"David Eduardo" wrote in message
...

"Frank Dresser" wrote in message
...


Problem was, people didn't like stereo enough to buy another radio. And
it's not as if the radios were real expensive. They wouldn't buy four
AM
stereo standards. They wouldn't buy even one.

By the time in the early 80's when a standard, CQuam, arrose, AM was no
longer a music medium and had less than 40% of all listening.

But there were still people listening to music on AM, probably more than are
listening to HD radio right now. I can understand the enthusiasm people had
for AM stereo back then.

AM stereo might have kept radio as we then knew it alive.



Actually, people didn't care much about FM stereo, either. FM stereo
didn't
reach mass market appeal until it was almost a give-away with the radio.

Untrue. FM Stereo was introduced in about 1961, and the decade before had
seen total FM stations go from over 1000 in 1950 to around 500 in 1960.

I didn't mean FM radio stations. I meant FM recievers. When FM began it's
turnaround around 1970 or so, most of the FM receivers were mono.

The dominance of FM stereo receivers didn't happen until the price
difference was small.


What changed FM was not the technology, but the FCC's 1967 ban on FM
simulcasts with a parent AM station. It was the diversity of formats that
came out of this that sold FM.



On this we agree. The FM turnaround was driven by content.

Frank Dresser