Will Analog radio go away in time?

[Chuck]

No, I meant 1/2" reel-to-reel tapes (Revox made a home 1/2" tape deck, although the 1/4" units were more common).The old 42 MC - 50 MC FM band *would* be a nice place for LPFM, and there wouldn't even be an immediate need to produce new receivers for it, as TV audio radios and TV sets can already receive it. -- Jason

Well, I'm not so sure about the need for receivers, Channel 2 is 55.25 MHz as I recall. I do own a couple of radios that would tune in 40 MHz with no problem, but I'm not exactly "normal." One of the radios I have in mind is a DuMont. I don't think you'll find very many of them in people's homes these days. Some of the radios that feature tunable TV audio may go that low, so that might be a possibility. I'll have to look at the one we have in the bathroom. I can't say I've ever paid much attention to its dial calibrations. I do know that they aren't very accurate. Of course, the even more logical thing to do would be to expand the existing FM band downward, using the space abandoned by existing Channel 6 TV stations. That would give a lot more breathing space for digital and analog radio to coexist, as well as open up opportunities for LPFM and other services. There are plenty of radios available that can tune those frequencies, since Japan broadcasts FM in the 72-88 MHz band. Many domestic Japanese radios can tune 72-108 MHz, but they just aren't imported to the US.Upon the mandatory digital conversion date for TV stations, expanding FM radio into channel 6 sounds like a great idea, but it isn't as simple as it sounds. In many areas, it won't be vacated. For reasons I don't understand, the FCC (or maybe Congress) will allow the new digital TV signals to relocate to their original analog channel assignments. That means that Channel 6 will never go away in some areas. It will just convert from analog to digital. The FCC could fix that of course, but I don't see any ground swell of interest to have them do that.