Re: ive always wondered

[Shawn Mamros <mamros@MIT.EDU>]

>Why was what we know as "FM" shifted from this spectrum up to the
>88.1-107.9?  Why not just build around the 40s?

The short form answer: because the FCC said so. :-)

Some have speculated that there was a "hidden agenda" to disrupt FM service
by the existing interests of AM stations, and the still-infant-but-soon-to-
snowball interests of TV.

But in hindsight, FM's being "kicked upstairs" was probably the best thing
that could've happened to the band.  You simply couldn't fit all the FM
stations of today on to the original band, and you couldn't have expanded
that original band because of the low-VHF TV band being right next door.
FM never would've had a chance to grow and become the dominant audio-only
service that it is today if it hadn't moved.  That may not have been the
original intention, but that's certainly the way it ended up being.

-Shawn Mamros
E-mail to: mamros@mit.edu