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FM Band expansion

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Deleted User 14935

FM Band expansion

Post by Deleted User 14935 » Sat Mar 23, 2019 9:20 am

Will the FCC ever consider expanding the over populated FM Band ? Is the talk of converting TV Channel 5 & 6 to FM broadcasting even considered anymore or is that dead in the water ? Also a little while back there was talk of moving HD Radio or Digital Radio to a completely different spectrum is that still a possibility ? What do you think ?



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ZenithCKLW
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Location: Livonia, MI

Re: FM Band expansion

Post by ZenithCKLW » Sat Mar 23, 2019 9:23 am

So the only current receivers capable of going down to that band (excluding TV band radios) are Japanese sets from the 60’s and 70’s?

I might be the only listener lol



Deleted User 14935

Re: FM Band expansion

Post by Deleted User 14935 » Sat Mar 23, 2019 9:46 am

It doesn’t take a lot to get a receiver in this country that is capable of tuning down to 76 MHz, I have a couple of cheap $8. Radios that have the 76-108 MHz tuning, The radio manufacturing companies and distribution people can fix that issue in a heartbeat. So supplying the marketplace is an overnight fix. I think the problem is with where the broadcast industry wants to be in the future remain analog or go total digital, Stay on the existing band or move completely to a different spectrum, And to be honest I don’t think the industry has a clue, Or they just don’t care, With all the other platforms out there I think they don’t care too much about terrestrial radio as much, Just my take on this issue.



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ZenithCKLW
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Location: Livonia, MI

Re: FM Band expansion

Post by ZenithCKLW » Sat Mar 23, 2019 10:02 am

Steve Korvette wrote:
Sat Mar 23, 2019 9:46 am
The radio manufacturing companies and distribution people can fix that issue in a heartbeat. So supplying the marketplace is an overnight fix.
People aren’t going to rush out in a hurry to buy new radios, a medium which is already declining. Putting struggling stations on an expanded FM band would be a death sentence. It took how many decades between the introduction of FM and FM’s dominance? 1933-1977? And radio was booming then.



Deleted User 14935

Re: FM Band expansion

Post by Deleted User 14935 » Sat Mar 23, 2019 10:17 am

Good point that’s why HD Radio’s are not selling or any radio for that matter and if the story is true that the 30 and under crowd has zero interest in radio than all this new radio technology is useless, But I could be wrong, So if you were a broadcaster and owned a few stations what would you want your company to be in 5 years ?(Sounds like a job interview 😆). Remain Analog go HD Digital or perhaps push the government to expand the FM Band or create a new spectrum for radio- Thoughts!



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ZenithCKLW
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Location: Livonia, MI

Re: FM Band expansion

Post by ZenithCKLW » Sat Mar 23, 2019 10:36 am

As much as I wish this was still the era of musicradio in the 70’s with a finite spectrum, today I wouldn’t be a broadcaster. That’s why I changed course in college from broadcasting at CMU to something else more lucrative. But if I did go in “the biz,” I’d produce content and offer to a wide variety of distribution services: radio, podcasting, Spotify, etc. Kind of like how CBS got out of the business of being “radio broadcasters” and owning radio stations in the traditional sense, and now focus on providing content.



Deleted User 14896

Re: FM Band expansion

Post by Deleted User 14896 » Sat Mar 23, 2019 4:02 pm

Steve Korvette wrote:
Sat Mar 23, 2019 9:20 am
Will the FCC ever consider expanding the over populated FM Band ? Is the talk of converting TV Channel 5 & 6 to FM broadcasting even considered anymore or is that dead in the water ? Also a little while back there was talk of moving HD Radio or Digital Radio to a completely different spectrum is that still a possibility ? What do you think ?
Although an expansion like you talk about would likely not happen, it would be a good place for translators.



k8jd
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Location: Commerce, MI

Re: FM Band expansion

Post by k8jd » Sun Mar 24, 2019 10:33 am

The expansion is starting. there are a few places where 87.7 and 87.9 are being used on a regular basis. legal, maybe not, but there.



Deleted User 14935

Re: FM Band expansion

Post by Deleted User 14935 » Sun Mar 24, 2019 11:34 am

In my opinion what I see as a possibility is that AM will continue but some stations will die, There's nothing that can be done with AM other than thining the amount of stations on the dial and keeping the ones that have great coverage this could give AM radio perhaps another 30 years, As far as digital that’s a non-starter. FM will continue to be a tuning nightmare or it will have to move to another spectrum, The bottom line is anything that radio has to do will actually be to little to late with all the other entertainment platforms that all of us have at our fingertips. Radio may just be one of the things that really doesn’t need technical improvements but needs content improvement if content is not improved radio will unplug itself from the life support it’s on now. It’s been said a lot lately and it’s true your cellphone is the new radio no matter your age I’m 63 and I’m on my cellphone always and I’m not calling anyone, Go figure.



innate-in-you
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Re: FM Band expansion

Post by innate-in-you » Sun Mar 24, 2019 11:57 am

k8jd wrote:
Sun Mar 24, 2019 10:33 am
The expansion is starting. there are a few places where 87.7 and 87.9 are being used on a regular basis. legal, maybe not, but there.
The FCC did officially add Channel 200 (87.9 KHz) to the band many years ago, but set conditions that make such assignments very unlikely. I believe that there may be two, one or no legal stations on 87.9 in operation. Anything else is a pirate.

87.7 (actually 87.75) is actually the audio carrier of TV channel 6. FM radios (excluding very old 42-50 MC FM radios) always could be used to listen to channel 6 TV sound.

A channel 6 LPTV station is almost worthless as a television provider since few people bother to check the over-the-air analog channels and cable systems generally won't carry LPTV (digital or analog) that they don't own. (LPTV stations don't have must-carry rights).

So many would-be radio broadcasters are using channel 6 analog LPTV to work around the ihate/entrailcom/cumeless/beastly oligarchy.

There had been a deadline set that would have forced LPTV stations to convert to digital, rendering the "Franken FM" stations useless, but the spectrum repack caused a stay of execution to be called.
Last edited by innate-in-you on Sun Mar 24, 2019 12:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.



Deleted User 14935

Re: FM Band expansion

Post by Deleted User 14935 » Sun Mar 24, 2019 12:02 pm

I have heard of pirates working the 87.9 frequency when I lived in Seattle, There were many of course that was in the 90’s when the band wasn’t as congested.



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