Yonkers To Honor Edwin Armstrong, Inventor Of FM Radio

The inventor of FM radio lived in Yonkers, NY for much of his young life. Yet, until recently, the only visible reminder of Edwin Armstrong’s legacy was his 425-foot radio tower rising above the Palisades cliffs.

According to lohud.com, that changed with the installation of a local Armstrong memorial at Yonkers’ Hudson-Fulton Memorial Park on Warburton Avenue near his childhood home.

Local historians and city officials will dedicate the commemorative plaque at 1 p.m. Monday at the park, which offers views of Armstrong’s historic Alpine (N.J.) Tower across the Hudson River.

Born in New York City in 1890, Armstrong moved to Yonkers with his family at age 12. It was in his parents’ attic there, as a Columbia University student, he invented the regenerative circuit, the superheterodyne receiver and other electronics that became widely used in modern radio receivers.

Modern radio and TV receivers as well as many types of cellphones use superheterodyne technology.

In the 1930s, Armstrong pioneered wide-band frequency modulation, or FM, radio, touting it as a more efficient alternative to the often static-filled amplitude modulation, or AM, signals of the time.

Armstrong built his 425-foot transmission tower in 1937 in Alpine and the first FM radio station began broadcasting there two years later, according to a history by Columbia.

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Radio Station WA2XMN - Armstrong FM - 42.8 MC - Alpine, NJ will be on the air Monday, 17 June 2013 to cover the dedication of a commemorative plaque near the site of Edwin Armstrong's boyhood home in Yonkers, NY, at 1 PM.