FM broadcast qulaity in KHZ and converting it to KBPS

[Jay Reynolds]

Is there a basis for expressing FM broadcast in KHZ in terms of quality? I've seen someone state that FM is 22.1khz and any searches I've tried keep leading me to various stations' websites (fm plus acronym-with-the-letter-k). And is the formula for expressing an audio file's/stream's resolution in KBPS as follows - sample rate in mhz X word length X number of channels? ie 44.1 x 16 x 2 = 1411.2kbps for cd quality audio.

[The Scum]

Is there a basis for expressing FM broadcast in KHZ in terms of quality?

Not really. It's a potentially lossy analog medium, and uses some sleight of hand.

Plenty of info on FM here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FM_stereo#FM_stereo

The short version: brickwall bandpassed between 30 Hz and 15 kHz. There's a 19 kHz carrier tone tucked in there that they need to knock out before you hear it.

And by the time it's been processed for transmission (heavily limited to the point of distortion, phase rotated, etc), it's probably lost significant information that was present in the source material.

And is the formula for expressing an audio file's/stream's resolution in KBPS as follows - sample rate in mhz X word length X number of channels?

Only if you assume no data compression is applied. The KBPS numbers are more commonly used with the compressed formats (MP3, et al).

[audioboffin]

I had a radio station manager explain to me recently that the station was in the process of replacing all the content of their library of recordings with a minimum of 320 kbps MP3s. The reasoning behind this he said was that the resolution of FM stereo was in the vicinity of 280 kbps.

Any material that the staff considered to be "classic" they were sourcing or encoding at 16 bit 44.1 kHz stereo .WAV format.