FM Radio From Personal Tragedy

FM Radio

From Personal Tragedy to Rock N' Roll Success:

The Story of FM Radio

From war-era broadcasts that let mothers know the probable fate of their young sons to the blues, jazz, and big band music that defined both the culture and social situation in the United States, radio has had a major impact on society throughout the world. While AM radio was the first to be developed, FM radio would soon become an important frequency.

FM radio was the brainchild of Major Edwin Armstrong, who began to develop the type of radio to replace fault-ridden AM radio. Armstrong was aware that AM radio was riddled with inherent fallacies -- household appliances and lighting often caused static interference, interference from neighboring radio stations occurred, and an overall limited sound quality was a fact of life for AM radio listeners. To satisfy these problems, Armstrong began to develop a new type of radio with the help of David Sarnof, head of RCA. After the development of an experimental radio station, however, Sarnof and RCA engaged Armstrong in a series of legal battles that resulted in the closure of the station among other penalties for Armstrong. Sarnof's actions made it clear that the company was concerned about competing with Armstrong's innovation ("The Dawn of FM Radio" 2007). Finally, Armstrong won a patent in 1933, and continued to invent. He created an FM broadcasting tower in New Jersey and a network of stations called the Yankee Network. Sarnof and his associates, however, managed to convince the FCC to move the network from Armstrong's frequencies, and Armstrong's Yankee network, as well as all the FM receivers that had been manufactured, were rendered "obsolete" (Bjerg 2006). After further legal battles, Armstrong committed suicide believing his quest to develop and introduce FM radio had failed. Later, however, people would begin to realize the quality of FM radio, and by 1970, FM radio audiences far exceeded AM, as they still do today (Bjerg 2006).

Like AM radio, FM radio uses signals, radio waves, and receivers in order to broadcast. Transmitted by an antenna, radio waves each have different frequencies. FM radio frequencies consist of a band between 88 megahertz and 108 megahertz. The Federal Communications Commission assigns each station to its place on the band of frequencies, and personal radios can pick up these signals when they are tuned to the correct frequencies (Brain nd). FM radio differs from AM radio not only in the frequencies used, but also in clarity.