FCC to consider ongoing operation of existing FM6/Franken FMs, Expanded FM Band and Elimination of Reserved Band Protection Requirements

[davideduardo]

We have LPs littering our dial, including one that is literally a simulcast of a local AM station running the same Catholic programming.

Those translators (an LPFM is different) usually require an AM in order to be on the air. So even if they wanted to turn the AM off, they could not without losing the FM authorization.

(Some translators do not require a local AM...such as non-commercial operators like K-Love that use them to cover many areas of the country)

 

[Harvey_Dogg]

Most of the low power signals in Charleston are indeed translators. There are two LPFM's. Bishop England High School has one on 102.9. It's religious. The other is run by Media Reform SC. It's a variety station on 96.3.

 

[Rusty Muck]

I am positive the K-love folks would object vigorously. They like being amid commercial stations, not isolated at the "left" side of the dial.

At the same time, they’d have a dedicated reserved spot on the dial with a cohesive marketing reach and an audience that will know where to find them, with inherited licenses that can be upgraded to maximum power per zone. (This, of course, doesn’t include WPLJ because of channel 6 Philadelphia.)

The use of translators by stations in small and medium markets has been enormously successful. Daytime AMs have benefited the most, followed by stations on the former Class IV local channels. And many highly directional stations got improved fulltime coverage. Of course, the main benefit is moving away from a band that nobody under 50 really wants to listen to.

Which is fine, those stations finally have a way to be financially successful and attract audiences. It just wasn’t “AM Revitalization” but “FM Migration” and it should have been framed as such. Class D daytimers, for example, should have the ability to turn in their AM licenses and the FM translator is converted to a protected license capped at 250 watts (C10?) that inherits the AMs callsign (assuming it isn’t already in use on the FM dial) and all related history.

 

[Kelly A]

At the same time, they’d have a dedicated reserved spot on the dial with a cohesive marketing reach and an audience that will know where to find them, with inherited licenses that can be upgraded to maximum power per zone.

There are already plenty of NCE's and non-coms at the lower end of the band. The non-coms in the commercial side are well established with their listeners. To ask them to move would be suicide, and they know it. We're not living in the 70's anymore, and consumers aren't radio nerds. Modern radio listeners don't seek out a station that's moved. Instead, the listener moves on to something else, whether that's streaming or an app. Why give listeners a reason to go away from radio?
I suffered through this example several years ago. One of my stations had a forced-move due to an allocation change in a nearby larger market. In spite of doing what we could financially to promote the frequency move, we lost 50% of our audience from one day to the next. It took over three years to get an additional estimated 25% back, but through research found that the remaining 25% just moved on to something else. Especially these days, one can't afford to lose that percentage of audience.

 

[Harvey_Dogg]

Many of the full power noncommercial stations in the commercial FM band actually have commercial licenses.

Once, Butler University had WAJC on 104.5 MHz in Indianapolis. It was run noncommercial. They sold WAJC several years ago and it is now WJJK. It's now the number one rated commercial station.

WKLU 101.9 MHz in Indianapolis is K-Love's flagship station. They paid more than six million for that commercial license. It once was mine. I found the frequency and started the station from scratch.

WFIU 103.7 MHz is another commercial license being run noncommercially by Indiana University.

So because these are commercial licenses, they can't be moved into the educational part of the FM band.

 

[KeithE4]

Many of the full power noncommercial stations in the commercial FM band actually have commercial licenses.

Once, Butler University had WAJC on 104.5 MHz in Indianapolis. It was run noncommercial. They sold WAJC several years ago and it is now WJJK. It's now the number one rated commercial station.

WKLU 101.9 MHz in Indianapolis is K-Love's flagship station. They paid more than six million for that commercial license. It once was mine. I found the frequency and started the station from scratch.

WFIU 103.7 MHz is another commercial license being run noncommercially by Indiana University.

So because these are commercial licenses, they can't be moved into the educational part of the FM band.

WFIU and WAJC started life in the noncommercial segment: WFIU on 90.9 and WAJC on 91.9. WFIU moved to 103.7 in 1952, and WAJC moved to 104.5 in 1955. The notice of WAJC's move in the 7/11/1955 edition of Broadcasting Magazine says that it was to be licensed as a commercial station. As far as I've been able to research, 104.5 had never been used in Indianapolis before WAJC moved there.

WFIU kept its non-commercial license after moving from 90.9, per the 11/5/1951 edition of Broadcasting. It's listed as an NCE in the CDBS database today. It had replaced WSUA-FM on 103.7, which had gone out of business in 1950.

 

[gr8oldies]

Many of the full power noncommercial stations in the commercial FM band actually have commercial licenses.

Once, Butler University had WAJC on 104.5 MHz in Indianapolis. It was run noncommercial. They sold WAJC several years ago and it is now WJJK. It's now the number one rated commercial station.

WKLU 101.9 MHz in Indianapolis is K-Love's flagship station. They paid more than six million for that commercial license. It once was mine. I found the frequency and started the station from scratch.

WFIU 103.7 MHz is another commercial license being run noncommercially by Indiana University.

So because these are commercial licenses, they can't be moved into the educational part of the FM band.

All it takes to switch between commercial and non-commercial is a note to the FCCnIn the commercial band

 

[Michi]

All it takes to switch between commercial and non-commercial is a note to the FCCnIn the commercial band

Actually, it's just a little more than a note. It's a Modification of License application, which still needs to be granted (and usually are).

 

[AnyHuman]

Aren't modifications to change power and height known as "minor"? Why not just "modifications"?

 

[DaveBayArea]

The Japanese FM band may start there, but name ONE radio sold in the US that tunes it.

My Tecsun PL-380. It's an option buried under a function switch.

Dave B.

