FM broadcasting is a method of radio broadcasting that uses frequency modulation ( FM ) of the radio broadcast carrier wave. Invented in 1933 by American engineer Edwin Armstrong , wide-band FM is used worldwide to transmit high-fidelity sound over broadcast radio . FM broadcasting offers higher fidelity—more accurate reproduction of the original program sound—than other broadcasting techniques, such as AM broadcasting . It is also less susceptible to common forms of interference , having less static and popping sounds than are often heard on AM. Therefore, FM is used for most broadcasts of music and general audio (in the audio spectrum). FM radio stations use the very high frequency range of radio frequencies .
89-530: KSJN (99.5 FM ) is a non-commercial educational radio station licensed to Minneapolis, Minnesota . Owned by Minnesota Public Radio (MPR), this station serves the Twin Cities region as the flagship of "YourClassical MPR", MPR's classical music network. KSJN's studios are located at the MPR Broadcast Center on Cedar Street in downtown Saint Paul , while its transmitter is located on
178-481: A bitter rivalry throughout the 1980s, with WLOL dominating the format in the Twin Cities for the next five years. WLOL was noteworthy for its presentation, by combining typical Top 40 programming philosophies with a local touch. In addition, WLOL relied heavily on unique jingle packages, including the now iconic "Get Me Up!" jingle, which was written by Kyrl Henderson of the now defunct Reel Good Productions, and
267-436: A blueprint to other FM stations in the Twin Cities market. However, MPR fans wanted a full-power FM station for news and talk programs, as AM 1330 had been challenged by a poor signal in the western suburbs that were home to many MPR members, as well as in office buildings. Meanwhile, pop music fans in the Twin Cities were upset as WLOL slowly counted down to its last day, February 26, 1991. WLOL's final broadcast culminated with
356-414: A day-long farewell, playing music and jingles from the station's nearly 10 year-long Top 40/CHR era. Current and former airstaff offered farewell messages, and advertisements from KQRS-FM , KEEY-FM (where morning host John Hines later landed) and even KDWB redirected listeners to their stations. At 6:30 p.m., WLOL left the air with a half-hour montage of clips from songs played by the station during
445-514: A monophonic broadcast, again the most common permitted maximum deviation is ±75 kHz. However, some countries specify a lower value for monophonic broadcasts, such as ±50 kHz. The bandwidth of an FM transmission is given by the Carson bandwidth rule which is the sum of twice the maximum deviation and twice the maximum modulating frequency. For a transmission that includes RDS this would be 2 × 75 kHz + 2 × 60 kHz = 270 kHz . This
534-594: A musical representation of the radio station name and frequency. Radio stations will sub contract to specialist radio jingle producers who will create the musical sound and melody, along with recording the session singers. The elements, termed a donut , will then be dispatched to the radio station in various time variations to be edited by local radio producers before being broadcast in between songs, or into and out of commercial breaks. Alternatively, jingles can be made in-house by production staff. When commissioned to write jingles, writers will sometimes create all aspects of
623-428: A nonprofit corporation, Saint John's University Broadcasting. This organization later changed its name to Minnesota Educational Radio, and finally Minnesota Public Radio. In 1969 and 1970, MPR assisted in the formation of National Public Radio (NPR) and was a founding member of the organization. Four years later, in 1974, the network began live broadcasts of Garrison Keillor 's A Prairie Home Companion . The show
712-557: A program feed for AM transmitters of AM/FM stations. SCA subcarriers are typically 67 kHz and 92 kHz. Initially the users of SCA services were private analog audio channels which could be used internally or leased, for example Muzak -type services. There were experiments with quadraphonic sound. If a station does not broadcast in stereo, everything from 23 kHz on up can be used for other services. The guard band around 19 kHz (±4 kHz) must still be maintained, so as not to trigger stereo decoders on receivers. If there
801-600: A ratings improvement. Saint John's University in Collegeville , near St. Cloud , built and began operating the first station in what would become the Minnesota Public Radio network, KSJR-FM (90.1), in January 1967. By 1968, it was obvious that there were not enough listeners in the immediate St. Cloud area for the station to be viable. KSJR nearly tripled its power in hopes of reaching listeners in
890-418: A slumping WLOL and would, from that point on, be the dominant CHR station in the market. Playing catch-up, WLOL started tweaking the programming and air staff, including shaking up its longtime morning show. Finally, on May 11, 1990, WLOL switched to a Rhythmic Contemporary format. Labeling itself as "Today's Best Music", 99.5 WLOL hired a new airstaff and rejuvenated itself in the minds of listeners, managing
