{"id":61040,"date":"2024-11-10T05:00:32","date_gmt":"2024-11-10T09:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/?p=61040"},"modified":"2024-11-05T14:22:06","modified_gmt":"2024-11-05T18:22:06","slug":"channel-6-fm-radio-stations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2024\/11\/channel-6-fm-radio-stations\/","title":{"rendered":"Channel 6 FM Radio Stations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many thanks to\u00a0SWLing Post<\/em>\u00a0contributor,\u00a0Bob Colegrove<\/a>, who shares the following guest post:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a>Channel 6 Radio Stations<\/h1>\n

By Bob Colegrove<\/strong><\/p>\n

Even after all these years, I still find occasional surprises while playing with radios.\u00a0 How did I miss this one?\u00a0 I recently did what I thought was a definitive audit of the available FM stations in my area.\u00a0 Then, just the other day I happened to tune down below 88.1 (FM Channel 201).\u00a0 At 87.7 MHz I came across some delightful Latin music in clear stereo and proceeded to park the tuning knob there for a listen.\u00a0 At first, I thought I might simply have some intermodulation from a strong local station, but the stereo signal was much too clear.\u00a0 So, I resorted to the internet to determine what was going on.\u00a0 Turns out, according to their website, I was listening to DC 88.7FM<\/i> in Fairfax, Virginia \u2013 no call letters, just \u201cDC 88.7FM.\u201d<\/p>\n

Further investigation indicated that the station is officially WDCN-LD a low-power operator, but you won’t find it listed on the FCC FM Query site.\u00a0 That\u2019s because it is something of a legacy station, a carryover from analog TV days when the audio for Channel 6 was broadcast with the carrier centered on 87.75 MHz, within the range of most FM receivers.\u00a0 Having discovered this, I retuned the radio slightly to 87.75 MHz and found the signal strength peaked.\u00a0 Wikipedia describes the history of WDCN-LD at https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/WDCN-LD<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Of further interest is the history of so-called \u201cChannel 6 FM radio stations.\u201d\u00a0 The evolution of present-day stations is long and involved.\u00a0 Over several years, the FCC formed committees, requested comments, held hearings, wrote reports, published proposals, rendered rulings, and ultimately granted waivers.\u00a0 For the full story, see https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Channel_6_radio_stations_in_the_United_States<\/a>.\u00a0 What resulted are legacy stations dating back to analog TV days which continue to operate sans<\/i> video as de facto<\/i> FM stations.\u00a0 For all practical purposes, we have a modest extension of the FM band.\u00a0 There are, in fact, 14 such stations currently spread across the lower 48 states.\u00a0 It is unlikely that the circumstances which created these stations will ever result in more stations being added.\u00a0 As of July 20, 2023, an FCC report and order restricted these stations to those already licensed and current licenses untransferable.<\/p>\n

Do you live near a Channel 6 FM radio station?<\/p>\n

Just to complete the picture, there is also officially an FM Channel 200 at 87.9 MHz, which was established in 1978, but to my knowledge is not used.\u00a0 Does anyone have any information on FM Channel 200?<\/p>\n

