Radio broadcasting

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

"Radio station" redirects here. For a broader concept, see Radio communication station.
This article is about audio signals. For video signals, see
Over-the-air television
.
Broadcasting tower in Trondheim, Norway

Radio broadcasting is the

HD radio, or DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale
).

History

See also: History of radio § Broadcasting, and History of broadcasting
Advertisement placed on November 5, 1919 in the Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant, announcing PCGG's debut broadcast scheduled for the next evening.[1]

The earliest

radiotelegraphy
systems and did not carry audio. For audio broadcasts to be possible, electronic detection and amplification devices had to be incorporated.

The

cat's whisker
. However, an amplifier was still required.

The

which?] was not put to practical use until 1912 when its amplifying ability became recognized by researchers.[8]

Control room and radio studio of the Finnish broadcasting company Yleisradio (YLE) in the 1930s.

By about 1920, valve technology had matured to the point where radio broadcasting was quickly becoming viable.[9][10] However, an early audio transmission that could be termed a broadcast may have occurred on Christmas Eve in 1906 by Reginald Fessenden, although this is disputed.[11] While many early experimenters attempted to create systems similar to radiotelephone devices by which only two parties were meant to communicate, there were others who intended to transmit to larger audiences. Charles Herrold started broadcasting in California in 1909 and was carrying audio by the next year. (Herrold's station eventually became KCBS).[12]

In The Hague, the Netherlands,

CFCF began broadcast programming on May 20, 1920, and the Detroit station that became WWJ
began program broadcasts beginning on August 20, 1920, although neither held a license at the time.

In 1920, wireless broadcasts for entertainment began in the UK from the

Royal Charter in 1926, making it the first national broadcaster in the world,[14][15] followed by Czechoslovak Radio
and other European broadcasters in 1923.

Radio Argentina began regularly scheduled transmissions from the Teatro Coliseo in Buenos Aires on August 27, 1920, making its own priority claim. The station got its license on November 19, 1923. The delay was due to the lack of official Argentine licensing procedures before that date. This station continued regular broadcasting of entertainment, and cultural fare for several decades.[16]

Radio in education soon followed, and colleges across the U.S. began adding radio broadcasting courses to their curricula. Curry College in Milton, Massachusetts introduced one of the first broadcasting majors in 1932 when the college teamed up with WLOE in Boston to have students broadcast programs.[17] By 1931, a majority of U.S. households owned at least one radio receiver.[18]

Use of a sound broadcasting station

In line to ITU Radio Regulations (article1.61) each broadcasting station shall be classified by the service in which it operates permanently or temporarily.

Types

Transmission diagram of sound broadcasting (AM and FM)

Broadcasting by radio takes several forms. These include

shortwave bands using AM technology that can be received over thousands of miles (especially at night). For example, the BBC, VOA, VOR, and Deutsche Welle
have transmitted via shortwave to Africa and Asia. These broadcasts are very sensitive to atmospheric conditions and solar activity.

Nielsen Audio, formerly known as Arbitron, the United States–based company that reports on radio audiences, defines a "radio station" as a government-licensed AM or FM station; an HD Radio (primary or multicast) station; an internet stream of an existing government-licensed station; one of the satellite radio channels from XM Satellite Radio or Sirius Satellite Radio; or, potentially, a station that is not government licensed.[19]

AM

Main article: AM broadcasting

AM stations were the earliest broadcasting stations to be developed. AM refers to

long wave band. In response to the growing popularity of FM stereo radio stations in the late 1980s and early 1990s, some North American stations began broadcasting in AM stereo
, though this never gained popularity and very few receivers were ever sold.

The signal is subject to interference from electrical storms (lightning) and other electromagnetic interference (EMI).[20] One advantage of AM radio signal is that it can be detected (turned into sound) with simple equipment. If a signal is strong enough, not even a power source is needed; building an unpowered crystal radio receiver was a common childhood project in the early decades of AM broadcasting.

AM broadcasts occur on North American airwaves in the medium wave frequency range of 525 to 1,705 kHz (known as the "standard broadcast band"). The band was expanded in the 1990s by adding nine channels from 1,605 to 1,705 kHz. Channels are spaced every 10 kHz in the Americas, and generally every 9 kHz everywhere else.