979-473: A studio-to-transmitter link system. In April 1935, the AM subcarriers were replaced by FM subcarriers, with much improved results. The first FM subcarrier transmissions emanating from Major Armstrong's experimental station KE2XCC at Alpine, New Jersey occurred in 1948. These transmissions consisted of two-channel audio programs, binaural audio programs and a fax program. The original subcarrier frequency used at KE2XCC
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#17327758741081068-525: Is added. VHF radio waves usually do not travel far beyond the visual horizon , so reception distances for FM stations are typically limited to 30–40 miles (50–60 km). They can also be blocked by hills and to a lesser extent by buildings. Individuals with more-sensitive receivers or specialized antenna systems, or who are located in areas with more favorable topography, may be able to receive useful FM broadcast signals at considerably greater distances. The knife edge effect can permit reception where there
1157-422: Is also known as the necessary bandwidth . Random noise has a triangular spectral distribution in an FM system, with the effect that noise occurs predominantly at the higher audio frequencies within the baseband . This can be offset, to a limited extent, by boosting the high frequencies before transmission and reducing them by a corresponding amount in the receiver. Reducing the high audio frequencies in
1246-408: Is amplitude modulated onto a 38 kHz double-sideband suppressed-carrier (DSB-SC) signal, thus occupying 23 kHz to 53 kHz. A 19 kHz ± 2 Hz pilot tone , at exactly half the 38 kHz sub-carrier frequency and with a precise phase relationship to it, as defined by the formula below, is also generated. The pilot is transmitted at 8–10% of overall modulation level and used by
1335-422: Is authorized for "hybrid" mode operation, wherein both the conventional analog FM carrier and digital sideband subcarriers are transmitted. The output power of an FM broadcasting transmitter is one of the parameters that governs how far a transmission will cover. The other important parameters are the height of the transmitting antenna and the antenna gain . Transmitter powers should be carefully chosen so that
1424-596: Is designed to be capable of use alongside ARI despite using identical subcarrier frequencies. In the United States and Canada , digital radio services are deployed within the FM band rather than using Eureka 147 or the Japanese standard ISDB . This in-band on-channel approach, as do all digital radio techniques, makes use of advanced compressed audio . The proprietary iBiquity system, branded as HD Radio ,
1513-480: Is mainly the preserve of talk radio, news, sports, religious programming, ethnic (minority language) broadcasting and some types of minority interest music. This shift has transformed AM into the "alternative band" that FM once was. (Some AM stations have begun to simulcast on, or switch to, FM signals to attract younger listeners and aid reception problems in buildings, during thunderstorms, and near high-voltage wires. Some of these stations now emphasize their presence on
1602-671: Is no direct line of sight between broadcaster and receiver. The reception can vary considerably depending on the position. One example is the Učka mountain range, which makes constant reception of Italian signals from Veneto and Marche possible in a good portion of Rijeka , Croatia, despite the distance being over 200 km (125 miles). Other radio propagation effects such as tropospheric ducting and Sporadic E can occasionally allow distant stations to be intermittently received over very large distances (hundreds of miles), but cannot be relied on for commercial broadcast purposes. Good reception across
1691-496: Is only suitable for text. A few proprietary systems are used for private communications. A variant of RDS is the North American RBDS or "smart radio" system. In Germany the analog ARI system was used prior to RDS to alert motorists that traffic announcements were broadcast (without disturbing other listeners). Plans to use ARI for other European countries led to the development of RDS as a more powerful system. RDS
1780-435: Is open to anyone who does not carry a prohibition and can put up the appropriate licensing and royalty fees. In 2010 around 450 such licences were issued. Jingle A jingle is a short song or tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. Jingles are a form of sound branding . A jingle contains one or more hooks and meanings that explicitly promote the product or service being advertised, usually through
1869-504: Is performed by a decoder, built into stereo receivers. Again, the decoder can use a switching technique to recover the left and right channels. In addition, for a given RF level at the receiver, the signal-to-noise ratio and multipath distortion for the stereo signal will be worse than for the mono receiver. For this reason many stereo FM receivers include a stereo/mono switch to allow listening in mono when reception conditions are less than ideal, and most car radios are arranged to reduce
