There are so many LPFM stations that are silent. Invariably, some of them stay silent for a year and then the license is gone permanently. I think they should be auctioned off to the highest bidder immediately upon expiration of the license. Rather than permanently deleting the license. Let another group that wants to run an LPFM get a chance to do so!
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Silent LPFMs should be required to go to auction after a year
- Thread starter nd2023
- Start date
But as clearly depicted in another thread, that's part of the problem. Most groups interested in playing radio, aren't either financially, nor structurally qualified to be the licensee of an LPFM station. Opening it up to more potential for failure and fraud, serves no purpose.
You cannot sell LPFMs. You can recoup true value of equipment and a few other things but the non-profit can not 'profit' from the sale. Auctioning is limited to commercial stations only. Many LPFMs try to hand off their LPFM to another local non-profit but find no interest or lack of funds. LPFMs require a non-profit entity where a percentage of board members live within a certain number of miles from the station. When a LPFM filing window opens, folks can file for a station.
There would need to be an allocation change first.
We have multiple LPFM stations in Southern California that are silent and have no filing with the FCC to be silent.
D
Deleted member 108832
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Perhaps I am in the minority here, but I personally hope that window has been permanently nailed shut. For the most part, the service has been an unmitigated disaster of unqualified licensees and underfunded operations.
At a minimum, I hope the Commission opens it up for post mortem comments before allowing backfill. Should the window reopen, at a minimum there should be much more scrutiny regarding qualifications of applicants before allowing them to either game the system through fraudulent applications, or creation of financial viability hurdle before allowing the ignorant to put themselves into financial ruin.
They need to have ownership reports filed like all other broadcast stations. So many have duplicate board members. Some use different versions of their name. Some do not actually exist. There are a few that actually have a full power station in addition to the LPFM.
A Whole lot of NCE translators seem to exist purely to move in when a LPFM Dies in the area.
In my opinion a group that runs a full power station shouldn’t be able to have an LPFM too.
The FCC rules state they cannot own a full power station.
Many LPFM's play fast and loose with the rules.
I'm absolutely beside myself with all the ownership issues in the LPFM community. I had no idea that it's as bad as it is.
About 15% of all LPFM stations appear to not be owned by a valid nonprofit organization. About another 10% are stations that do not have their papers in order (and are about to expire, etc). About another 5% are licensed to corporations that were never formed but were claimed to be formed (not counting unincorporated associations).
Then, when researching some select LPFMs that DO belong to existing organizations, I'm finding, as you mention, cross-ownership violations.
So add all those ownership violations to all the unauthorized silent LPFMs and LPFMs that run commercials, it's starting to look like it could be a majority of LPFM stations (meaning over 50%) that are operating outside of the scope they are licensed for.
There are a couple of bad guys responsible for hundreds of LPFMs with bogus boards and such. I won't name names. I can say part of the problem is the emphasis is on LPFMs going to organizations with zero radio experience and many have no idea to state or federal requirements for their non-profits. Some run their stations as expensive music libraries for themselves. Please don't paint them all as worthless. There are a good number of stations truly serving their micro coverage with local info available nowhere else. And they actually follow the rules. It would be interesting to know how many full power broadcasters that fudge on the rules. For example, one guy I worked for ran about 140% of his licensed power because he said he wouldn't interfere with anyone. It would seem he was correct...no issues in the 18 months I was there. One daytimer I knew ran the high school football games live at a lower power than the daytime power but only on Football Fridays.
That's nothing new or unique. I once worked for a station where the "unspoken rule" was to keep the AM on daytime power for at least some high school and pro sports in the evening. You'd power down after the game and stagger your meter readings so as to not get caught. If you were caught and questioned (which never happened), chalk it up to a simple mistake or oversight and promise to sin no more.
There's a LPFM station in Iowa City that runs at 100w and whose signal barely even gets out to Coralville, despite the predicted coverage map here:
KICI-LP FM 105.3 MHz in Iowa City, Iowa (LPFM)
Radio Station information for KICI-LP at 105.3 MHz MHz on your FM dial.
Its antenna froze a few months after going on air:
After fast start, new Iowa City radio station temporarily slowed down after bad weather
A small, non-profit radio station in Iowa City says in their first seven months, things have gone great- until this most recent round of weather temporarily forced them to go off the air.
The station is run by volunteers via a nonprofit foundation called Extend the Dream that helps people with disabilities. They don't stream, but their program schedule seems to be a lot of podcasts and non-local shows despite the station's website saying they want to showcase local music and inform Iowa City:
Programming
(click here for a .pdf version of the program schedule) Program Grid and Descriptions on GoogleDrive PROGRAM DESCRIPTIONS Ambassador Radio Diverse music ranging from Americana, jazz, world, folk, e…
kiciradio.wordpress.com
I don't know why they haven't set up streaming yet after being on air since 2018.
I was on air at an LPFM station in college and it was run well as part of the college. There was even a transmitter log in studio but we didn't have to do transmitter readings, the station's engineer did that. It was fun and there wasn't a sense of "we can't play anything popular, we have to just play indie/underground stuff" like some LPFM and college stations have.
Since we didn't have much underwriting, usually DJs had to live read PSAs during breaks. I can still remember the smudged copy for the local zoo that talked about "see a penguin tap dance" and I misread "tap" as "lap"....
I don't think anyone is claiming that all LPFM's are worthless or were established fraudulently, but an alarmingly high number are.
'whataboutism'
I'm sure there are plenty of examples where owners/licensees don't play by the rules. Seems to me the fundamental concern with LPFM's are many were established under false or fraudulent filings, not built or operated within the rules, or have failed and shut down because they didn't have a clue of what to do. For whatever the myriad of reasons; the LPFM experiment is a failure. There needs to come a time where the successful ones who play by the rules hopefully remain viable, and all the others are either shut down and the band clutter reduced.
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