The FM Stereo System That Lost

Remember Betamax, HD DVD, Cinerama? How about the Crosby FM Stereo system?

In the late 1950’s, former RCA engineer Murray G. Crosby invented a method of broadcasting FM stereo that worked (and sounded) better in fringe areas than the Zenith/GE system under consideration at the time. Only one problem though – it was not compatible with the subsidiary communications authorization (SCA) services (think Muzak) that some FM stations were experimenting with to bolster their bottom lines. (Remember that this was before the FCC Report and Order requiring licensees to broadcast separate programming on their AM and FM outlets.)

Finally on April 19, 1961, after lobbying by the background music industry and the FM stations who held special experimental authorizations for SCA services, the FCC selected the Zenith/GE system as the FM stereo standard. Which is why to this day your car radio reception degrades to AM-type static as a station goes out of range.

(For details, see Broadcasting Magazine, 10/06/1958, page 64.)