On Mon, 16 Feb 2009 22:39:36 -0800, David Eduardo wrote:




FM began prior to W.W. II, and then changed from 47 MHz to the current
band after the War. There were no radios available.

What do you mean "There were no radios available"? As I understand,
there were almost a million radios made for the old 47 Mc FM band. Every
major manufacturer made radios for the postwar 100 Mc band.

FM did stumble after it's introduction, but it's NOT because the radios
were unavailable.


By 1950, there were over 1000 FM stations licensed (source, Broadcasting
Yearbook 1950) yet by 1960 there were only around 650 (idem, '60
edition). There were hardly any radios available, and the ones that were
out there cost many times that of a common AM radio. That was 20 years
after FM stations began to broadcast.


I have the impression that 50s AM-FM tabletop radios cost about double
what AM tabletops did. As an example, here's a page scanned from the
1955 Spiegel catalog:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wishboo...7594263507076/

That doesn't cost many times more than the cheapest radio on the page,
but it was an expensive way to listen to simulcasts and second tier
programming.



In 1977, FM surpassed AM in audience. Today, in many markets, AM has
less than 10% of all listening.

Whether HD will work during a recession is anybody's guess. And whether
AM is even worth trying is on many owner's minds. But expecting a change
in a couple of years is absurd.

Is the recession the problem? Or is the problem that HD radio really
doesn't add much value to radio regardless of the state of the economy?



Satellite is in Year 9 now, and still loses nearly $1 billion a year and
may not survive.

Yeah, it's tough to get the cheap radio consumers to pay enough for
radio, even when it's digital.

Frank Dresser