KE2XCC

Last updated

KE2XCC, first authorized in 1945 with the call sign W2XEA, was an experimental FM radio station located in Alpine, New Jersey and operated by inventor Edwin Howard Armstrong. It was located at the same site as Armstrong's original FM station, W2XMN, which dated to the late 1930s and primarily transmitted on the original FM "low band" frequencies. W2XEA was established as a companion station operating on the new FM "high band", which had been recently designated by the Federal Communications Commission as the replacement for the original FM station assignments. W2XMN shut down in 1949 after the "low band" was eliminated, and at this time W2XEA changed its call sign to KE2XCC and took over most of the functions previously performed by W2XMN.

Contents

W2XEA was originally assigned to transmit on 92.1 MHz. This was changed in 1948 to 93.1 MHz, where it remained, as KE2XCC, until it ceased operations shortly after Armstrong's death in early 1954. In addition to general broadcasting to promote FM's popularity, the station was used to conduct the research that led to Armstrong's introduction of a new multiplexing transmitting system in 1953.

History

W2XEA

On June 27, 1945 the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced that due to interference concerns it was reallocating the existing FM "low band" frequencies to other services, with 42–44 MHz going to "non-government fixed and mobile", and 44–50 MHz allocated to television channel 1. (The TV allocation was later reassigned as additional "non-government fixed and mobile" frequencies.) This in turn meant that existing FM band stations would be relocated to 88-106 MHz (later expanded to 108 MHz). [1] [2] Edwin Howard Armstrong, the inventor of "wide band" FM, had strenuously objected to this move when it was still a proposal under review for being unnecessarily disruptive. However, at the time of its adoption he also announced that to help ease the transition he had developed the technology needed for stations to simultaneously broadcast on both their original "low band" and new "high band" frequencies. [3] Armstrong already had authorizations for two "low band" stations, W2XMN and WFMN, operating from a common site in Alpine, New Jersey, a few kilometers north of New York City. On August 6, 1945 he was issued an initial authorization for W2XEA as a third station located at Alpine, operating under an experimental grant with 50,000 watts on the "high band" frequency of 92.1 MHz. [4]

Armstrong continued to vigorously fight the pending move to the "high band" on the grounds that it was not technically needed, and also because stations operating on the higher frequencies had reduced coverage. Thus, part of W2XEA's purpose was to document the limitations of "high band" transmissions. In early 1948 a Stromberg-Carlson executive, listening from a location in upstate New York, testified that "It has been my personal experience that the 44- to 50-megacycle band gives more reliable reception for rural and regional FM than the 88- to 108-megacycle band" and "reception from W2XMN, Alpine, N. J., in the low band was almost always satisfactory, while W2XEA, Alpine, N. J., same power, same location, in the high band was frequently subject to serious fading or not receivable at all". [5] In addition, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology study comparing simultaneous reception from August 1947 to December 1948 of W2XMN on 44.1 MHz and W2XEA on 92.1 MHz [6] found that "in general, reception at the higher of these two frequencies has been inferior to that of the lower frequency". [7] (In August 1947, it was reported that W2XEA on 92.1 MHz was currently operating with a power "of approximately 20 kw", while W2XMN was on 44.1 MHz with "approximately 30 kw".) [8]

WFMN later moved to the "high band", and in mid-1947 was assigned to 93.1 MHz. [9] However, in contrast to W2XEA, WFMN appears to have rarely, if ever, to have actually made broadcasts, and in late 1948 W2XEA was reassigned "at FCC's request" from 92.1 MHz to also operate on WFMN's unused frequency of 93.1 MHz. [4]

KE2XCC

In December 1948 the FCC ordered that all remaining "low band" FM stations, including W2XMN, had to shut down by the end of the month. [10] Armstrong disputed this in the courts and received a temporary stay issued by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. [11] [12] However, the appeal was ultimately unsuccessful, and W2XMN ended operations in July 1949. [13] Effective July 5, 1949 W2XEA's call sign was changed to KE2XCC, [4] and it became Armstrong's main station for developmental research and also conducted an extensive and prominent schedule of regular broadcasting for the New York City area.

