Where did FRS come from?
The FRS culminates more than 25 years of attempts by FCC and industry to establish a new unlicensed personal radio service: the Class E Citizens Band and then the Personal Emergency Locator Transmitter services (PELTS) at 220 MHz, the Personal Radio Communications Service (PRCS) at 900 MHz, and the Consumer Radio Service (CRS) at 460 MHz. None of those services were ever approved by the FCC in the end. Tandy Corporation’s Radio Shack division proposed FRS to the FCC in 1994. After heavy opposition from current spectrum users and support by radio manufacturers, the FCC authorized FRS on May 15, 1996. The idea of using interstitial GMRS spectrum for low-power, non-repeater communications predated Radio Shack’s proposal by ten years, despite reports that it was the “brainchild” of Radio Shack executives. Bennett Kobb proposed such usage in 1984 as a part of rules changes for GMRS proposed to the FCC by the Personal Radio Steering Group. The FCC later acted favorably on the proposal in 198
