97.9 Fox FM?

[Radio Observer]

By the way, thanks to everyone who is participating in this thread. It's turned out to be a most informative discussion. I really do appreciate the one of everyone who is participating.

 

[Groove1670]

A researched playlist and playing the hits will always win over a train wreck of songs. No...let me say that again. a station that play the hits (based on research) get the gold (listeners).

Several CP's went for $750 and up in the last few auctions. With the new entry credit, and a careful budget. You can do a commercial FM for 20K, and make it work. It is no more of a risk than a LPFM.

The bottom line is how much determination and how much you want to work it. Yes there will be some failures, but success too.

 

[Radio Observer]

A researched playlist and playing the hits will always win over a train wreck of songs. No...let me say that again. a station that play the hits (based on research) get the gold (listeners)

Agreed. Which brings us right back to what I've been saying: Why can't a properly managed LPFM take the place of a "local station" (of any class) which has abdicated it's position as "local station" in favor of becoming a "move in" or a "rimshot" into a larger market? The key words were "properly managed".

Several CP's went for $750 and up in the last few auctions. With the new entry credit, and a careful budget. You can do a commercial FM for 20K, and make it work. It is no more of a risk than a LPFM.

In what markets were commercial frequencies auctioned for such a low amount? Please, name a few?

The bottom line is how much determination and how much you want to work it. Yes there will be some failures, but success too.

So true. So, I'm certain some didn't actually have this in mind. I've seen CPs gotten with minority credits and new entry credits listed for sale at stupid amounts before construction ever began. That is not the intent behind the reason the application was filed. This is cash speculation and not a true desire to operate a broadcast facility. Personally, I think the FCC should immediately revoke the CP (or any resulting license) immediately upon finding that a CP has been offered for sale at any point before a station went on-air, especially at an inflated price of anything higher than the winning bid. Sorry. That's just the way I see it and I think it would stop a lot of the overly inflated trafficking in CPs that keeps some legitimately interested parties out of broadcasting.

 

[tomservo]

How about citing the "worthy" LPFM stations that each of us know.

I'll be honest, the only one I have first-ear knowledge of being local and community focused has been WQJJ-LP, the station at the heart of this thread. But that's mostly because of where I live (the deep south) and the lack of LPFMs of any variety beyond "religious repeater" in this area. The University of South Alabama has recently put an LPFM on the air that's supposedly student run, WJGR-LP (they're the Jaguars) but it's over in Mobile and far too distant for me to even DX on tropo days. I think schools using these little stations as training labs is probably a nice use case. I believe the Chilton County schools (about halfway between Birmingham and Montgomery) are doing the same thing with their WSMX-LP, although I think they have some musical help from someone outside the school administration, too. Ditto the Bessemer City Schools with a station that has to share their frequency with something like three other local translator or LPFM signals.

I seem to recall a station that did lots of community talk-oriented programming as well as filling in a niche music format (standards) was WLEZ-LP in Jackson. They seemed to focus on the part of Jackson that their signal reached best, the sort-of urban residential area just north of downtown. I don't know if the station is still so focused, as I understand they've gone through some changes since I lived in that state years ago.

There are some other stations I know in the AL/MS area with the potential to be real community gems, but I haven't heard them myself. The Calhoun County (AL) 911 district operates two comically low powered LPFMs that are supposed to only be sending emergency information to area residents. No idea what they do during the other 99.999% of the time.

Sankofa Youth Assocation's website sounds like their station could be a real laboratory for minority participation in broadcasting, but their station in Center Point (AL) so far has only played hip hop and reggae with no legal IDs since it came on the air, from what I've been told. A county youth organization runs a station or two up in the Tennessee Valley around Huntsville. That might be fun to do play-by-play for the wee kiddies playing baseball, soccer, football and wrestling. But again, who knows what they do during their down time.

Down here on the coast, the Mobile Arts Council has a permit to build a station and there seems to be some good potential for marketing the city to tourists and discussing arts and music that's local to the city, but nothing's come of it yet. I bet it expires unbuilt. The Hancock County (MS) Amateur Radio Society has two active LPFMs on the MS gulf coast but I don't know what they do or play. I just have their formats listed as "variety, local" for lack of more knowledge.