WFMN continued to remain off the air in deference to KE2XCC, and was issued a continuous series of "Special Temporary Authority" (STA) grants allowing it to "remain silent". [14] The last reported STA covered until February 1, 1953, and specified "Granted extension of STA for period ending Feb. 1, 1953, to suspend regular broadcasting service of WFMN and to operate Class I Experimental Station KE2XCC using its regularly licensed equipment, power and emission on the additional frequency of 93.1 mc for providing FM program service and to rebroadcast over station KE2XCC transmissions of WJLK-FM Asbury Park, N. J., WGPA-FM Bethlehem, Pa., and WNYC-FM New York." [15]

In October 1953 Armstrong made a public demonstration of a multiplexing system that had been developed at KE2XCC, which provided for separate audio and data to be transmitted in addition to a station's standard programming. [16]

Edwin Howard Armstrong committed suicide on February 1, 1954. The Continental (fm) Network, for which Armstrong had been paying the charges for a key telephone link from Washington to New York, suspended operations on the next day. [17] Following a memorial program broadcast on the evening of March 6, KE2XCC also ended operations, [18] and the station was formally deleted by the FCC on November 22, 1954. [4] In 1957, WPAT-FM in Paterson, New Jersey began operating on its vacated 93.1 MHz frequency.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edwin Howard Armstrong</span> American electrical engineer and inventor (1890–1954)

Edwin Howard Armstrong was an American electrical engineer and inventor, who developed FM radio and the superheterodyne receiver system. He held 42 patents and received numerous awards, including the first Medal of Honor awarded by the Institute of Radio Engineers, the French Legion of Honor, the 1941 Franklin Medal and the 1942 Edison Medal. He was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame and included in the International Telecommunication Union's roster of great inventors. Armstrong attended Columbia University, and served as a professor there for most of his life.

FM broadcasting in the United States began in the 1930s at engineer and inventor Edwin Howard Armstrong's experimental station, W2XMN. The use of FM radio has been associated with higher sound quality in music radio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FM broadcast band</span> Radio broadcast band

The FM broadcast band is a range of radio frequencies used for FM broadcasting by radio stations. The range of frequencies used differs between different parts of the world. In Europe and Africa and in Australia and New Zealand, it spans from 87.5 to 108 megahertz (MHz) - also known as VHF Band II - while in the Americas it ranges from 88 to 108 MHz. The FM broadcast band in Japan uses 76 to 95 MHz, and in Brazil, 76 to 108 MHz. The International Radio and Television Organisation (OIRT) band in Eastern Europe is from 65.9 to 74.0 MHz, although these countries now primarily use the 87.5 to 108 MHz band, as in the case of Russia. Some other countries have already discontinued the OIRT band and have changed to the 87.5 to 108 MHz band.

WQXR-FM is an American non-commercial classical radio station, licensed to Newark, New Jersey and serving the North Jersey and New York City area. It is owned by the nonprofit organization New York Public Radio, which also operates WNYC AM and FM and the four-station New Jersey Public Radio group. WQXR-FM broadcasts from studios and offices located in the Hudson Square neighborhood in lower Manhattan and its transmitter is located at the Empire State Building.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WPAT-FM</span> Spanish-language radio station in Paterson, New Jersey

WPAT-FM – branded "93.1 Amor" – is a radio station that programs both a Spanish AC and tropical radio formats. Licensed to Paterson, New Jersey, the station is owned by the Spanish Broadcasting System and serves the New York metropolitan area. It has studios in Midtown Manhattan, and the transmitter is located at the Empire State Building.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FM broadcasting</span> Transmission of audio through frequency modulation

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WHUR-FM</span> Urban adult contemporary radio station in Washington, D.C.