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#17327758741081958-557: Is related to the transmitter 's RF power, the antenna gain , and antenna height . Interference from other stations is also a factor in some places. In the U.S, the FCC publishes curves that aid in calculation of this maximum distance as a function of signal strength at the receiving location. Computer modelling is more commonly used for this around the world. Many FM stations, especially those located in severe multipath areas, use extra audio compression /processing to keep essential sound above
2047-630: Is stereo, there will typically be a guard band between the upper limit of the DSBSC stereo signal (53 kHz) and the lower limit of any other subcarrier. Digital data services are also available. A 57 kHz subcarrier ( phase locked to the third harmonic of the stereo pilot tone) is used to carry a low-bandwidth digital Radio Data System signal, providing extra features such as station name, alternative frequency (AF), traffic data for satellite navigation systems and radio text (RT). This narrowband signal runs at only 1,187.5 bits per second , thus
2136-427: Is used. This applies to both mono and stereo transmissions. For stereo, pre-emphasis is applied to the left and right channels before multiplexing . The use of pre-emphasis becomes a problem because many forms of contemporary music contain more high-frequency energy than the musical styles which prevailed at the birth of FM broadcasting. Pre-emphasizing these high-frequency sounds would cause excessive deviation of
2225-513: The KMSP Tower in Shoreview . KSJN broadcasts using HD Radio technology, and uses its HD2 subchannel to carry American Public Media 's Classical 24 network. The 99.5 frequency was established as commercial radio station WLOL-FM in 1957; the station achieved its most success as a top-rated Top 40 station during the 1980s under Emmis Communications ownership. After Emmis purchased
2314-595: The Light Programme , Third Programme and Home Service . These three networks used the sub-band 88.0–94.6 MHz. The sub-band 94.6–97.6 MHz was later used for BBC and local commercial services. However, only when commercial broadcasting was introduced to the UK in 1973 did the use of FM pick up in Britain. With the gradual clearance of other users (notably Public Services such as police, fire and ambulance) and
2403-627: The Seattle Mariners baseball club, the company sold WLOL to MPR in 1991. Relaunched as KSJN, the station has originated the public radio service's classical format full-time ever since. On July 18, 1956, radio station WLOL (1330 AM) was granted a construction permit for a new FM radio station to be heard on 99.5 MHz. The station, WLOL-FM, began broadcasting in February 1957 with a classical music format. The station maintained this programming for its first 16 years of operation until
2492-466: The 1950s. The jingle was used in the advertising of branded products such as breakfast cereals, candy , snacks , soda pop , tobacco , and beer . Various franchises and products aimed at the consumers' self-image, such as automobiles , personal hygiene products (including deodorants , mouthwash , shampoo , and toothpaste ), and household cleaning products, especially detergent , also used jingles. In August 2016, The Atlantic reported that in
2581-492: The 1970s and 1980s: A commercially unsuccessful noise reduction system used with FM radio in some countries during the late 1970s, Dolby FM was similar to Dolby B but used a modified 25 μs pre-emphasis time constant and a frequency selective companding arrangement to reduce noise. The pre-emphasis change compensates for the excess treble response that otherwise would make listening difficult for those without Dolby decoders. A similar system named High Com FM
2670-551: The AM station, by that time known as KNOW, to raise some of the funds for the FM purchase. MPR announced that it would move its classical programming to the 99.5 frequency, giving classical music fans an all-classical outlet, while those interested in news and information would have their own full-time NPR station. The 91.1 frequency would become the new home of KNOW-FM, which no longer spent part of each day playing music. Emmis took some steps toward enabling another commercial radio owner to pick up WLOL, going as far as to provide such
2759-665: The FCC announced the reassignment of the FM band to 90 channels from 88–106 MHz (which was soon expanded to 100 channels from 88–108 MHz). This shift, which the AM-broadcaster RCA had pushed for, made all the Armstrong-era FM receivers useless and delayed the expansion of FM. In 1961 WEFM (in the Chicago area) and WGFM (in Schenectady, New York ) were reported as the first stereo stations. By
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2848-705: The FCC rules do not allow this mode of stereo operation. In 1969, Louis Dorren invented the Quadraplex system of single station, discrete, compatible four-channel FM broadcasting. There are two additional subcarriers in the Quadraplex system, supplementing the single one used in standard stereo FM. The baseband layout is as follows: The normal stereo signal can be considered as switching between left and right channels at 38 kHz, appropriately band-limited. The quadraphonic signal can be considered as cycling through LF, LR, RF, RR, at 76 kHz. Early efforts to transmit discrete four-channel quadraphonic music required
