Cable radio

[bandit957]

Did anyone actually have this?

In the late '80s or so, I think our local cable TV system also had a separate service that offered cable FM radio, but I don't remember anyone actually having it. I remember seeing a list of stations it had, and almost all of them were ones we could pick up clearly anyway. The only one it had that we couldn't pick up clearly was WOXY (97-X). (Once in a great while, if you had your boom box tilted a certain way, you could get WOXY, but usually it was jammed out by WAXZ.)

[ZLoth]

I actually used a 75 ohm splitter and picked up the FM stations through the stereo receiver. Rarely used the feature. Nowadays, it's all streaming.

[snowc]

I actually used a 75 ohm splitter and picked up the FM stations through the stereo receiver. Rarely used the feature. Nowadays, it's all streaming.

I dont even have splitters. My internet would be  with my ISP if I converted to radio.

[1995hoo]

My father tried it for a while when we first got cable TV, but he dropped it because he decided it wasn't worth it–the room in which the radio got listened to the most was by far the kitchen (by my mom in the morning) and there was (and is) no coaxial outlet for the cable connection in there.

One minor annoyance was that the cable company remapped all the radio stations to different frequencies (e.g., 94.7-FM was 94.3-FM via cable for no apparent reason).

[hbelkins]

Never heard of "cable radio" but one interesting thing I learned while in college was that you could use a splitter off a cable TV coax cable, hook it up to the FM antenna port on a receiver, and get a better signal. Morehead sits in a valley and FM radio reception of the Lexington stations in the dorms was terrible. Someone told me to try the TV cable splitter trick, and I did. I could pick up WKQQ-FM very well -- but not at 98.1 on the dial. The frequency was off by a little; I think it actually showed up closer to 98.9 or 99.1.

[abefroman329]

When I was a kid, we had a shortwave radio that could pick up the audio from OTA TV stations.

[US 89]

When I was a kid, we had a shortwave radio that could pick up the audio from OTA TV stations.

We had one of those hand crank emergency radios that did that as well. It could also pick up NOAA Weather Radio in addition to the usual FM and AM channels.

Unfortunately, the TV audio part no longer works since the 2009 required transition from analog to digital TV signals.

[catch22]

When I lived in Dearborn, MI in the early '80s, Group W Cable was in the process of building out the city.  As part of the sign-up package, they offered cable FM radio for free.  I had it connected to the FM receiver in my component stereo, and it worked OK. There were a handful of remote stations in addition to the locals (Flint, Lansing and Toledo).  Odd part is that they remapped all the station frequencies starting at 88.1 and going up .2 from there, so I had to keep their station chart handy to find which one I wanted.

[nexus73]

Cable FM was part of the deal in the Coos Bay OR area back in the Seventies and Eighties.  We did not even have FM stations here until the Eighties, so having cable FM was quite nice to have around.

Rick

[Henry]

When I first saw the thread, the first thing that came to mind was Sirius and XM (which is actually satellite radio). Count me as another person who was unaware of the existence of cable radio.

(BTW, my Equinox has SiriusXM)

[zachary_amaryllis]

back in the day, thats how got the stereo feed for mtv, before stereo tv's existed.

[ErmineNotyours]

Local cable TV channels used to be shifted onto different channels until more viewers got TVs with a coax input.  In the type of antenna input used by radios, the local station leaks in anyway so they have to shift the cable station to somewhere else.  When listening, you can't always tell if you're getting the cable FM feed that you're paying extra for.  Also, some dial positions as tuned by the radio can cause interference on the TV, so the cable company has to plan carefully when placing HBO and MTV audio on the FM band.  If you want to watch the TV while someone else wants to listen to the radio, you're SOL.

Group W in Seattle carried KOMO-AM Radio in stereo, to give an FM stereo look at what AM stereo sort-of sounds like.  After a few years, they dropped the FM cable band to squeeze in a whopping total of three more TV stations.  After complaints, they restored public radio KPLU and KUOW, and classic KING-FM.

[dvferyance]

Sirus XM basically is cable radio.

[1995hoo]

Sirus XM basically is cable radio.

Not really. The XM music channels don't have commercials. Cable radio was just a simulcast/rebroadcast of FM, ads included.

[bwana39]

Back in the day the cable streamed up to half a dozen moderately remote stations. Mostly they were in a parcel that was microwaved from a large market to the country nearby.

In Paris Texas, they Had Q102 (KTXQ), KRLD AM (transcribed on the FM dial), KZEW: later KLUV, KVIL, and either KSCS or KPLX. (Dallas / Ft Worth stations ~100 miles away. They also had the DFW TV stations. Mount Pleasant had a different radio mix, and I really don't remember anyone really using the cable for Radio there, but Shreveport & Tyler Longview stations came in there.
They weren't necessarily on their natural frequencies on the cable AND the bandwidth was reduced and even by 1970's and 80's standards, the quality was diminished.

[Road Hog]

back in the day, thats how got the stereo feed for mtv, before stereo tv's existed.

Same for me. I don't think there was any other service provided.