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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."
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
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.
*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?
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<sig>Guvf vf abg n frperg zrffntr
no no no.
If you are broadcasting music your don't own then the authorities could triangulate your signal and come knocking on your door.
This is the third time I've said it in this article, but I'll say it again:
You can't distribute copyrighted material without express permission from the author. That includes broadcasting on the radio, even noncommercial radio.
Now, if you want to broadcast some Open mp3s (Ie., ones that permit distribution) or your own, then that would be fine.
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.
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.
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!)