So what does this have to do with pirate radio? Maybe you can connect the dots. Yes we know it's hard to get work. That's no excuse to break the law.
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FCC proposed fine for 106.3 pirate: $151k
- Thread starter raccoonradio
- Start date
So what does this have to do with pirate radio? Maybe you can connect the dots. Yes we know it's hard to get work. That's no excuse to break the law.
This woman’s not starting a pirate. You all think it’s appropriate for black listeners (all 350k+ of them in the immediate Boston area) to be confined to online radio. Okay, she is doing just that-legally. Thought I’d post to appease that crowd.
A big problem in Boston, as I see it, is that if an FM station someday does become available to minority ownership interested in minority programming, several people with extensive operation, management and programming experience in African American music are permanently ineligible for the license due to their past pirate activities. That's too bad, considering the community's familiarity with them and their familiarity with potential advertisers.
You're assuming all black listeners want the same thing. I've worked in a traditional black format and I can tell you that's not true.
I can also tell you format decisions are not based on the race of an audience. They're based on the interest of advertisers to reach that audience.
Stating the obvious, but one doesn't need a minority owner to deliver minority programming. To your bigger point, I'd suggest that with the diversity agenda that's been set by the FCC, one might be able to convince the Commission of a waiver. If one had a good lawyer.
The pirates that have been on the longest don’t program for African Americans. They are run by non-citizen Hatians, and Haitian music is not the same as US Africa American music. It is a totally different language and culture.
in most cases pirates could never make money with a licensed station doin legal business.
I was referring to Mr. Clemons (Touch) and the Big City people, not the Haitians. Didn't think I'd need to clarify that, but what do I know?
Not true. B877 is primarily for African Americans and is run By African Americans and a 2nd generation Jamaican-American. There is no Haitian programing at all, whatsoever.
WZBR is also primarily for African Americans. IMO all of these different groups (Big City, old Touch folks, old WILD folks, B877, former WKAF staff like Tee Clark)-at least the English ones-need to consolidate financially behind WZBR or Spark. Way too many outlets between this and the black podcasts in Boston (itslitBoston and theurbancolelctive)
Per this link WILD and WPOT had a 2.8 market share in October 2000 https://www.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2000/11/13/newscolumn5.html the bsoton areas added about 100k mor ebalck since then but theyre nearly all foreign born or descended
And that was in the face of an extremely popular WJMN. My assumption is that an urban program can come into this market and quickly garner a 3.0 share but it has to have a budget and secure a lot of advertisers before hand and that may prove a problem. In between finding advertisers to that audience with enough money, the proliferation of media platforms and the diversity of this black population-its a bit of a tall task.
That isn't what was being stated. Your issue is with the radio ownerships not servicing your community. It doesn't justify starting a pirate station. You still need to follow the laws. I'm not happy that the only Alternative outlets in the market is Indie 617. I shouldn't have to listen online, or be relegated to satellite radio. Still, it doesn't give me the right to find an empty frequency and start a pirate operation.
In fact, look at it this way. If you are online only, you then have the ability to say what you want, and only have to worry about advertising issues. You can tell the FCC to go...and there is nothing that they can say and do about it, because you're not on terrestrial radio.
Quite honestly, you're argument is poor. None of us are entitled to have what we want on FM. I'm one of the biggest ones around here to criticize FM. But, I understand that I don't have a right to content of my choice on FM. I get to choose to listen to the offerings or find an alternative. I found my alternatives and ran with them. I'll come back when FM has something of my interest.
Agreed.
>> If you are online only, you then have the ability to say what you want, and only have to worry about advertising issues.
As for college radio WZLY 91.5 Wellesley wanted to sell its 7 watt signal and go online only and not have to worry about FCC requirements (logs, profanity restrictions)
A 2014 article in the Wellesley News said:
"WZLY, Wellesley’s student radio station, is selling its frequency license and will therefore no longer be on air at 91.5 FM. After a collective vote last year, WZLY will exclusively broadcast on the web at WZLY.net."
Apparently there have been no takers. At least according to radio-locator, they are still on with a license that expires in two more years. An online petition about 4 years ago had 258 signees saying WZLY and Wellesley College
should preserve the license.
>> If you are online only, you then have the ability to say what you want, and only have to worry about advertising issues.
