The Early Struggle

The first FM group, the National Association of FM Broadcasters Incorporated (FMBI), was created in 1940 to promote the technology as much as the industry. Spearheaded by John Shepherd III of the New England-based Yankee Network and by Walter J. Damm of the Milwaukee Journal radio stations (one of which was the first FM station west of the Alleghenies), FMBI published thousands of copies of Broadcasting's Better Mousetrap to promote FM's better sound and other qualities. Before and during World War II, a mimeographed newsletter edited by Dick Dorrance appeared regularly to record the slow initial development of the business. FMBI had 43 members by 1943-most of those either on the air or building new stations-and 137 by September 1944. Among its campaigns was a successful move to persuade the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to modify FM station call letters from letter and number combinations denoting the channel of the station (e.g., W55 M, which was on 45.5 megahertz) to the more familiar all-letter system used with AM stations. The FCC adopted the plan in 1943. Although FMBI fought the shift of FM frequencies that came in 1945, it worked to put the new spectrum into action.

With the end of the war, FMBI voted in 1946 to merge its activities into the FM Department (later Committee) of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), a pattern that would be repeated several times. Initially headed by Robert Bartley, later an FCC commissioner, this arm of the main industry trade association sought a place for FM within an industry dominated by rapidly expanding AM stations and developing television.

Believing that the new medium needed the focused attention of a dedicated organization, broadcasters Roy Hofheintz of Houston and Everett Dillard of Washington, D.C., helped form the FM Association (FMA) in 1946. FMA's primary focus was to get AM broadcasters either to build the FM stations they had applied for or to return their construction permits to the FCC. FMA pressure on the FCC led the agency to terminate many "warehoused" but inactive permits, which were an indicator of FM's coming decline. The FMA ended its short existence with a two-year promotional campaign to brighten the medium's future.

All this activity was to no avail, and FM slipped into decline for most of the 1950s as industry attention turned to television.

FM's Revival

Formation of the FM Development Association (FMDA) in 1956 was one early indicator that FM's fortunes were about to take a turn for the better. Larry Gordon of WBUF (FM) in Buffalo, New York, was its president. Made up of about two dozen independent (without a matching AM station) FM station owners, FMDA sought to get broadcasters to place FM stations on the air. It also attempted to combat escalating music licensing fees being charged by the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP).

In January 1959 a group of FMDA members formed the new National Association of FM Broadcasters (NAFMB). The organization decided to hold its first official meeting prior to the forthcoming annual convention of the NAB in Chicago. With the blessing of the NAB, the NAFMB was allowed to hold its first meeting on the Saturday just prior to the NAB FM Day program; at that time Fred Rabell, an independent FM broadcaster and background music franchisee in San Diego, was elected president. This was a nonpaying position, which he volunteered to accept with the help of his wife, and for nearly three years they operated the NAFMB from their FM radio station KITT.

Rabell was followed by another unpaid leader, T. Mitchell Hastings, Jr., owner of the Concert Network FM stations in New York City, Boston, Hartford, Connecticut, and Providence, Rhode Island, and the developer of the Hastings FM tuner, America's first FM car radio. Hastings led the NAFMB for three years. (Prior to his death in the mid-199os, Hastings was chairman of the Armstrong Foundation, dedicated to the propagation of Edwin Armstrong's name as the father of FM radio through its Armstrong "Major Awards," first presented at the NAFMB conventions.)

Another person who played an important role in making the NAFMB successful was James Schulke, NAFMB's first full-time paid president, who had offices in New York City. Schulke was hired in 1963 after an annual donation of commercial airtime by all National Radio Broadcasters Association member stations; this donated time was subsequently sold to the Magnavox Corporation for $150,000. Special research, programming, and marketing studies were developed by the NAFMB in the 1960s as membership grew from its first 50 stations to nearly 500 by 1969. During those formative years, FM broadcasters volunteered their time and resources to advance public and advertiser awareness of FM radio. Dozens of these FM radio pioneers played major roles in the NAFMB, including Abe Voron of Philadelphia, Robert Herpe of Orlando, and James Gabbert of San Francisco.

The impact of NAFMB activities in the 1960s is reflected in the increase in the number of FM radio stations that went on the air. From just 578 commercial stations in 1959, with the majority duplicating the programming of a co-owned AM facility in the same city, the number of on-air FM stations had grown to more than 1,000 by 1963. The promotion of FM stereo multiplexing following the FCC's adoption of FM stereo radio standards in April 1961, as well as the one-year "Drive with FM" campaign in 1965 and 1966 to motivate consumers and the auto industry to have FM and FM stereo available on their auto and truck radios, also played a role in the accelerated growth of FM.

During the 17-year existence of the NAFMB as an organization that would accept only FM station members, the association was the driving force in promoting, researching, marketing, and expanding the visibility of both FM and FM stereo radio in the United States and Canada.

The NAFMB was both the longest-lived and the most successful of the five FM trade groups. It actively worked with the FCC to develop technical standards for FM stereo in 1960-61. A 1963 Harvard University Graduate School of Business study of FM's potential was sponsored by NAFMB and attracted widespread industry attention. The study's prediction of FM's eventual dominance of AM, seen as a pipe dream by many at the time, was borne out by events in the late 1970s. FM's eventual success was heavily aided by the separation of its programming from colocated AM stations in the late 1960s, something NAFMB lobbied the FCC heavily for. The association issued annual program surveys of FM stations in the late 1960s, which showed the growing variety of formats used by FM outlets. It conducted or supported a variety of other studies of the FM industry in response to growing advertiser interest in the medium. At the same time, the Radio Advertising Bureau focused more on FM's potential, and the NAB published its monthly Emphasis newsletter throughout the 1960s.

Because of pressure by AM and AM/FM station owners and operators who wanted to join the NAFMB, in September 1975, during its annual convention in Atlanta, the NAFMB name and membership criteria were changed. The association became the National Radio Broadcasters Association (NRBA), and AM stations were to be admitted into membership. The new members pushed for the association's dedication to seeking regulatory relief from the FCC. Many stations active with NRBA were dissatisfied with the NAB's efforts for radio deregulation and believed that the older radio/TV association was devoting too much of its resources to television issues. Nine years later, in 1984, the NRBA merged with the NAB.

The success of FM radio in superseding AM radio as the dominant aural medium in America was consistently positioned by the NAFMB with the rationale that "in the long run, a quality product always succeeds with the American consumer." The NAFMB was the leading advocate of FM radio and played an important role in the medium's eventual success.