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NCE Stations in Non-Reserved Band
- Thread starter radio11
- Start date
Tons in Alaska.. KIYU, KYUK, KOTZ.. all NPR member stations have signals in the commercial band
We don't need this to be a let's list every station thread...
There's hundreds of them now.
There's hundreds of them now.
Indeed, I did a search on FM query which tells me there were 821 full-power NC facilities, plus 6492 NCE translators, and 1905 LPFMs in the commercial band.
If you want the full list, have at it: FCC FM Query
EDIT: Looking a bit closer, I think the translator count is ALL translators, not just NCEs.
If you want the full list, have at it: FCC FM Query
EDIT: Looking a bit closer, I think the translator count is ALL translators, not just NCEs.
When the FM band was young, the FCC reserved the frequencies below 92 MHz for non-commercial use. It was a noble idea, setting aside part of the dial for universities and other non-profit organizations. In those days, it was rare for a non-commercial station to appear in the commercial band. A few are so old I think they pre-date the non-commercial band such as WNYC-FM New York at 93.9 MHz. But as said above, some non-commercial stations above 92 began as commercial stations that became available and switched to non-commercial use.
In NYC, WBAI at 99.5 was originally a commercial station but that ended in 1960 when its owner donated it to Pacifica. In those days, it wasn't much of a donation. Few FM stations were profitable in an era when only a handful of people owned FM receivers. WBAI could go back to commercial status if it were ever sold.
And that's what happened at 94.7 FM. It was originally a commercial station but was bought by Family Radio in 1963 and switched to non-commercial religious use. Then in 2012, Family Radio leader Harold Camping made the awful decision to predict the end of the world and push this idea on the public. When the world didn't end, the donations dried up and Family Radio sold the station to Cumulus, which brought it back to commercial status again.
While FM stations above 92 can go back and forth between commercial and non-commercial operation, the stations below 92 cannot. They are forever non-commercial except for stations at 87.7 which is technically analog Channel 6 on TV. And in border markets such as San Diego, there are several stations below 92 broadcasting from Mexico with commercial formats. Canada also doesn't restrict stations below 92.
In NYC, WBAI at 99.5 was originally a commercial station but that ended in 1960 when its owner donated it to Pacifica. In those days, it wasn't much of a donation. Few FM stations were profitable in an era when only a handful of people owned FM receivers. WBAI could go back to commercial status if it were ever sold.
And that's what happened at 94.7 FM. It was originally a commercial station but was bought by Family Radio in 1963 and switched to non-commercial religious use. Then in 2012, Family Radio leader Harold Camping made the awful decision to predict the end of the world and push this idea on the public. When the world didn't end, the donations dried up and Family Radio sold the station to Cumulus, which brought it back to commercial status again.
While FM stations above 92 can go back and forth between commercial and non-commercial operation, the stations below 92 cannot. They are forever non-commercial except for stations at 87.7 which is technically analog Channel 6 on TV. And in border markets such as San Diego, there are several stations below 92 broadcasting from Mexico with commercial formats. Canada also doesn't restrict stations below 92.
Besides the FM channels (92-108 MHz) that can toggle back-n-forth with ownership from commercial to non-comm, there are a handful of allocations in the commercial band that are "permanently" non-comm. They were allocated that way because of the lack of available frequencies in the educational band, much of it caused by a nearby Channel 6 TV allocation. On example would be EMF's 101.5 in The Dalles, Oregon. It can never go commercial. Perhaps changes in the FCC can change this anomaly, especially now that channel 6 full-power (digital) allocations are so few.
The concept of reserved spectrum for "non-profit" use actually goes back to the original Communications Act of 1934. In Section 307(c) of the original Act, it stated:
"The Commission shall study the proposal that Congress by statute allocate fixed percentages of radio broadcasting facilities to particular types of kinds of non-profit radio programs or to persons identified with particular types of kinds of non-profit activities, and shall report to Congress, not later than February 1, 1935, its recommendations together with the reasons for the same". (Broadcasting Division Order No. 1, 1 FCC 25 (1934)).
In the original FM band, there were 5 channels that were reserved for educational use (42.1~42.9) and 35 channels allocated to (commercial) "High Frequency" (FM) Broadcast Stations (43.1~49.9). (Aural Broadcasting on Frequencies Above 25,000 Kilocycles Particularly Relating to Frequency Modulation, Report on Frequency Modulation, 39 FCC 29, 32 (1940)).
I seem to recall that in the earlier years of FM the 88-100 MHz portion of the band was reserved in Alaska for some kind of non-broadcast use, so there would have been no reserved channels available for the first non-com operations.
Class D non comm stations can go anywhere in the 88 to 108 band.. as far as i know, always have been able to.
They have since 1978. This was due to displacement by improved and new reserved band NCE facilities. The Alaska Class D stations can be started anywhere in the band. Again, post 1978.
Cold Coffee
Banned
Many Class D's were upgraded to 100 watt Class A's around that time which protected them from displacement.
I could hear many Class D stations well over 120 miles away. Those NCE frequencies had few station on their channel back then. Their transmitter's only put out 10 watts.
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KSKO and KIYU are all Class D FM signals, after starting life as 5-10kw AM's Much lower cost to operate.. and becoming a Class A even at 200-300 watts wouldn't gain us square. We'd have to be several kw at real tall height to gain any more listeners.. and in any cases, what wed gain would be maybe 100-200 for ALOT MORE EXPENSE
Plus, KSKO and KIYU are exempt from public file requirements so thats a perfect reason to keep things the way they are.
Plus, KSKO and KIYU are exempt from public file requirements so thats a perfect reason to keep things the way they are.
Darn. I was going to fly up to McGrath just to inspect them. 😂
The second i learned of the exemption, i confirmed with our attorney, then called my office manager and told he i was dropping doing the Public file duties.
i only learned of the exemption when i was bored one day and reading our license renewal paperwork and noticed a public file exemption attachment. id not even been aware of the rule before then
If it's "non-profit, why do some of the owners pay themselves OBSCENE SALARIES which were raked off the donations pot in part obtained by the stations running announcements for volunteers to get the donations?
Their salaries are based on the grant money they bring in from corporations. Call it a commission. It doesn't come from donations. This is common in all non-profits including the Red Cross and the American Cancer Society. The stations have boards of trustees who oversee how the money is spent. If they get federal money, that's also overseen in how it's spent. In Sacramento, there was a crooked GM who used station money to pay for his house. The station sued him and the federal agency sued the station. If you work for a non-profit, everybody is looking at your books.
The principal function of the manager of a listener and community supported station is fund raising, not radio programming. There is no excess of good fund raisers, and the ones that are good command large salaries.
BigA described this well.
Even those stations that get a good amount of direct listener funding depend mostly on the support from local businesses and endowments that can allocate money to them. Getting that money takes skill. Whatever most of them are paid is worth it.
Is that Alaska or anywhere?
I know that at above 92, EMF has at least two full-power North Carolina stations and Augusta Bible Fellowship has one. Bible Broadcasting Network has at least four.
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