2937-579: The FCC. The original Dorren Quadraplex System outperformed all the others and was chosen as the national standard for Quadraphonic FM broadcasting in the United States. The first commercial FM station to broadcast quadraphonic program content was WIQB (now called WWWW-FM ) in Ann Arbor / Saline, Michigan under the guidance of Chief Engineer Brian Jeffrey Brown. Various attempts to add analog noise reduction to FM broadcasting were carried out in
3026-456: The FM carrier . Modulation control (limiter) devices are used to prevent this. Systems more modern than FM broadcasting tend to use either programme-dependent variable pre-emphasis; e.g., dbx in the BTSC TV sound system, or none at all. Pre-emphasis and de-emphasis was used in the earliest days of FM broadcasting. According to a BBC report from 1946, 100 μs was originally considered in
3115-520: The FM band.) The medium wave band (known as the AM band because most stations using it employ amplitude modulation) was overcrowded in western Europe, leading to interference problems and, as a result, many MW frequencies are suitable only for speech broadcasting. Belgium , the Netherlands , Denmark and particularly Germany were among the first countries to adopt FM on a widespread scale. Among
3204-979: The FM radio band from 87.5-108.0 MHz to 76.1-108.0 MHz to enable the migration of AM radio stations in Brazilian capitals and large cities. FM broadcasting began in the late 1930s, when it was initiated by a handful of early pioneer experimental stations, including W1XOJ/W43B/WGTR (shut down in 1953) and W1XTG/ WSRS , both transmitting from Paxton, Massachusetts (now listed as Worcester, Massachusetts ); W1XSL/W1XPW/W65H/WDRC-FM/WFMQ/WHCN , Meriden, Connecticut; and W2XMN , KE2XCC , and WFMN , Alpine, New Jersey (owned by Edwin Armstrong himself, closed down upon Armstrong's death in 1954). Also of note were General Electric stations W2XDA Schenectady and W2XOY New Scotland, New York—two experimental FM transmitters on 48.5 MHz—which signed on in 1939. The two began regular programming, as W2XOY, on November 20, 1940. Over
3293-463: The L+R signal so the listener will hear both channels through the single loudspeaker. A stereo receiver will add the difference signal to the sum signal to recover the left channel, and subtract the difference signal from the sum to recover the right channel. The (L+R) signal is limited to 30 Hz to 15 kHz to protect a 19 kHz pilot signal. The (L−R) signal, which is also limited to 15 kHz,
3382-506: The Top 40/CHR era, followed by a sign-off announcement from Hines and " Miss You Much " by Janet Jackson . At 7 p.m., after about a half hour of dead air , WLOL started playing music without live DJs. In addition, liners were played in between songs with KDWB wishing WLOL "happy trails" and redirecting listeners to their station. Around 8 p.m., WLOL officially signed off with 1999 by Minneapolis native Prince . The next morning, 99.5 became
3471-495: The Twin Cities, but even then it only provided grade B coverage of Minneapolis and minimal coverage of St. Paul. To solve this problem, the university signed on KSJN at 91.1 MHz, originally licensed to the northern Twin Cities suburb of New Brighton . It served as a full-time repeater of KSJR-FM. By 1969, Saint John University's realized it was in over its head operating a two radio stations, so it turned over KSJR and KSJN to
3560-459: The Twin Cities. We just ran out of time. ... With little in the way of resources [the staff] gave KDWB a real good run." Rick Cummings, vice president of programming, Emmis Communications, on the end of WLOL In 1989, Emmis CEO Jeff Smulyan bought the Seattle Mariners baseball team. As early as September 1989, rumors were swirling that WLOL might be up for sale to raise funds for the acquisition. It later emerged that Emmis had indeed placed
3649-698: The US, but 75 μs subsequently adopted. Long before FM stereo transmission was considered, FM multiplexing of other types of audio-level information was experimented with. Edwin Armstrong, who invented FM, was the first to experiment with multiplexing, at his experimental 41 MHz station W2XDG located on the 85th floor of the Empire State Building in New York City . These FM multiplex transmissions started in November 1934 and consisted of
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3738-498: The United States, the once popular jingle was now being replaced by advertisers with a mixture of older and recent pop music to make their commercials memorable. In 1998, there were 153 jingles in a sample of 1,279 national commercials; by 2011, the number of jingles had dropped to eight jingles out of 306 commercials. One of the longest running jingles is for McCormick Foods' Aeroplane Jelly . Composed in Australia before 1943,
3827-454: The assigned frequency. There are other unusual and obsolete FM broadcasting standards in some countries, with non-standard spacings of 1, 10, 30, 74, 500, and 300 kHz. To minimise inter-channel interference, stations operating from the same or nearby transmitter sites tend to keep to at least a 500 kHz frequency separation even when closer frequency spacing is technically permitted. The ITU publishes Protection Ratio graphs, which give
