Video killed the Radio Star.... but once upon a time, there was the fascinating realm of private subscription FM subcarrier radio!! Join Team FranLab!!!! Become a patron and help support my YouTube Channel on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/frantone
- Music by Fran Blanche -
Frantone on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/frantone/
Fran on Twitter - https://twitter.com/contourcorsets
Fran's Science Blog - http://www.frantone.com/designwritings/design_writings.html
FranArt Website - http://www.contourcorsets.com

By Fran

16 thoughts on “The weird world of fm subcarrier broadcasting”
  1. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars C. Smith says:

    Sounds like the successor to MUZAK Service, now I imagine HD carriers has taken that part of the spectrum that would use that, so probably a dead service.

  2. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Mark Gigiel says:

    Sony always went above and beyond with their designs. Their TV's were way more complex than other brands.

  3. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Aaron Olson says:

    Hell Yeah!!!! Dan Fan by any chance?

  4. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Worried About Amerika says:

    I think they did away with "elevator music" at least I can't remember hearing any recently

  5. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Herby says:

    Vintage pay to listen services bit like today on pay tv

  6. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars John G. says:

    Wow Fran you are super Great! I see you're a Laura Nero Fan, as well as a vinyl collector. I'm an electronics nut, guitar player and audiophile.
    But I can easily get lost and binge on your videos. I've worked on many amps in recent years Eico, Heathkits, Fender, Marshall, ametuer to medium level ability,
    I even changed my 68 Fend. Bandmaster to Bassman output and running on Tung-Sol 6AR6 military tubes similar to 5881/6L6's but you have to change the pinout,
    beefup some resistoes and Capacitors. Oh and I do have a working Eico HTF-90 FM Mono tuner, that has incredible Hi-fi sound! Thankyou Fran!

  7. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Joe Stroup says:

    I recall hearing that businesses that played recorded music to entertain their customers were in violation of music copyright law. (Probably still true.) Muzak was created to solve that problem – it provided commercial free music for a fee – which was supposed to pay for the music royalties to avoid breach of copyright law. I don't remember if the rules were the same for playing commercial radio stations in a business. But radio with commercials probably wasn't suitable for things like a doctor's office. I'm thinking PDR was a low-end service like Muzak tailored for physician's offices.

    Speaking of FM, I recall visiting a local hi-fi shop in the 70's and finding a piece of gear – an "FM Multiplexer." I recall it was a component designed to take the FM signal from your receiver and decode it into stereo. I wonder what output from the FM receiver it tapped – I wish I had paid more attention. I thought it might make an fun addition to my mono FM receiver with a fan tube.

  8. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars JayBob Red says:

    In the early 2000's I lived 35 miles west of Chicago. I had a ramsey subcarrier decoder hooked up to a 'compatible ' radio and picked up 2 muzak channels on 93.1. 1 channel was instrumental 'elevator ' music. The other was pop hits from the 60's to the mid 90's. I kinda liked it. I moved away from suburban Chicago in 06. In about 2019 I googled 'Muzak on sca' and found out they stopped this a few years earlier. These channels are only by satellite now (as far as I know).

  9. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Drew Freeman says:

    I love Fran. She always has a calm voice even when she’s angry or anxious.❤

  10. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Dustin Smous says:

    Believe it or not, subcarrier broadcasting is still widely used! For stations that do live remotes using a microwave link to the studio, the studio will commonly use one of the subcarrrier channels as a "talk back" channel to communicate with the people doing the live remote!

    RDS data that allows modern radios to display information about what is currently playing are on the lower subcarrier channel as well…

  11. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Teacher inThailan says:

    Very interesting. Thanks.

  12. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Jason Riffle says:

    I'm an amateur radio enthusiast, and never heard of this before. Awesome! Thanks for sharing.

  13. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars The 8 track man says:

    Thanks!

  14. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Charles Vincent says:

    I think that's pretty interesting that there was "satellite" radio before there were "satellites". IMHO the only thing the government should regulate concerning radios and HAM operations is to make sure people have a frequency they can broadcast on or in the case of HAM to communicate on and to stop people from using someone else's frequency.

  15. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Martin D says:

    I like to watch Freud gesticulate about Edward DeVere

  16. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Ryan Mackey says:

    Haha love the Steely Dan reference

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.