Will the new analog TV law have any impact on FM radio?
The FM radio frequency band is interesting, because it’s kind of crammed in among the existing TV signals. Channels 2-6 are at 59 – 88 Mhz, and 7-13 are at 175 – 216 MHz. FM is crammed between them from 87 to 109. (There’s actually some UHF TV crammed in between the top of FM and the bottom of channel 7 as well.) The TV spectrum around FM is being broken up into blocks and auctioned off, but the FM frequencies are being kept as they are. Thus far they’ve only auctioned off the very high end, the stuff that’s now allocated to channels 54 and up. When the TV channels come up (and it may be a decade or more before they do) they’ll be VERY highly prized. But they’re going to keep the FM spectrum right where it is. It won’t affect regular FM or HD radio. HD radio uses the same frequencies as regular FM radio, using special algorithms to piggyback digital information on top of the anal
The FM radio frequency band is interesting, because it’s kind of crammed in among the existing TV signals. Channels 2-6 are at 59 – 88 Mhz, and 7-13 are at 175 – 216 MHz. FM is crammed between them from 87 to 109. (There’s actually some UHF TV crammed in between the top of FM and the bottom of channel 7 as well.) The TV spectrum around FM is being broken up into blocks and auctioned off, but the FM frequencies are being kept as they are. Thus far they’ve only auctioned off the very high end, the stuff that’s now allocated to channels 54 and up. When the TV channels come up (and it may be a decade or more before they do) they’ll be VERY highly prized. But they’re going to keep the FM spectrum right where it is. It won’t affect regular FM or HD radio. HD radio uses the same frequencies as regular FM radio, using special algorithms to piggyback digital information on top of the anal