3916-518: The background noise for listeners, often at the expense of overall perceived sound quality. In such instances, however, this technique is often surprisingly effective in increasing the station's useful range. The first radio station to broadcast in FM in Brazil was Rádio Imprensa, which began broadcasting in Rio de Janeiro in 1955, on the 102.1 MHz frequency, founded by businesswoman Anna Khoury. Due to
4005-459: The basis of poor sales. Soon after the song "Have you tried Wheaties?" aired in Minnesota , however, sales spiked there. Of the 53,000 cases of Wheaties breakfast cereal sold, 40,000 were sold in the Twin Cities market. After advertising manager Samuel Chester Gale pointed out that this was the only location where "Have You Tried Wheaties?" was being aired at the time, the success of the jingle
4094-476: The bran. Won't you try Wheaties? For wheat is the best food of man. They're crispy and crunchy the whole year through, The kiddies never tire of them and neither will you. So just try Wheaties, The best breakfast food in the land. Wheaties Jingle (1926) The Wheaties advertisement, with its lyrical hooks, was seen by its owners as extremely successful. According to one account, General Mills had seriously planned to end production of Wheaties in 1929 on
4183-402: The carrier, with its frequency remaining constant. With FM, frequency deviation from the assigned carrier frequency at any instant is directly proportional to the amplitude of the (audio) input signal, determining the instantaneous frequency of the transmitted signal. Because transmitted FM signals use significantly more bandwidth than AM signals, this form of modulation is commonly used with
4272-431: The country is one of the main advantages over DAB/+ radio . This is still less than the range of AM radio waves, which because of their lower frequencies can travel as ground waves or reflect off the ionosphere , so AM radio stations can be received at hundreds (sometimes thousands) of miles. This is a property of the carrier wave's typical frequency (and power), not its mode of modulation. The range of FM transmission
4361-511: The easy listening format was evident in the Twin Cities. Other stations in the format at the time included KEEY-FM and WAYL AM-FM (now KKMS and KXXR ). Midcontinent Broadcasting sold WLOL-AM-FM to Bob Liggett of Liggett Broadcasting for $ 1.55 million in 1978. On August 20, Liggett, with a staff of nine disc jockeys , debuted a new soft adult contemporary station as Easy Rockin' FM 100 WLOL . The flip brought WLOL-FM into competition with KSTP-FM and WCCO-FM (now KMNB ). Ratings rose, but
4450-567: The extension of the FM band to 108.0 MHz between 1980 and 1995, FM expanded rapidly throughout the British Isles and effectively took over from LW and MW as the delivery platform of choice for fixed and portable domestic and vehicle-based receivers. In addition, Ofcom (previously the Radio Authority) in the UK issues on demand Restricted Service Licences on FM and also on AM (MW) for short-term local-coverage broadcasting which
4539-513: The high import costs of FM radio receivers, transmissions were carried out in circuit closed to businesses and stores, which played ambient music offered by radio. Until 1976, Rádio Imprensa was the only station operating in FM in Brazil. From the second half of the 1970s onwards, FM radio stations began to become popular in Brazil, causing AM radio to gradually lose popularity. In 2021, the Brazilian Ministry of Communications expanded
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#17327758741084628-470: The higher ( VHF or UHF ) frequencies used by TV , the FM broadcast band , and land mobile radio systems . The maximum frequency deviation of the carrier is usually specified and regulated by the licensing authorities in each country. For a stereo broadcast, the maximum permitted carrier deviation is invariably ±75 kHz, although a little higher is permitted in the United States when SCA systems are used. For
4717-503: The import of vehicles, principally from the United States, with radios that can only tune to these frequencies. In some parts of Europe , Greenland , and Africa , only even multiples are used. In the United Kingdom , both odd and even are used. In Italy , multiples of 50 kHz are used. In most countries the maximum permitted frequency error of the unmodulated carrier is specified, which typically should be within 2 kHz of
4806-493: The jingle circumvented the ban on direct advertising that the National Broadcasting Company , the dominant broadcasting chain, was trying to maintain at the time. A jingle could get a brand's name embedded in the heads of potential customers even though it did not fit into the definition of "advertisement" accepted in the late 1920s. The art of the jingle reached its peak around the economic boom of
4895-518: The jingle has been used in advertising well into the 21st century. During the '40s, it made itself famous, or infamous, as it was played more than 100 times a day on some stations. Another long-running jingle is "Like a Good Neighbor, State Farm is There", which was composed by Barry Manilow and has been used in one form or another in commercials for State Farm Insurance since 1971. The 6-note ABS-CBN jingle, used from 1967 to September 23, 1972 and since its reopening on September 14, 1986, serves as
