Can We Ask For Votes In A Campign Broadcast?

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Thanks to modern roads and automobiles, not to mention the pervasiveness of regional media that covers an entire metro area, there is little to no demand for a "local community" station. If there was a radio station that covered just the issues of the suburban area I lived in, I wouldn't listen to it. I doubt if anyone would. There aren't enough important local issues to fill more than 10 minutes of airtime.

That is a general observation that I agree with. Seeking an LPFM to serve a GEOGRAPHICAL community that lies within a healthy Metro Community will usually be a wasted and failed effort. That leaves us with the possibility of identifying a SOCIOLOGICAL community that lies within a metro community. In Atlanta that could be a highly concentrated Korean or other ethnic group. In metro Atlanta that could include focusing on the "Arts and Liberalness" people clustered in and around Decatur. But the local NPR station takes most of the air out of that concept.

There are a few communities that have strong localized feelings within metro areas. In the Atlanta area that might include Dunwoody. Maybe Milton. In Indianapolis it might include Carmel. But the "parochial" feeling of independence sometimes lasts for only one generation.

In today's atmosphere and economy, my vision is that "Geographical Community" service by LPFM belongs in places like Blairsville, GA; Paris, AR; Lewiston, MI; Bryson City, NC or maybe Berea, KY.

80% of the American people are crowed into maybe 5% of the land of this nation. Our broadcast laws, regulations and industry traditions are geared to serve this MASS of people who live in these SLIVERS of land.

That "diaspora" of Americans who either cling to or are stranded in plains, the mountains, the deserts and the breadbasket are somewhat held in bondage by current broadcast laws, regulations and industry traditions.

Those of us who live where the 80% live and want to ponder the usefulness and practicality of LPFM need to identify SOCIOLOGICAL communities who are not well served by the traditional broadcast industry.

 

[Talk_Dude]

Those of us who live where the 80% live and want to ponder the usefulness and practicality of LPFM need to identify SOCIOLOGICAL communities who are not well served by the traditional broadcast industry.

It gets more complicated than that. Even if one looks at sociological communities, low powered transmitters by their very nature only reach limited geographic areas. As mobile as our society is, there would also have to be some sort of provisions made for readjusting the low power licenses if they are targeted as sociological communities. Right now, a radio station to reach Koreans in Atlanta might be well located in Duluth. But ten years from now, who knows?

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

The technical side of things in the FCC regs certainly are not currently favorable to that scenario. Today you can apply to move your LPFM up to five miles maximum. That is little help if you are trying to put your LPFM facility into your little red Radio Flyer wagon and drag it down the Interstate to keep up with your moving target-audience of ethnic listeners.

But there is an interesting glow on the horizon. It is hard enough to run an LPFM within budget without taking on the extras... but it is probably essential to establish a presence on the Internet through streaming and/or podcasting. Make a loyal listener while they live within your coverage area, and hope they are addicted enough to stay in touch on-line as their place of residence stretches out.

Maybe LPFM isn't a destination. Maybe its a stepping-stone to media of the future.

 

[MattParker]

Thanks to modern roads and automobiles, not to mention the pervasiveness of regional media that covers an entire metro area, there is little to no demand for a "local community" station. If there was a radio station that covered just the issues of the suburban area I lived in, I wouldn't listen to it. I doubt if anyone would. There aren't enough important local issues to fill more than 10 minutes of airtime.

To make things even more complicated, I have lived/worked in states in which outside of cities things were pretty much decided at the county level. And I've lived/worked in states in which the county government was very limited and townships pretty much decided most things. In those areas even low power stations covered multiple townships so it was next to impossible to define a community of interest and most "local" news affected only a small portion of the entire coverage area.

The big advantage to community newspapers over radio is the ability to scan the paper and pick only the stories you're interested in to read.

And, yes, most people are interested in most township/county/community issues and don't listen (or read about them) - at least not until some local board wants to rezone their street or put some facility in their neighborhood.
Then they go to meetings.

