I recall back in the early 60s listening to police in the London area on an
FM Broadcast receiver, the transmissions were clear and they were just off
the end of the FMBC band.

I used to listen to them, too, on my Pioneer SX-2500. Even with the
wide bandwidth of an FM broadcast receiver, you could pick out many of
the conversations.
I left England in 1972.
I believe WARC 74 was when the decision was made to finally move land
mobile out of the 100 - 108 MHz band, starting with the southern
counties, where interference was caused to LM stations in France. I
believe the transition was completed by 1980.

What I really missed was when they did away with VHF TV broadcasting.
BBC 1 used to transmit in London on 41.5 MHz (audio) and could be
heard even here on the west coast during the peak of the sunspot cycle
in the early 80's. I even have a QSL card from them! TF1 in Paris used
to be on 41.25.

Those were the days.


George D.