Oh, I agree. Definitely an improvement over AM. With the 100kHz spacing, it would still only fit about 80% of the channels we currently have.
If they stuck with 42-50 MHz, they'd probably have to be creative, like have New York City use horizontal polarization and Philadelphia use vertical polarization (although now we know that doesn't make a huge reduction of interference).
If they expanded it downward, it would touch what's now the high end of the shortwave bands. Might have been some interesting propagation. Sometimes when the conditions are right, a 25 MHz signal can travel the globe during the daytime.
A 42-50 MHz FM band would have been an interference nightmare. During the summer months, Sporadic E propagation is very prevalent on those frequencies (with high signal strengths). And during large sunspot cycles, regular F2 layer propagation is possible during the fall and spring months.
During the peak of sunspot cycle 22 in 1989-91, a great F2 layer propagation indicator here on the west coast US was New Zealand TV channel 1 audio on 50.75 MHz (+/- 10 kHz). If you could hear the wideband FM audio on 50.75 MHz, it was almost guaranteed you could make a ham radio contact with New Zealand at 50.110 MHz.
If they stuck with 42-50 MHz, they'd probably have to be creative, like have New York City use horizontal polarization and Philadelphia use vertical polarization (although now we know that doesn't make a huge reduction of interference).
If they expanded it downward, it would touch what's now the high end of the shortwave bands. Might have been some interesting propagation. Sometimes when the conditions are right, a 25 MHz signal can travel the globe during the daytime.