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92.7 A Look.

D

DOGDOG

I was actually quite surprised to find this station and further surprised to find myself tuning back in. Having not heard a decent oldies station in this market in a long while, two thoughts came to mind as I listened. Impressed significantly, I was certainly hopeful some "smart" consultant wasn't involved thus ruining another attempted oldies format, but only time would tell. We have all seen oldie stations in Orlando make a huge splash at inception but then after a few months end up being chump change all because of a "smart" consultant. Anybody with half a brain knows having a small playlist results in horrendous repeating of music. That's always the recommendation of these highly intelligent consultants and the program directors who feed off their "greatness". In a few days, I started hearing the dreaded repeating. I won't write them off just yet, but we'll see.

I was a bit curious as to their ownership, so I investigated. Ownership is set up as a non-profit. One thing most of us will agree to is none of us want to see anyone get off avoiding taxes, do we? Let's hope this ownership actually does something to qualify as a "non profit". One thing this country does not need is still another "business arrangement" whereby the profits are paid to a few people at the top via huge salaries as opposed to listed as "income" on a balance sheet. We've seen enough of this sleaziness in this very market on the broadcast band!
 
This is a low power FM radio station, licensed to serve Winter Park. LPFMs are required by law to be owned by non-profits, and are not allowed to run commercials. They are strictly supported by listener donations. No consultants involved. If listeners like what they hear, they're encouraged to contribute money to support the station.

http://www.92smooth.com/
 
No running of advertising? What I heard sure sounded like a spot for a Massage place in WP as well as a few other places.
 
DOGDOG said:
I was actually quite surprised to find this station and further surprised to find myself tuning back in. Having not heard a decent oldies station in this market in a long while, two thoughts came to mind as I listened. Impressed significantly, I was certainly hopeful some "smart" consultant wasn't involved thus ruining another attempted oldies format, but only time would tell. We have all seen oldie stations in Orlando make a huge splash at inception but then after a few months end up being chump change all because of a "smart" consultant. Anybody with half a brain knows having a small playlist results in horrendous repeating of music. That's always the recommendation of these highly intelligent consultants and the program directors who feed off their "greatness". In a few days, I started hearing the dreaded repeating. I won't write them off just yet, but we'll see.
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Your misunderstanding of the role of a consultant is considerable.

In larger markets... and Orlando applies... commercial stations can and do conduct research. Playlists are determined by finding the consensus songs that "everybody" likes within the target audience and not playing songs with significant negatives.

A consultant does not insist on fewer songs per se. They guide management on finding the broadly acceptable songs and determining a structure by which to play them. They help management in understanding that "variety" does not mean "more".

The only recent flip in Orlando to Classic Hits (there are no full power "oldies" stations in Orlando on FM for obvious reasons) was WMMO, which modified its presentation early in this year. In the last 6 months, they have consistently scored a high six to low seven share result, all within the margin of error of the survey. That is a share to a share and a half average above the results of the previous "soft rock" format they had. It definitely did not become "chump change" and is one of the higher billers in the market.

I was a bit curious as to their ownership, so I investigated. Ownership is set up as a non-profit. One thing most of us will agree to is none of us want to see anyone get off avoiding taxes, do we? Let's hope this ownership actually does something to qualify as a "non profit". One thing this country does not need is still another "business arrangement" whereby the profits are paid to a few people at the top via huge salaries as opposed to listed as "income" on a balance sheet. We've seen enough of this sleaziness in this very market on the broadcast band!
Click to expand...

There is no negative in having a non-profit organization run by competent people. And competent people in the non-profit sector need to be paid salaries commensurate with what is paid in the private sector. So don't expect the management of a significant non-commercial radio station to be paid much less than what they would make in comparable positions at commercial stations.

But the station you mention is a very small limited coverage LPFM. LPFMs are restricted to 100 watts at 100 feet antenna height. Contrast that with the Orlando market's commercial stations that, in the case of ten of them, are 100,000 watts at around 1500 feet above average terrain. LPFM stations are essentially neighborhood stations, and can pretty much have any format they want.

Non-commercial stations can run advertising within the restrictions of what BigA refers to in the link he provided. Read it, but understand that limited form ads are acceptable under certain restrictions:

"The FCC allows "enhanced underwriting announcements" that identify a sponsor, what their business is, and where they are located, but such information must be provided in an objective, non-promotional manner. "
 
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Non Commercial broadcast may run enhanced underwriting "acknowledgments" which may contain many of the elements of a commercial with the exception of "call to action", comparable pricing, etc.

Donations may be acknowledged by a brief announcement, generally 30-seconds or less in length.

Permitted: name of donor, slogan or logo identifying the donor (audio or visual); address, telephone number and website; brand name may be included; a value neutral description of products, goods and services may be included.

Prohibited: Comparative or qualitative statements; price information; “calls-to-action” or statements encouraging listeners to contact or patronize the donor; repetitive statements such as giving the name and address several times during one announcement.

Bona-fide not-for-profit organizations may air "call to action" sponsorship announcements and include all of the elements found in an actual commercial announcement.

A cleverly written "no call to action" underwriting announcement can sound like an actual commercial without breaking the non-com underwriting rules.
 
