What is the future of FM

[stereofisher]

FM has gone down hill. I like classical music. Sadly WMHT shares its signal with our local colllege. Classical to kids music. Not much else. We live in the Hudson Valley. Most stations are crappy. Ifart radio rules unfortunity. I hate that they play everything over and over. WMAC is a talk NPR station. I hate that. I wish WQXR would boost the repeater. It’s 10 watts. Really? Never forgave the New York Times for selling WQXR. They changed the frequency on the main signal. Can’t get it direct anymore. Oh well.

 

[vwestlife]

We can't afford to be complacent about this - I thought NTSC television would continue forever because of the enormous number of transmitters and receivers in use. And then it all changed.

Broadcast TV was (largely*) forced to switch to digital because there was an enormous amount of money to be made selling off the upper UHF channels to the cell phone carriers and wireless data providers. That first happened in the 1980s when channels 70 through 83 were sold off for use by cell phones. You may have noticed that old TVs tune all the way up to channel 83 on UHF but since then they only go up to channel 69 -- that's why.

Then with the digital TV transition in 2009, channels 52 to 69 were additionally sold off for use by cell phones and mobile data. TV stations in that range may still appear to be using those channels, but with digital TV's ability to transmit on a different channel than what appears on your TV screen, they've all moved down to transmit on lower channels.

And now within the past year many TV stations are undergoing a "repacking", taking advantage of digital TV's ability for multiple TV stations to share a single transmitter, freeing up even more RF spectrum that the FCC can sell off. For example, New York City's NBC affiliate (WNBC) sold off their RF allocation for millions of dollars and now is sharing the transmitter of the Spanish-language Univision station. But WNBC still appears on your TV as "channel 4" thanks to digital TV's jiggery-pokery.

The FM radio band won't suffer the same fate in the USA because there is no money to be made by selling off the 88-108 MHz band. Those frequencies are too low to be useful in modern mobile devices -- the antenna required to pick them up is too large to fit inside a smartphone. (That's why Walkmans and transistor radios hardly pick up anything on FM unless you pull out the antenna rod or plug in headphones, whose cord becomes the antenna.) And unlike HDTV's immediately noticeable improvement in picture quality compared to analog standard definition TV, there would be no benefit to the consumer -- DAB and HD Radio fail to exceed the audio quality of standard analog FM radio, and their fringe area reception is worse.

* Low-power TV stations (LPTV) are still allowed by the FCC to transmit an analog signal. This is used by some LPTV stations on channel 6, whose audio carrier is on 87.75 MHz, and thus they pretend to be FM radio stations on 87.7, even though they're actually TV stations.

 

[nj pheonix]

The future of FM is so bright you must wear shades to view. There will be more music, less commercials, as advertisers figure out that a grateful public responds better to the next ten minutes of music is brought to you by Widget Sales vs the usual, loud hard-sell crap. Stations will play better, more varied music, changing formats when they notice there are no local jazz or blues, etc, stations. Good vibrations transmitted through our airways will lead to a whole new era of a spirit of cooperation throughout the nation and the world ushering in a whole new golden era of radio. Radio will then kill the video star, and singers will have to have voices, not just good (or weird) looks. Even politicians will respond, and begin keeping as much as 15% of their campaign promises. Well, maybe 8%, then. Got carried away there.

I sure hope you're right

 

[Bill Ferris]

No FM future here, hasn`t been listened to by me, since 1992, when my area`s offerings went down the toilet !!

I bought a Sony 10 CD cartridge player and loaded up Zepp in one, Pink Floyd in another, Yes, in one more, etc. an walked away and haven`t looked back..
Then while owning and using the "Big Sat. Dish, for my TV programing desires, the delivery transformed to Digital in 2000 something, so I bought the digital upgraded Big Dish receiver..

Found out the new digital Big Dish programing services offered free as part of the channel packages, DMX(un-compressed music channels, on both C& Ku, with zero voice overs, or any commercials..

So I became spoiled on the all day continuous back ground music of any genre music I cared to select and listen to..
And when the BD went black, my A/V installer friend gave me one of his client`s, because of "upgrade" toss out a Sony 400 DVD/CD/SACD multi disc player, so I was back in business, until it failed 5 years later after running 5 years straight 24/7..
That was it for me !!

No more optical physical/OTA media was I to be a slave to !!

All my 9555 track, and growing ripped CD music has been WAV. ripped to 3 three lap-top computers, 2 500 Gig. flash drives (soon to be replaced by 2 Terabyte flash drives) and a off board master backup SSD for backup protection..

As long as my whole house generator has LP gas, it doesn`t matter that any stations/internet services are down because of a FL. hurricane that effect`s my area, I have my tunes, and I will not be at the whim`s of somebody else`s music choice, or delivery capability/system at any time !!
Of course, if my house get`s blown away from natures wrath, then my in house & isolated music desires/needs will be moot, and so will most likely me !!

If your local FM market offering`s satisfies you, consider yourself very lucky, and enjoy as you can/will tolerate !!

Just my thoughts concerning living long enough to experience the degradation of "my" FM market since the early nineties !!

