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FCC Supports Neighborhood Radio
RevMike writes "According to this story from the Associated Press, the FCC is recommending to Congress that restrictions on low-power FM stations be relaxed. The FCC found that low-power FM stations can be operated in the gaps of spectrum between major stations without substantially interfering with those major stations. If Congress adopts the FCC's recommendations, it will loosen the stranglehold that companies like ClearChannel have on the airwaves."
Awesome! About time. i've been running a great community station for several years without any interference!
Let us not forget how powerful and important college radio can be. College radio certainly falls under this category and has been here for awhile. I was a program director at a college radio station in Hawaii in my college days (KTUH) and, in balance, I believe we offered more to the community than any other station (Public Radio excepted).
shock the monkey
It seems like the reason you shouldn't be allowed to broadcast is clear, you'll cut into profits.
Big corporations don't want you to transimit over their signal as they'll loose audience and hence, revenue. But that hasn't stopped most people before.
The interesting thing will be when the RIAA starts suing people for broadcasting their music.
This seems like it would be a no-brainer, but I'm glad they're finally waking up to hear the radio.
... tick...tick...tick..)
I played around with broadcast back in my college days, and had some fun, especially knowing that the odds of somebody actually listening in were fairly remote ("free pizza to the next caller!"
And with the size of my CD collection (as well as free MP3's from various places) I think it would be fun to set up a random genre station. Or, as my friends and I have talked about, a mobile station, for when we're taking long road trips.
Support FSF: Stop thinking with your wallet, and think with your imagination. (cc/non-commercial)
If this works, small stations like WGHR would have a chance to get back on the air. Yes, I'm plugging my old college radio station that just got forced off the Atlanta airwaves in the past year, due to the lack of spectrum real estate. It was one of the last remaining Class D stations, but due to recent purchases of several new stations in the area by Susquehanna and Clear Channel, there has been no place left to go. But now the internet has become the only home for the station. Please help support them!
Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.
"After significant expense by the taxpayers, the scientists have reported on the same laws of physics that have always existed," deputy director Cheryl Leanza said. "These tiny radio stations are no threat to the current broadcast system. It is now time for Congress to take action based on that analysis."
anyone else notice this portion? makes you wonder who actually expected the laws of physics to bend to the whims of lawmakers and lobbyists?
okay, now flag me as a troll
thanks
2^3 * 31 * 647
As they continue to shut down stations and refuse to give out licenses ??
6 0%257E1965359,00.html
FCC sues to shut down rfb
http://www.reformer.com/Stories/0,1413,102%257E88
With narrow bandwidth, limited geographic reach and poor sound quality, why haven't the alternatives to FM radio caught on? There is satellite radio, cable radio, internet radio, yet all combined the size of their audiences pale in comparison to those of good old FM, a technology that hasn't changed for decades.
While advancing leaps and bounds in personal mp3 players, are we skipping the next generation of broadcasted music?
1. What the FCC is proposing - allowing low-power FM stations to locate just three channels away from full-power signals, instead of four channels as is now required - is status quo in most of the world. In Toronto, for instance, a high-power CBC transmitter on 94.1 at the CN Tower coexists just fine with a newer signal on 93.5 just a few blocks away at First Canadian Place. In other parts of the world, spacing is even tighter and yet it still works. London has signals stacked up at 105.2, 105.6, 106.0 and 106.4 with no problems.
2. What the FCC is proposing is already status quo in the U.S., albeit with a catch. Translator stations - signals of up to 250 watts that are only allowed to relay other stations and cannot originate their own programming - are governed by a different set of rules that allow them, in some cases, to nestle up as close as second-adjacent to (0.4 MHz away from) full-power signals. And the FCC recently had a filing window in which it received several thousand applications for such translators, the vast majority of them from a small handful of religious broadcasting networks that will feed them by satellite from Idaho and California. How does this benefit local listeners? You tell me...
3. Very little of what the FCC does is about engineering. Everything the FCC does is about politics, even the engineering parts. It has always been thus.
Scott Fybush - NorthEast Radio Watch
Not to even mention internet radio, but you can rent time on WBCQ shortwave (transmitter located in Maine) at ridiculously low prices and broadcast to the entire planet. And you can say virtually anything you want, though your listeners are limited to those with enough perception to own a world-band radio. The funny thing is that the owner started out in pirate radio.
"Is this Winkhorst a nova criminal?" "No just a technical sergeant wanted for interrogation."
What's to keep ClearChannel from buying low-power stations? I mean, granted, in most situations such stations aren't significant enough to even bother, but I can see how they'd have incredible commercial potential in key metropolitan areas. A four- to seven-mile range in places like Boston or Miami... how would ClearChannel *not* want a piece of that?
the local College radio isn't even radio -- it's /internet/ radio!
/educational/ radio is left w/o the possibility of an audience.
Since we're near the border, the frequencies available are cut in half (half for the US, half for Mexico, mas o menos). This isn't a problem for CC, etc, though; they just go buy a (much more high powered) station in Mexico and send their signals all the way to LA. Meanwhile,
p.s. wasn't there a LPFM proposal like 4 years ago!? (didn't congress strike it down/ignore it?)
