RTV Theory and Practice - Special Issue

available to cable s/stems nationwide . Fiber optics , too , can, anđ đoes, serve radio anđ may one dav take over from satellites as a preferred way of distributing networK radio programmmg . As more and more telephone traffic , as well as video and data communications , are routed through fiber optic lines , regiona! radio networks may follow suit. finding distribution by fiber optics more cost-effective than using satellites . In many of the instances cited above , the new technologies served as what has been called "medium extensions" (Williams, 1984 ) - offering radio new electronic pathways along which to reach its listeners . However , many new technological developments are helping change the way radio serves its listeners the traditional way . To ease overcrowding on the AM band , đue to the proliferation in recent years of local anđ community radio services , the band separation between 535 KHz and 1605KHZ has been reduceđ to 10KHz , so that there can be 107 medium-wave broadcast channels There is also the possibility of the AM band being expanded from 1605KHZ to 1705KHZ, yielding ten new bandwidths . In the United States , efforts to improve the quality of AM radio's high audio freguencies reception have led to the devetopment of a preemphasis/deemphasis standard which helps reduce mterference on adjacent channels and produce higher-fidelity audio comparable to FM quality. Also, AM stereo is taking off. As for FM stereo , FMX technologv - which extends FM coverage whiie reducing signal noise - wili ensure equally high-quality stereo reception throughout the entire coverage area of an FM station. Digital audio is another new technology remaking the face of rađio , what with CD players and DAT recorders and players appearing in ever greater numbers in increasingly digitahzed studios and introducmg a new dimension in sound quality . New ways of using the electromagnetic spectrum аге encouragmg "radio broadcasters ... to defme themselves as mformation providers and communicators on a broader level" (Ducey , 1985:3). These аге multiplex technigues used by FM stations to đivide the usable channel spectrum into mam channels and subchannels . The subcarners, as the subchanneis аге known, can be used for broađcast purposes (stereo) but also but a wide range of non-broađcast services, mdependent of the use of the mam channel for broađcast purposes (cf . Whitehouse, 1986), The European Broadcastmg Umon , for example , has developed a Radio Data System , its apphcations includmg Program Identification (i.e. automatic tunmg to the frequency witn the