AM transmissions cannot be ionospheric

D-layer of the ionosphere. In a crowded channel environment, this means that the power of regional channels which share a frequency must be reduced at night or directionally beamed in order to avoid interference, which reduces the potential nighttime audience. Some stations have frequencies unshared with other stations in North America; these are called clear-channel stations
. Many of them can be heard across much of the country at night. During the night, absorption largely disappears and permits signals to travel to much more distant locations via ionospheric reflections. However, fading of the signal can be severe at night.

AM radio transmitters can transmit audio frequencies up to 15 kHz (now limited to 10 kHz in the US due to FCC rules designed to reduce interference), but most receivers are only capable of reproducing frequencies up to 5 kHz or less. At the time that AM broadcasting began in the 1920s, this provided adequate fidelity for existing microphones, 78 rpm recordings, and loudspeakers. The fidelity of sound equipment subsequently improved considerably, but the receivers did not. Reducing the bandwidth of the receivers reduces the cost of manufacturing and makes them less prone to interference. AM stations are never assigned adjacent channels in the same service area. This prevents the sideband power generated by two stations from interfering with each other.

notch filtering that demonstrated that an AM broadcast can meet or exceed the 15 kHz baseband bandwidth allotted to FM stations without objectionable interference. After several years, the tuner was discontinued. Bob Carver had left the company and the Carver Corporation later cut the number of models produced before discontinuing production completely.[22]

As well as on the medium wave bands, amplitude modulation (AM) is also used on the

long wave bands. Shortwave is used largely for national broadcasters, international propaganda, or religious broadcasting organizations. Shortwave transmissions can have international or inter-continental range depending on atmospheric conditions.[23] Long-wave AM broadcasting occurs in Europe, Asia, and Africa. The ground wave
propagation at these frequencies is little affected by daily changes in the ionosphere, so broadcasters need not reduce power at night to avoid interference with other transmitters.

FM

Main article: FM broadcasting

FM refers to

MHz everywhere except Japan and Russia. Russia, like the former Soviet Union
, uses 65.9 to 74 MHz frequencies in addition to the world standard. Japan uses the 76 to 90 MHz frequency band.

Edwin Howard Armstrong invented wide-band FM radio in the early 1930s to overcome the problem of radio-frequency interference (RFI), which plagued AM radio reception. At the same time, greater fidelity was made possible by spacing stations further apart in the radio frequency spectrum. Instead of 10 kHz apart, as on the AM band in the US, FM channels are 200 kHz (0.2 MHz) apart. In other countries, greater spacing is sometimes mandatory, such as in New Zealand, which uses 700 kHz spacing (previously 800 kHz). The improved fidelity made available was far in advance of the audio equipment of the 1940s, but wide interchannel spacing was chosen to take advantage of the noise-suppressing feature of wideband FM.

Bandwidth of 200

kHz is not needed to accommodate an audio signal — 20 kHz to 30 kHz is all that is necessary for a narrowband FM signal. The 200 kHz bandwidth allowed room for ±75 kHz signal deviation from the assigned frequency, plus guard bands to reduce or eliminate adjacent channel interference. The larger bandwidth allows for broadcasting a 15 kHz bandwidth audio signal plus a 38 kHz stereo "subcarrier"—a piggyback signal that rides on the main signal. Additional unused capacity is used by some broadcasters to transmit utility functions such as background music for public areas, GPS
auxiliary signals, or financial market data.

The AM radio problem of interference at night was addressed in a different way. At the time FM was set up, the available frequencies were far higher in the spectrum than those used for AM radio - by a factor of approximately 100. Using these frequencies meant that even at far higher power, the range of a given FM signal was much shorter; thus its market was more local than for AM radio. The reception range at night is the same as in the daytime. All FM broadcast transmissions are line-of-sight, and ionospheric bounce is not viable. The much larger bandwidths, compared to AM and SSB, are more susceptible to phase dispersion. Propagation speeds are fastest in the ionosphere at the lowest sideband frequency. The celerity difference between the highest and lowest sidebands is quite apparent to the listener. Such distortion occurs up to frequencies of approximately 50 MHz. Higher frequencies do not reflect from the ionosphere, nor from storm clouds. Moon reflections have been used in some experiments, but require impractical power levels.

