In their defense, I know a bunch of groups that set off on that journey to LPFM who had a multitude of reasons it never happened. We're talking city/county getting in the way, high rental rates on towers (as if you're a cell operator versus hanging a dinky antenna), boards that voted the founder out, boards that get cold feet and much more. At one station after construction was arranged and equipment purchased 3 of the 4 board members resigned and with that went the studio and tower site. The worst part is many times it was a fight among the board members trying to do radio for their personal tastes instead of the original plan. I'm stressing the resignations were based sometimes on ego, not anything else. Some had the needed cash on day one but as time moved on the best laid plans left them with not enough cash to build. There is so much that can go wrong during the journey you'd think they were making the stuff up. It is more common than rare!
At one station a guy put up all the money and did all the work only to have the board tie his hands (ie: we won't approve any marketing for the station nor allow you to sell Underwriting, ask for listener donations, etc.). One poor fellow was voted out after paying for the equipment and labor to build the station. I'm blown away hearing some of the stories. One station where the guy that started it, putting up the full investment, was not allowed to operate the station with the board stating all his experience over decades was in commercial radio and the board and he had an equal amount of experience running a non-commercial station, so things were going to run their way (as in everything you know about commercial radio means nothing and we know as much as you). Keep in mind, each one of these was where the person putting up the money and labor assembled the board that was fully behind him until the station went on the air. It was like they woke up one morning on a power trip. In these instances, the LPFM simply went away and nobody got anything but misery.
Lots of groups have never even been inside a radio station to visit and when they got the CP they realized they had no clue. They don't get why people aren't opening their wallets wide to give just because they want to construct a radio station. In other words their mental image is far removed from reality.
