I don't know if anyone else sees the irony of college age students running an AM radio station. 😂
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
I have An Idea
- Thread starter cc333
- Start date
They d
They don't have much of a choice. There are few, if any, spots on the FM dial available in the Tempe area to shoehorn an LPFM into.
This input is helpful!
I don't see this endeavor as revenue-producing in any way, nor do I wish it to replicate what the big networks already do.
I just thought it would be fun on a hobbyist level. Like, why not have some fun with a little hobbyist network so people can have some fun with it (and maybe offer a service useful to someone, somewhere) without bothering with the big stuff and all the stress and layoffs it entails.
Community-oriented LPFMs (a licensed service) already offers this to an extent, but I was thinking something even smaller, because as licensed stations, they still have considerable overhead, plus numerous regulations and restrictions they must abide by.
And yeah, maybe it could be stream-based. Actually, it would almost have to be, because that's probably one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to distribute this kind of programming nowadays. It would be subject to royalties, though. Potentially substantial ones, if it becomes popular enough (I don't really expect this to become huge, so hopefully that wouldn't be much of an issue?)
In fact, it would just be basic "network" stuff with the filler music and imaging package, and individual Part 15 operators can, at their discretion, do whatever they want with it.
As for funding, it would be available to any Part 15 operator to use for a yearly cost of some reasonable amount.
And as for ratings, it would have to be formalized somewhat, with perhaps the operators gauging their own respective audiences and coming up with a consensus that way. And since there's really not much of anything being sold to anyone except the format itself, there's not much of a reason to target specific age demographics.
As I wrote that last paragraph, I'm realizing that maybe "network" is too big and complicated a subject for what I want (and potentially a big red flag to those (such as the Royalty Gestapo, aka ASCAP et al.) wishing to spoil everyone's fun, as they seem to relish doing).
How about instead, a small, loosely-organized regional cooperative of Part 15 hobbyists (a club, if you will) that collaborates to establish a shared format with some "network-like" features, with the option of then sharing that format with other cooperatives?
c
I don't see this endeavor as revenue-producing in any way, nor do I wish it to replicate what the big networks already do.
I just thought it would be fun on a hobbyist level. Like, why not have some fun with a little hobbyist network so people can have some fun with it (and maybe offer a service useful to someone, somewhere) without bothering with the big stuff and all the stress and layoffs it entails.
Community-oriented LPFMs (a licensed service) already offers this to an extent, but I was thinking something even smaller, because as licensed stations, they still have considerable overhead, plus numerous regulations and restrictions they must abide by.
Yes, that's pretty much it.
And yeah, maybe it could be stream-based. Actually, it would almost have to be, because that's probably one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to distribute this kind of programming nowadays. It would be subject to royalties, though. Potentially substantial ones, if it becomes popular enough (I don't really expect this to become huge, so hopefully that wouldn't be much of an issue?)
In fact, it would just be basic "network" stuff with the filler music and imaging package, and individual Part 15 operators can, at their discretion, do whatever they want with it.
As for funding, it would be available to any Part 15 operator to use for a yearly cost of some reasonable amount.
And as for ratings, it would have to be formalized somewhat, with perhaps the operators gauging their own respective audiences and coming up with a consensus that way. And since there's really not much of anything being sold to anyone except the format itself, there's not much of a reason to target specific age demographics.
When will they ever stop? They already get so much money, why do they keep demanding more? There has to be some fair play here, like, exempt a broadcaster from paying royalties if they're not earning revenue.
As I wrote that last paragraph, I'm realizing that maybe "network" is too big and complicated a subject for what I want (and potentially a big red flag to those (such as the Royalty Gestapo, aka ASCAP et al.) wishing to spoil everyone's fun, as they seem to relish doing).
How about instead, a small, loosely-organized regional cooperative of Part 15 hobbyists (a club, if you will) that collaborates to establish a shared format with some "network-like" features, with the option of then sharing that format with other cooperatives?
c
Now I'm finding out that The Blaze may have finally dropped the AM signal, and is online only.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channelâ„¢
And believe it or not, BigA, and David E., and myself are in the real business of radio, which has nothing to do with radio hobbyists other than to clutter message boards with posts like that.
