[BC] Early FM Growth. Its Cause

[Stan Tacker]

I started working for AM&FM combos in this region in 1970 and Rich's
description matches the experience in this part of the country.  Shulke and
Bonneville stations were doing well on FM.  Most everything else was part
simulcast/part automation.  I was at KATT in 1976 when FM really broke out
in that market.  The FCC breakup of simulcasts really gave FM the boost
because it made people get out and program their stations.  

As for quality, many FM signals were the epitome of poor processing till
Orban's Optimod hit the market.  Remember the audible HF gain reduction in
many pre-optimod processors?

Content was responsible for FM success.

-----Original Message-----
From: broadcast-bounces at radiolists.net
[mailto:broadcast-bounces at radiolists.net] On Behalf Of Steve Newman
Sent: Monday, February 12, 2007 7:10 PM
To: Broadcasters' Mailing List
Subject: Re: [BC] Early FM Growth. Its Cause



When I was at KFRC in 1968 it was (and I'll bet many in here will relate to 
this one).."the FM down the hall". If I remember correctly RKO sold the FM 
license. Now I do remember when quality was a big thing. Now, this may have 
been because I was in San Francisco where James Gabbert was King of sound 
quality. He had a program called "Excursions in Stereo". The station sounded

incredible. KPEN (later KIOI) and KSFR (Al Levitt) sounded as good as your 
turntable. Wideband AM radios and the lower band noise gave AM a much better

sound than today. You're absolutely correct on that one. Oh how I wish we 
had the wideband AM receivers back in cars. Basically, you tell the story as

I recall it.

Steve

Steve Newman
Steve Walker Productions
Opp, Alabama

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Rich Wood" <richwood at pobox.com>
To: "Broadcasters' Mailing List" <broadcast at radiolists.net>
Sent: Monday, February 12, 2007 6:03 PM
Subject: [BC] Early FM Growth. Its Cause


> Radios didn't "fly off the shelves." It took years for FMs to take 
> listeners from the dominant Top 40 AMs. Broadening the variety of formats 
> sure helped but the FCC's prohibition against simulcasting threw things 
> into high gear. Prior to that there were many AM formats simulcast and 
> listeners stayed with AM for many years when the same format was available

> on FM. Remember, AM sounded much better back then than it does today. Just

> like today, quality wasn't the driving force. In Boston, WBCN had a free 
> form format that was almost a cult. Couldn't get that on AM. It was 
> imaginative programming and lower spot loads on FM that drew listeners. At

> WJIB, Boston, our spot load was 8 units an hour. It was a very different 
> Easy Listening station.
>
> Rich
>
> Rich Wood
> Rich Wood Multimedia
> Phone: 413-454-3258

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