4984-460: The jingle: music, lyrics, performance and recording. In this case, the writer may be paid for these aspects as well as a flat fee. Although the advertiser receives rights free of writer royalty, sometimes the writer will try to retain performance rights. In most cases the writer retains no rights whatsoever. In other cases, advertisers purchase jingles in package deals from producers specializing in jingles. The writers working for these producers receive
5073-524: The late 1960s, FM had been adopted for broadcast of stereo "A.O.R.—' Album Oriented Rock ' Format", but it was not until 1978 that listenership to FM stations exceeded that of AM stations in North America. In most of the 70s FM was seen as highbrow radio associated with educational programming and classical music, which changed during the 1980s and 1990s when Top 40 music stations and later even country music stations largely abandoned AM for FM. Today AM
5162-527: The main channel audio program and three subcarriers : a fax program, a synchronizing signal for the fax program and a telegraph order channel. These original FM multiplex subcarriers were amplitude modulated. Two musical programs, consisting of both the Red and Blue Network program feeds of the NBC Radio Network, were simultaneously transmitted using the same system of subcarrier modulation as part of
5251-568: The main channel signal-to-noise ratio. The GE and Zenith systems, so similar that they were considered theoretically identical, were formally approved by the FCC in April 1961 as the standard stereo FM broadcasting method in the United States and later adopted by most other countries. It is important that stereo broadcasts be compatible with mono receivers. For this reason, the left (L) and right (R) channels are algebraically encoded into sum (L+R) and difference (L−R) signals. A mono receiver will use just
5340-405: The minimum spacing between frequencies based on their relative strengths. Only broadcast stations with large enough geographic separations between their coverage areas can operate on the same or close frequencies. Frequency modulation or FM is a form of modulation which conveys information by varying the frequency of a carrier wave ; the older amplitude modulation or AM varies the amplitude of
5429-497: The money-losing outlet switched to automated beautiful music in August 1973. The station donated its classical albums to KSJN (91.1 FM) and KUOM . The easy listening format proved to be popular as more people acquired FM receivers and offices played WLOL-FM for their employees and visitors. The station aired quarter-hour sweeps of soft instrumental music as well as Broadway and Hollywood show tunes . The competition in
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#17327758741085518-519: The network's jingle as it is used on various IDs, such as Christmas and Summer station IDs. Jingles can also be used for parody purposes, popularized in Top 40 / CHR radio formats primarily Hot30 Countdown , used primarily for branding reasons. Television station idents have also introduced their own audio jingles to strengthen their brand identities, for example the melodic motifs of Channel 4 's Fourscore or BBC One 's 'Circle' idents . Most often
5607-591: The new home of KSJN, and began playing classical music 24 hours a day. The KNOW call sign, along with all NPR news and talk programming, moved to 91.1. On March 11, the KSJN call letters officially moved to 99.5 FM. Meanwhile, the KNOW-FM call sign was instituted on 91.1 FM. The historic WLOL call letters were soon claimed by KXLV , a station located north of the Twin Cities in Cambridge at 105.3 FM. When that station
5696-540: The next few years this station operated under the call signs W57A, W87A and WGFM, and moved to 99.5 MHz when the FM band was relocated to the 88–108 MHz portion of the radio spectrum. General Electric sold the station in the 1980s. Today this station is WRVE . Other pioneers included W2XQR/W59NY/WQXQ/WQXR-FM , New York; W47NV/WSM-FM Nashville, Tennessee (signed off in 1951); W1XER/W39B/WMNE , with studios in Boston and later Portland, Maine, but whose transmitter
5785-433: The originating station. The Crosby system was rejected by the FCC because it was incompatible with existing subsidiary communications authorization (SCA) services which used various subcarrier frequencies including 41 and 67 kHz. Many revenue-starved FM stations used SCAs for "storecasting" and other non-broadcast purposes. The Halstead system was rejected due to lack of high frequency stereo separation and reduction in
5874-559: The reasons for this were: Public service broadcasters in Ireland and Australia were far slower at adopting FM radio than those in either North America or continental Europe . Hans Idzerda operated a broadcasting station, PCGG , at The Hague from 1919 to 1924, which employed narrow-band FM transmissions. In the United Kingdom the BBC conducted tests during the 1940s, then began FM broadcasting in 1955, with three national networks:
5963-456: The receiver also reduces the high-frequency noise. These processes of boosting and then reducing certain frequencies are known as pre-emphasis and de-emphasis , respectively. The amount of pre-emphasis and de-emphasis used is defined by the time constant of a simple RC filter circuit. In most of the world a 50 μs time constant is used. In the Americas and South Korea , 75 μs