WHUR-FM is an urban adult contemporary radio station that is licensed to Washington, D.C., and serving the Metro D.C. area. It is owned and operated by Howard University, making it one of the few commercial radio stations in the United States to be owned by a college or university, as well as being the only independent, locally-owned station in the Washington, D.C., area. Also, the staff of the station mentors the students of the university's school of communications. The studios are located on campus in its Lower Quad portion, and the transmitter tower is based in the Tenleytown neighborhood. It is also co-owned with its television partner, WHUT-TV, one of D.C.'s PBS affiliates.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WILL-FM</span> Radio station in Urbana, Illinois

WILL-FM is a public, listener-supported radio station owned by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and licensed to Urbana, Illinois, United States. It is operated by Illinois Public Media, with studios located at Campbell Hall for Public Telecommunication on the university campus. Most of WILL-FM's schedule is classical music with NPR news programs heard in weekday morning and afternoon drive times. Weekends feature classical and other genres of music, including jazz and opera.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WUKY</span> Radio station in Lexington, Kentucky

WUKY is a listener-supported, public FM radio station in Lexington, Kentucky. Owned by the University of Kentucky (UK), it has an Adult Album Alternative radio format, airing more than 100 hours of music per week. Some news and informational programming is supplied by National Public Radio (NPR), Public Radio International (PRI), American Public Media (APM) and the BBC. The station broadcasts from state of the art radio studios in northwestern Lexington at the intersection of Greendale Road and Spurr Road.

Apex radio stations was the name commonly given to a short-lived group of United States broadcasting stations, which were used to evaluate transmitting on frequencies that were much higher than the ones used by standard amplitude modulation (AM) and shortwave stations. Their name came from the tall height of their transmitter antennas, which were needed because coverage was primarily limited to local line-of-sight distances. These stations were assigned to what at the time were described as "ultra-high shortwave" frequencies, between roughly 25 and 44 MHz. They employed amplitude modulation (AM) transmissions, although in most cases using a wider bandwidth than standard broadcast band AM stations, in order to provide high fidelity sound with less static and distortion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WHCN</span> Radio station in Hartford, Connecticut

WHCN is a commercial radio station licensed to Hartford, Connecticut. It broadcasts a classic hits radio format and is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. It is called "The River 105.9," a reference to the Connecticut River. The studios and offices are located on Columbus Boulevard in Hartford.

This is a list of low-power television stations (LPTV) in the United States, transmitting on VHF channel 6, which operate as radio stations capable of being picked up by standard FM receivers. These stations are colloquially known as "Franken FMs", a reference to Frankenstein's monster, because TV stations functioning as radio stations had not been envisioned by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FCC commonly refers to these stations as "FM6" operations.

WA2XMN is an experimental FM radio station which broadcasts sporadically from the Armstrong Tower in Alpine, New Jersey. The station commemorates the pioneering broadcasts of the world's first FM radio station, W2XMN, built by Edwin Howard Armstrong, which began experimental broadcasts from this tower in June 1938 followed by full power broadcasting beginning on July 18, 1939. Armstrong's station signed off as KE2XCC on March 6, 1954.

W2XMN was an experimental FM radio station located in Alpine, New Jersey. It was constructed beginning in 1936 by Edwin Howard Armstrong in order to promote his invention of wide-band FM broadcasting. W2XMN was the first FM station to begin regular operations, and was used to introduce FM broadcasting to the general public in the New York City area. The station, in addition to being a testing site for transmitter and receiver development, was used for propagation studies and as an over-the-air relay station for distributing network programming to other FM stations in the region.

WFMN was a commercial FM radio station located in Alpine, New Jersey. It was licensed from 1941 until around 1953 to inventor Edwin Howard Armstrong, and was co-located with two other Armstrong stations, W2XMN, and W2XEA/KE2XCC (1945-1954). However, for most of its existence WFMN was authorized for significantly lower power than the other two stations, and appears to have rarely been on the air.