As for college radio WZLY 91.5 Wellesley wanted to sell its 7 watt signal and go online only and not have to worry about FCC requirements (logs, profanity restrictions)
A 2014 article in the Wellesley News said:
"WZLY, Wellesley’s student radio station, is selling its frequency license and will therefore no longer be on air at 91.5 FM. After a collective vote last year, WZLY will exclusively broadcast on the web at WZLY.net."
Apparently there have been no takers. At least according to radio-locator, they are still on with a license that expires in two more years. An online petition about 4 years ago had 258 signees saying WZLY and Wellesley College
should preserve the license.
I'd never even heard of WZLY before reading this post! How long did it take that petition to attract that whopping total of signees? In its own way, the negligible interest in that petition probably swayed the college even further toward trying to dump the FM.
Um..i already made that argument. Actually my argument is its a shame there is no legal radio station for black and I hope pirates continue their success as long as they can. I'm not saying they shouldn't be fined-they're illegal and you take what comes with that... but i'm more of a sociologist than radio buff. The fact that this has become so prominent and such and issue speaks to the enormity of this issues in the Metro Boston area. Not an issue that pertains to posters here, but important nevertheless and worthy of thoughtful discussion. At the very least I find it fascinating a few tiny operators in massachusetts can spur such a huge piece of legislature.
It makes sense that you all radio aficionados care deeply about pirates-many of you used to be employed by legal stations and know what hoops had to be jumped through. The general public and politicians do not, really. That's why they have large following, decades of longevity and enjoy political and media support. It seems most not employed in occupations where you have to deal with the FCCC are slightly in favor of pirates. You all are radio purists so you don't agree, makes sense to me. But radio suck and anything to make thing more difficult for the FCC or iHeartMedia ill generally support. I understand the bad precedent and the flight communications but my favorites (87.7) isn't in interference.
The laws of this country were written by wealthy white older men and in them their is all types of bias to protect their interest. I get that most people would writ laws that favor them. But to expect African Americans for whom laws are often a roadblock to equality, civic participation and economic empowerment,- to blindly follow the law simply because it exist is naive. The laws were not written to help us but to hurt us so these individuals will take that risk and i commend them for it. ONline radio is nice but lets not pretend it has the impact or reach of a terrestrial signal. Having a station report on issues in the black and brown community is critical and a major blight on this city-regardless of the insider takes behind it. The more media coverage the issue gets-the better.
Aside from all this I most recently posted about something entirely different. This woman's radio station has nothing to do with pirates, so there's no need for you to remind me they're illegal or my arguments weak. I'm not really talking about that issue in that posts regarding Spark FM. That post was simply to inform-someone doing what you all have advised the black community to do. It will inevitably falter and have a muted impact but im glad she called out iheart, plenty in the comments say they've been trying to get a black station off the ground but run into hurdles.
Regardless, that's still no excuse to break those laws. At the end of the day, it's still all about creating the financial environment where such a format can succeed. That's the real issue, not who wrote the laws. Because someone has to pay the bills. That's what's missing. I was part of a group that was able to start a minority format radio station in another market. The first impediment wasn't the law. It was getting the money. Not just the initial investment required to build the station, but creating a strong financial base that would keep the station alive for years. That's what needs to be done in Boston.
The basic laws of radio broadcasting regarding allocations of frequencies and power levels are written in accordance with the laws of physics. There is no age, gender, race or national origin involved.
The reason why pirates are evil and illegal is that a) they use frequencies that are not physically available that affect the coverage of other stations and b) they generally and, almost, universally, use poorer equipment without respect for interference with other bands and radio usage and c) they nearly all do not pay taxes, social security for staff, liability insurance, and abide by the general rules of society that allow all kinds of people to live together.
But mainly pirate stations try to violate the laws of physics. Whether you believe that that comes from God or Nature, it is immutable.
And the laws of this country have been written by elected officials selected by the majority of voters, whether the elections are in a tiny town in Alabama or a major metropolis in the Northeast. I've lived in quite a few other countries, and, for all the imperfections, there is no more representative government of the people anywhere. But no government can give every person and group everything they like and do nothing they are not so fond of.
Beyond that, commercial radio can barely sustain itself today. Listenership is off by 50% to 60% in major markets compared to the pre-Smartphone, pre-Recession and pre-PPM years. So commercial stations have to reduce costs and focus on the audience groups that can produce a profitable outcome.
This is not a racial issue. It is a commercial reality. There are many interest groups that don't have their own specific commercial radio outlets locally.