The original FM radio service in the U.S. was the Yankee Network, located in New England.[24][25][26] Regular FM broadcasting began in 1939 but did not pose a significant threat to the AM broadcasting industry. It required purchase of a special receiver. The frequencies used, 42 to 50 MHz, were not those used today. The change to the current frequencies, 88 to 108 MHz, began after the end of World War II and was to some extent imposed by AM broadcasters as an attempt to cripple what was by now realized to be a potentially serious threat.

FM radio on the new band had to begin from the ground floor. As a commercial venture, it remained a little-used audio enthusiasts' medium until the 1960s. The more prosperous AM stations, or their owners, acquired FM licenses and often broadcast the same programming on the FM station as on the AM station ("

simulcasting
"). The FCC limited this practice in the 1960s. By the 1980s, since almost all new radios included both AM and FM tuners, FM became the dominant medium, especially in cities. Because of its greater range, AM remained more common in rural environments.

Pirate radio

Main article: Pirate radio

Pirate radio is illegal or non-regulated radio transmission. It is most commonly used to describe illegal broadcasting for entertainment or political purposes. Sometimes it is used for illegal two-way radio operation. Its history can be traced back to the unlicensed nature of the transmission, but historically there has been occasional use of sea vessels—fitting the most common perception of a pirate—as broadcasting bases. Rules and regulations vary largely from country to country, but often the term pirate radio describes the unlicensed broadcast of FM radio, AM radio, or shortwave signals over a wide range. In some places, radio stations are legal where the signal is transmitted, but illegal where the signals are received—especially when the signals cross a national boundary. In other cases, a broadcast may be considered "pirate" due to the type of content, its transmission format, or the transmitting power (wattage) of the station, even if the transmission is not technically illegal (such as a webcast or an amateur radio transmission). Pirate radio stations are sometimes referred to as bootleg radio or clandestine stations.

Terrestrial digital radio

Main articles:
HD radio, ISDB, and Digital Radio Mondiale

Digital radio broadcasting has emerged, first in Europe (the UK in 1995 and Germany in 1999), and later in the United States, France, the Netherlands, South Africa, and many other countries worldwide. The simplest system is named DAB Digital Radio, for Digital Audio Broadcasting, and uses the public domain EUREKA 147 (Band III) system. DAB is used mainly in the UK and South Africa. Germany and the Netherlands use the DAB and DAB+ systems, and France uses the L-Band system of DAB Digital Radio.

The broadcasting regulators of the United States and Canada have chosen to use

non-profit consortium Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM), has introduced the public domain
DRM system, which is used by a relatively small number of broadcasters worldwide.

International broadcasting

Main article: International broadcasting
Worldwide presence of Radio Maria broadcasters

Broadcasters in one country have several reasons to reach out to an audience in other countries. Commercial broadcasters may simply see a business opportunity to sell advertising or subscriptions to a broader audience. This is more efficient than broadcasting to a single country, because domestic entertainment programs and information gathered by domestic news staff can be cheaply repackaged for non-domestic audiences.

Governments typically have different motivations for funding international broadcasting. One clear reason is for ideological, or propaganda reasons. Many government-owned stations portray their nation in a positive, non-threatening way. This could be to encourage business investment in or tourism to the nation. Another reason is to combat a negative image produced by other nations or internal dissidents, or insurgents. Radio RSA, the broadcasting arm of the apartheid South African government, is an example of this. A third reason is to promote the ideology of the broadcaster. For example, a program on Radio Moscow from the 1960s to the 1980s was What is Communism?

A second reason is to advance a nation's foreign policy interests and agenda by disseminating its views on international affairs or on the events in particular parts of the world. During the

People's Republic of China, Vietnam, Laos and North Korea (Radio Free Asia
).

Besides ideological reasons, many stations are run by religious broadcasters and are used to provide religious education, religious music, or worship service programs. For example,

Broadcasting Services of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
, both governmental and religious programming is provided.