6052-521: The receiver to identify a stereo transmission and to regenerate the 38 kHz sub-carrier with the correct phase. The composite stereo multiplex signal contains the Main Channel (L+R), the pilot tone, and the (L−R) difference signal. This composite signal, along with any other sub-carriers, modulates the FM transmitter. The terms composite , multiplex and even MPX are used interchangeably to describe this signal. The instantaneous deviation of
6141-570: The required area is covered without causing interference to other stations further away. Practical transmitter powers range from a few milliwatts to 80 kW. As transmitter powers increase above a few kilowatts, the operating costs become high and only viable for large stations. The efficiency of larger transmitters is now better than 70% (AC power in to RF power out) for FM-only transmission. This compares to 50% before high efficiency switch-mode power supplies and LDMOS amplifiers were used. Efficiency drops dramatically if any digital HD Radio service
6230-400: The resulting signal is that it alternates between left and right at 38 kHz, with the phase determined by the 19 kHz pilot signal. Most stereo encoders use this switching technique to generate the 38 kHz subcarrier, but practical encoder designs need to incorporate circuitry to deal with the switching harmonics. Converting the multiplex signal back into left and right audio signals
6319-415: The separation as the signal-to-noise ratio worsens, eventually going to mono while still indicating a stereo signal is received. As with monaural transmission, it is normal practice to apply pre-emphasis to the left and right channels before encoding and to apply de-emphasis at the receiver after decoding. In the U.S. around 2010, using single-sideband modulation for the stereo subcarrier was proposed. It
6408-433: The station remained far off its direct competition. On December 12, 1981, WLOL-FM changed formats again, this time to Top 40/CHR as 99½ WLOL . The ratings effect was quick to take hold; in the spring 1982 Arbitron survey, WLOL-FM more than doubled its performance and vaulted into third place in the Twin Cities, led by the revamped "Hines and Berglund" morning show hosted by John Hines and Bob Berglund. Even while WLOL
6497-543: The station up for sale. On December 26, 1990—-realizing an ambition held for over a decade—-Minnesota Public Radio announced the purchase of the WLOL facility for $ 12 million. For Emmis, it was a discount on the original asking price of $ 20 million, which a slowing economy had put out of reach. The purchase would give MPR two FM frequencies in the Twin Cities. MPR had been operating both AM and FM stations since it had bought 1330 kHz—-the former WLOL AM-—in 1981. It would sell
6586-420: The term "radio jingles" can be used to collectively describe all elements of radio station branding or identification. Accurately the term in the context of radio is used to describe only those station branding elements which are musical, or sung. Sung jingles are the most common form of radio station branding otherwise known as imaging. A radio jingle therefore is created in a studio by session singers and includes
6675-531: The top 25 U.S. radio markets to transmit in Quadraplex. The test results hopefully would prove to the FCC that the system was compatible with existing two-channel stereo transmission and reception and that it did not interfere with adjacent stations. There were several variations on this system submitted by GE, Zenith, RCA, and Denon for testing and consideration during the National Quadraphonic Radio Committee field trials for
6764-423: The transmitter carrier frequency due to the stereo audio and pilot tone (at 10% modulation) is where A and B are the pre-emphasized left and right audio signals and f p {\displaystyle f_{p}} =19 kHz is the frequency of the pilot tone. Slight variations in the peak deviation may occur in the presence of other subcarriers or because of local regulations. Another way to look at
6853-554: The use of one or more advertising slogans . Ad buyers use jingles in radio and television commercials ; they can also be used in non-advertising contexts to establish or maintain a brand image. Many jingles are also created using snippets of popular songs , in which lyrics are modified to appropriately advertise the product or service. The first radio commercial jingle aired in December 1926, for Wheaties cereal. Have you tried Wheaties ? They're whole wheat with all of
6942-537: The use of two FM stations; one transmitting the front audio channels, the other the rear channels. A breakthrough came in 1970 when KIOI ( K-101 ) in San Francisco successfully transmitted true quadraphonic sound from a single FM station using the Quadraplex system under Special Temporary Authority from the FCC . Following this experiment, a long-term test period was proposed that would permit one FM station in each of
7031-629: The world, the FM broadcast band falls within the VHF part of the radio spectrum . Usually 87.5 to 108.0 MHz is used, or some portion of it, with few exceptions: The frequency of an FM broadcast station (more strictly its assigned nominal center frequency) is usually a multiple of 100 kHz. In most of South Korea , the Americas , the Philippines , and the Caribbean , only odd multiples are used. Some other countries follow this plan because of
