From the BBC Archives... 1971
Tomorrow's World...
Quote"Anything that can be done to soothe us, as we fight our way through our own, private traffic jams, is obviously a good thing."
William Woollard demonstrates the latest in car radio technology. The new radio has been designed entirely using solid state circuits and can therefore be very small, so it can be mounted in front of the windscreen, or even in the middle of the steering wheel. It automatically tunes itself to the strongest signal, thus eliminating the need to frustratingly retune as you travel, and gives consistent, crystal clear sound quality. Theoretically, the radio could also be switched on by a radio station to transmit emergency traffic reports and weather warnings to the motorist. Is this the future of in-car entertainment?
Clip taken from Tomorrow's World, originally broadcast on BBC One, Friday 26 November, 1971.
"Automatically tunes itself to the strongest signal" doesn't strike me as very useful unless what they mean is that somehow it can figure out what sort of station you're listening to and is able to find the same. That is, suppose I drive across West Virginia and the strongest signal is country music. I'm not interested in listening to that and it does not help me for the radio to select that automatically. (Hence a major benefit of having satellite radio when you travel.)
I would like to see motor cars outfitted with radios capable of receiving the NOAA weather radio band. Then, with such a radio onboard, it would be beneficial to have one which "Automatically tunes itself to the strongest signal".
Quote from: 02 Park Ave on January 11, 2025, 10:53:24 AMI would like to see motor cars outfitted with radios capable of receiving the NOAA weather radio band. Then, with such a radio onboard, it would be beneficial to have one which "Automatically tunes itself to the strongest signal".
I 100% agree with your statement. If they are fighting to keep AM on car radios, why not NOAA? Of course, the powerful NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) would be opposed to NOAA weather stations instead of the commercial ones.
However, with a streaming app such as Radio Garden (https://markholtz.info/radiogarden), I can listen to KEC56 for Dallas/Fort Worth (https://radio.garden/listen/kec56-noaa-weather-radio/e_A8JM4Q) through my computer or (more importantly) through my phone.
Quote from: 1995hoo on January 11, 2025, 09:13:27 AM"Automatically tunes itself to the strongest signal" doesn't strike me as very useful unless what they mean is that somehow it can figure out what sort of station you're listening to and is able to find the same. That is, suppose I drive across West Virginia and the strongest signal is country music. I'm not interested in listening to that and it does not help me for the radio to select that automatically. (Hence a major benefit of having satellite radio when you travel.)
The article makes sense, given the fact that BBC Radio was the only licensed broadcaster in Britain back in 1971. My understanding is that you would pick your favorite genre that was currently being broadcast, and then flip back-and-forth as you drive as you travel away from one transmitter and closer to another. There were four different BBC broadcasts, aptly named "Radio 1", "Radio 2", "Radio 3" and "Radio 4". ("Radio 5" was added in the early 1990s). It wasn't until 1978 that the BBC started to reorganize the broadcast frequencies so that you could stay on the same part of the FM spectrum. (For instance, nowadays "Radio 1" only broadcasts on transmitters between 97MHz and 99MHz).
In that vein, one could envision a regional network on simulcast stations that the user would like to stay tuned to. So as a West Virginian, I should respond that the solution here would be that all radio stations in the Mountain State be a simulcast of WWVA in Wheeling. Sadly, even then there would be a big part of the state that you couldn't pick up "the strongest frequency"
When did you no longer have to buy annual licenses to listen to radio in the UK, like you still have to wirh broadcast TV receivers?
Mike
Quote from: mgk920 on January 11, 2025, 02:56:56 PMWhen did you no longer have to buy annual licenses to listen to radio in the UK, like you still have to wirh broadcast TV receivers?
Mike
1971, apparently:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licensing_in_the_United_Kingdom
Still a marked improvement over the shitty touchscreens we get nowadays.
Quote from: Dirt Roads on January 11, 2025, 02:27:34 PM(Interesting historical explanation of British broadcasting deleted)
Thanks for that explanation. I was not familiar with that history, although certainly I'd heard of the "pirate broadcasters" in the 1960s, especially in the context of
The Who Sell Out, but it never really meant anything to me. Interesting explanation. I guess that's the origin of the station now called "Radio One" that I've occasionally listened to on XM?
Quote from: 1995hoo on January 11, 2025, 03:41:42 PMI guess that's the origin of the station now called "Radio One" that I've occasionally listened to on XM?
Right idea; wrong country. XM Channel 169 is CBC Radio One. CBC used to do the same kind of thing as BBC Radio in the late 1990s: CBC "Radio One"; CBC "Radio 2" and CBC "Radio 3". "Radio One" is the original CBC Radio news network; "Radio 2" is now "CBC Music"; but "Radio 3" is now an Indie network that is almost entirely broadcast as online streaming. Thanks for the tip; as I hadn't put those CBC channels in the same playbook as the BBC.
Before I forget, there is now also a "BBC Radio 5" all-sports network and a "BBC Radio 6" (which is Alternative and Indie, kind of like CBC "Radio 3").
No, I'm referring to BBC Radio One. It might not be on XM anymore, but it definitely used to be.
Quote from: 02 Park Ave on January 11, 2025, 10:53:24 AMI would like to see motor cars outfitted with radios capable of receiving the NOAA weather radio band. Then, with such a radio onboard, it would be beneficial to have one which "Automatically tunes itself to the strongest signal".
That would be a good poison pill to insert into attempts to mandate AM radio in cars, and test how much the "emergency broadcast" argument is actually real and not just the NAB looking for an AM bailout.
The radio in this BBC hit was probably typical of the Euro dial of the day: long wave, medium wave (AM), and two bands of FM that stopped at 104 MHz.
I saw lots of old car radios into the 1990s that stopped at 104. The 105-108 MHz part of the spectrum didn't open up in Europe until sometime in the late 1970s.
By the time I got there LW was a thing of the past except on some Radio Luxembourg AM house adverts (208).
Quote from: Dirt Roads on January 11, 2025, 02:27:34 PMQuote from: 1995hoo on January 11, 2025, 09:13:27 AM"Automatically tunes itself to the strongest signal" doesn't strike me as very useful unless what they mean is that somehow it can figure out what sort of station you're listening to and is able to find the same. That is, suppose I drive across West Virginia and the strongest signal is country music. I'm not interested in listening to that and it does not help me for the radio to select that automatically. (Hence a major benefit of having satellite radio when you travel.)
The article makes sense, given the fact that BBC Radio was the only licensed broadcaster in Britain back in 1971. My understanding is that you would pick your favorite genre that was currently being broadcast, and then flip back-and-forth as you drive as you travel away from one transmitter and closer to another. There were four different BBC broadcasts, aptly named "Radio 1", "Radio 2", "Radio 3" and "Radio 4". ("Radio 5" was added in the early 1990s). It wasn't until 1978 that the BBC started to reorganize the broadcast frequencies so that you could stay on the same part of the FM spectrum. (For instance, nowadays "Radio 1" only broadcasts on transmitters between 97MHz and 99MHz).
In that vein, one could envision a regional network on simulcast stations that the user would like to stay tuned to. So as a West Virginian, I should respond that the solution here would be that all radio stations in the Mountain State be a simulcast of WWVA in Wheeling. Sadly, even then there would be a big part of the state that you couldn't pick up "the strongest frequency"
I don't think it would be too bad an idea to have a bunch of stations in smaller towns simulcast whatever the leading main AM broadcaster was. So in IL, it would be either WBBM, WLS or WGN in Chicago distributing their respective simulcast to the smaller stations. But unfortunately, AM radio is in a sad decline with hundreds of stations going off the air, so it will be a very tough sell.