IT.
DOESN'T.
MATTER.
The fact is that if he wants to be an affiliate of a network, there's money involved. That's not me. That's how networks operate.
I'm well aware of that. All I was doing in this thread was pointing out that there are costs involved if the hobbyist wants to do a network.
If you read post #7, I offer another option.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channelâ„¢
If I may make a mountain out of that molehill ... even a Part 15 transmitter has a price tag. So does whatever you use as a program source, be it one or more CD players and a mixer, or a laptop running free or inexpensive playback software. And your electric utility isn't going to let you take the current used for your little hobby station off their statement.
Long ago I was advisor to the student carrier current station at Virginia Commonwealth University. The station had to link via an audio cable so several different sets of buildings on the campus. At each group, a separate transmitter fed the power lines. They could not do a single feed as each group had a separate power company transformer which did not provide connectivity with other buildings.
Obviously, some of the houses across the street from the campus could hear the station, but not much farther.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channelâ„¢
As I recall, the carrier current system that used to be at Loyola Marymount University used to have the same technical limitations due to transformers, requiring separate transmitters in the utility room of each dorm building. (I spent one semester at LMU in 1974 before realizing I didn't want to be in television after all and got more joy out of my shifts at KXLU than from any of my classes. I was promptly promoted after dropping out to full-time at the station up the coast in Ojai that I had worked part-time at for well over a year at that point. I think I've done pretty well for someone who only has a high school diploma ...)
Both my brother and I were involved with such stations in college, 10 years apart, me as an occasional music librarian at Syracuse's WJPZ (which eventually became a licensed FM), he as a sportscaster at Ithaca College's WVIC (which was forced to call itself simply VIC after getting a cease-and-desist letter from the real WVIC, in Michigan). VIC's carrier-current days ended in 1997, when it started streaming.
The problem with Carrier Current is/was that signals in the AM band won't pass through power transformers designed mainly for 60 Hz operation, although some RF frequencies, notably up to about 200 kHz or so, will. Utility companies use those frequencies to monitor power line status and other maintenance/status measurements, but that equipment isn't designed to radiate.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channelâ„¢
That is a candidate for the silliest use of legal counsel in this business. "We have to stop this campus-limited non-broadcast station, several states away, from using our call letters!"
Only the attorney who billed hours for that cease and desist got any actual benefit.
They could have gotten a similar letter from out west! My brother has told me often of the snowy, midwinter 1983-84 day when the WVIC crew decided to do several hours of programming as WVIC's "sister station," KVIC, in sunny southern California. Time announcements in PST, summer-themed music, weather and surfing conditions reports, etc. Sophomoric as hell, but hey, he was only a freshman!
Billable hours wins every time.
To be honest, I'm not sure if it ever got to the lawyering-up stage. There's a reference to it on the station's "About Us" page that refers only to "a request" from the real WVIC.
About – VIC Radio
vicradio.org
The FCC makes it clear that a Part 15 station cannot use the call letters of a licensed station. They did the right thing by dropping the W.
We had a thread in 2007 on the LPFM and Community Stations Board on this very subject. Here is my post showing the FCC regulation at the time:
Agreed. However, I didn't want to be an affiliate of a network, I wanted to be the network that others affiliate with.
But I retooled the idea somewhat, so that statement is no longer strictly relevant. See the bottom of my last post for some of the details.
Yup. Some of my thinking was maybe I can, essentially, get together with some other Part 15 hobbyists and pool some resources.
And this is not, by any means, a no-cost endeavor. It should, however, be much easier for the average hobbyist to afford than, say, running an LPFM. No ownership restrictions, either, so one does not need the added expenses or hassles involved with establishing a non profit organization.
c
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channelâ„¢
Explain to me how a Part 15 station in New York state creates "confusion" by using the call letters of a station in Michigan.
It doesn't, but call letters are assigned at the Federal level, not the state level. 73.3550 is an FCC rule. I can no more use an existing broadcast call on a Part 15 station than I can use my own ham call. If I tried the latter, I'd get nailed for being out of band.