[BARC-List] Review: History Channel "Modern Marvels" show on the h istory of radio

[Ed Hennessy]

-- KA1MOM at aol.com wrote:
>These come out as the main points of the show.

I won't deal with the amateur problem--Bill covered that well.  But there were some other gotchas in there.

>    6.    FM was developed entirely by Armstrong, again with >corporate sponsorship.

That's mostly technically true, but RCA was heavily involved (i.e., Sarnoff) and they worked for years to discredit him, and he eventually committed suicide.  He did a lot on his own.  He had help from some small companies like Doolittle Radio.

There are several legacies of his work.  WDRC-FM in Hartford is one of the pioneer FMs, still using a tower he used in Meriden, CT, to transmit experimental FM signals to NYC and to Paxton, MA.  'DRC was owned by Doolittle for years.  Alpine, NJ is another site (actually still stands, and was used as a backup site for NYC TV when the WTC went down).

There may have been some other FM methods from other pioneers.  It's a long story (did you know that the original early-1940's allocations for FM were in the 42-46 MHz band?).  RCA was the 500-pound gorilla for most of that story.

>7.    TV destroyed network radio programming.  AM radio is now used 
>solely for talk and news  targeted at drivers.

Yes and no.  Network radio, i.e., syndication, is back on lots of stations, who no longer originate much (if any) local programming.

>8.    FM broadcasting is the only form that transmits stereo signals 
>and thus is used for local  music stations.

Probably true again today, since I think with the advent of IBOC (In band, on channel digital radio) on AM, AM stereo may have been regulated out of existence.  There were at one point in the ealy 1980s three competing, incompatible, AM stereo transmission methods.  Done correctly, it sounded pretty good, given the small frequency response AM broadcasting was allowed.  Most of the Motorola C-QUAM encoders (the remaining system allowed by FCC rules) have been turned off as they break down or as IBOC comes along.  But there was stereo on other than FM, so the story is wrong.

There are several good websites that explain my points much better and in greater detail.

Ed Hennessy
N1PBA