NO LPFM WINDOW IN 2012

[MickeyD]

Lobbyists and image.  Both sides of the LPFM debate have powerful lobbyists (NAB is of course more powerful) but the image of helping out the "small town" guy over the "700 station corporate behemoth" is also a powerful motivator on both sides of the aisle.

Not to be nasty to my colleagues at the NAB, but they, too, are "small potatoes" to the FCC these days.  Looking at the NAB's track record, they haven't been too successful in their lobbying efforts in the last ten years.  I would opine that a major reason for that is because while the NAB is a lot bigger than, say, Prometheus Radio (LPFM), both are small change compared to Verizon Wireless, AT&T, T-Mobile and even Sprint.   Whoooooole lot more money involved with wireless services (i.e. internet over cellphone and wifi/wimax) than can possibly be involved with one-way broadcasting like radio/TV.  And that's before broadcasting had all its "financial issues" of the last four or five years.

In a sense, this has led to a great leveling as far as Congress is concerned.  Sure the NAB can drop a C-note when the LPFM crowd can barely scrape together a few pennies for lobbying...but wireless services are like a Scrooge McDuck Money Vault in this analogy.  THAT'S what Congress and the FCC really care about.  Viewed in that light, it's better PR to throw some bones at the LPFM crowd than to chase a few extra dollars from the NAB.

Granted, this is armchair analysis at best, but I don't think I'm wrong.  Other opinions are welcome.   

The CEA trumps the NAB and the NAB trumps LPFM's with little or no represntation. The NAB certainly has more money and  juice than Prometheus. Politicians still rely on broadcasting come election time.

[aaronread]

BTW, to whomever said that 10 watt LPFM's are viable, I beg to differ.  Having run an LPFM for four years, the entire concept is flawed at best.  That doesn't mean it CANNOT work reasonably well under the right conditions, but those conditions are uncommon; most LPFM's start off behind the eight ball and go downhill from there.

Note that this is most definitely NOT a reflection on the efforts of their owners/operators.  Many do a good job.  It's just that under the LPFM rules, it's damn near impossible to have a signal in such a manner that it can realistically garner a big enough audience to support itself via direct fundraising efforts.  And the non-commercial nature puts LPFM's at a huge disadvantage against any local commercial operators.

For an LPFM to work, you need some combination of the following:

• A fluke of a situation with your spectrum where you have a smaller-land-area/higher-population-density market that somehow still had enough room on the dial for an LPFM to fit in the first place.  Providence, RI comes to mind, but there are very, very few situations like that.
• A very niche format to an underserved audience that has enough disposable income (at least on paper) to be attractive to commercial sponsors.  Ethnic programming comes to mind.  Or a niche format to an underserved audience that is predisposed to higher rates of listener donations.  That would primarily be religious broadcasters.
• A "perfect storm" of volunteers and physical plant situation where the station both got on the air and continues to operate for very, very little money.  I mean like they get their tower rent for free, utilities for free, no staff costs, etc.  WRPO-LP comes to mind.  Even then, the music licensing fees usually can break the bank at ultra-low-budget operations like that.
• A "patron saint" organization that subsidizes your operation because it serves another, related goal.  College radio would be the main method here, but theoretically a community center or some other organization could do it, too.   This idea was a lot more viable before the Great Recession of 2008 forced most organizations - including colleges - to take a very hard look at their budgets.  That look revealed that for most orgs, an LPFM really doesn't serve any core mission...so it's hard to justify a subsidy.

[Jason Roberts]

As one of the people who work with WRPO-LP, believe me, we are very sincerely grateful that our owner, the Village of Russell's Point, Ohio, allows us the physical plant that we have.  It would be a whole lot more difficult, if we had to pay rent, utilities, etc.

But, another reason we are successful, is that we offer our listeners a "professional" sound that's favorably comparable to the commercial stations on the band.  We don't try to reinvent radio...nor operate like we think we know more than the people who do it for a living.

Sure, we have volunteers who do a good deal of "local community" programming.  We're not "consultant slick" 24/7/365.  But, on this type of station, you don't have to be.  Just get the support of the community behind your programming and you win.

We selected the format we're doing because...we followed professional standards.  We got a local church to help us by placing calls to 100 local households...and, when asked if there was something they wanted on the station they were not hearing, almost 60% said "rock and roll oldies".  For a small village resort area of about 3000 or so (counting the little burgs nearby), 60% of 100 household calls name one format?   Would anyone in the business ignore that?  Our local underwriting has more than tripled since we started giving the public what it told us it wanted. I'm, frankly, not surprised.

