Difference between am/fm and others?

Question

What is the difference?

Answer 1

am is like all talk shows and fm is music

Answer 2

Technically, both are bandwidths. FM Stations (Frequency Modulation) transmit a signal on a frequency from around 88 to 108Mhz; AM (Amplitude Modulaion) transmits from about 520-1510Khz.

Your device (a radio) picks it these signals. FM is limited to "line-of-sight" meaning buildings, mountains etc. will get in the way and so its reach is limited. But the quality is great. That's FM. Frequency Modulation. AM, though not as greatly affected by distance and obstacles, suffers lfrom poorer quality. That's Amplitude Modulation.

Beyond that it gets pretty technical and I urge you to study the web link below. You can also check the links for more information on other bands such as Short wave, long wave the newer digital HD radio and so on on if you are truly interested.

But in the more Karmic sense: What FM really is - is the band that saved radio. Starting around 1970, just as today, people were becoming bored with radio, which was predominately on the AM band. (FM existed but was reserved mostly for non-commercial uses).

The music was stale and formatted. You would actually hear "Sugar, Sugar" by The Archies followed by the Electric Light Orchestra and into The Partridge Family, The Carpenters, James Brown, Led Zeppelin... I know, hard to believe, but that was Top-40 back then; with a Glen Campbell and occasional Merle Haggard thrown in.

The DJs were too talkative - and there were way too many commercials to deal with. Hard to imagine with today's very narrow niche-oriented stations. Well, except for the commercials part. Greedy buggers then - greedy buggers today.

But it had been the only game in town. The AM band has a more powerful signal, but the quality is junk - and there was no stereo available at that point. Then, Stereo Eight-Tracks and Cassettes and Reel-to-Reel recorders became inexpensively available and radio began to lose listeners, just as it is today with the advent of iPods, Internet and Satellite.

People lost interest in AM radio. Stations had fewer advertisers, things were going downhill fast.

Guys were coming home from Vietnam with incredible systems bought at ridiculously low prices while on R&R in Hong Kong or from their PX. Then the Japanese, who have always known a good thing when they saw it, started sending these systems, equipped with AM AND FM dials into the US. And the music was beyond Hi-Fi, it was STEREO. And not available on the AM band.

Suddenly the geniuses who owned the stations realized the public wanted better fidelity. The station owners thought to themselves, "Well we've got this FM signal we only use for elevator music (technically called The Schulke Format, invented by Jim Schulke), let's give it a try."

Thus it started, originally with "progressive radio" (album cuts). And all of a sudden listeners could listen to the entire Allman Brothers "Live" Album, in stereo on big ol' Pioneer CS-88 speakers from an Army PX. It was heaven in a box.

Listeners started buying tuners that would pick up FM signals. AM stations went south, fast - but eventually came back with talk and sports. Advertisers started buying commercials again.

Owners smiled, advertisers smiled, listeners smiled. Then came the Internet. A bunch of investors got together to launch a couple of satellites and beam music down to earth, Scottie; and Steve Jobs thought of a way to save his company.

But that's a story for another day.

-a guy named duh

Answer 3

AM Has been around for years, FM Has been around for well a long time too but there is a bit of a difference. FM Sounds Better in Stereo quality unlike AM Is Mono. FM Is used more for music as AM Is to talk. You usually don't hear music on AM Radio unless its at night because AM is stronger and sounds better a night then it does in the morning/mid day. With HD Radio coming out it changes both AM And FM. AM Will sound more like FM Does today, and FM will sound more like CD Quality. Satellite Radio is coast to coast (in America) or around the world, digital quality programing with more choices and better sound then Terrestrial Radio(AM/FM) They come from satellites I'll show you how it works, I'll use XM Radio as a Example

XM studios beam there programming to there satellite uplink center, then gets beamed to the 3 (soon to be4) satellites in the sky which bring it to your radio! cool!