WGTR was a pioneer commercial FM radio station, which was the first of two mountain-top stations established by the Yankee Network. It began regular programming, as experimental station W1XOJ, in 1939. In 1941 it was licensed for commercial operation from studios in Boston, initially with the call sign W43B, which was changed to WGTR in 1943. In 1947, its designated community of license was changed to Worcester, Massachusetts.

WMNE was a pioneer commercial FM radio station, which was the second of two mountain-top broadcasting stations established by the Yankee Network. It began regular programming, as experimental station W1XER, in December 1940. In 1941 it was licensed for commercial operation from studios in Boston, initially with the call sign W39B, which was changed to WMTW in 1943. In late 1946 the station's designated community of license was changed to Portland, Maine, and its call letters became WMNE.

WTMJ-FM was a pioneer commercial FM radio station, owned by the Journal Company, publishers of The Milwaukee Journal, and located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In the late 1940s, it was one of the first FM stations in America and among the most powerful. Although initially heavily promoted, the station ceased operations in April 1950. Management saw it as being unprofitable and with a limited future, especially in contrast to recently introduced television broadcasting.

WBCA was a short-lived commercial FM radio station, licensed to Schenectady, New York. The station, originally W47A, debuted on July 17, 1941, as the first "independent" commercial FM station, since it did not have an associated AM station partner. The call sign was changed to WBCA in 1943. Despite initial optimism that FM band stations would soon supplant the AM band, WBCA ceased operations in 1952 due to financial issues, largely the result of a lack of an audience with FM receivers.

References

  1. ↑ "FCC Allocates 88-106 mc Band to FM" by Bill Bailey, Broadcasting, July 2, 1945, pages 13-14.
  2. ↑ "FCC Allocations Order Text", Broadcasting, July 2, 1945, pages 64, 68.
  3. ↑ "Statements: Maj. E. H. Armstrong", Broadcasting, July 2, 1945, page 70.
  4. 1 2 3 4 FCC History Cards for W2XEA (1945-1949) / KE2XCC (1949-1952) (Federal Communications Commission)
  5. ↑ "Statement of Lee McCanne" (February 4, 1948), Hearings before the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, House of Representatives, 80th Congress, 2d session, on H.J. Res. 78, page 68.
  6. ↑ "Comparison of Tropospheric Reception at 44.1 Mc with 92.1 Mc over the 167-Mile Path of Alpine, New Jersey, to Needham, Massachusetts" (abstract), by G. W. Pickard and H. T. Stetson, Proceedings of the IRE (volume 38, issue 12, December, 1950), page 1450.
  7. ↑ "Interdepartmental Laboratories: Cosmic Terrestrial Research" by Harlan T. Stetson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Bulletin (President's Report Issue, 1947-1948), October 1948, page 165.
  8. ↑ "FM For Tropical and Mountainous Countries" by C. M. Jansky, FM and Television, September 1947, page 58.
  9. ↑ "New Frequency Assignments for FM Stations in the United States", Broadcasting, June 23, 1947, page 38.
  10. ↑ "Low-Band FM Dropped by 11 Stations", Broadcasting, January 3, 1949, page 42.
  11. ↑ "Armstrong vs. FCC", Broadcasting, January 10, 1949, pages 29, 56.
  12. ↑ "Actions of the FCC: June 7 Decisions: Edwin H. Armstrong", Broadcasting, June 13, 1949, page 54-A.
  13. ↑ FCC History Cards for W2XMN (1936-1950) (Federal Communications Commission)
  14. ↑ "FCC Actions: July 21 Decisions: STA Extended", Broadcasting, July 25, 1949, page 83.
  15. ↑ "FCC Actions: August 21 Decisions: Extension of STA", Broadcasting, August 25, 1952, page 87.
  16. ↑ "FM Multiplexing System Unveiled", Broadcasting, October 19, 1953, pages 72, 74.
  17. ↑ "WGMS Initiates New Eastern Fm Network", Broadcasting, February 15, 1954, page 72.
  18. ↑ "Maj. Armstrong's Widow Named Sole Beneficiary", Broadcasting, March 15, 1954, page 102.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.