FWIW. from my viewpoint/exposure..
Enjoy your music, as you see fit Folks

 

[brillcat]

For the home -- I've bought and sold a lot FM tuners over the years, including some with HD Radio, but slowly I have migrated to the convenience of streaming the FM stations I frequent. I found I was rarely using my tuners, no matter how cool they looked. Where I drive, FM signals struggle with the surrounding terrain. Recently got a new car with a seamless Bluetooth connection to my smart phone and I find it much easier and more enjoyable to just stream in the car as well.

 

[DesertRatt]

I might be alone on this, but something I miss about FM radio was the curation, the knowledge of the disc jockey, and the sense of being tied into a local community. It was more than just the playing of songs.

 

[brillcat]

I might be alone on this, but something I miss about FM radio was the curation, the knowledge of the disc jockey, and the sense of being tied into a local community. It was more than just the playing of songs.

Totally agree -- even though I stream everything now, most of the time I still listen to local news, jazz, blues and classical stations.

 

[Glenn E]

I live in Alice Springs, Australia. For a small isolated town, we are pretty well served with FM stations. As in Britain we have a national broadcaster (ABC) which provides pretty good coverage all over the country. I regularly listen to Radio National for news and current affairs, Newsradio if I need instant news or JJJ for a good selection of current youth oriented music. All for free. Long live the ABC in Aus.

 

[62caddy]

Acc to this, terrestrial radio market is as strong as ever.

https://qz.com/1094963/radio-surviv...he-age-of-spotify-its-more-popular-than-ever/

 

[Bugetnirvana]

I dont see it going away. It's too convenient. FM does have a lot of competition now though. Most truck drivers like myself use Satellite radio now. But they all have their limitations and drawbacks.

 

[stereofisher]

Still start the day with WMHT. CLASSICAL music. Our oldies station let Van Ritchie go. Used to listen to them. His replacement not so good. Cant pull his new station. Sadly there are too many religious and talk NPR stations in the Hudson Valley NY area. Ifart radio has too many channels here playing the same music over and over. Too bad we can’t WQXRs main signal anymore. They can’t spring for bigger repeater. Ten watts really? But FM will stay.

 

[infullview]

FM isn't going away, it is just being co-opted by special interests such as conservative talk radio, christian broadcasting, sports radio, college radio, and NPR. The few remaining music stations play nothing but MOR pop music for the masses. I do listen to the college stations because they play a lot of jazz music, and in my area, we have one decent station, WCLZ, that plays progressive, alternative, independent, and local bands. It is owned by Saga Communications and their mission statement says that they believe in local control and operation. They don't network their stations to one central control room that pretends to be in your locale.

 

[Bob@FM]

FM has gone down hill. I like classical music. Sadly WMHT shares its signal with our local colllege. Classical to kids music. Not much else. We live in the Hudson Valley. Most stations are crappy.WMAC is a talk NPR station. I hate that.

I live north of you, Albany area. WAMC has decent music shows on the weekends and some evenings. If you were not aware, check the schedule. You can record them and listen later if that suites you. They have Jazz all night on weekends. I usually catch the Tim Coakley Jazz show Saturday night 11-12PM

In summer I believe WAMC still do live classical concerts from Tanglewood, and they have other local origination folk/roots/blues shows, in addition to NPR music programs. Their main transmitter is on top of Mt. Greylock, in MA just below Williamstown, but yeah, a ton of secondary local transmitters.

 

[b1lk1]

FM is being taken over by big companies, many/most in Canada are rebroadcasting a "parent" source with locals doing news/announcements. FM is not going anywhere until there is another free option. It reaches far too many people both directly and indirectly.

 

[Mystic]

Sadly there are too many religious and talk ... stations in the Hudson Valley NY area...

Too many radio outlets re: these two formats throughout The States.

 

[Mystic]

P.S. not crazy about (most) NPR formats either.

 

[b1lk1]

Canada's market is so small we still have some choice. BUT, there is almost never more than 1 station of any 1 type of format within reach at any time.

 

[rcs16]

You do not have much in Lindsay, the wolf, Bob is hard for me to listen too I guess you barely get toronto, q107, etc, would need a tower/rotor and a big directional antenna.

 

[b1lk1]

Oldies FM 96.7 is pretty good, great mix of music and not so much obnoxious pop like BOB.

 

[Capitol C]

In Washington, DC, the classical NPR station, WETA, is frustrating. A lot of the time they play single movements of pieces ("And that was the finale of Mozart's Symphony number 37"), there is very little intelligent commentary, and the programming seems to be aimed at the background music market ("That was the Concerto for Piccolo and Sousaphone by the baroque composer Mozzarella Limoncello, BS number 72359.") . Since people can get a lot of music free on line, digital subscription services are cheap, and CDs are being sold at fire-sale prices, much of the audience probably doesn't want to bother thinking, so the decline in quality is not too surprising. My guess is that classical FM will last until the government goes bankrupt and stops the subsidies, or until regular people rise up in anger and use the walkers and oxygen bottles of the remaining listeners to smash their Bose Wave Music Systems.