As an historical aside, the present-day FM band, 88 to 108 MHz, is located directly between analog TV Channels 6 and 7.\u00a0 In 1958, to foster FM use, Regency Electronics, Inc. marketed a converter, Model RC-103, in a handsome Bakelite case, which could be attached between the antenna (generally \u201crabbit ears\u201d) and the TV set.\u00a0 The converter contained a single transistor and was powered by three AA batteries.\u00a0 By tuning the TV to Channel 6, turning on the TeleVerter<\/i> to FM, and rotating its dial, one effectively detuned the Channel 6 audio frequency upward, and could listen to the entire FM band.\u00a0 As this converter was manufactured prior to the advent of stereo broadcasting, the sound was in mono, and fidelity was limited to the audio quality of the TV.\u00a0 My dad bought one of these.\u00a0 It was connected to our Arvin 12\u201d, B\/W tabletop TV, and it served as our first FM radio for a few years.\u00a0 There were only a few stations at that time, mostly classical as I recall.\u00a0 Thus \u201cFM\u201d came to stand for \u201cfine music.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Source: Sams Photofact Folder, Set 397, Folder 11, Regency Model RC-103, May, 1958.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many thanks to\u00a0SWLing Post\u00a0contributor,\u00a0Bob Colegrove, who shares the following guest post: Channel 6 Radio Stations By Bob Colegrove Even after all these years, I still find occasional surprises while playing with radios.\u00a0 How did I miss this one?\u00a0 I recently did what I thought was a definitive audit of the available FM stations in my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3781,3194,3],"tags":[7988,1384,4342],"class_list":["post-61040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fm","category-guest-posts","category-news","tag-bob-colegrove","tag-fm-radio","tag-guest-posts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pn3uc-fSw","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":58852,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2024\/02\/guest-post-bobs-conundrum-with-the-radio-data-system-rds\/","url_meta":{"origin":61040,"position":0},"title":"Guest Post: Bob’s conundrum with the Radio Data System (RDS)","author":"Thomas","date":"February 6, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to\u00a0SWLing Post\u00a0contributor,\u00a0Bob Colegrove, who shares the following guest post: A Conundrum with the Radio Data System (RDS), or Why I Set the Clock Manually By Bob Colegrove There\u2019s an old story about a man who owned two watches.\u00a0 One watch ran but lost a minute every hour.\u00a0 The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "FM"","block_context":{"text":"FM","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/fm\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Screenshot-2024-02-06-at-06.17.03.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":48403,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2021\/04\/am-radio-history-80th-anniversary-of-the-havana-treaty\/","url_meta":{"origin":61040,"position":1},"title":"AM Radio History: 80th Anniversary of the \u201cHavana Treaty,\u201d","author":"Thomas","date":"April 4, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Bob Colegrove, who writes: Hi Thomas, I came across this article on Wikipedia. It is a few days late, but thought it might be of interest to others. The link is https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/North_American_Regional_Broadcasting_Agreement. Briefly, this past Monday, was the 80th anniversary of the implementation of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/philco38-4_dial_1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/philco38-4_dial_1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/philco38-4_dial_1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":60460,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2024\/08\/u-twente-websdr-new-tablet-phone-interface-option\/","url_meta":{"origin":61040,"position":2},"title":"U Twente WebSDR: New Tablet\/Phone Interface Option","author":"Thomas","date":"August 25, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to\u00a0SWLing Post\u00a0contributor,\u00a0Bob Colegrove, who shares the following guest post: U. of Twenty Site for Phones and Tablets by Bob Colegrove I\u2019m not sure if this is new.\u00a0 It may have been around for a while.\u00a0 Very recently, while accessing the WebSDR site at the University of Twente, it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Figure.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Figure.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Figure.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":60370,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2024\/08\/a-band-aid-for-the-xhdata-d-220\/","url_meta":{"origin":61040,"position":3},"title":"A Band Aid for the XHDATA D-220","author":"Thomas","date":"August 11, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to\u00a0SWLing Post\u00a0contributor, Bob Colegrove, who shares the following guest post: A Band Aid for the XHDATA D-220 By Bob Colegrove In the olden days of analog radios, we would have generated a graph plotting frequency against a 0 to 100 linear bandspread scale. That permitted determination of a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Guest Posts"","block_context":{"text":"Guest Posts","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/guest-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Fig-1.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Fig-1.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Fig-1.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Fig-1.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Fig-1.jpeg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":51812,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2022\/02\/guest-post-control-of-electromagnetic-radiation-conelrad\/","url_meta":{"origin":61040,"position":4},"title":"Guest Post: Control of Electromagnetic Radiation (CONELRAD)","author":"Thomas","date":"February 8, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor,\u00a0Bob Colegrove, who shares the following guest post: Control of Electromagnetic Radiation (CONELRAD) As recalled by Bob Colegrove In his comment on my recent posting, Tinkering with History, Mario noted the dial on the featured radio, the General Electric P755A, sported two small triangles, one\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "AM"","block_context":{"text":"AM","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/am\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Fig-1-e1644317508418.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Fig-1-e1644317508418.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Fig-1-e1644317508418.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Fig-1-e1644317508418.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Fig-1-e1644317508418.jpeg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":60925,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2024\/10\/bob-asks-whats-your-favorite-corner-of-the-dial\/","url_meta":{"origin":61040,"position":5},"title":"Bob asks: “What\u2019s Your Favorite Corner of the Dial?”","author":"Thomas","date":"October 21, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to\u00a0SWLing Post\u00a0contributor,\u00a0Bob Colegrove, who shares the following guest post: What\u2019s Your Favorite Corner of the Dial? As asked by Bob Colegrove Let\u2019s suppose you\u2019ve been listening to radio for a while.\u00a0 Consciously or not, you\u2019ve probably favored a range of AM, SW, or FM frequencies.\u00a0 These are areas\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "AM"","block_context":{"text":"AM","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/am\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Fig-5.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61040"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61045,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61040\/revisions\/61045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}