The President has signed the reconciled bill into law, it will be published to the national register. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski promises “swift action” to get the new rules in place. If this law leads to a bunch of new, live local community radio stations springing up across the country then it is a welcome thing. With all the rumbling in congress about cutting public radio funding, LPFM may have some big shoes to fill. I have to admit, I am generally a supporter of public radio, however they have gotten off track (full of themselves) in the last few years.
There are many different requirements placed on the FCC by the LCRA to thread the LPFM needle around translators and full power FM stations, so it may take a little time to craft new LPFM rules, however, I’d expect to see a filing window sometime in 2011.
If you are considering a LPFM station and are eligible for a license, take a peak at Prometheus Radio Project, which has a wealth of information about LPFM station building.
If you need a good engineer to file paperwork, specify equipment, consult about transmitter locations, towers, antennas and so forth, drop me a line. You can find my info and contact information in the About section.
It is clear to me that radio is changing, in some ways, it is changing for the better, and in many ways, it is changing for the worse. In spite of many bad business decisions made by overpriced MBAs, large consolidated radio groups seem to be hanging on, if only by their fingernails. It is very likely that the investment banks, who have the most to lose, are not interested in seeing their loans written off in a bankruptcy proceeding. As we all know, the consolidators that paid multiples of 15 to 16 times cash flow for stations, way overextended themselves. There is no hope that values will ever return to those levels, so the banks are now in the radio business.
Sure, the banks are not the owners of record, and the FCC never would consent to transfer all those licenses to so many investment banks. However, they are calling the shots, making “suggestions” on how best to run things. Offering perhaps a 1/4 percent reduction in an interest rate if the expenses can be reduced below a certain level. Unfortunately, for the communities like Ellenville, NY, their local radio station means nothing to the banker living in Manhattan. It is a number, and more than likely, a negative number on a spreadsheet. It means nothing to the group owner in San Antonio, other than some miscellaneous real estate assets. The same can be said for all the radio stations in the Hudson Valley if not the entire country.
Why is this important? I mean, who really cares? The apparent answer is no one seems to care. Local news, or what used to be local news such as town board meetings, high school sports scores, police blotter, and all of the many other small town things do not get the hearing they used to. Town boards; well if no one shows up for the meeting to pass the new zoning laws, so be it. School boards; sure, raise the taxes, most homeowners will just pay the new higher amount and not say anything. It is for the children, after all. Seems that the local constabulary is spending more time at the Dunkin Donuts than out walking around checking doors. That’s the way it goes. With the demise of local newspapers, detailed in a previous post, who is keeping an eye on things? Who lets the community know when something doesn’t pass the smell test?
A receiver tuned to a local AM station playing good-sounding music
A small AM radio station can be made profitable, just not at the margins expected by the big boys. There is a niche for perhaps a 1 KW or 5 KW non-directional station with its own real estate that is not in too bad shape and can be turned into a community radio station. Those types of stations are fairly low maintenance, most have some type of PSRA and PSSA to keep them on at least during drive times if they are daytimers. Others have minimal amounts of nighttime power. Almost all of them cover their city of license, even with small nighttime powers.
I have been looking into good quality AM radio receivers and there are a few out there which are not too expensive. Most GM car radios and older Chrysler radios have good AM radios. A group formed to promote AM radio, ensure that automakers install radios that are at least as good as their older versions, and work with manufacturers to make better small tabletop receivers and such would go a long way to improving the unjustly bad reputation that AM broadcasting has received. Further, working with the ARRL (amateur radio) to reduce and keep noise levels from things like BPL and other noise-making technologies that do not comply with current FCC regulations would also help. It is true that our environment has become electrically noisier, one might not be able to listen to the 50 KW clear channel station 500 miles away, but the local station should come in well enough to enjoy, especially if the programming is good.
FM radio is becoming crowed with translators, adjacent channel HD radio interference, LPFMs, and whatever else can be shoehorned into the band. The quality of FM is set to decline precipitously in the next few years. It seems that with the right combination of good local programming, good receivers, and radio station owners/operators that are not looking to get listed on the NASDAQ, small AM stations could survive, if not thrive in the business that the big stations turn away.
There are a number, a small number, of stations already doing this. As long as there is free local news and free quality programming, people will listen, no matter what band it is being broadcast on. Free trumps paid any time, any day.
They are not there yet, according to their web site, anticipated sign on is not until spring of 2010.
Remember when all radio stations were community radio stations? The CNN report now calls this “old-style radio.” It is sort of funny how these little radio stations, built mostly by volunteers with donated money, get it. A radio station is supposed to be about community service. It is sad that broadcasters with both the means and methods to reach these isolated people have ignored them. Because, you know, there is very little money in community service.
Because of this post, I have received some e-mail asking why I am against community radio. I am not. In fact, I support community radio. I think that community radio done well is a wonderful tool in our democracy, giving a voice to those that are watching government. It also promotes other locals interests, events, music, etc. I would like to see more failing stations bought by community broadcasters and turned into something that is a public trust and responsive to the local population.
What I was trying to get at in the previous post was that over crowding the FM band with more and more small signals will degrade it. There is no ifs, ands or buts, removing third adjacent protections on the FM band will increase the noise floor. This will lead to more interference on the average FM radio, which will lead to more people getting fed up and tuning out.
Here is why: You cannot change the laws of physics. FM transmitters have output filters that attenuate side band energy, that is to say, energy transmitted on 1st, 2nd and 3rd adjacent channels. A 50,000 watt FM station on 100.3 MHz will have side band energy on 100.1, 99.9 and 99.7 MHz as well as 100.5, 100.7 and 100.9 MHz. Due to the limitations on the components used to construct those filters, they can only be designed with the accuracy of the components used. In other words, most electrical components have a tolerance given in percent, example +/- 10%. That means that the value of the component will change, usually because of heating. Therefore, output filters cannot be constructed to limit emissions to only the main channel and say one adjacent channel, they would drift off frequency.
Also, creating a brick wall filter that cuts everything off at the second adjacent channel will cause distortion of the RF signal on the main channel. With analog AM and FM transmitters it cannot be done. Digital transmissions are another story, but that is not what we are talking about here.
That is an engineer’s point of view.
One other thing about adding hundreds more LP FM signals. There should be something that stipulates most (say >50%) of the programming be locally originated. Recorded for later playback is fine. Having thousands of LP stations broadcasting the same syndicated shows or running voice tracked automation 24/7 would be a recreation of the AM band as it currently exists. If you want to listen to that, then it already exists, help your self. I, on the other hand, would like to avoid the AMization of the FM band.
