WMEX 1510 in the Boston Market runs METV-FM during off hours. They stream. They're also on the Radio.Com app - I wonder how much a rinky dink little station like WMEX and their two sister stations WATD FM and their other AM sister station on 1460 pays to be on Radio.Com
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Franken FM End Date: 7/13/21
- Thread starter TheBigA
- Start date
WMEX 1510 in the Boston Market runs METV-FM during off hours. They stream. They're also on the Radio.Com app - I wonder how much a rinky dink little station like WMEX and their two sister stations WATD FM and their other AM sister station on 1460 pays to be on Radio.Com
Granted I think anything is available for the right price, who is to say if there's a station available to let them run their programming 24/7?
But that's not how the vast majority of consumers feel. Smartphones have become people's lifeline, literally. Phones provide audio and video entertainment, movies, news, weather, opinion, encyclopedia's worth of reference material, games, and the ability to remain in constant contact with friends and family. All this in a device smaller than your portable HD radio.
I'll bet that 99.6% of American's under the age of 50 would rather go hungry than stop paying for their smartphone.
There are a limited number of owners in Chicago. Several stations have been sold during the time WRME has been at 87.7. They could have made the move before. There are two translators on the market right now. All we know is the clock is ticking, and Weigel will have to move by July.
If it’s anything like iHeartRadio, Radio.com is a barter service. You have to give up a certain number of online spots and have to agree to promote it a certain number of times a day on your regular on-air signal. Plus, they take a commission for any spot they sell on your behalf. You might also need to air a few spots per day on your regular on-air signal.
From what I heard from friends at Cumulus, you also have to pay your own performance royalties. You might also have to pay if there’s a ”support issue” for your station(s). That’s a standard fee most of your single station apps charge. No matter how good you are or how much you try to avoid it, you'll almost always encounter a “support issue” roughly every 6 months. Pretty much anytime you call or email them, you pay.
Barring a late grandfathering-in of the most successful Franken-FMs by the FCC. That would seem unlikely, but then, the Franken-FM loophole having survived this long is just as, if not more, unlikely. Weigel could be sitting tight because it knows the fix is in.
But it's one more thing I DON'T want to have to pay for or to buy additional equipment. Why is that a difficult concept to grasp?
I like radio, where I get in any of my vehicles, turn on that radio that came with the car and listen for free. No additional aftermarket equipment, no equipment to have to shuffle between vehicles, no subscriptions, etc...
When I get to work, I can have a stream running, on the internet in the background while I work, for free (to me anyway).
No muss, no fuss.
Yeah, that's true. As has been pointed out on RD a lot before, the smartphone is turning into the new 'radio'.
I heard that it was millennials' replacement for a car!
Might as well be. It takes them to Amazon, which has taken the place of all the local stores (except grocery) they used to go to by car. And they can even order their groceries for home delivery on their smartphones as well.
At least the app on their phone for rental of electric scooters and those orange bicycles.
Ha! I am definitely a Millennial. Truthfully, I use my laptop much more than my smart phone. I could go without my smartphone for a while. I couldn't live without my laptop tho!
To the point earlier, it is nice to have a HD radio as a separate device, because it's something you can just turn on and leave alone. No bluetooth pairing, no buffering, no AUX cord. If you live in a city (like Chicago) with a decent variety of channels, HD radio is a good long-term option for the price. HD radio took a while to catch on. But people that I know who use it enjoy it.
Streaming opens up a world of options, but a lot of those have a monthly subscription fee. The pre-2008 variety of streaming radio just doesn't exist any more. You need a Spotify or SiriusXM subscription to access the variety of what was once free.
I'm not so sure about a streaming-only platform for WRME. Remember when Q101 spun off as a streaming-only broadcaster? It didn't catch on.
I have moved a number of posts which have nothing to do with the original subject here:
I don't have a great deal of sympathy for the Franken FM's. You've got to remember that these stations are licensed as analog television stations. They are using a loophole in the FCC Rules to operate as FM stations. The FCC should have stopped it many, many years ago.
As for equipment, it's doubtful whether their existing transmitters could be converted for D+A operation.
I'm not sure that there are transmitters available which would meet the digital + analog needs of these stations.
In any event, the new transmitters would be expensive ... very expensive.
As for equipment, it's doubtful whether their existing transmitters could be converted for D+A operation.
I'm not sure that there are transmitters available which would meet the digital + analog needs of these stations.
In any event, the new transmitters would be expensive ... very expensive.
In exactly three months, listeners of audio facilities that most think are radio stations could be left scrambling, due to a “sudden” loss of an over-the-air signal they’ve tuned to for years.
That’s because these FM choices aren’t licensed as radio stations, but are analog TV stations using VHF Channel 6 — and benefiting from old-school transponding audio at 87.7 MHz.
On July 13, this is scheduled to end. While there’s chatter among the licensees that this won’t happen, a notable foe of these so-called “Franken FM” facilities has emerged.
It’s NPR.
Could there be new life for the ‘Franken FM,’ despite the long-known shutdown date of July 13 for analog VHF Channel 6 facilities? The RBR+TVBR Spring 2021 Special Report, distributed April 26 to all subscribers, offers an exclusive look at what’s predicted in three months’ time.
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Bless their hearts. Of course they would. 
I would think any entity with an interest in maintaining an interference-free signal for its programming at 88.1 would be entirely justified in fighting the presence, on a second-adjacent frequency that lies outside the band authorized for FM radio, of a television station masquerading as a radio station.
Not only that, the FCC defines the non-commercial educational band as 87.9 to 91.9. This frequency wasn't included because it's not legally licensed as a radio station. So they've created a loophole around FCC rules, which the FCC is trying to close. If the FCC wants to open this frequency, then it should be subject to the NCE rules, and open for applications by new NCE licensees.
I'm curious about this "chatter among the licensees" that the FCC will back down. On what do they base this optimism? Surely a rinky-dink operation like WRME/MeTV-FM couldn't be "too big to fail"!
WRME isn't the licensee. They operate under an LMA to another group. That group seems to think they have a plan to get around the deadline, and we've discussed this elsewhere.
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