Cable FM 70's-80's

[Pat Cook]

Here's another interesting article on the subject

Cheers & 73

[TheOtherRadioRob]

I always found it interesting that Owensboro Cablevision got its audio for it's info channel (Cable from a mono modulation monitor for WVJS, but fed the signal for the Cable-FM signal (I keep thinking it was available at 97.5) straight out of the WVJS-AM console, which was stereo.

[OldNumber7]

We had cable FM installed in my home in the 70s and quickly discovered the reception was better with a dipole on the back of the receiver than the cable signal (we lived in the suburbs). I suppose cable FM made sense for folks in downtown areas with big buildings and lots of multipath -- or in between hills, for the same reason.

[borderblaster]

I loved using the headend's antenna when it got the entire band. Had wonderful DX from it! The systems that pre-selected the stations, not so much. Neither COmcast or Time Warner offer local FMs now, preferring their own music channels.

[musiconradio.com]

Keep in mind when cable systems used analog transmission it was a no brainer to pick up FM signals because of channel 6. In the Florida Keys, we would get the local signals from Miami and the FM signals were mixed in.  It was a analog relay and the FM stations were part of the signal mix. All the FM station signals went away with digital and fiber technology.

Several people discovered these "hidden signals" with the promotion of MTV in Stereo (when TV sets were still mono) and from classical WFMT in Chicago, who took advantage of a FM tuner hookup.

and now you know.

[spunker88]

In my area Time Warner has an information channel on 96 that uses a local radio station for its audio. They seem to switch the station every now and then. The audio carrier for channel 96 is 101.75 mhz so its possible to tune it on FM but its only in mono. We also still have analog signals from the headend for Canadian channels CJOH-6 and CKWS.

[cd637299]

Does anyone remember a service called Super Audio?  When I had cable in the late 80s-early 90s, our cable company didn't even mention having this feature.  Was playing around with the cable & stereo one day, and there may have been 5 or 6 stations on my FM.  What was unusual was that some were on "even" frequencies, and some spaced .3 MHz apart...doggone if I could remember the frequencies.....88.8 maybe, 89.1, 89.4?

I got permission from the cable co. to use a splitter.

One of the stations was KNOW out of Minneapolis, and another IIRC was a B/EZ station which, on Saturday night, featured "hits" of the 30s, 40s & early 50s.  I do not think I had WFMT on this....although I was aware of its availability.

Did anyone ever get that service?

cd

[borderblaster]

Lafayette, Indiana's cable system brought in stations from Chicago. I'm told the cable was so leaky that people could hear Chicago radio stations in their car. I lived in Qicny, IL for a short time in the 80s, they brought St, Louis FMs in, presumably on the same microwave relay used to bring the St. Louis TV stations in.

[willdav713]

Does anyone remember cable FM? This was pre-Digital Music Express days when cable systems would import FM signals from usually nearby large markets to smaller markets with few stations and modulate them on the FM dial. Using a splitter, you could connect your FM radio to the cable and receive these signals. Classical WFMT from Chicago was what could have been considered an FM superstation, as it was carried on many cable systems across the country.

In Longview, TX, our cable system carried several stations from DFW.

90.5 KERA-FM 90.1 Public Radio
91.1 KZEW 97.9 AOR
94.7 KOAX 105.3 Beautiful Music
95.1 KVIL 103.7 Adult Contemporary
96.5 (then later moved to 97.1) WRR-FM 101.1 Classical

When MTV was added to the cable system in 1982, a stereo version of MTV's audio was added to 102.5. At that time few people had MTS stereo capable sets.

I can remember listening to KERA-FM on the cable system as late as 1994. Sometime after that the cable FM service was discontinued.

I lived in Austin 1986-1987 and Austin Cablevision carried WFMT and several San Antonio stations, including 99.5 KISS on 99.1. Austin Cablevision also carried FM stereo audio from MTV, HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, and The Movie Channel.

Rogers and then Paragon Cable used to do that until I would say 1996.  I would get Austin's KEY 103.5 KEYI, Froggy 94.7 KFGI, and 92.1 KNBT off of it.  I heard they still do that in San Marcos.