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To replace the shows radio had lost to TV, many people in radio switched the medium’s emphasis to music, turning to the recording industry for content. However, making music sound better on radio required some technological innovation. Until then, radio technology had centered on AM (amplitude modulation). AM affected the volume of radio waves to enable transmission and reception. This type of modulation was sufficient for radio content such as talk but it wasn’t ideal for music. For that, radio needed FM (frequency modulation), which provided greater clarity as well as static-free radio reception.

FM radio had existed for decades. American inventor Edwin Armstrong had discovered and developed it during the 1920s and early 1930s. Between 1930 and 1933, he filed five patents on FM. The number of FM stations grew to 700 but then fell to 560 by the 1950s, as Armstrong was pulled into legal skirmishes over patents with heavy hitters such as David Sarnoff. (The RCA executive had initially supported Armstrong’s explorations into FM but then opted to throw his weight behind the development of TV.) In 1954, weary from years of legal battles, Armstrong wrote a note apologizing to his wife, removed the air conditioner from his thirteenth-story New York apartment, and jumped to his death. It wasn’t until the early 1960s, when the FCC opened up more spectrum space for the superior sound of FM, that FM began to grow into the preferred radio band for music.