...less of an issue with HD radio out right? I just got an add from Kenwood promoting their HD Radio receiver. So if AM/FM is now broadcast digitally encoded then you should either get 100% clear or not right?
LPFM stations are available to noncommercial educational entities and public safety and transportation organizations, but are not available to individuals or for commercial operations. Current broadcast licensees with interests in other media (broadcast or newspapers) are not eligible to obtain LPFM stations.
Now why on earth is it for non-commercial operation. Why can't I as a private citizen set up a radio station and sell advertising? Well I guess I know the reason for that (corporate interests). Now limiting HP broadcasting or media companys ability to do this makes perfect sense.
Got Code?
Erm, no.
Ever go to a record store and buy a CD with a hole punched in the UPC code? Or, find one with "For promotional purposed yadda-yadda" embossed in gold on the cover?
Those were promos for airplay, being sold illegally. Stations get their music for free--they don't buy it; that would make no sense.
The sounds of silence? - Haverford High's WHHS, around since 1949, must vacate its spot on the FM spectrum.
Editorial | Haverford High Radio -- In the wild, big eats little - or tramples it without noticing. In the world of broadcast radio, the existence of community and student-run school radio stations can be just as brutish and short.
The article doesn't mention that this would allow thousands of these low power stations to go on the air as opposed to the hundreds under the current guidelines. The findings were exactly what the FCC originally recommended but the commercial broadcasters purchased a Congressional override (with NPR's support).
For this to pass pressure will have to be put on Congress. Its only a recommendation from the FCC, Congress will have to pass legislation to recind their original overriding of the FCC. The Senate will probably be ok, McCain is chairman of the Commerce Committee that has purview.
The house is more of a problem. Billy Tauzin from Louisana, chairman of the Commerce Committee, is one of the most corrupt industry shills you'll ever come across, the MPAA wanted him as their replacement for Valenti. Also, if you live in Michigan, the ranking Democrat on that Committee, John Dingell, was against LPFM last time, he needs to hear from you.
Please let your Congress critters know how you feel about this. Its one of the most blatant examples of big corporations stomping the little guy. Media consolidation and the state of radio has been in the news, so there's a small window of opportunity to put thousands of neighborhood radio stations on the air if you contact Congress.
via broadband and you could have a network of radio stations across the country.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
just last week there was a story in Sunday's Philadelphia Inquirer (that you can read here) about how Radio One is sinking WHHS 107.9 FMHavertown PA. WHHS is a 14 watt high-school station that has been a student station broadcasting on FM since 1949. For those of you that don't know, that's about how long FM has been around. The story talks about some new commercial station Radio One wants to put up in Jersey-hell and it would infect the Philadelphia region. WHHS and its class-d educational license is no match for the big bucks Class-A commercial station (even if it doesn't exist yet) so they must pack it in. There is a chance WHHS will find a new chunk of airwaves, but the Philadelphia market is #4 in the USA and incredibly packed. It's a shame when some new fly by night format piece of junk can kill off educational stations like this. I guess community stations are nothing compared to another station playing top 40 crap.
Google for a phrase in the above - e.g. this.
If you live in the US is there a single, non public channel that isn't controlled by ClearChannel?
There's 99.7 FM in Atlanta.. I only listen to them 'cause the play 90's rock on the weekends (the _good_ stuff), and they have a great ad. It's something along the lines of..
First voice: 99.7, based in Atlanta, run from Atlanta, with real DJs from Atlanta.
Second voice: I think he means we're not ClearChannel.
I laughed so hard when heard that that tears were streaming down my face.
This statement is false.
Perhaps this will also help out non-profit groups like churches and community theaters which use (or would like to use) LPFM to cheaply transmit their audio to Walkman-like radios to help their attendees who need hearing assistance. These typically reach no further than a block--just enough to get to the other side of a complex. They've been squeezed by regulations and restrictions designed to protect the large commercial interests.
Our group is currently not able to purchase a replacement transmitter because of current FCC regs; we can only continue using what we have because we bought before the most recent tightening, and when the old heap finally dies our older members who need a little help will be the ones getting the short end of the stick.
Perhaps KBLT, one of the best damn radio stations ever to broadcast in Los Angeles, will be able to legitimize and go back on the air. KBLT was a pirate radio station, but it was much beloved by the folks in Silverlake, Echo Park, Hollywood and Downtown LA who were within range.
At this point the only hope for good radio in Los Angeles is KXLU 88.9 out of Loyola Marymount University. KROQ sucks and has sucked for most of its lifespan, and Indie which holds the space Mars FM and Groove Radio used to take up is a Clear Channel station.
Maybe with low-power radio licenses *finally* making it out there, we might hear a little diversity. Maybe Valley College's station KVCM might even get some people listening to it. It's been on Adelphia Cable for years now but you can't listen to cable radio in your car or on your Walkman.
I wonder how much it costs to set up one of these low-power radio stations? I mean, KBLT wasn't exactly run by rich people...
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.