New NCE in Amherst (Buffalo suburb)

[aaronread]

Actually, I would be vaguely surprised if a lot of colleges apply for this. Virtually every single college, public or private, is (and has been) facing a severe budget shortfall. And because of the way most colleges structure their annual endowment payments, they'll be feeling severe monetary pain for another two to four years even after the market recovers...which it's still years away from doing yet.

Remember, you're looking at anywhere from $100k to $500k in startup costs for facilities, equipment and staff, and anywhere from $50k to $250k in total annual costs. And no NCE station, no matter how successful, is going to be budget-neutral in less than two years, probably more like 4 or 5 years...if ever. That's a long time to be facing hefty subsidies for an inherently non-core-mission*** activity at a time when your college is probably laying people off, or at least freezing salaries. Or in some cases, staring hard at eliminating entire departments.

Audio4TV does bring back Scott's very valid point, though: as much as I'm sure WNED wants that FM outlet...and I'm sure they'll at least try to get it...their existing licenses hurt their chances quite a bit. Even if they're commercial licenses like WNED's are, it still counts against them if other, equal, applicants have zero licenses.

*** Even for schools with a radio curriculum, I would not consider this FM allocation "core mission", because you could achieve the same educational goals with a web-only station at one-tenth the cost.

 

[caveman-97]

The FCC will give a strong preference to a university owned by the state. If the state doesn't want the channel, you can bet your bippy that the station will program religion. WNY may be saturated with religious radio but you'll never convince a church that there is too much Jesus. There are vast numbers of Christian satellite services and the station could be operated for not much more than the cost of the electricity. Does any station carry K-LOVE? How about religious rock n' roll? Religious rap should be available any day now.

 

[Bob1370]

"If the state doesn't want the channel, you can bet your bippy that the station will program religion. WNY may be saturated with religious radio but you'll never convince a church that there is too much Jesus. There are vast numbers of Christian satellite services and the station could be operated for not much more than the cost of the electricity."

Wouldn't one of those pay-to-pray outfits actually be at something of a disadvantage in this particular kind of proceeding? They'd get outpointed by any number of locally based organizations.

By the way, is there any legal or regulatory requirement that the FCC grant a CP to ANY of the applicants? Or, if no one other than the usual suspects submits an application, could the FCC sinply decide not to issue a permit to any applicant on grounds that certain criteria under the point system weren't met?

 

[w9wi]

"If the state doesn't want the channel, you can bet your bippy that the station will program religion. WNY may be saturated with religious radio but you'll never convince a church that there is too much Jesus. There are vast numbers of Christian satellite services and the station could be operated for not much more than the cost of the electricity."

Wouldn't one of those pay-to-pray outfits actually be at something of a disadvantage in this particular kind of proceeding? They'd get outpointed by any number of locally based organizations.

By the way, is there any legal or regulatory requirement that the FCC grant a CP to ANY of the applicants? Or, if no one other than the usual suspects submits an application, could the FCC sinply decide not to issue a permit to any applicant on grounds that certain criteria under the point system weren't met?

I don't have time to look it up right now, but I believe the preference for state-owned stations is for statewide networks, such as exist in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and several other states. The preference seems to have made a difference in several recent Iowa decisions. But there is no statewide public radio network in New York, so I'm pretty sure that preference will not come into play here.

And with the above disclaimer in mind... "other-than-the-usual-suspects" applicants do get a preference point, but if nobody gets that point, the applications are still valid. *Someone* will end up with more points than anyone else (probably for most population covered) and get the permit.

I think if the FCC refused to issue a permit to *anyone* they'd get sued for changing their process in mid-stream.

 

[JustPastBuffalo]

Listening to "FM 92.1" CKPC Brantford at home in suburban Buffalo. The signal is consistent and strong, albeit in mono. This isn't tropo ducting. I've heard CKPC many times, even on the Cheezyshitso radio above my workbench in the basement and in the car.

Just heard a good local newscast, sports and traffic, now Phil Collins, "Two Hearts." My receiver isn't connected to a Fybush-like 20 element yagi with rotor atop a thirty foot mast, just a dipole tacked strategically on the wall on the second floor.

Is CKPC moving to another frequency? Didn't the FCC delete 92.1 Amherst from the Table of Assignments. How will this assignment "fit" into Western New York? Will the Amherst assignment be required to run directional, protecting the West-Northwest quadrant? If so, what use is it to anybody west of Harlem Road and Main Street?

Lots of questions. I know you have answers.

 

[caveman-97]

One more question is why this channel wasn't available 25 years ago. In most Eastern metro areas, every channel that could be used has been assigned for many years.

