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.
AM broadcasting is a radio broadcasting technology, which employs 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.
WJR is a radio station in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is owned by Cumulus Media and broadcasts a News/Talk format. Its studios are located in the Fisher Building in the New Center neighborhood of Detroit, while its transmitter is located in the Downriver community of Riverview.
KALW (91.7 MHz) is an educational FM public radio station, licensed to the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD), which serves the San Francisco Bay Area. Its studios are located at Phillip and Sala Burton Academic High School off Mansell Avenue in San Francisco, and its transmitter tower is on Twin Peaks.
Radio broadcasting in the United States has been used since the early 1920s to distribute news and entertainment to a national audience. It was the first electronic "mass medium" technology, and its introduction, along with the subsequent development of sound films, ended the print monopoly of mass media. During the Golden Age of Radio it had a major cultural and financial impact on the country. However, the rise of television broadcasting in the 1950s relegated radio to a secondary status, as much of its programming and audience shifted to the new "sight joined with sound" service.
FM broadcasting is a method of radio broadcasting using frequency modulation (FM). Invented in 1933 by American engineer Edwin Armstrong, wide-band FM is used worldwide to provide high fidelity sound over broadcast radio. FM broadcasting is capable of higher fidelity—that is, more accurate reproduction of the original program sound—than other broadcasting technologies, such as AM broadcasting or DAB radio. Therefore, FM is used for most broadcasts of music or general audio. FM radio stations use the very high frequency range of radio frequencies.
WWJ – branded Newsradio 950 WWJ – is a commercial all-news radio station licensed to serve Detroit, Michigan. Owned by Entercom, the station services Metro Detroit, is the market affiliate for CBS News Radio, and the flagship station for the Michigan IMG Sports Network. Operating on a regional broadcast frequency, its studios are in the Panasonic Building in Southfield, and its transmitter site is near Newport. WWJ is licensed by the Federal Communications Commission to broadcast in the HD Radio format, and is simulcast on an HD subchannel of sister station WXYT-FM.
WNYE is a non-commercial educational FM radio station licensed to New York City. The station is operated, along with WNYE-TV, by NYC Media, a division of the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment. Studios are located at the City University of New York's Graduate Center at 365 Fifth Avenue, and the transmitter is at the former Condé Nast Building.
WFMF, branded as "102.5 WFMF", is a commercial radio station owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. and licensed to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It serves the Baton Rouge metropolitan area with a contemporary hit format. The studios are located in Baton Rouge, and the transmitter site is in nearby Plaquemine.
WCPN – branded "90.3 WCPN" – is a non-commercial educational radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio. Owned by Ideastream, the station serves Greater Cleveland and much of surrounding Northeast Ohio. The WCPN studios are located at Playhouse Square in Downtown Cleveland, with a transmitter site in the Cleveland suburb of Parma. Broadcasting a mix of public radio and jazz, WCPN is the Cleveland affiliate for National Public Radio (NPR), Public Radio International, and the BBC World Service. In addition to its standard analog signal, WCPN broadcasts over two HD Radio channels, and is available online.
WUKY is the flagship National Public Radio (NPR) station in Lexington, Kentucky. Owned by the University of Kentucky (UK), it is an Adult Album Alternative station that airs more than 100 hours of music per week, in addition to programming from NPR, Public Radio International, the BBC, and American Public Media. The station broadcasts from state of the art studios located in the northwestern suburbs of Lexington at the intersection of Greendale Road and Spurr Road.
WXYT-FM is a commercial FM radio station in Detroit, Michigan, serving Metro Detroit and much of Southeast Michigan. It airs a sports radio format and is owned by Entercom. WXYT-FM's studios and offices are located in the nearby suburb of Southfield.
WXYT is a commercial radio station licensed to Detroit, Michigan broadcasting a sports talk format. The station serves the Detroit-Windsor market and the Southeastern Michigan and Southwestern Ontario areas. Its transmitter is in Monroe County at Ash Township and operations and studios are at Entercom's facilities in Southfield, Michigan. WXYT is a 50,000–watt, Class B station broadcasting on a regional frequency. It is not a clear-channel station because of its frequency and highly directional antenna.
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.
WSM-FM was a commercial radio station that was operated by The National Life and Accident Insurance Company in Nashville, Tennessee, United States beginning on March 1, 1941. Under its original call sign of W47NV, it was described at the time as the first fully licensed commercial FM station in the nation. However, after ten years of financial losses, the station ceased operations on March 15, 1951.
W8XH was a Buffalo, New York "experimental audio broadcasting station", owned by the Buffalo Evening News, which operated from 1934 to 1939. It was the first "Apex" broadcasting station, i.e. the first to transmit programming intended for the general public over what was then known as "ultra-high short-wave" frequencies. W8XH primarily simulcast programming originating from a co-owned AM radio station, WBEN, but it also aired some original programs. It ceased broadcasting in July 1939, after the newspaper began to focus on operation of an experimental facsimile broadcasting station, W8XA, which in turn shut down shortly prior to World War II and was succeeded after the war by the FM broadcasting station known in the 21st Century as WTSS.
W4XA was an "experimental audio broadcasting station" operated by The National Life and Accident Insurance Company in Nashville, Tennessee from 1939 to 1940. It was part of a group of stations informally referred to as "Apex" stations, because it transmitted programming intended for the general public over what was then known as "ultra-high short-wave" frequencies. Although co-owned with AM station WSM, it primarily originated its own programs. W4XA ceased broadcasting in 1940, as station management prepared to inaugurate a new FM station, W47NV.
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 began 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.
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.
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.
