stackyFACTS
Culture & entertainment

FM radio was ignored for decades

HERE’S THE INTERESTING PART

Despite offering a dramatically clearer, completely static-free listening experience, the superior broadcasting frequency was actively suppressed for decades. Massive corporate conglomerates heavily invested in the old inferior format aggressively lobbied to kill it, proving that technological progress usually loses to stubborn executive laziness.

FM radio was ignored for decades
STACKY / Culture & entertainment
One discovery leads to another.

Keep exploring facts in this topic.

Culture & entertainment →
STACKY FOR IPHONE

A bigger world.
One discovery
at a time.

Keep discovering with Stacky. Interesting facts in an app that is always within reach.

Download on the App Store
ONE MORE DISCOVERY?

Keep exploring

All in this topic →
Top forty radio formats were inspired by a jukebox
Culture & entertainment

Top forty radio formats were inspired by a jukebox

A radio executive in the fifties noticed people in diners kept paying to hear the exact same few songs on a jukebox, completely ignoring the rest. He realized…

Discover more
Why radio stations save the forecast for last
Culture & entertainment

Why radio stations save the forecast for last

You always have to wait through three terrible songs to get the forecast. Broadcasters know that weather and traffic are the only essential information you…

Discover more
Early radio exclusively featured live studio orchestras
Culture & entertainment

Early radio exclusively featured live studio orchestras

Broadcasters didn't hire massive groups of musicians purely out of a deep love for live art; they did it because playing recorded music over the air was…

Discover more
When radio sports needed fake crowd noise
Culture & entertainment

When radio sports needed fake crowd noise

Decades ago, remote broadcasting was far too expensive for local stations. Announcers would sit in quiet studios reading ticker tape updates, aggressively…

Discover more
FM signals completely override weaker competing stations
Culture & entertainment

FM signals completely override weaker competing stations

Thanks to the 'capture effect,' FM radio acts like a brutal acoustic monopoly. If two stations are broadcasting on the exact same frequency, your receiver…

Discover more
Paramount Pictures trademarked the mountain logo making it the oldest Hollywood emblem
Culture & entertainment

Paramount Pictures trademarked the mountain logo making it the oldest Hollywood emblem

Before they were busy ruining and subsequently fixing Sonic the Hedgehog, Paramount was out here claiming geographical features. Created in 1914 as a quick…

Discover more
StackyMore discoveries in the app
Download on the App Store