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FCC: Legal Low-Power FM Broadcasting Coming Soon
Arctic Fox writes "In an article (login needed) in today's NY Times, it is announced that the FCC will be allowing individuals and groups the ability to run low powered FM (yes, FM) radio stations.
It seems that many would-be DJs will get 100-watt stations with 7 mile operating radii, but the large markets - NY, Chicago, LA - will only be allowed to use 10-watt (4 mile) stations."
Assuming you already have a PC and a relatively high speed Internet connection, you can hit a worldwide audience doing webcasts. You might not be able to get the people in their cars, but you won't get too many of them anyway with a 4 to 7 mile range.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Why not just do webcasts? On MPI (Minnesota Public Radio) this morning they were discussing that issue. The FCC is trying to make the radio arena more diverse. One thing that they hope is that these small stations may someday go to the stars.
They are doing this because radio is becoming one big conglomerate - no diversity. The FCC also is amming this at private orgranizations like churches and hobby groups.
However if you wish to reach a large group of people - a webcast is far better, but remember in many areas of the world - people still have a standard 28.8 and cannot hear your broadcast (if this was not so, AOL wouldn't exist).
I think that this will be very helpful for several reasons.
1. It will get people interested in radio more - attract more people to the business.
2. It will create more stations and make some non-licensed broadcasters settle down because a fair amount will be content with a range of a couple miles.
3. It will force the industry to become more competitive and that will means more money put into research equaling more new tech.
I'm glad the FCC is finally trying something like this.
Is it progress if a cannibal uses a fork?
I was building 500 foot FM radio stations back when slashdotters were all in elementary school. The first one was an $8 microtransmitter from Radio Shack. The second one was a $25 stereo transmitter from Ramsey. They both ran between 89 and 100Mhz. Back then we didn't have very cheap sound cards, so you could either rebroadcast the radio or play a CD in a loop. You know you're getting old when the chairman of the FCC is younger than you.
What are the limitations? Does it have to be voice? Can you set up a radio computer network?
If there's another radio operator within that radius, can you use that as a relay?
This could be used as a way of finding new uses for the remaining airwaves
As a radio-freedom type kind of guy, I am heavily involved with our campus radio station, which stresses doing things that would NEVER be done on commercial radio, because commercial radio SUCKS!
This decision seems to be a GOOD-THING. (Besides, the FCC can be a bunch of a**holes at times.) This will theoretically allow more people to get their message out, and allow for more freedom of speech. It should be noted (as someone asked earlier) that FM modulators and transmitters are fairly expensive, they go from ~$1000 up to $10k+, so it's not really chump change for non-commercial stations.
The only drawback I can really see is that there will be more stations. Neighboring stations on the dial will tend to step on each others signal more, which is just not good (and rude besides). Also, I bet that there are a lot of stupid people out there who would broadcast crap. (I'm talking hate-mongers and what not. If more poeple braodcast crappy music, then more people will listen to the "good stations")
Any how, that's my take on it. Your opinions may vary, but as someone who is involved in a legitimate noncommercial station, I kind of have an insiders view.
A wealthy eccentric who marches to the beat of a different drum. But you may call me "Noodle Noggin."
Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati
I've heard that Congress is looking to pass a law nullifying the FCC decision.
It's time to install that transmitter i've had hidden away in the attic back into the trunk of my car again ;)
:)
My car's MP3 Collection and the drive to and from work should be a bit more interesting for some folks now
DMB RULES!
They are a threat to free speech and must be silenced! - Andrea Chen
Fish! LipHo
They've been arguing about this for over a year now. I'm a technical director for WHSR, the student radio station at Johns Hopkins University. We've been broadcasting over carrier current for about five years now (ever since the school gave their real broadcast license to NPR and company), and have been investigating the low power FM options since they were initially introduced for public analysis and comment. This was supposed to be approved by the FCC sometime last summer, but never quite happened. We're glad because it means we can broadcast to the entire community instead of just the dorms, and we can't wait.
:)
Now we just need a tower to mount an antenna on. Anyone got a few thousand bucks so we can rent space?
-Chris
I can already see ads like 99.9 for sale only $1,000,000
Apart from that this is a great idea. Although I am not the US of A so it hardly applies to me.
I'm not sure this will allow just anyone to get a licence for a 10/100 W station. The lead paragraph of the NYT article states
:)
"Moving to open the radio airwaves to hundreds of small broadcasters, the federal government is planning to approve rules to allow educational, religious and community groups to run inexpensive low-power FM radio stations."
