Could a Part 15 get Sports games?

[RPowers]

... With a Part 15 you may attract an audience of 0 to 4 people and with an internet station done right you can have a listenership in the thousands. You choose.

You make several good point josh, all of which I agree with wholeheartedly - but I have to disagree with your closing comment.
To start with, providing the part15 broadcast is AM, under 15.219, then your potential is far greater than a 0-4 people audience! Even in the poorest of ground conductivity, or interference proned areas you can easily legally achieve 1/2 mile, a mile, or more of a useable signal.. (especially so if you make the primary objective to people in their car).

So actually the best option would be to have both the on-air broadcast and the internet stream.. That way your community has access to the programing even when away from their computers. All they have to do is to turn on the radio.

 

[phils07]

Yeah I think I'll get an AM transmitter, be on AM & FM, and get a webstream, try and get High School Football and/or basketball, give local news reports for the town, still play music, maybe get schoolboard meetings, and more. I'd use the FM for all music and the AM for reaching the community.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

Fox Sports Radio and Sporting New Radio will work with Part 15 stations. Contact them.

Indeed, FSR's long-time Flagstaff AZ affiliate is (theoretically) a Part 15 AMer at 1650. (I say "theoretically", because I don't know what he actually runs.)

http://www.foxsports1650.com/

Flagstaff is a fairly compact city, though he'd need more than one Part 15 transmitter to get anywhere.

However, the station operator is also placing his audio on the local cable system (Suddenlink 99).

Advice re: this thread...look for games of community interest that full-power broadcasters don't want, and look to expand beyond a "4 house radius"...maybe a deal like the Flagstaff station has with the cable system?

 

[LibertyNT]

The Flagstaff Station uses 4 Rangemasters Synced to one another placed in various parts of the City.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

Sounds like a logistical nightmare. Does he get pretty decent coverage of populated areas, or just some parts of town?

 

[RPowers]

I'm curious about them too, I'm always looking for evidence of large audience part15 operations, but they seem to be scarce.
Their website provides no indication whatsoever about utilizing part15 transmitters.. Is this as not to draw attention? - or becuase they consider it irrelevant?

I've heard the opinion numerous times that it is actually better not to emphasize that your operations are part15, but I've tended to have the mindset of providing full information up front, ie: answering the questions before they're even asked, to avoid having your local community (or others) being suspicious that you are a pirating.
But perhaps my mindset on the matter is flawed.. My website is flooded with emphasis of being part15.. maybe it shouldn't be.

I don't know, Flagstaff appears to be running successfully by keeping mum about it..
Maybe there is something in that.

 

[LibertyNT]

Hell that Flagstaff station was the #3 ranked station at one point.
I THINK they cover the whole city, but I'm not sure.

 

[RPowers]

Are any of those involved in the Flagstaff operations do any posting on the forums?.. (I guess I ought to browse around the Arizona section and see.)

How would one go about taking an armchair look around their part15 situation? I'd like to peek on how they manage to do synchronized audio feeds to their separate transmitter locations.. By simple IP won't work.. Microwave maybe?,.. and how might the xmtrs be installed? - Ground mounts? elevated? ungrounded?

Damn, I'd love to have a peek around a successful operation like theirs.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

The guy actually posted here with the screen name "upnorth" way back in 2005, shortly after the FCC issued a notice to his operation:

http://boards.radio-info.com/smf/index.php?topic=7079.0

He said there was a "small technicality" he had to fix, and that the FCC's district director was OK with his operation after that.

I have no evidence he's returned here since 2005, and the upnorth account shows up as "guest" since it was under the previous incarnation of this forum.

Anyone who'd like to reach him...I'm sure you can hook up through the Fox Sports Radio 1650 website, and his office address and phone are not exactly hidden.

Hell that Flagstaff station was the #3 ranked station at one point.

That's still on a chart on his website.

The small print says it was a telephone survey done by some outfit named "DSN".

 

[RPowers]

oh.. I was so intrigued that I failed to even question what the source was which ranked them #3 might be..

By the way, my station was ranked 18th in the entire nation by BSF.
(And no, It's not the Bible Study Fellowship,.. it was Bull Sheet Fabrication Inc. and it was based on a phone survey totaling a double digit number)

Ahhhh. but I'm just speculating, I don't know a thing about them.

Now I'm off to check out that topic link...