 

[fybush]

One more question is why this channel wasn't available 25 years ago. In most Eastern metro areas, every channel that could be used has been assigned for many years.

The answer to this question is closely related to Jim Pastrick's question - it all has to do with protection to Canada.

Back in the day, Canada and the US had mutual cross-border protection for FM allocations. That went away in the nineties, largely (at least as I understand it) at the behest of Canada, which wanted to move a slew of AMs to FM but had no room to do so on the crowded southern Ontario/WNY dial.

Enter the new rules, which allow each country to do whatever it wants, as long as the predicted interference stays on its own side of the border. So Canada can (and did) allot 94.7 to Hamilton, creating all kinds of new interference to WNED-FM on the Canadian side. Since then, they've also put new southern Ontario signals on 92.9, 93.5, 96.3, 98.5, 99.5, 102.3, 102.7, 103.5, 103.9, 106.5 and 106.7. In some cases, the spacing has been too close for comfort for the new Canadian stations, and we've seen some of those new Canadian FMs change frequency pretty quickly after finding half of their coverage wiped out by existing Buffalo signals.

But of course the rules work both ways, and while the dial was already pretty full in western NY, the rules change allowed a few new allocations to squeeze in, like the 102.1 in Albion that neatly blocks CFNY out of Rochester...and, yes, 92.1 Amherst. Whoever ends up with 92.1 Amherst has to accept whatever interference they receive from CKPC-FM, and they'll get some...but it was a way to get a little more service into the market.

 

[aaronread]

The FCC will give a strong preference to a university owned by the state.

There are provisions for Points to be given to statewide networks, but there is no statewide public radio network in NY so that wouldn't apply here. However, if the NYS Department of Transportation wanted it for a quasi-TIS/HAR station, though...or maybe a state parks/recreation network (if one exists, I don't know)...THAT might get extra Points. Given the $5 Billion (with a "B") budget deficit NYS has right now, I don't think there's any money for a new TIS/HAR station. One never knows, though.

Actually...wait a minute. Aren't all the SUNY and CUNY stations officially owned by the main SUNY office in Albany? I seem to remember that has caused problems for SUNY schools attempting to get LPFM and other NCE licenses because it's all considered to be "owned by Albany" and thus all count against you as "you already own 33 stations" (or whatever the number is across the state).

In this case, though, would the FCC consider it a "statewide network" if a SUNY school applied for 92.1?

 

[Radio_bored-Op]

Since I'm not exactly sure, I will just ask:

Are there restrictions to this 'new' station @ 92.1 FM
-May an individual apply for this freq....
and,
If individual applies and awarded/granted this freq.,
may it be CHR, for example, with OUT any community involvement.
(i'm not encouraging that, just curious).

or...a small radio group (or bigger, Clear Channel, owning just one station here),
permitted to apply as well for this frequencey? Or, is *NCE*(PS: what does that stand for)
reserve what the station may output.... as far as music, "local" news, etc...

 

[JakeLongwell]

NCE stands for Non-Commercial Educational.

As such, only non profit groups, educational institutions, and government agencies can apply for and operate NCE stations.
Individual citizens, and commercial broadcasters, cannot apply for NCE licenses.

As far as programming, that is entirely up to whoever operates the station. The FCC got out of the format business decades ago. The only time they might step in is if the station were running blatent commercial advertising, instead of the acceptable underwriting announcements heard on most NCE broadcasters.

 

[aaronread]

As such, only non profit groups, educational institutions, and government agencies can apply for and operate NCE stations. Individual citizens, and commercial broadcasters, cannot apply for NCE licenses.

While true, it's actually not terribly hard to qualify to be a "non-commercial, educational" institution. One might argue that's part of the problem, but I digress...

The biggest part is that you have to be a registered not-for-profit business with the state you're based in. That's basically a filing fee (usually in the $500/yr range) and some paperwork for you and a few friends (or fellow believers). Your non-profit is supposed to have an educational mission but that's a mighty thin concept these days. You can't quite get away with just saying you're "educational" when clearly you're not. But pretty much any school of any kind (accredited or not), any religious outfit, or any arts/culture organization, will qualify almost by default.

Of course, the FCC has "safeguards" to prevent people from forming a non-profit overnight and muscling in on the applications process. If you can demonstrate that you've been in existence for X years, and local to the COL, then you get more points.

 

[gary adams]

so what does that mean for student run stations like wber thats part of boces and z89 in syracuse i think the fcc should allocate more of these student run stations at 100 or even 250 watts they are still nce's