And finally, an honorable mention to WAIP-LP which is licensed to the Gulfport Islamic Center mosque; it's religious but probably the only Islamic LPFM in the south, if not the entire US!

 

[Radio Observer]

Thanks, Tom Servo. In other words, the local Fox-FM stations really are one of the few exceptions to the rule. That's what I was trying to figure out. I'm guessing a majority of them became non-contenders when NAB and corporate radio (as a whole) whimpered and whined to keep them basically at "neutered-status" as a non-commercial service. I'm just wondering when more than just Fox will realize that there are rewards to be reaped from "underwriting" even without mentioning prices, sales and calls to action. I really think the guy is onto something and that he should syndicate his format. I will openly admit that I like it after spending some time listening to it and I think it's a well researched format that has a lot going for it. "The music is all over the place and that's a turn-off"? Not at all! It's what I grew up listening to and I'm sure most my age did. If I'm wrong somehow, please tell me how?

 

[tomservo]

I really think the guy is onto something and that he should syndicate his format.

I was kind of thinking he already is, since it's basically the same format on in Jackson and Monroeville now. There are quite a few small Alabama towns that the format would do well in, I bet.

I will openly admit that I like it after spending some time listening to it and I think it's a well researched format that has a lot going for it. "The music is all over the place and that's a turn-off"? Not at all! It's what I grew up listening to and I'm sure most my age did. If I'm wrong somehow, please tell me how?

I can see how it'd be a turn off to people raised on corporate-researched-to-death narrow playlist radio, which most of it is these days. They get used to only hearing a small, dependable set of songs and then suddenly hearing new or "oh wow" forgotten favorites disrupts their expectations. In other words, they get trained to enjoy bad radio! That's my belief, anyway.

I've always thought it was comically stupid that there was this trend for "Jack FM" type stations with snarky slogans like "we play whatever" but in reality they're just as tight and narrow as anything else. Which is why they flamed out so bad as a fad, because people burned out so quick on those same 100 songs. I have never streamed Fox FM and thought, "Damn, I wish they'd play something else for a change."

I know that kind of wide-ranging playlist can work. It works down here on the little hyperlocal class A in Orange Beach ("Sunny 105.7", WCSN). I don't listen to them much because their processing is just the worst in the world, but I've never once turned that station on and said, "Oh God, this again." Usually it's closer to "Wow, that was a hit I haven't heard in years!" Followed by a string of expletives for making my FM radio sound sub-AM in sound quality.

 

[R.D.P.]

Well Mr. Zach, you just described little old me. My music presentation is wide and engaging. Playing songs the other radio stations won't bother to play or haven't even touched in years. That formula won't be changing anytime soon. Won't be hearing the same old 100 burned out same old so called researched tunes, every other hour. Dan is going to make sure to that.

Dan <><

P.S. Plan on adding more of my gumbo, once I get the hard drive upgraded in the Computer. Just ran out of space but working to resolve this issue.

B.T.W. To the Fox 97.9 FM crew, I wish you all the best with your new radio station. Hope you'll have success and do very well.

 

[Radio Observer]