I can't tell if the application would require some sort of verification of the "group's status" or not. It would be fairly easy to check the status of educational or religious groups, but a fair and consistent definition of "community group" may be hard to come by. However, I didn't see anywhere in the article a mention that individuals could apply for such a license. I guess my 24 hour a day polka station is out
Eric
Initially, I didn't think it made much sense- 4-7 miles isn't much of an audience-
But, if your goal *isn't* a world wide, or even a city-wide audience, there's alot that can be done.
If used as "neighborhood" radio stations, we might actually *have* neighborhoods again - there'd be something connecting people within the listening area, something tailored to that area. Even if we didn't get to know our neighbors, we'd certainly know what was going on with them - a whole new meaning of 'local' news.
Wow. I get all bouncy just thinking about it.
-Noiz,
Who'd like to teach the world to sing, apparently. Shoot.
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I'd kill for a Nobel Peace Prize.
(Do I support public broadcasting? Hell no; they have no interest in serving the community, as is supposed to be their charter...)
The FM band has so few frequencies and so much demand that almost no stations on the commercial part of it are not corporately owned. In the last two decades there has been an incredible change in how these stations are owned and operated. They have gone from business to big business. FCC changes in ownership rules allowed corporations to own more stations; the buying spree that followed had stations selling for much more than their worth, especially considering how broadband to the home, wireless 'net, and satellite broadcasting could make traditional radio stations into dinosaurs. All they do is transmit audio, fer chrissakes.
This in turn has led to a yet-greater reduction in the risk-taking that radio is likely to do. If it doesn't have a shot at a four share, it won't get on the air. While the rest of the society was diversifying from wanting 3-5 TV channels to wanting 50 to 200 and more, radio was in effect clamping down on diversity.
This in turn led to a large increase in pirate radio, the operators of which were ready to risk breaking federal law for the love of broadcasting and the love of serving the community through it.
Now that radio is on the edge of being irrelevant, the FCC is once again politically able to permit small broadcasters on the air. But the lesson, the moral of all this, is that government acts politically, not in the interests of the public; and even non-governmental organizations set up to serve the public act politically and work to preserve their own power.
I welcome the diversity of views, sounds, and ideas that will come about through this ruling. It's a little late now that the Internet has supplanted it.
When I was an undergrad I used to DJ for WBRS in Waltham Ma (http://www.wbrs.org) and we had a blast. But a few things to clear up.
It will cost you more than a few grand to setup a station. At least to do it right. You will nead All sorts of audio equipment and not the cheap stuff from Radio shack. But about 10 grand should do it, assuming that you don't have to pay for office space. Which is posible if you are being hosted by a University or other group.
Keeping a radio station going is a lot of work. At WBRS they run 24x7 on all volenteer labor. It can be a lot of fun but it can also be a major pain.
Small stations can do cool things. WBRS used to have live music from local bands on every week. And the only show in Yiddish in New England (They may still have them for all I know). And had a lot of other neet stuff.
The most important thing to get a microstation on the air is a group of very dedicated people. Because there is alot of work there. But good luck to all the folks who are going to try! I look forward to hearing the results on the radio.
Erlang Developer and podcaster
The fact that these are large i.e. congested markets we're talking about, your range for 10 watts isn't going to get you 4 miles. In Boston, with 10W you're lucky if you can get as far as five city blocks.
...[T]he radio business has consolidated in very dramatic fashion...
Oh well. Large markets also have DSL, so they don't need this IMO.
Don't they have market-ownership laws that are supposed to remedy that exact problem?
The nation's largest broadcasters have fought to block the rules... asserting that [this] could create interference for established stations in the form of static or distorted signals./i>
Sniffle. It's these same largest broadcasters who constantly increase their wattage, infringing (illegally) on other (usually smaller) stations' broadcast radii. And the FCC has approved these increases in most cases without a smidge of regard for the lower-power stations, who get rejected for their own power increase petitions, being drowned out.
The supporters of the F.C.C.'s move... included... the United States Catholic Conference and the United Church of Christ.
Between christian college radio stations (which always seem to be school-run as opposed to student-run) and AM radio, I'm not glad to hear that churches want to use this. I'm much more interested in the Stephen Dunifer (Free Radio Berkeley) types getting on.
I have to say in the realm of radio and maybe even TV, the FCC seems to mean well. But they normally have no teeth whatsoever when it comes to large-power stations.
