FM sound broadcasting began in the United Kingdom on 2 May 1955 when the
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started an
FM broadcasting
FM broadcasting is a method of radio broadcasting using frequency modulation (FM). Invented in 1933 by American engineer Edwin Armstrong, wide-band FM is used worldwide to provide high fidelity sound over broadcast radio. FM broadcasting is cap ...
service the
Light Programme
The BBC Light Programme was a national radio station which broadcast chiefly mainstream light entertainment and light music from 1945 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 1. It opened on 29 July 1945, taking over the ...
, the
Third Programme
The BBC Third Programme was a national radio station produced and broadcast from 1946 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 3, Radio 3. It first went on the air on 29 September 1946 and quickly became one of the leading cultural and in ...
and the
Home Service
Home Service is a British folk rock group, formed in late 1980 from a nucleus of musicians who had been playing in Ashley Hutchings' Albion Band. Their career is generally agreed to have peaked with the album ''Alright Jack'', and has had an ...
to the south east of England. There are now over 40 BBC and over 250 commercial FM sound
broadcasting stations in the United Kingdom.
BBC
The
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
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began using ''FM sound broadcasting'' in 1955, but at that time
AM sound broadcasting predominated. The BBC's 'popular music' station known as Radio 1 opened on AM in 1967 and left
medium wave
Medium wave (MW) is the part of the medium frequency (MF) radio band used mainly for AM radio broadcasting. The spectrum provides about 120 channels with more limited sound quality than FM stations on the FM broadcast band. During the daytime ...
in 1994, but had been using FM full-time for six years previously, part-time before 1988. Currently, all but one of the BBC's analogue services, including
Radios 1,
2,
3, and
4 and
BBC Local Radio
BBC Local Radio (also referred to as Local BBC Radio) is the BBC's local and regional radio division for England and the Channel Islands, consisting of forty stations.
History
The popularity of pirate radio was to challenge a change within ...
are provided on FM, although Radio 4 uses medium wave in some areas,
long wave
In radio, longwave, long wave or long-wave, and commonly abbreviated LW, refers to parts of the radio spectrum with wavelengths longer than what was originally called the medium-wave broadcasting band. The term is historic, dating from the e ...
for national broadcasting; Local Radio broadcasts opt-outs on medium wave. The only analogue service not to use FM is
Radio 5 Live
BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that broadcasts mainly news, sport, discussion, interviews and phone-ins. It is the principal BBC radio station covering sport in the United Kingdom, broadcast ...
. BBC policy was to refer to FM as
VHF
Very high frequency (VHF) is the ITU designation for the range of radio frequency electromagnetic waves (radio waves) from 30 to 300 megahertz (MHz), with corresponding wavelengths of ten meters to one meter.
Frequencies immediately below VHF ...
on air until 30 September 1984 when FM became its official term.
Commercial broadcasting
Legal commercial broadcasting began in the United Kingdom in 1973, with the launch of
LBC
LBC (originally the London Broadcasting Company) is a British phone-in and talk radio station owned and operated by Global and based in its headquarters in London. It was the UK's first licensed commercial radio station, and began to broadcast ...
, though offshore
pirate radio
Pirate radio or a pirate radio station is a radio station that broadcasts without a valid license.
In some cases, radio stations are considered legal where the signal is transmitted, but illegal where the signals are received—especially w ...
stations operated in the 1960s to 1990s, usually from ships anchored off the coast of Britain.
Early licences were granted to wide-area stations, such as
Capital Radio
Capital London is a radio station owned and operated by the Global media company as part of its national Capital FM Network. As Capital Radio it was launched in the London area in 1973 as one of Britain's first two commercial radio stations. I ...
which served London and the home counties. Later more local stations were introduced. There is also one national commercial radio station,
Classic FM.
Commercial radio stations
simulcast
Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultane ...
ed on both FM and medium wave from the beginning until the
IBA asked radio stations to end the practice and from 1988 stations began to offer separate stations on each waveband. Typically another service, often a 'gold' format, was introduced on AM and the original service continued on FM.
Frequency utilisation
From 1955 the band 88.0 – 94.6 MHz was used (
allotted and
assigned) for three BBC national networks. Over the next 40 years, the band grew piecemeal to 87.5 – 108.0 MHz, allowing for five national networks and many local stations.
Until 1995, parts of the band had been used in the United Kingdom for
mobile service
Mobile service is – in line to ITU Radio Regulations – a radiocommunication service between mobile and land stations, or between mobile stations (CV).
Classification
In accordance with ''ITU Radio Regulations'' (article 1) variations of this ...
by police, fire brigades and the fuel and power industries. These parts were ''reassigned'' to
broadcasting service
Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio signal, audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-b ...
gradually over many years as the communications services were transferred to new equipment in other parts of the spectrum.
The current ''frequency allotment plan'' is based on an
ITU
The International Telecommunication Union is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for many matters related to information and communication technologies. It was established on 17 May 1865 as the International Telegraph Unio ...
agreement made in Geneva in 1984. The table below shows which kind of ''broadcasting transmitter stations'' are the main users of each part of the band. There are many exceptions. In some areas there is some commercial usage of the 'BBC local' sub bands while in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland the 'Radio 4' and 'BBC Local' ranges are used interchangeably. Community radio stations and RSLs tend to be fitted into any locally-available position.
Subcarriers
The United Kingdom permits
Radio Data System
Radio Data System (RDS) is a communications protocol standard for embedding small amounts of digital information in conventional FM radio broadcasts. RDS standardizes several types of information transmitted, including time, station identificati ...
(RDS) subcarriers.
Future switch off
The UK government is planning for a
switchover Switchover is the manual switch from one system to a redundant or standby computer server, system, or network upon the failure or abnormal termination of the previously active server, system, or network, or to perform system maintenance, such as in ...
from FM to digital radio once take-up and coverage meets certain criteria. Successive governments have admitted that FM VHF Band II analogue radio would not cease until the majority use digital, so no actual date has ever been agreed. Digital listening figures however consistently include satellite, DTT and online streaming, not just DAB. In any case there is a commitment to maintain community FM radio. This means that as long as there are significant numbers of listeners on FM in the United Kingdom no government is likely to take the politically unpopular decision to turn off analogue. Support for the FM switch off in the UK is limited. In July 2020, provided the stations also broadcast on digital radio, UK government has decided to allow Ofcom to renew analogue FM and AM licences for a further ten-year period.
References
{{Telecommunications
Radio in the United Kingdom