The broadcast AM band is 1.6MHz wide. Broadcast FM stations are spaced at 200KHz intervals, of which about 150KHz is used for modulation and the remaining ~50K

The broadcast AM band is 1.6MHz wide. Broadcast FM stations are spaced at 200KHz intervals, of which about 150KHz is used for modulation and the remaining ~50KHz is used for guard bands. Thus, current standards, the entirety of the broadcast AM spectrum can support no more than 8 concurrent FM broadcasts in a region. And maybe that "works," but it certainly doesn't leave much room for competing markets. When multiple stations with wide propagation all use a singular frequency, they have to be geographically spaced quite far apart: The hypothetical Toronto station centered at 1330KHz station would step on the Detroit station at the same frequency, which would step on the Chicago and Cincinnati stations. And, sure: One could give one channel to each market to reduce this co-channel interference, but then there's not enough density for any meaningful competition. (And our band of capitalism requires competition in order to even begin to work.)