I had to drive to Mobile, today. I drove down on Hwy 43 so that I could check-out 97.9 Fox-FM. I was expecting another iteration of hokey little hometown radio with a thin and nasty signal. All I can say about what I got is, "WOW!" If this thing wasn't billed as "low power", I'd never guess it. I had already listened online but, this was no preparation for what I heard on the air. The audio was loud but still open and clean with no distortion, no "buffering" and no "pilot issues" as reported at the top of this thread. If this were my station, I'd be proud to drop it into Birmingham or even Atlanta and see what numbers it might get! Apparently, what some of you call "all over the place" was once what we all referred to as "Top-40 Hits". This station bills itself as "Classic Top-40" and that is exactly what you get when you listen to it. Personally, I love it and I think this is what we need to be doing more of in more markets. Yes, I heard songs yesterday that I haven't heard in more than 20 years. Yes, they brought back memories. I stopped in Jackson and ate lunch. I listened for nearly two hours. At no time during that two hours did I want to switch to another station or to turn off my radio. The content was smooth and flowing well from one selection into another with almost no desire at all (on my part) to want to hunt-down someone and punch them in the mouth for butchering the audio with aggressive compression, clipping distortion or bad presentation. I did also sample the local commercial competition and I very quickly realized that I was listening to satellite delivered programming with almost no local content and processing set-up (apparently) by someone who has no idea what they're doing as I heard all of the artifacts and distortion that was missing from the Fox-FM signal on the local commercial station. If all LPFMs sounded like this, I can realy see where they can give lazy commercial operations a great deal of fear. The commercial stations would actually have to work to sound as good! I'm sorry but, this is how I see it. I am now very impressed with what I heard. Why do not more LPFM stations sound like this? Any ideas? I actually would go so far as to hold this little LPFM up to commercial operators and say, "This is how it should be done!"

 

[R.D.P.]

When you broadcast off the bird, the background issues are very noticeable. The three stations in Thomasville, Jackson and Grove Hill are okay but satellite fed programming isn't my cup of tea to begin with. Glad that Mr. Keith and myself aren't like that. It makes better sense to do all local all the time. Things work out so much better, in the end. Just my two cents.

Dan <><

P.S. I made a promise to everyone reading to do Christian Variety Hits. So far, I kept my word and intend to stay that way. Ready to spring this new sound on all of Selma. Hope to do it within the next week.

In Closing: I want to get a wow factor too and hear people say (1) My gosh Presley, I haven't heard that song in years, (2) Thank you sir for playing it, (3) Your sound quality is very neat and clean sounding, (4) Your radio station is a breath of fresh air to this community, (5) We've been needing something like this for years. Thank you for bringing it. And (6) May God bless your work and efforts, for years to come.

 

[mrjay]

It's been a while since I checked in here but I have a few things to add. I've financed and joined up with quite a few local folks to start an LPFM in Cullman.

We are seeing definite signs our presence has increased the quality of radio in our town.

I'm not knocking the other local guys - we each have our place. I could care less about country music - but 50% of north Alabama loves it. They won't find much of it on our station. I grew up listening to classic rock and converted to "AAA" living with 92 zew in college and have loved it ever since. You can't find that up here. (now you can)

My partner and girlfriend/should be wife/finance/i really should marry her is "OK" with some of the AAA format but is probably more interested in mainstream. Some of my AAA additions she can't stand - but guess what - some of her music I pretty much can't stand (or can't stand a lot of)

We started in April 2014 with a live and local sports show (volunteers) and live football coverage (volunteers). We've added "Spotlight on Cullman" twice a day after our morning show volunteer got another job that demanded more of his time (and we realized people had a hard time coming in for live programming) - these are pre-recorded interviews that air twice a week two times a day. We air some local newscasts. We partner with one of the local media outlets to report local news daily.

In the last 60 days we've added other local programming that consists of the following:

* A 30 minute health and fitness / eating right specialty show (live and local)
* a one hour program featuring the following four segments:
- 15 minute religious and introduction to the program / what is coming up
- 15 minute non-profit checkup focusing on "Saving Forgotten Warriors" , a local nonprofit taking care of local vets.
- 15 minute spotlight on a local business or a community event coming up
- 15 minute interview with a local band including local music

I was just notified tonight that next week we are adding a one hour lawyer call in show.

Volunteers are also now recruiting more local business.
Station has been self sufficient for probably the last two years (we've been on the air nearly three years)
It still owes me most of the startup cost but I'm in no hurry. I didn't really expect a return on investment in startup costs.

I have traded some very good deals for very good tower space, rent, power, utilities - well - let me share -

* we are co-located with another business I own. We share the conference room for the radio shows.
* we are in a "spare office" of the other business - and are a tenant in a shared building.
* my other business shares the power bill with the building owner's business which is in the back of the building.
* the internet is already there for the other business
* our phones are voip based, also provided by the other business (it's a technology business)
* we are collocated on the tower the other businesses uses but pay separate tower rent. Again, a steal. Very happy with the deal.

