FM had been around for a while when our cars were built, but FM Stereo began very slowly, a kind of chicken and egg thing. Remember our coupes were designed in the mid 60's when there was very few FM Stereo stations. The wrap around wood dash is certainly looking towards the past rather than looking towards the technical innovations of the future that BMW would later embrace.
On June 1, 1961, at 12:01 a.m. (EDT),
WGEM-FM became the first FM station in the United States to broadcast in stereo.
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The first
commercial FM broadcasting stations were in the United States, but initially they were primarily used to simulcast their AM sister stations, to broadcast lush orchestral music for stores and offices, to broadcast classical music to an upmarket listenership in urban areas, or for educational programming. By the late 1960s, FM had been adopted by fans of "Alternative Rock" music ("A.O.R.—'
Album Oriented Rock' Format"), but it wasn't until 1978 that listenership to FM stations exceeded that of AM stations in North America.
Europe
The
medium wave band (known as the
AM band because most stations using it employ amplitude modulation in North America) is overcrowded in Western Europe, leading to interference problems and, as a result, many MW frequencies are suitable only for speech broadcasting.
Belgium, the
Netherlands,
Denmark and particularly
Germany were among the first countries to adopt FM on a widespread scale. Among the reasons for this were:
- The medium wave band in Western Europe became overcrowded after World War II, mainly due to the best available medium wave frequencies being used at high power levels by the Allied Occupation Forces, both for broadcasting entertainment to their troops and for broadcasting Cold War propaganda across the Iron Curtain.
- After World War II, broadcasting frequencies were reorganized and reallocated by delegates of the victorious countries in the Copenhagen Frequency Plan. German broadcasters were left with only two remaining AM frequencies and were forced to look to FM for expansion.
Public service broadcasters in
Ireland and Australia were far slower at adopting FM radio than those in either
North America or continental
Europe.
United Kingdom
In the
United Kingdom, the
BBC began FM broadcasting in 1955, with three national networks: the
Light Programme,
Third Programme and
Home Service. These three networks used the sub-band 88.0–94.6 MHz. The sub-band 94.6–97.6 MHz was later used for BBC and local commercial services.
However, only when commercial broadcasting was introduced to the UK in 1973 did the use of FM pick up in Britain. With the gradual clearance of other users (notably Public Services such as police, fire and ambulance) and the extension of the FM band to 108.0 MHz between 1980 and 1995, FM expanded rapidly throughout the British Isles and effectively took over from LW and MW as the delivery platform of choice for fixed and portable domestic and vehicle-based receivers.