Extensions

Extensions of traditional radio-wave broadcasting for

television networks, DTV radio, satellite radio, and Internet radio via streaming media on the Internet
.

Satellite

Main article: Satellite radio

The enormous entry costs of space-based satellite transmitters and restrictions on available

Sirius XM Satellite Radio, which was formed by the merger of XM and Sirius on July 29, 2008, whereas in Canada, XM Radio Canada and Sirius Canada remained separate companies until 2010. Worldspace in Africa and Asia, and MobaHO!
in Japan and the ROK were two unsuccessful satellite radio operators which have gone out of business.

Program formats

Main article: Radio format

Radio program formats differ by country, regulation, and markets. For instance, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission designates the 88–92 megahertz band in the U.S. for non-profit or educational programming, with advertising prohibited.

In addition, formats change in popularity as time passes and technology improves. Early radio equipment only allowed program material to be broadcast in real time, known as live broadcasting. As technology for

sound recording improved, an increasing proportion of broadcast programming used pre-recorded material. A current trend is the automation of radio stations. Some stations now operate without direct human intervention by using entirely pre-recorded material sequenced by computer
control.

Receiver

This section is an excerpt from Broadcast radio receiver.[edit]
radio stations
.
The most familiar form of
electric outlet. All radios have a volume control to adjust the loudness of the audio, and some type of "tuning
" control to select the radio station to be received.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Vintage Radio Web: Philips" Archived February 7, 2020, at the Wayback Machine (vintageradio.nl)
  2. S2CID 23351454
    .
  3. ^ Schmidt, Hans-Thomas. "Die Liebenröhre". Umleitung zur Homepage von H.-T. Schmidt (in German). Retrieved August 10, 2019. DRP 179807
  4. ISBN 0-471-71814-9
    , p.335
  5. ISBN 90-5199-145-2
    , page 20.
  6. ^ "US841387A - Device for amplifying feeble electrical currents". Google Patents. October 25, 1906. Retrieved August 10, 2019.
  7. ^ "US879532A - Space telegraphy". Google Patents. January 29, 1907. Retrieved August 10, 2019.
  8. ISBN 978-0470409749
    .
  9. ^ "Mass consumption - The invention of radio". Making the Modern World. Archived from the original on April 5, 2017. Retrieved October 4, 2013.
  10. S2CID 42357863
    .
  11. ^ O'Neal, James (December 23, 2008). "Fessenden — The Next Chapter". Radio World. Retrieved May 17, 2022.
  12. ^ "KQW KCBS History". www.theradiohistorian.org. Retrieved March 25, 2025.
  13. doi:10.1080/08838157709363817. Archived from the original
    on March 6, 2008. Retrieved January 18, 2013.
  14. ^ "CARS - Marconi Hall Street, New Street and 2MT callsign". www.g0mwt.org.uk.
  15. ^ "BBC History – The BBC takes to the Airwaves". BBC News.
  16. ^ Atgelt, Carlos A. "Early History of Radio Broadcasting in Argentina." Archived April 24, 2021, at the Wayback Machine The Broadcast Archive (Oldradio.com).
  17. ^ "Curry College - Home". www.curry.edu. Retrieved July 13, 2018.
  18. S2CID 145186571
    .
  19. ^ "What is a Radio Station?". Radio World. p. 6.
  20. ^ Based on the "interference" entry of The Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th edition, online
  21. ^ "Types of Technology, FM vs AM". kwarner.bravehost.com. July 13, 2012. Archived from the original on July 13, 2012. Retrieved August 10, 2019.
  22. ^ "Landing Page". BobCarverCorp.com. Retrieved March 25, 2025.
  23. ISBN 9781468964240
    .
  24. ^ Halper, Donna L. "John Shepard's FM Stations—America's first FM network." Archived February 12, 2006, at the Wayback Machine Boston Radio Archives (BostonRadio.org).
  25. ^ "The Yankee Network in 1936". The Archives @ BostonRadio.org. Retrieved August 10, 2019.
  26. ^ "FM Broadcasting Chronology". Jeff Miller Pages. June 23, 2017. Retrieved August 10, 2019.
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