I have heard this station a few times in the last year or so. To me it sounds more like an Easy Listening Station than an Oldies format.

The announcements didn't sound out of line to me. All the ones I heard pretty much were along the lines of what JMTILLERY stated. It sounds like they were a little creative in their underwriting, instead of making them sound like funeral parlor announcements like most people are accustomed to hearing on other Non-Comm Stations.

All stations must have some sort of repetition. You can't play every single song from every single artist. The average listener doesn't spend 24 hours a day listening to a station, so what could be considered highly repetitive to you doesn't exactly apply to the general listening audience.

They have very few sponsors, so I doubt this station, or any other LPFM for that matter, is being used to fatten anyone's pockets. They don't have any on-air staff either which leads me to believe that they also don't have a budget for hiring anyone either.
 
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The Doctor tried to explain but just as when he tried to explain the required contents of a legal ID there is something amiss here as well. I have seen others make the same claim and be unable to evidence it - where is the prohibition on repetition in a LPFM announcement? There isn't one I have ever seen - can someone point it out and correct me?
 
jmtillery said:
Perhaps this will help...

https://www.fcc.gov/media/radio/nature-of-educational-broadcasting
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That helps - it shows there is no mention of repetition anywhere in the text. No pricing, no qualitative statements, and no inducements to purchase are all in the rules - where is the ban on repetition? It even clearly states that a phone number can be used and makes zero mention of how many times. Can you point out where it mentions repetition - maybe my old eyes don't see it.
 
ok walters said:
That helps - it shows there is no mention of repetition anywhere in the text. No pricing, no qualitative statements, and no inducements to purchase are all in the rules - where is the ban on repetition? It even clearly states that a phone number can be used and makes zero mention of how many times. Can you point out where it mentions repetition - maybe my old eyes don't see it.
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I'm sorry to hear you are having problems seeing.

As for the rules, I have not read where the rules specifically say "No repetition" and, furthermore, I never said it appears specifically in the rules, anywhere. However, the rules do clearly state "No Calls To Action." All of the above you have stated that does not appear specifically in the rules, are, in fact, forms of "Calls to Action" hence prohibited by the NCE rules. What I provided should be used as a guide for anyone operating an NCE-FM or TV. Anyone who follows those guidelines will be fine with the FCC concerning non-commercial sponsorship acknowledgements.

Let's compare the NCE rules to the laws against speeding. The Statutes may not specifically state it is unlawful to speed while driving a Cadillac while at the same time giving no reference to how speeding laws apply to one riding a motorcycle. The laws simply state it is unlawful to speed regardless what a person is driving or riding. The same holds true with pricing info, comparative statements, inducements to purchase or repetitious statements such as repeatedly giving a phone number. These are all forms of "calls to action" same as speeping in a Cadillac or speeding on a motorcycle are both examples of speeding and is unlawful.

If you still need further clarification, I recommend that you consult with an FCC attorney who specializes in NCE sponsorship rules. If you do not know any FCC attorneys, I will be happy to provide names of very good ones for you. If you still think it is okay to air repetitive statements simply because the rules do not specifically state repetitious statements as a violation, then feel free to air such acknowledgements on any non-commercial radio or television station, and let me know how it works out for you when the FCC catches wind of it and pays your station a visit.
 
Man, 92.7 is on point!!!!! Love this channel. I'm a 29 year old man saying this. But is it me or does the signal totally go away in longwood? Went to 4 rivers for dinner and could not hear it on the factory radio in my grand mother's Saturn vue until we hit Altamonte and even then the signal would be choppy at times.
 
austingrace said:
Man, 92.7 is on point!!!!! Love this channel. I'm a 29 year old man saying this. But is it me or does the signal totally go away in longwood? Went to 4 rivers for dinner and could not hear it on the factory radio in my grand mother's Saturn vue until we hit Altamonte and even then the signal would be choppy at times.
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With any Low Power FM you can't really expect good reception outside their very small service contour. On some days they get pounded on by distant full power stations even inside their 60-70dBu due to tropospheric ducting.
 
They are not even on today. I can't hear them in Altamonte today. Maybe they are doing work or something.
 
I was enjoying a good clear signal of Smooth-FM until a religious station from Lakeland added a translator on the same frequency.
 
Hello to all. Any ideas what happened to this station? Both the OTA signal and the tunein stream are off the air. I think this happened on Monday or yesterday. My grandmother asked me and I had no idea. I for one thought the station was OK. It was an automated jukebox but it had good music. Hopefully it's just a technical glitch.
 
The station is back on the air both OTA and tunein.
 
austingrace said:
The station is back on the air both OTA and tunein.
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Probably some type of equipment failure, or maybe they didn't pay the electric bill, LOL. Many of these LPFM's are running on shoestring budgets and if something breaks down, they don't have backup facilities or equipment.
 
I have heard 92.7 play the same song twice or 3 times today. Not complaining or anything. Just found it interesting. I still think it is a good concept. Could use a bit more of an expanded library and too bad it can't be live and local at least in the day. Would love to hear more 60s and 70s oldies radio has forgotten about. Would love a station like the old big 100 or cool 105.9. It's funny because as a kid I hated those stations but now I would love to have something like that on in this market.
 
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