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Low Power FM Stations or LPFMs

I wish they did stream. In fact, they don't even have a website. Sometimes a page is posted by the library but nothing more than the dial position.

I think the thing that really impressed me with this community was the connectivity to everyone. The Coop Grocery Store buys local produce and goods, for example. The newer residents are really set of offering services to the community and bringing dollars in. The thing that amazed me was how the long time and newer residents existed in such harmony. They're actually on the same page. I think a typical community would gather into two factions with differing views for the community.

I actually wrote down the schedule that was posted on the community bulletin board but have not located that scrap of paper. Musically the station is all over the place: jazz, country, rock, pop, Spanish, a little classical, etc. They play a CD all the way through at 6pm daily.

To say the least, the region is pretty eclectic. I think there is a solar powered station in the general area, for example, calling themselves the green station.

I'm not sure what I like most, the community or the station.
 
Up in the Pacific Northwest I visited a small town station. It was a soft AC/country station. You could hear Conway Twitty, Kingston Trio, Little River Band, James Taylor, the Beatles and the Bee Gees in the same hour. This station served about 500 people in a region that is not considered rural but a frontier. The local paper only appeared every other week the county was so small and I doubt they made money.

At any rate, this was another 'only station on the dial' situation. The operator is retired from radio and houses the station at the school although he does production at home. The station is poorly equipped but it works since it was all donated. I think a Radio Shack mixer was being used. The computer kept things going as there was only one local show I knew of at the time. They did sign off on weekadys but stayed on around the clock on weekends.

The same local newscast and weather gets aired at the top of every hour. Various voices (mostly students) are featured on the Underwriter Announcements. The station does a tape delay of the public meetings. I assume this to be City, School and County. Outside of this it is music, news and weather. I think they were working on doing school sports and I think they covered graduation on the station. In small towns, the school is what the community revolves around.

The station had, I think, had 9 sponsors when I was there. I recall the package was $20 a month for 3 per day Monday through Friday. As the operator put it, he thought $20 was affordable for all the businesses large and small (I think the grocery store and the new car dealership should be spending much, much more as they are well over half of the dollars earned by businesses in the town). Manta listed about 30 businesses in the town.

The station really serves little more than the town itself. This is a hilly area and the town is in a valley.

The station was enjoyable as far as listening goes and rather predictable. Knowing what you'll hear is a good thing for building a core listener base. The operator smartly chose a format that everyone could deal with. It might not be everyone's favorite, but even if the radio dial was crowded, it would be a best choice in the workplace.

I understand the school took care of many of the monthly operating expenses and in return the operator spearheaded the 'radio club' an after school club students could take part in. As a result the operator needn't be a certified teacher and the school has something special.

I thought it was a perfect place for a LPFM but I'd want a community with a little bigger business community. To be honest, I think the might be able to really work the town and bill around $2,000 a month at most but I suspect the gentleman wanted to leave a bit of cash for the local paper. He didn't need a salary from the station and was a nice guy so I think his idea was $20 in support was good enough. In other words, the support was more important than the amount.
 
No, the CD tracked all the way through is from 6 to 7pm.

Somewhere on minidisc I have a recording. If I can locate it, I can drop you a line. If I recall correctly, I have some of a guy with his kid playing acoustic versions of rock classics and the CD of the day. I think it was the Talking Heads.
 
One other note on this station, the one I refer to in the previous post, had, I think 7,000 songs on the hard drive. They had maybe 200 CDs in the small studio and jocks used the two CD players.
 
To answer "Guy" posting:

The reason I ref. my posting on the jobs page is that I am always look for the build out of LpFm's it was a quick
way to tell an owner about my self.

Also I charge $3,000 to file for a non-profit's LpFm......need is the payment & State Charter...

Thank Ron Stekeur
Member of the SBE Philadelphia Chapter
 
$3000.00? And you have "hundreds of clients" already? so by your own admission you have already made $300,000 in LPFM filing's already?
And you are still trolling?
ADMIN; Can something be done regarding this?

[email protected] said:
To :) answ

The reason I ref. my posting on the jobs page is that I am always look for the build out of LpFm's it was a quick
way to tell an owner about my self.