But that is where the Internet comes in so conveniently. More people have cell phones than radios today. A third of all households have devices that let them say, "Alexa, play 70's soul music" and get programming commercial radio could never sustain.
We are moving into custom one-to-one radio. You can have anything you want. The only issue is that "free radio" is going to disappear, and everyone will have to pay for that personal radio station that seems so attractive in theory.
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for sure financing is a big issue if not the biggest...but the FCC created a situation where the cost to entry was a major hurdle back in 1996. Right now Spark FM is using kickstarter to raise funds for talent acquisitions, physical space etc. You couldn't do that for terrestrial radio. It is sad that Boston's African Americans have an average net worth of $8 and are doubly punished because there isn't enough wealth/clout to start an FM radio station organically. I'm sure the boundaries used to define the Boston Area Market don't help either. iHeart is an enemy of the black community in this city (as it is to most of the general populace) and they should shoulder some blame. But of course things like this are inconsequential and do not resonate with them.
Regarding the 1996 telecommunications Act "According to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the goal of the law was to "let anyone enter any communications business – to let any communications business compete in any market against any other." well we see how well that worked out...
as far as not breaking the law. Lots of things used to be and still are law that aren't necessarily just or equitable, so that rings hollow to me in this instance. Obviously we all know hundreds of laws are routinely broken every single day either for the greater good, economic reasons, obsolescence or practicality.
I was referring to what have been the most famous and long-enduring pirates, which have been Haitian in focus and widely reported on as "serving a huge under-served listener audience".
Radio is a totally different world today. The introduction of the PPM resulted in average listening levels being about 30% lower than in the diary that had been used for the previous 43 years. One of the effects of the PPM was that ethnic stations, both those targeting Blacks and Hispanics, found little increase in come but huge decreases in time spent listening. This reduced advertiser interest in ethnic stations considerably, and it also reduced the rates that advertisers would pay.
None of that is racial; it is about advertisers not being willing to overpay to reach listeners compared to the cost of other stations. So after the PPM hit the top 50 markets, rates for many ethnic stations had to be adjusted downwards. Some could no longer make money, others had to cut back staff or sell.
Stations don't get advertisers prior to introducing a new format. Advertisers buy proven audience sizes, and in the cases where stations have had "introductory rates" before the ratings came out, the prices were near give-away rates. The first station I owned did a format never done in the market before, and I went over 6 months with no revenue at all... nothing. Finally the ratings came out, and we were sold out in 30 days, but that was only after advertisers could see the value in the station.
And you are correct in seeing that every audience group is fragmented by new media, so there is less revenue and less audience left for terrestrial broadcast radio. The result is that larger radio advertisers are buying fewer markets and in the case of Hispanic and Black buys, only the top few. In the case of local advertisers, they are putting more and more money into Internet listings, sites and search optimizations that radio is getting left out.
But the point is still the same: a station that complies with the rules and operates legally could not make money doing what the pirates are doing.
They don't spend on most legal requirements and ordinances, they don't have EAS gear, the transmission equipment is not type accepted, many labor laws are not followed, etc., etc.
will someone put a dime on the tone arm, the record is broken.... I think it is skipping... I just hear the same thing over and over and over.
Radio is unfair to minorities yada yada yada.....
Radio is unfair to everyone, mostly to the people who try to make a living doing it.
Everyone has a "smart " device, the start up costs for a podcast or online radio station are pennies on the hundred dollars compared what a properly run legal radio station costs, it is pennies on the dollar for what a pirate radio station costs to run.
I would not invest penny ONE into a radio or TV station at this point.
Embrace technology young man, you are advocating for the wagon wheel in a radial tire world.
Radio is unfair to minorities yada yada yada.....
Radio is unfair to everyone, mostly to the people who try to make a living doing it.
Everyone has a "smart " device, the start up costs for a podcast or online radio station are pennies on the hundred dollars compared what a properly run legal radio station costs, it is pennies on the dollar for what a pirate radio station costs to run.
I would not invest penny ONE into a radio or TV station at this point.
Embrace technology young man, you are advocating for the wagon wheel in a radial tire world.
As I said, the issue is not having the funds to START an FM station. The issue is there aren't enough advertisers who are willing to SUSTAIN an FM station. If there was, Entercom and Beasley would JUMP at the opportunity to flip one of their stations, and hire the requisite staff. This online station will discover the same problem. The expense of running an online station can be sizable if done right. If there is no funding, it will go belly up.
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