Every once in a while NPR likes to do stories on some a LPFM station on an Indian Reservation. They talk to the station organizers, who seem very well-intentioned and to tribal leaders, who think this is a great thing to have. I wonder if regular people listen or even care. Sad to say, a lot of good intention community stations turn out to be somebody's hobby (from an LPFM in a remote area to Pacifica in a major market).

 

[Desert Ear]

It's Alive, It's Alive!

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/47/315.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal-time_rule

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Thank you, Desert Ear. The links you posted confirm my memory of the law.

You don't have to sell ANY political time, but if you do, you MUST allow candidates for that same office also buy time.... if they choose to.

And you are not allowed to play games with rates to make it cost-prohibitive for the candidate you don't like.

 

[bturner]

Yes, Yes, Yes. Radio stations have a choice: issue a political rate card for the lowest cost per unit for the 3 month time frame (date of card until election is 3 months) and sell to every candidate qualified to run for office and even Joe that decided he wants to be a write-in candidate a month before the election...OR...Refuse to sell Political Advertising.

I worked an AM/FM Combo that refused to sell Political Advertising, period. My boss said "I'll be damned if I going to sell spots at a rock bottom price and put up with other candidates looking through our files trying to one up their opponent." His point was we were already busy and selling plenty of spots at full rate.

What we did was set up a few 'Meet The Candidate Forums", sponsored by local businesses that promoted the event and encouraged people to attend.

Legitimate news stories are fine but most press releases are just smoke screens for free airtime, so an effort to see through the smoke and decifer the facts are the talents the news department must have. Mess up and you have opened a can of worms and they're crawling everywhere.

I would not let a candidate say "vote for me" but would encourage them to instead "get out there and vote".

 

[bturner]

A point on the 'experimental' role of LPFM.

Yes, LPFM is experimental. With the financial conditions of most LPFMs, why fear the FCC? They will fine you. You prove you cannot pay the fine. They drop or greatly lower the fine. You say you are sorry and the FCC says that next time they'll yank your license.

LPFM needs to find its niche. I think the FCC will allow this. The FCC tends to react versus act. It is likely other broadcasters you must fear. Perhaps trying to have a good relationship with the other stations around is your best bet. After all, LPFM or full power, we are all radio people, mostly sharing the same dream and a cooperative spirit goes much further. You don't have to be best friends forever, but an extended hand of cooperation and respect will surely do wonders.

I personally think LPFM's very restrictive box should allow for either a commercial operation of sorts or an ability to do more. Although I'm not a fan of owning hundreds of stations, why is it a LPFM is limited to one station and you cannot own your translator if you're lucky enough to get one? Logistically, Hudspeth County, Texas, for example, is a nice case for my thinking: a county-wide LPFM. Put a LPFM in Fort Hancock, Sierra Blanca and Dell City. Common programming on all 3 stations. None of the towns could support a LPFM by itself. It would take 50,000 watts or more to reach the whole county and not enough businesses and organizations to pay off such an investment. So, I would have to find a friend or two to get translators for the other towns to make this happen? How moronic is this? What does it matter if the LPFM or the LPFM Organization's "friend" does? Just plain stupid. Now it can be done in a deceptive way within the rules, and this gets done all the time, but both the FCC and all of us here know what is going on, So, why must it be done deceptively to be 'legal'? Limiting an organization to 1 LPFM license is discrimination, plain and simple. If the FCC wants to keep this rule, let's apply it to EVERY class of station.

 

[Talk_Dude]

Yes, Yes, Yes. Radio stations have a choice: issue a political rate card for the lowest cost per unit for the 3 month time frame (date of card until election is 3 months) and sell to every candidate qualified to run for office and even Joe that decided he wants to be a write-in candidate a month before the election...OR...Refuse to sell Political Advertising.

Consider that it's usually an uphill fight for any challenger against an incumbent. That means that incumbents would usually benefit more from no political ads from anybody than from running their own ads against the challenger.