Ford, too. Owners will be called to bring their cars to the dealer for retrofits when the chips are available.

Interesting aside, the parking lot of the Kentucky Speedway which wasn't used last season is being used as a large-scale storage facility for Ford trucks that cannot be finished because of chip shortages and lack of some other parts:

The inactive Kentucky Speedway is now a storage facility for a massive collection of unfinished Ford trucks visible from space​

The inactive Kentucky Speedway is now a storage facility for a massive collection of unfinished Ford trucks visible from space

Kentucky Speedway last hosted a NASCAR race in 2020. The thousands of trucks in its parking lots are visible from space.

sports.yahoo.com

The track has been unused for racing after it was left off the 2021 NASCAR schedule and its vast parking spaces are now being utilized by Ford thanks to a semiconductor shortage that has plagued the auto industry since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ford waits to get the parts it needs to finish the trucks and ship them off to buyers and dealers. As of this week, the unfinished trucks are taking up a majority of the track's parking spaces per satellite images.

The automaker said earlier this week that it currently had over 40,000 trucks and SUVs that it couldn’t finish because of a lack of parts. It’s not the only manufacturer facing the same scenario. GM also has thousands of cars unfinished that are waiting on parts.