 

[kwthom]

Are all the chips programmable in every make and model of car, or just some of them? The big question is whether doing that involves removing the radio module from the car, or whether it can be done by just plugging a device into the car's electronic system and sending an update.

Y'know, I'll go with 'it depends'.

How many FM receiver integrated circuit devices are there on the market that's been utilized in the auto receiver market? I'm certain that number has been shaved away over the last decade or three since they have been implemented in widescale volume of units sold.

My suspicion would be vehicle manufacturers that have an international market (many of the Asian mfrs, for example) probably do have means to have the radio programmed to the band that the vehicle is being sent to. Whether or not the reverse is true (export from North America, for example) my suspicion also is that the hardware is in the vehicle; it just needs to be enabled for the market.

The Japanese FM band may start there, but name ONE radio sold in the US that tunes it.
<...>

The Bluetooth transceiver marketed for motorcycle use by the S. Korea manufacturer Sena that I recently bought has an FM receiver that has a user-configurable band selection process. My understanding is this has been integrated over the last several years of marketing these devices.

Thus, the possibility that it could be done in the future is not zero. It's still a really, really small number, though.

 

[Mediafrog+]

My Tecsun PL-380. It's an option buried under a function switch.

There are a number of radios that can be reconfigured to go down to 76 MHz, and there are models that go even lower adding the OIRT FM band (65.8 to 74 MHz.) Usually involves some odd combination of pressing buttons.

 

[gr8oldies]

There are a number of radios that can be reconfigured to go down to 76 MHz, and there are models that go even lower adding the OIRT FM band (65.8 to 74 MHz.) Usually involves some odd combination of pressing buttons.

How many Americans are going to do that?

 

[anotherguyTN]

My Tecsun PL-380. It's an option buried under a function switch.

Dave B.

I have a Sansa Clip MP3 player with FM radio that could be set to 76 Mhz for Japanese FM. But it's about equal to cell phones in using the headphones for the antenna. Not exactly a DX quality receiver.

 

[davideduardo]

How many FM receiver integrated circuit devices are there on the market that's been utilized in the auto receiver market? I'm certain that number has been shaved away over the last decade or three since they have been implemented in widescale volume of units sold.

Good point. Also in the mix is the AM band which is at 9 kHz steps everywhere but the Western Hemisphere.

Two possibilities: there is a separate variant of the chip for 10 kHz AM and 88-108 FM for our hemisphere and another for the rest of the world.

My suspicion would be vehicle manufacturers that have an international market (many of the Asian mfrs, for example) probably do have means to have the radio programmed to the band that the vehicle is being sent to. Whether or not the reverse is true (export from North America, for example) my suspicion also is that the hardware is in the vehicle; it just needs to be enabled for the market.

The number of nations where the FM band goes below 88 is limited.

From Wiki (with all the necessary "it's just Wikipedia" cautions):

The FM broadcast band is a range of radio frequencies used for FM broadcasting by radio stations. The range of frequencies used differs between different parts of the world. In Europe and Africa (defined as International Telecommunication Union (ITU) region 1) and in Australia and New Zealand,[1] it spans from 87.5 to 108 megahertz (MHz) - also known as VHF Band II - while in the Americas (ITU region 2) it ranges from 88 to 108 MHz. The FM broadcast band in Japan uses 76 to 95 MHz, and in Brazil, 76 to 108 MHz. The International Radio and Television Organisation (OIRT) band in Eastern Europe is from 65.9 to 74.0 MHz, although these countries now primarily use the 87.5 to 108 MHz band, as in the case of Russia. Some other countries have already discontinued the OIRT band and have changed to the 87.5 to 108 MHz band.

The Bluetooth transceiver marketed for motorcycle use by the S. Korea manufacturer Sena that I recently bought has an FM receiver that has a user-configurable band selection process. My understanding is this has been integrated over the last several years of marketing these devices.

That may be more true for aftermarket devices than for vehicles that are standardized for regions or specific nations. Cars can't be shipped in the mail or by UPS. Audio devices can.

Thus, the possibility that it could be done in the future is not zero. It's still a really, really small number, though.

Yes, agree. I suspect that the integrated car computer systems are programmed for each nation or region to comply with standards and local conditions. The incentive to change the range of the FM band will be minimal.

 

[davideduardo]

There are a number of radios that can be reconfigured to go down to 76 MHz, and there are models that go even lower adding the OIRT FM band (65.8 to 74 MHz.) Usually involves some odd combination of pressing buttons.

Many of the nations using the OIRT band have or are abandoning it.

 

[Mediafrog+]

How many Americans are going to do that?

Wasn’t suggesting any Americans would reconfigure to the lower FM bands unless they were traveling to Japan or one of the countries still using OIRT (and those still using OIRT aren’t places Americans would want to travel to right now…) Just that there is that option.

 

[Mediafrog+]

Many of the nations using the OIRT band have or are abandoning it.

According to the 2022 WRTH only four countries are left on the OIRT band: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova. Several others have shut it down the past few years.

The Russian government VGTRK stations appear to have closed their OIRT outlets in the past year or so…many listed in the 2021 WRTH but gone in the 2022 edition. There are a number of private Russian FMs still using the OIRT band.

 

[davideduardo]

According to the 2022 WRTH only four countries are left on the OIRT band: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova. Several others have shut it down the past few years.

The Russian government VGTRK stations appear to have closed their OIRT outlets in the past year or so…many listed in the 2021 WRTH but gone in the 2022 edition. There are a number of private Russian FMs still using the OIRT band.

Take care of your WRTH. It's the last one they will issue unless someone who wants to lose money buys it and keeps publishing.

 

[MarioMania]

Didn't the FCC do this back in 2009 & People wasn't interested in Expaning the FM Band down to 76 MHz

What's so different now?