Wikipedia

List of the initial commercial FM station assignments issued by the Federal Communications Commission on October 31, 1940: Difference between revisions

Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
m Linked page has been renamed
mNo edit summary
Line 7:
On May 24, 1940, the FCC had announced the establishment, effective January 1, 1941, of an FM radio band operating on 40 channels spanning 42–50&nbsp;MHz, with the first five channels (42.1 to 42.9 MHz) reserved for educational stations, and the other 35 (43.1 to 49.9 MHz) available for commercial operation.<ref>[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112059131711&view=1up&seq=765 "FCC Order No. 67"] ''Federal Register'', May 25, 1940, page 2011.</ref> On October 31, 1940, the first 15 commercial station Construction Permit authorizations were issued.<ref>[https://archive.org/stream/broadcasting19unse#page/n1074/mode/1up "New FM Call Letters Proposed"], ''Broadcasting'', November 15, 1940, page 77.</ref> Many of the grantees already operated standard AM stations in the same community, and some had previous experience operating "high frequency band" stations, including high-fidelity "[[Apex (radio band)|Apex]]" AM, and experimental FM.
 
Although educational FM stations received standard four-letter call signs like those issued to AM stations, initially a new form of call sign was mandated for the commercial FM stations, with an initial "W" for the onesthose located east, and "K" for those west, of the Mississippi River, followed by the last two digits of a station's frequency assignment (31 to 99) and closing with a one or two character regional identifier, such as "B" for Boston, "C" for Chicago, and "NY" for New York City.
 
Effective November 1, 1943, the FCC modified its policy for FM call letters,<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=mwwEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT6#v=onepage&q&f=false "Standard Broadcast Station Call Letters for All Outlets Starting Nov. 1, FCC Rule"], ''The Billboard'', September 4, 1943, page 7.</ref> with commercial stations now receiving call signs from the same block of four letter call signs as the AM and educational FM stations, plus the new optional suffix of "-FM".<ref>[https://archive.org/details/broadcasting25unse/page/n882/mode/1up "New Calls Named For FM Stations"], ''Broadcasting'', October 4, 1943, page 49.</ref><ref>[https://archive.org/details/broadcasting25unse/page/n983/mode/1up "New FM Calls"], ''Broadcasting'', October 18, 1943, page 14.</ref> On June 27, 1945, the FCC announced the reassignment of the FM band to 80 channels from 88–106&nbsp;MHz, which was soon expanded to 100 channels from 88–108&nbsp;MHz.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/broadcasting291unse/page/n16/mode/1up "FCC Allocates 88-106 mc Band to FM"] by Bill Bailey, ''Broadcasting'', July 2, 1945, pages 13-14.</ref><ref>[https://archive.org/details/broadcasting291unse/page/n67/mode/1up "FCC Allocations Order Text"], ''Broadcasting'', July 2, 1945, pages 64-68.</ref> The FCC provided that, during a transitional period, stations could simultaneously broadcast on both their old and new frequencies.
 
Fourteen of the 15fifteen initalinitial grants resulted in operating stations—the one exception was the Brooklyn, New York grant to Frequency Broadcasting Corporation. Half of the fourteen constructed stations ended operations during the FM band's difficult financial period of the 1940s and 1950s, with the other 7, highlighted in the table below in beige, ultimately surviving.
 
==Table of October 31, 1940, assignments==
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_initial_commercial_FM_station_assignments_issued_by_the_Federal_Communications_Commission_on_October_31,_1940"