Sometimes, I think the problem with some LPFM's that fail is that they come on the air thinking they know what the public wants, without ever asking.  There's a reason the big guys do research.  It used to be, prospective station owners did "ascertainments" before they sent the license application in.  It never hurts to ask.  This has never been a business where the adage, "if you build it, they will come" applies.

We try very hard to do good radio with a very small staff of volunteers. We appreciate those who tune us in and try to be the local voice of a small community in a small-town Ohio county. Would we like to be bigger?  Who wouldn't?  But that's for somebody way above our pay grades to decide...

   

[MickeyD]

BTW, to whomever said that 10 watt LPFM's are viable, I beg to differ.  Having run an LPFM for four years, the entire concept is flawed at best.  That doesn't mean it CANNOT work reasonably well under the right conditions, but those conditions are uncommon; most LPFM's start off behind the eight ball and go downhill from there.

Note that this is most definitely NOT a reflection on the efforts of their owners/operators.  Many do a good job.  It's just that under the LPFM rules, it's damn near impossible to have a signal in such a manner that it can realistically garner a big enough audience to support itself via direct fundraising efforts.  And the non-commercial nature puts LPFM's at a huge disadvantage against any local commercial operators.

For an LPFM to work, you need some combination of the following:

• A fluke of a situation with your spectrum where you have a smaller-land-area/higher-population-density market that somehow still had enough room on the dial for an LPFM to fit in the first place.  Providence, RI comes to mind, but there are very, very few situations like that.
• A very niche format to an underserved audience that has enough disposable income (at least on paper) to be attractive to commercial sponsors.  Ethnic programming comes to mind.  Or a niche format to an underserved audience that is predisposed to higher rates of listener donations.  That would primarily be religious broadcasters.
• A "perfect storm" of volunteers and physical plant situation where the station both got on the air and continues to operate for very, very little money.  I mean like they get their tower rent for free, utilities for free, no staff costs, etc.  WRPO-LP comes to mind.  Even then, the music licensing fees usually can break the bank at ultra-low-budget operations like that.
• A "patron saint" organization that subsidizes your operation because it serves another, related goal.  College radio would be the main method here, but theoretically a community center or some other organization could do it, too.   This idea was a lot more viable before the Great Recession of 2008 forced most organizations - including colleges - to take a very hard look at their budgets.  That look revealed that for most orgs, an LPFM really doesn't serve any core mission...so it's hard to justify a subsidy.

There was a reason the FCC dumped ten watt Class D stations over thirty years ago. I doubt a ten watt station in Boston could make it. About 20K to build it and then  where do you put a ten watt non-commerical station where you don't have to pay an outrageous amount of rent each month?

[carmen]

There was a reason the FCC dumped ten watt Class D stations over thirty years ago. I doubt a ten watt station in Boston could make it. About 20K to build it and then  where do you put a ten watt non-commerical station where you don't have to pay an outrageous amount of rent each month?


[/quote]

i think a 10-watt indie/rock/experimental/noise station could work at 10w in Allston. just stick it on the roof of that self-storage building set back across the street from blanchards. which organization should apply for the license, maybe phonographers union?

[reelyreal]

I haven't seen it mentioned here yet, but the FCC will be laying out their plans for the remaining 2003 translator applications and the plan moving forward this Wednesday the 16th at 2PM in a webcast.

http://www.radio-info.com/news/fcc-to-lay-out-details-about-translator-and-lpfm-allocations-at-may-16-foru

[MickeyD]

I haven't seen it mentioned here yet, but the FCC will be laying out their plans for the remaining 2003 translator applications and the plan moving forward this Wednesday the 16th at 2PM in a webcast.

http://www.radio-info.com/news/fcc-to-lay-out-details-about-translator-and-lpfm-allocations-at-may-16-foru

They will be putting forth the plan to deal with translators and the pre-comment LPFM plans. The LPFM window will be around this time next year (May, 2013).

[MickeyD]

There was a reason the FCC dumped ten watt Class D stations over thirty years ago. I doubt a ten watt station in Boston could make it. About 20K to build it and then  where do you put a ten watt non-commerical station where you don't have to pay an outrageous amount of rent each month?

>>>I think a 10-watt indie/rock/experimental/noise station could work at 10w in Allston. just stick it on the roof of that self-storage building set back across the street from blanchards. which organization should apply for the license, maybe phonographers union?"<<<
[/quote]

What do you mean it would work? Where would the initial cost of the equipment come from (15 to 20K)? Where would the funds to operate it on a daily basis come from it is a non-comm?  WHat you are saying is a station like Radio Allston that the FCC had no problem shutting down years ago. That is if you were awarded the CP out of a dozen other groups that will apply for the same frequency, get the CP AND THEN  find out what it will take to make it work and not build it