Also I charge $3,000 to file for a non-profit's LpFm......need is the payment & State Charter...

Thank Ron Stekeur
Member of the SBE Philadelphia Chapter
Click to expand...
s a
 
You made yourself a target by trolling for work in a thread where nobody even inquired about engineering.
1. Send me ONE succesful LPFM application with your name on it please.
2. For $3000.00 are you guranteeing a GRANTED application for these "hundred's of clients"?
MODS: Can this part of this thread go away please?

[email protected] said:
well considering that the competition is charging double that...we are are earning our keep.....if you are what they call "haters' then please choose another bulles eye. Have a good night.....

www.lpfmstore.com
Click to expand...
 
This is a great thread, love the stories of differant LPFM stations.

KSOW in Cottage Grove, OR is another classic example of a station serving it's community
Great group that is well liked & has a unique format.
 
Hi Guy, Donnie at KSOW is one of those stations I mentioned already. He's got a great station and he's an exceptional person with a nice vision of a station that serves the community.
 
A bit of a warning to LPFMers looking to apply:

GET YOUR OWN NON-PROFIT and PROTECT IT likr you would your life.

Nighmares have resulted:
One LPFMer linked up with a non-broadcast non-profit. All went really well until the board changed. An attorney started talking liability, people got cold feet and they ordered the station off the air until the station could form a new non-profit without any connection to the entity it was created under.

One broadcaster was instructed to stop all community member shows, all talk programs and underwriting, just allowing music to be played for months. This broadcaster sought a nice cross-section of the community for his board but a segment of that board hijacked the station and ousted the person who applied for and built the station out of his own pocket. They left the license in the applicant's name and then ignored FCC rules.

You must totally trust your board and keep it small to maintain control. Power brings the worst out in some people!
 
Another station I visited was the best AOR styled station I ever heard. Thry did some live oldies shows too. They were located in a eclectic coastal community with only about 125 people and their service area was only about 700 or so.

The mostly computer driven station has a beautifully dayparted album oriented format that leaned a bit more acoustic and pop oriented during the day and a great mix of classic rock and stuff you hadn't heard on an album rocker since it became a calculated format. When have you last heard Midnight Man by The James Gang? How about Meadows by Joe Walsh? Music in 20 minute sets around the clock.

I think some more semi New Age (aka early Windham Hill and other such material) was played overnight on weekend I think.

There were 10 underwriters at $300 a year for an announcement a day...not a bad start for a station that was not that old when I stopped by.

The operator took on the local issues and solicited comments in more unscheduled times during live shows. A couple of Feature Service News (FSN) 5 minute casts aired daily. Live segments were very local from the big window along the main drag in town.

The station was very much a part of the the community's lives. Everybody knew of and most listened to the station.

This is one station I'd pay to listen to on line.

The studio was simple: a laptop and a microphone plus a little mixer.

The earliest days of the station consisted playing a CD through a computer and doing an ID on the hour. Each hout the CD tray was emptied and a new CD began. This was the daily schedule, I think 12 hours a day, until the laptop and softawre were in and loaded with music and IDs.

The station hoped to move about halfway between the town south of them and their community. This way they'd hit both towns and could serve about 6,000 people and generate more revenue. From my checks at the FCC website, it never has happened.
 
Great posts...nice to hear about other LPFM's that are doing well. Don't let some 'wanabe' engineer charging WAY too much for his questionable services bug you. He'll get what he deserves some day..lol.
 
One LPFM that I have listened to, but not visited in person, is WLNT in Loudon, TN. My wife had family in East Tennessee until their move this past December.

WLNT plays a traditional country format with news, weather, community news and high school sports also being offered.

It sounded very professional, and appeared to have a number of local area businesses supporting it.
 
I am familiar with WLNT too. I was listening online one evening to hear a football game and noticed he is running regular commercials which I thought is a no-no for LPFM stations. I also noticed on their web site that they won't play locally produced music, they just play music they get from TM.
 
Lots of LPFM stations have two feeds: one is the non-commercial on air feed and the other being the internet feed with actual commercials. Since the internet stream is not required to be non-commercial, they can play spots there. It operates just like the satellite delivered formats...the breaks are covered with different content but the programming is identical on both feeds.
 
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