Terrorists can attack freedom, but only Congress can destroy it.
*Screeeee*
Crash.
"Ok, Boys and Girls. Looks like we got us a nasty 4 car pile-up in the first row..."
Nipok Nek
Why choose white shoes?
In response to:
> It seems that many would-be DJs will get
> 100-watt stations with 7 mile operating radii,
> but the large markets - NY, Chicago, LA - will
> only be allowed to use 10-watt (4 mile) stations."
I'm afraid this is misleading. It is incorrect to make this kind of relationship between transmitting power and the broadcasting range. Range is a function of many more things than power; probably the most important aspect of transmitting on FM is the type of antenna used, and of course, how it is used. Proper use of antennas are by far the most effective way to increase (or decrease) broadcasting range.
They'll do this the same way they do it now. They'll make you SWEAR to be good, and sign an "I-SWORE-To-Be-Good J-42" form. Then if someone complains that you aren't being good, they'll nail you.
Nipok Nek
Why choose white shoes?
One thing that I don't know about-- at the proposed rulemaking announcement, one of the commissioners made a statement:
My second concern relates to the impact that creation of low power service may have on potential conversion to terrestrial digital radio service. I understand that there have been promising advances of late that can enable current radio operations to convert to digital transmission technology "in band on channel." Converting to digital transmission technology could improve the quality of radio service and potentially increase spectral efficiency. These are very real benefits and I would be concerned if authorizing some or all of these low power radio services would make in band on channel conversion to digital radio unworkable for existing terrestrial services.
The player that's always mentioned in this is USA Digital Radio, LLC. I didn't find any statements on their web site about the low-power FM stuff, so maybe it's not such a big deal.
Does anyone here know anything more about this technology?
I find it humourous in that the large broadcast corporations are crying foul, not unlike their
brethren, the RIAA, the Motion Picture Association, and their DVD licensing group.
What the FCC proposes opens up the market to smalltime broadcasting, thus potentially stealing
audience share for big stations, and breaking the "tradional channels of distribution" that generate
revenue. This is the root of the cries of the aforementioned groups, although they'd never admit it openly. I'm surprised they aren't claiming a potential for copyright infringement (maybe they are, I just haven't read/heard anything at this point).
Kudos to the FCC for some forethought, and thinking of the small person over corporate greed.
-
They don't monitor now. They will only take action if they get a complant of some form.
Erlang Developer and podcaster
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You need an amateur radio license. See http://www.arrl.org. You can transmit video on the UHF (432 MHz) and higher frequency bands.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
There are already frequencies allocated for that sort of thing. You can use 902-928 MHz, an ISM (Industrial, Scientific and Medical) band for just about anything. There are limits on transmitter power.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
There is no free lunch. Spread spectrum can increase the efficiency with which the airwaves are used but it does not increase the bandwidth.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
There is an issue here that no one has noticed.
To run a radio station costs money. You need space for the studio and to store Records or CD's. You need to pay the electric bill etc. These stations will not be selling adds. Which meens that you will need to find some organazation to underwrite you. For example a school or university, or maybe a community center or church type group. But you probably can look to drop 30-40K per year. And that is assuming all the people running the station are doing it without a paycheck.
On the other hand I would guess that if you have a group that wants to run a station finding the people may not be that hard.
Erlang Developer and podcaster
Several Porple wrote --
"The article left me with one question: First, could they network?"
"supporters all over the US set up thousands of relay stations"
"Wouldn't it be cool if people started using these bandwidths for small WANs using KISS or some other protocol? "
Finally Anonymous Coward wrote -- "This has already been going on for many many years. Get your ham radio licence and get into packet radio."
Ham Radio (Amateur Radio) has been going on for over 100 years! We have relay stations across the USA with (Gasp!) "repeater's", Digital Networks "Packet Relay", Satalite E-mail, AM/FM Voice and a slew of other toys. We erect huge antenna arrays allowing us to talk to the world, We bounce signals off the moon, and occasionally chat with the Shuttle Astonauts.
In the US a good source to get you started in FM radio is the "Amateur Radio Relay League" at
http://www.arrl.org/
------------ DR Watson - " Your Program Performed an Illegal Procedure.."
I wonder even if the FCC does open up the FM frequency for microbroadcasts, how does the guy in the garage fare against the mega media machine?
The best analogy I can come up with is driving a tiny Honda with a double tractor trailer tailgating you.
Yep, congress acting to protect you from dangerous new ideas.
Can't believe moderators are ignoring this!
