In my experience the “Clear Channel” radio stations(With huge money backing) always have from like 101.1-107.9 and the “niche religious stations” are always in the 89.1-92.1 area.
Is there a reason for this as far as bandwith goes or price to broadcast?
In: Economics
Lots of misinformation here. The direct answer to your question can be found in the Code of Federal Regulations 47 CFR 73.501.
It says the first 20 channels in the FM broadcast band are reserved for non-commercial educational stations. The rest of the band can be assigned to commercial or non-commercial educational stations.
Differences in the cost of building and operating an FM broadcast station on lower or upper channels is insignificant. The cost of running a class C (100,000 Watt) station on channel 201 is not significantly different than operating it on channel 300. Likewise, building and operating an LP (100 Watt) anywhere in the band would cost about the same.
I am a professional engineer who has been building FM radio stations for over 30 years. I am involved in the design and construction of FM radio broadcast equipment.
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