7120-766: Was 27.5 kHz. The IF bandwidth was ±5 kHz, as the only goal at the time was to relay AM radio-quality audio. This transmission system used 75 μs audio pre-emphasis like the main monaural audio and subsequently the multiplexed stereo audio. In the late 1950s, several systems to add stereo to FM radio were considered by the FCC . Included were systems from 14 proponents including Crosby, Halstead, Electrical and Musical Industries, Ltd ( EMI ), Zenith, and General Electric. The individual systems were evaluated for their strengths and weaknesses during field tests in Uniontown, Pennsylvania , using KDKA-FM in Pittsburgh as
7209-429: Was accepted by the company. Encouraged by the results of this new method of advertising, General Mills changed its brand strategy. Instead of dropping the cereal, it purchased nationwide commercial time for the advertisement. The resultant climb in sales single-handedly established the "Wheaties" brand nationwide. After General Mills' success, other companies began to investigate this new method of advertisement. Initially,
7298-537: Was among NPR's most popular offerings and it aired each Saturday from the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul. MPR purchased WLOL's 1330 kHz facility in 1980 and relaunched it as a dedicated news and talk service centered around NPR programming. The call letters were switched first to KSJN, and then KNOW in 1989. This hasn't been a fun time, but I am satisfied we did everything we could do to preserve WLOL in
7387-616: Was atop the highest mountain in the northeast United States, Mount Washington , New Hampshire (shut down in 1948); and W9XAO/W55M/WTMJ-FM Milwaukee, Wisconsin (went off air in 1950). A commercial FM broadcasting band was formally established in the United States as of January 1, 1941, with the first fifteen construction permits announced on October 31, 1940. These stations primarily simulcast their AM sister stations, in addition to broadcasting lush orchestral music for stores and offices, classical music to an upmarket listenership in urban areas, and educational programming. On June 27, 1945
7476-476: Was distributed to stations across the country. Local artists such as Prince & The Revolution, Morris Day & The Time , Information Society , Alexander O'Neal and The Jets all received support from WLOL. By the late 1980s, the tables were turned. After KDWB updated its on-air presentation in 1988, some listeners felt WLOL had grown stale, while KDWB suddenly became the hip new CHR station. KDWB and its morning show host, Steve Cochran , jumped ahead of
7565-599: Was purchased and turned into WREV , the call sign was parked on KZTG (1470 AM). They were then used on 100.3 MHz from 1999 to 2003. The WLOL call sign would be restored to the 1330 kHz frequency in 2004, after it was acquired by the Relevant Radio network. In 2005, KSJN was the first MPR station to broadcast regularly with the digital HD Radio system. KSJN currently features the Classical 24 feed on its HD2 subchannel. FM broadcasting Throughout
7654-565: Was seen as another service which licensees could use to create additional income. Use of SCAs was particularly popular in the US, but much less so elsewhere. Uses for such subcarriers include radio reading services for the blind , which became common and remain so, private data transmission services (for example sending stock market information to stockbrokers or stolen credit card number denial lists to stores, ) subscription commercial-free background music services for shops, paging ("beeper") services, alternative-language programming, and providing
7743-491: Was surging, a sale was in the works. In 1982, an Indianapolis -based consortium headed by Jeff Smulyan acquired WLOL-FM for $ 6 million, a record price at the time for a Minnesota radio station. It was the first station purchase for Emmis Communications , which then bought two more stations the next year. The station peaked in the ratings in 1984 with a 9.9 share, closely behind second-place KSTP-FM and well ahead of direct format competitor KDWB . WLOL and KDWB would go on to have
7832-656: Was tested in Germany between July 1979 and December 1981 by IRT . It was based on the Telefunken High ;Com broadband compander system, but was never introduced commercially in FM broadcasting. Yet another system was the CX -based noise reduction system FMX implemented in some radio broadcasting stations in the United States in the 1980s. FM broadcasting has included subsidiary communications authorization (SCA) services capability since its inception, as it
7921-424: Was theorized to be more spectrum-efficient and to produce a 4 dB s/n improvement at the receiver, and it was claimed that multipath distortion would be reduced as well. A handful of radio stations around the country broadcast stereo in this way, under FCC experimental authority. It may not be compatible with very old receivers, but it is claimed that no difference can be heard with most newer receivers. At present,
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