-Isaac
I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. For Entertainment Purposes Only.
People in my generation remember the movie Pump Up the Volume. However, it doesn't take bad language or a kids suicide to get the FCC out after you.
Small 'pirate' stations are the targets of the large media holdings that control the radio market. These small stations don't have comercial breaks, don't play what the record labels say, and generally upset the system of money flow.
Take the story of beatradio (www.beatradio.com -- They even have pictures of the FCC hauling away the radio).
The jist of the story is they were playing music and upsetting the local radio stations. Most of the minneapolis market is either owned by ABC or Chanceler Communications.
So they had the FCC go and shake things up. Well, first it was operating a station with out a license. Okay, sounds like a legitimate complaint. Well, beat did something a little different. They tried to get one.
Enter a world of regulations that are designed to keep small start-up off the airwaves. Add to it the ability of local stations to object. All of this ammounted to the big boys have the ability to keep the other kids out of the pool.
My bet is that small community groups will probally be able to have a station. Religious talk, and Paul Harvey for all! But, as soon a station gets popular enough to cut into a top 40 stations listenership you can bet that they will object. I can already see it. Are they really a community group? What public service are they providing? In the end the little guy is always going to get the shaft.
Yes. Talk to ASCAP or BMI. The rates for non-commercial stations are cheaper, but you still have to pay. The rates for non-commercial stations are set by the U.S. Copyright Office.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
Actually, according to the Digital Millennium copyright act, you may broadcast anything you like but you must follow a few rules:
1. Never play the same song more than once within a 3 hour period.
2. Never play requests within an hour of their requestment (is that a word?).
3. Do not publish a schedule in a advance allowing people to know what your going to play and when.
Thats basically it. There are other rules but they cover finer points.
When do I listen to radio?
1. In a car.
2. In the morning when I'm waking up.
3. When I want continuous, high-quality audio.
4. When I want up-to-the minute information (in emergencies).
Which of these do the 'Net and the Web supplant? None. (The thought of turning on my PC at 7AM and sitting in front of it in my bathrobe is so depressing I can't even picture it.)
Furthermore, you can't expect me to believe that there are nearly as many households out there with a good 'Net connection, a PC, and audio-playing software as there are with an old beat-up FM radio. Radio has survived TV, and it will survive the Internet, and the thing after the Internet too.
The opening up of the FM band to low-wattage stations is potentially revolutionary--more so than putting some streaming audio up on Shoutcast and hoping 50 people will tune in for some choppy, jumping, artifact-filled audio. In a community like mine in Brooklyn, NY, you could reach a million listeners with just a 4-mile radius. You better believe more of us have radios than a good 'Net connection (Thanks for nothing, Bell Atlantic).
Radio still matters, and this is a bright day for people who think that the media should belong to the people, not to a few people.
I can't think of anything more fun! Nowadays you hear the same crappy music everywhere. The Music Industry decides what is Good and pumps it equally to everyone.
Imagine wandering around the city, catching some quirky-sounding DJ spinning a block party. Imagine going to visit another town just to hear the radio station. It's local color restored. It's a break in the corporate stranglehold of preprocessed nonsense. It's community bonding.
You say you have a distaste for the inconsistent availability of such short-range broadcasts. But it is the prefab stuff that is fed to you through a tube. The real gems must be sought out. The weather isn't beautiful every day, because if it were, that would be boring. You take the good with the bad. You listen to the ambient sound and take what you can get. You shouldn't expect wisdom delivered-on-demand - that is the domain of foolishness.
You may argue that the Internet makes this irrelevant, but I argue that every stronghold of the corporate fatcats should be disassembled. Unfortunately, that HR3439 bill introduced may not permit it.
Kaa dun said:
Unfortunately, the record companies will still have you by the balls. Playing music (even MP3s) counts as a "public performance" of music, and generally when you do public performances of music you get to pay the nice happy protection^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H licensing fee to the two main music publishers, ASCAP and BMI.
Yes, even folks who operate jukeboxes in pizza places have to pay the licensing fees, and ASCAP and BMI are just as high on the bastardy scale as the RIAA is--they literally tried to sue the Girl Scouts for the Scouts singing campfire songs in Girl Scout books--which just happened to have the rights owned by ASCAP and BMI :P (If memory serves, they were also responsible for having a lyrics archive taken down.)
Radio stations and music-video outlets have to pay licensing fees to ASCAP and BMI, because they too get caught in the bind...so do many professional DJ's, who have to have the licenses from BMI and ASCAP.
