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A few years ago, analog TV broadcast bands in the US went away, and everyone was forced to switch over to digital if receiving over-the-air television broadcasts. For most people, this didn't seem to be a hardship, and the digital signals are generally a massive improvement over the past status quo.
As regards FM radio, however, the situation is a bit different. Many over-the-air stations now offer what they refer to as high-definition signals, i.e. digital, but those of us that listen to analog don't generally see this offering as an improvement. I'm a little concerned that the same thing may happen with analog FM broadcast frequencies that happened with analog television, that being it simply goes away and the frequencies are reallocated to telecom or other applications. Obviously, if this were to happen, those of us with decent quality analog tuners would be SOL.
I think it would be fair to say that people who actually care about analog FM radio broadcasts are a tiny minority in the US, so it's not likely that our protests woud carry much weight. So what are your thoughts? Is FM analog likely to be around for another ten years, or go the way of the dinosaur? I'd be interested in hearing other's thoughts and the reasons for their opinions.
TIA.
Follow Ups:
"HD" in the U.S. digital FM world does NOT mean "high-definition", although the industry doesn't seem to go out of their way to correct this misconception. HD stands for "Hybrid Digital", describing the scheme used to piggyback digitally-encoded programs within the assigned analog FM frequency bandwidth.
Audio quality from the HD signal is not necessarily superior to ordinary FM. It can be worse in some ways. Much depends on signal strength and other factors. Whereas analog FM quality (S/N) generally degrades gradually with range from the transmitter, usable range of the digital signal is less -- and it fails abruptly. Indeed, the HD receiver is designed to automatically fall back on the analog FM broadcast when the HD loses lock. That's why HD stations put several seconds delay in their analog program: this give the receiver time to decide whether to serve up the analog FM or the digital HD version.
Actually, I appreciate the correction. Thanks for the information.
In my case, however, it's really irrelevant, because my reason for asking this question to begin with is that I was contemplating the purchase of a vintage analog tuner that wouldn't be capable of receiving the digital signals in any case. If analog FM broadcast were to be discontinued, it would be a paperweight.
As it turned out, however, I pulled the trigger on a Kenwood KT-8300 that I'm picking up tomorrow, so I guess that I'll just hope to get at least 7-10 years out of it, anyway.
I doubt very much that analogue FM broadcasting will stop anytime soon in the US. There is way too large an installed base of FM receivers in cars which would be made obsolete. Drivers are by far the most important listener base for radio. Unlike TV, car radios cannot be easily "upgraded" to digital replacements, or have converters installed (you can thank the carmakers for making it all but impossible to install aftermarket head units in newer cars). Nor are there the obvious performance improvements with existing digital radio techniques that there were in the conversion from NTSC to HD, which expedited consumer acceptance of the TV switchover.The UK was talking about shutting down their analogue FM transmitters once their digital radio system had sufficient market penetration, but that's been indefinitely deferred since there's no indication that their digital system will ever reach that critical mass.
So I don't worry about my FM tuners becoming useless because the transmitters have been shut off. I do worry about most stations broadcasting junk from both a content and sound quality perspective, but there are still enough decent stations in my area (mainly college and public) to make a good tuner very important to me.
Edits: 12/14/14
Adaptors are easy to make for automobiles. Remember when FM came out and then the team formats. Today we have those little FM transmitters for mp3s, etc. Back in the olden days they even made short wave converters for the car radios. Just fed the outputs through the Motorola jacks and tuned to a frequency. So, old technology.
Seems some auto makers have or are preparing for eliminate fm or even radio from the cars. If it happens and it might starting in another 5 years or so, the entire landscape can change. As for home audio few units are fm only so market impact may not be significant.
The bigger questions for the vintage crowd relates to the collector values of the different equipment formats. Currently receivers compared to integrated amps and separates command some rather insane prices for what ever reason. If the tuners go dead will it devalue receivers in favor of integrated amps and separates.
Whereas currently we are seeing a movement in North America to allow discontinuing over the air television it is not inconceivable as more stations gain market traction over the web they will likewise want to discontinue OTA broadcasting and based on the different rules related to television and radio doing so for radio will be far easier.
Don Brian Levy, J.D.
Toronto ON Canada
That's an unlikely solution. If the FCC does away with analog FM, it will likely be because they wish to auction off that part of the spectrum and make another butt-ton of cash at the expense of the consumer. If they sell off that spectrum, such FM re-transmitters will be illegal.
I don't think the FM band is very desirable to the wireless people who are the real drivers of govt RF bandwidth auctions. They seem to want the high VHF and UHF frequencies and they tend to get them. So from the govt greed perspective, the current FM band is probably pretty safe. What WILL kill OTA FM (and AM) broadcasting will be internet based radio utilizing streaming and wireless 4G LTE or similar technology for cars. For 2015 or 2016,GM will be offering wireless internet connectivity for some of its high end infotainment systems including the equivalent of a wireless hotspot onboard. If GM is publicizing this feature you can bet all other carmakers are at a similar level of development. When this technology becomes commonplace, OTA broadcasting will fade into irrelevance and disappear for both mobile and stationary apps. I'd guess the transition will occur in ten to twenty years unless some unforeseen technological issue arises......or the public resists it. Since baby boomers are beginning become less important to the markets, I expect it will be the younger generations that will readily adopt a wireless streaming model of radio without hesitation. Since streaming of music is the primary growth area of music distribution today and it's the young generations driving it, the transition has probably already begun.
I agree with Bob. Think how much time we spend in traffic. I see lots of thirty-year-old cars that are not getting any audio upgrades soon. The downside is that much of what is broadcast of FM now is the programming that previously was on AM: top-forty, talk radio and ethnic programs. The good news is you can buy lots of classic tuners for $100 or less; if you get ten years out of it, that's a score!
there would probably be some kind of adapter so our tuners wouid still work.
Work? Perhaps so, but I think it most unlikely they would provide the level of performance that most of us would buy a high-quality tuner to provide. I would certainly not choose to make a significant investment on a tuner that was effectively doomed to become obsolete within a few years. The question is whether or not that's likely to happen.
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