A broadcast band is a segment of the radio spectrum used for broadcasting.
Common name | Frequencies | Modulation | Frequency range | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
longwave | 148.5–283.5 kHz | amplitude modulation (AM) | low frequency (LF) | Mostly used in Europe, North Africa, and Asia |
AM radio (medium wave) | 525–1606.5 kHz, 525–1705 kHz in N. America, Australia and the Philippines. | amplitude modulation (AM) | medium frequency (MF) | Usually speech and news, where a lower bandwidth will suffice; long range at night due to the ionosphere increasing in altitude |
Shortwave | Multiple; see Shortwave bands | Mostly AM and single-sideband (SSB) modes | high frequency (HF) | Very long range through "skipping". Standard time frequencies can be heard here. |
VHF low (TV) | 54–88 MHz | vestigial sideband modulation for analog video, and FM for analog audio; 8-VSB or OFDM for digital broadcast | very high frequency (VHF) band I | Channels 2 through 6 are from 54–88 MHz (except 72–76 MHz). |
FM radio | 87.5–108 MHz, 76–90 MHz in Japan | Frequency Modulation (FM) | VHF band II | Usually music, due to the clarity and high bandwidth of FM. Relatively short range |
VHF high (TV) | 174–216 MHz | vestigial sideband modulation for analog video, and FM for analog audio; 8-VSB or OFDM for digital broadcast | VHF band III | Channels 7–13 use 174–216 MHz. |
UHF (TV) | 470–806 MHz | vestigial sideband modulation for analog video, and FM for analog audio; 8-VSB or OFDM for digital broadcast | ultra high frequency (UHF) | Channels 14–69 use 470–806 MHz, except for the radio astronomy band at 608–614 MHz where channel 37 would be |
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-owned body that is politically independent and fully accountable, with its charter enshrined in legislation, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Act 1983. ABC Commercial, a profit-making division of the corporation, also helps to generate funding for content provision.
The European Broadcasting Union is an alliance of public service media organisations whose countries are within the European Broadcasting Area or who are members of the Council of Europe. As of 2022, it is made up of 112 member organizations from 54 countries, and 30 associate members from a further 19 countries. It was established in 1950, and has its administrative headquarters in Geneva and technical office in Brussels.
The BBC World Service is an international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception area, language selection and audience reach. It broadcasts radio news, speech and discussions in more than 40 languages to many parts of the world on analogue and digital shortwave platforms, internet streaming, podcasting, satellite, DAB, FM and MW relays. In 2015, the World Service reached an average of 210 million people a week. In November 2016, the BBC announced that it would start broadcasting in additional languages including Amharic and Igbo, in its biggest expansion since the 1940s.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is the Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a Crown corporation that receives public funding from the government. The English- and French-language service units of the corporation are commonly known as CBC and Radio-Canada, respectively.
International broadcasting, in a limited extent, began during World War I, when German and British stations broadcast press communiqués using Morse code. With the severing of Germany's undersea cables, the wireless telegraph station in Nauen was the country's sole means of long-distance communication.
AM broadcasting is radio broadcasting using amplitude modulation (AM) transmissions. It was the first method developed for making audio radio transmissions, and is still used worldwide, primarily for medium wave transmissions, but also on the longwave and shortwave radio bands.
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum, in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began with AM radio, which came into popular use around 1920 with the spread of vacuum tube radio transmitters and receivers. Before this, most implementations of electronic communication were one-to-one, with the message intended for a single recipient. The term broadcasting evolved from its use as the agricultural method of sowing seeds in a field by casting them broadly about. It was later adopted for describing the widespread distribution of information by printed materials or by telegraph. Examples applying it to "one-to-many" radio transmissions of an individual station to multiple listeners appeared as early as 1898.
The Japan Broadcasting Corporation, also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee.
Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio station, while in satellite radio the radio waves are broadcast by a satellite in Earth orbit. To receive the content the listener must have a broadcast radio receiver (radio). Stations are often affiliated with a radio network that provides content in a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast, or both. Radio stations broadcast with several different types of modulation: AM radio stations transmit in AM, FM radio stations transmit in FM, which are older analog audio standards, while newer digital radio stations transmit in several digital audio standards: DAB, HD radio, DRM. Television broadcasting is a separate service that also uses radio frequencies to broadcast television (video) signals.
Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing and commercial financing.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a United States government funded media organization that broadcasts and reports news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Caucasus, and the Middle East where it says that "the free flow of information is either banned by government authorities or not fully developed". RFE/RL is a private, non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation supervised by the U.S. Agency for Global Media, an independent government agency overseeing all U.S. federal government international broadcasting services. Jeremy Bransten is acting editor-in-chief of RFE.
It is generally recognized that the first radio transmission was made from a temporary station set up by Guglielmo Marconi in 1895 on the Isle of Wight. This followed on from pioneering work in the field by a number of people including Alessandro Volta, André-Marie Ampère, Georg Ohm and James Clerk Maxwell.
The Turkish Radio and Television Corporation is the national public broadcaster of Turkey, founded in 1964. TRT was for many years the only television and radio provider in Turkey. Before the introduction of commercial radio in 1990, and subsequently commercial television in 1992, it held a monopoly on broadcasting. More recent deregulation of the Turkish television broadcasting market produced analogue cable television. Today, TRT broadcasts around the world, especially in Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia, USA, and Australia.
All India Radio (AIR), officially known since 1957 as Akashvani, is the national public radio broadcaster of India and is a division of Prasar Bharati. It was established in 1936.
The Nederlandse Omroep Stichting is one of the broadcasting organisations making up the Netherlands Public Broadcasting system. It has a special statutory obligation to make news and sports programmes for the three Dutch public television channels and the Dutch public radio services. It is funded by the Dutch government.
ABC NewsRadio, since 2017 broadcast under the ABC News brand and for a short time known as ABC News on Radio, is a 24-hour news radio service broadcast by the Australian public broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). ABC NewsRadio is available via a number of platforms around Australia, including AM/FM radio, online via web or the ABC Listen app, DAB+ radio, free-to-air digital TV, and some pay-TV platforms.
Religious broadcasting, sometimes referred to as faith-based broadcasts, is the dissemination of television and/or radio content that intentionally has religious ideas, religious experience, or religious practice as its core focus. In some countries, religious broadcasting developed primarily within the context of public service provision, whilst in others, it has been driven more by religious organisations themselves. Across Europe and in the US and Canada, religious broadcasting began in the earliest days of radio, usually with the transmission of religious worship, preaching or "talks". Over time, formats evolved to include a broad range of styles and approaches, including radio and television drama, documentary, and chat show formats, as well as more traditional devotional content. Today, many religious organizations record sermons and lectures, and have moved into distributing content on their own web-based IP channels.
FM broadcasting is the method of radio broadcasting that uses frequency modulation (FM). 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. FM radio stations use the very high frequency range of radio frequencies.
Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation is one of the leading South Korean television and radio broadcasters. Munhwa is the Sino-Korean word for "culture". Its flagship terrestrial television station MBC TV broadcasts as channel 11.
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is the national broadcaster of the United Kingdom, based at Broadcasting House in London, England. It is the world's oldest national broadcaster, and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees, employing over 21,000 staff in total, of whom approximately 17,900 are in public-sector broadcasting.