If memory serves, they've even attempted to hit Shoutcast/Icecast/RealAudio streamers for licensing fees, too...sometimes on top of fees already paid (for example, radio stations which ALREADY have to pay the BMI/ASCAP tax which have been hit up AGAIN because they happen to do RealAudio streams).
About the only way you could get out of the licensing fees is to play artists which have NOT published via ASCAP or BMI--which is even harder than finding an artist who has not had to whore themselves to the RIAA cartel (ASCAP and BMI are the Big Two music publishers--literally almost anyone who publishes music through an agency goes through one of those two agencies eventually--the only ones who don't are EXTREMELY indy artists, garage bands, and the like--probably most of mp3.com's material, even, would be affected by this).
(Yes, I've investigated it, and was saddened to find out that info--I'd actually hoped to take advantage of the LPFM authorisation, till I found out how much licensing fees would be :P I still hope the local college station [right now broadcasting via common-carrier on AM on U of L's campus to avoid FCC regulation--the school will not fund them to become a broadcast station because they already pay for one of the three public radio outlets in Louisville] can make some use of it, though...)
-Windigo The Feral (NYAR!)
You know, I've been wondering why the major "alternative" rock station here in Los Angeles (KROQ) played the same 16-20 songs over and over...armed with this the above information, I did some math, and came up with this:
There are 60 minutes in an hour...there are about 10 minutes of commercials at the end of an hour, and about 10 minutes of other DJ chatter, promos, etc. That leaves about 40 minutes for music. Let's assume the average "alterna-pop" song is about 2.5 minutes long...40/2.5=16! Allow them to play the occasional "flashback" song, and there you have the approx. 16-20 songs on the playlist.
Wow...I can't believe I actually used long division in real life...I guess they were telling the truth in High School..now I wish I'd paid attention to the other stuff too.
Jedi@radio dun said:
Unfortunately, this may not be entirely true (depending on which licensing agency you're dealing with). ASCAP and BMI both have a reputation of major bastardy regarding "public performances", which HAS on occasion targeted non-profit groups.
Possibly the most infamous example of this is when ASCAP and BMI attempted to hit up the Girl Scouts of America for licensing fees--for every time ASCAP or BMI-published songs were sang around campfires (according to them, campfire singalongs constituted public performances). Eventually they backed off after a LOT of public criticism, but this proves they'll even go after nonprofits (the GSA is a non-profit organisation in most states).
-Windigo The Feral (NYAR!)
Some anonymous coward dun said:
Then, Xerxes dun said:
Erm, Mr. Anonymous Coward, I fear Xerxes may have you just a bit trumped.
First off, Drake SW8s are NOT "$1 radios". They are widely regarded by most as one of the best damn communications receivers available outside the military market, period. They are also by NO means cheap--try starting price of around a thousand dollars or so new, around five hundred dollars and up used. (It would not be exaggeration to term the Drake SW8 the Ferrari of radios, both in terms of price AND performance. It is also one of the few radios I can truthfully say I'd give my eyeteeth for ;)
Also, I'm assuming he's one of the "old Extras" (the FCC recently reclassified ham radio licenses to three classes, and some hams are being grandfathered as a result into higher classes). Extra Class ham radio requirements, at least the old ones, aren't to sneeze at: you have to take a test of radio knowledge and theory that is approximately equal to that required of FCC-licensed technicians for "big" radio stations (yes, you have to know a HELL of a lot of theory and operation knowledge :), plus [till April 1, anyways] one has to pass a Morse code test of reading CW (Morse) at 20 WPM (which also is nothing to sneeze at--I'm doing good to learn at Farnsworth 5/12 WPM (the letters sent at 12 WPM so you get the sounds, the WORDS sent at 5 WPM) which is the new standard which General class licenses will be tested at :).
Extra Class licensees are rarer nowadays in ham radio, precisely because the requirements ARE so tough. I dare say that if one passes an Extra class license one could build a radio, with little "overbleed", blindfolded. :)
Needless to say, I think he probably knows what he's talking about when he's talking of the FM station bleeding all over the place (Drake SW8s are known for selectivity, and one of the things you learn on the way to becoming an Extra Class licensee is what overmodulation and bleedover are and how to correct them). ;)
-Windigo The Feral (NYAR!)
Take a look here for a complete history of the broadcast call signs in the U.S.
...phil
...phil
"For a list of the ways which technology has failed to improve our quality of life, press 3."
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