We are now planning our 4th "Battle of the Bands" event where we are planning to feature all local bands again and broadcast their sets live on the air, a feature also put together based on 92 zew's "Second Tuesday" (ok, so i'm still a zew addict, i stream them more than i play my own station often). This year we're going to have to expand to a two day event. Thinking of mixing it up with the local fairgrounds, inviting local food trucks, charging a little fund-raising admission to get in, and providing some food as part of the ticket. I have a staff of no fewer than six people (who already actively volunteer) to help make this happen, and another six or so people who have promised to help with this event when I'm ready to roll with it again (no pay required, although if the event is profitable, i'll certainly pay them)

Then there is the file of no fewer than 30 people who want to "work" for the station (who i am sure have no interest until I have enough money to pay them)

My future plans?

Live jocks during prime time hours - probably 6 am until 9 pm
They'd provide regular weather updates (we already go wall to wall anytime there is a tornado warning)
They'd regularly check google maps traffic data and report where congestion happens in our little town
They'd monitor the police scanner we have in studio and report on breaking news
They would discuss the music being played, what albums are coming, when those artists are performing, and other relevant information

I'd be happy to fill in for them if they have to take a shift off....as long as it isn't too many shifts.

I haven't figured out the budget required for this but know we need to have large cash reserves to make sure we can keep stability in an on-air staff.
I also haven't figured out how to have live on-air staff at the same time we are operating our "daytime" business.
I have a lead on a larger tower in the area - I may consider moving to it and a building under it if the price is right (and the coverage is right)
we are already quite happy with our coverage - our town is the perfect size for an LPFM.

How do I know we are improving the quality of local radio?

my volunteers have told me my sports guys have been approached by the other local radio station to move their sports show there.
(neither volunteer had any experience in radio prior to starting with us, i told them they're free to do whatever, most recently they've stayed at our station)

tonight i was told the small business that was featured last week during the one hour program was recruited by another local station (whom they also apparently already advertised with) to do a call in show regarding auto repair. i know some regional talk radio already does a show like that but - again - it is not local.

Our other local station has a signal that gets almost to Decatur - maybe a bit north of that. I have no interest in those listeners. I'm perfectly fine reaching our little town - plus, if you're listening to us, you probably have had enough country music to last a lifetime.

Hey, who knows.

As "Fun" says - Carry on!

Jay Fuller
WRJM-LP
Cullman Alabama
95.5 FM - "Live 95"

 

[Radio Observer]

I passed through Jackson (driving up "left Alabama"), today. I stopped for lunch and a word with a friend. I must say that I am indeed impressed! No buffering (audio dropouts), no apparent stereo pilot issues, no "sounds like a telephone" audio response. I also heard local, state and national news, local weather and more! I think that LPFMs run as this one is can truly replace what once was the local 1kw AM "morning coffee" station that was the local signal we all woke up to and listened to as we set about our day. They're coverage is small enough to be truly local so that programmers won't have to worry about alienating anyone in other markets by being "to local". I think these can be a great success! In fact, the only thing I can see holding them back is those pesky "underwriter rules". It looks like the big commercial operations should really thank NAB for saving their skins on this matter or these little guys could be giving them a real run for their money! I'll share their tunein link since I've added it to my "favorite stations" on there. It shows as the Jasper station but I had heard that there was to be some shuffling as they get things more organized. I really do like this one and that's rare for me! I can listen to this little station for hours and hours and hours with no complaints at all! On the other hand, while I was on Mobile, I listened to their local "Kiss FM" (107.3) and I swear they have a playlist consisting of 12 songs and their entire rotation seems to be just under an hour before the repeats begin. Have we now sunk this low? Our "heavy rotation" hits were more like 3 hours in the past. These people must have the attention span of a gnat!

Here is a link to 97.9 Fox-FM in Jackson. I must say that I am really impressed: http://tunein.com/radio/Fox-FM-1019-s88674/