Just wanted to point people to my editorial in Radio World about licensing ex-pirates: http://radioworld.com/article/107148
Steve
Steve
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
Radio World Editorial
- Thread starter Improv
- Start date
I'm not against former pirates being allowed to apply to become licensed broadcasters, but I don't understand why anyone in this day and age thinks we need more radio stations -- especially low-powered stations that can't cover their markets. There are too many stations on the air already, and many are struggling to survive.
LPFM was a bad idea, and authorizing more of them is a worse one.
LPFM was a bad idea, and authorizing more of them is a worse one.
While I would always prefer MORE signal over LESS, you can't deny that WHWS-LP covers its market just fine. Doesn't take more than 100 watts to cover a "city" of some 13,000 people like Geneva.
Actually, our biggest problem that I've found is the non-commercial requirements. We can make it work because we're heavily subsidized as a student radio station at a college, but if it weren't for that I'd say it's 50-50 at best that our LPFM could be fiscally self-sustaining. Donation drives are sketchy due to the comparatively small audience, and while there's actually little shortage of quality opportunities to get sponsors...a lot of them are turned off by the underwriting restrictions on what can be said in a spot.
By the same token, though...I understand that if you let it operate as a commercial service, the LPFM station class would quickly morph into something little different than your local Class C AM station in town. Which isn't a dig, really - a lot of them have found ways to make it work...but the idea was for LPFM's to be different from everything else out there.
Actually, our biggest problem that I've found is the non-commercial requirements. We can make it work because we're heavily subsidized as a student radio station at a college, but if it weren't for that I'd say it's 50-50 at best that our LPFM could be fiscally self-sustaining. Donation drives are sketchy due to the comparatively small audience, and while there's actually little shortage of quality opportunities to get sponsors...a lot of them are turned off by the underwriting restrictions on what can be said in a spot.
By the same token, though...I understand that if you let it operate as a commercial service, the LPFM station class would quickly morph into something little different than your local Class C AM station in town. Which isn't a dig, really - a lot of them have found ways to make it work...but the idea was for LPFM's to be different from everything else out there.
Piracy of the airwaves is against federal law. Typically, pirate radio operators are often flagrant and defiant in their breaking of federal law. Yes they're passionate, but to an extreme. They know exactly what they are doing, and don't care. Running a community station is no laughing matter, and generally speaking, this is not the kind of person you want to grant a license to. This is like allowing a drunk driver to own a liquor store. Licensees, especially of LPFM community stations, should be responsible community leaders who can represent the needs of the people. This particular writer might see himself as an exception to this characterization. And that might be. But laws are not about exceptions.
If you want to know where I get off speaking this way, it's because I founded and ran several community stations around the northeast. I agree that passion is an important ingredient, but responsibility is more important.
My suggestion to the writer is to have someone else with a clean record become the licensee, and you become an employee. If I remember correctly, individuals can't apply for LPFMs. It must be done by a non-profit group.
If you want to know where I get off speaking this way, it's because I founded and ran several community stations around the northeast. I agree that passion is an important ingredient, but responsibility is more important.
My suggestion to the writer is to have someone else with a clean record become the licensee, and you become an employee. If I remember correctly, individuals can't apply for LPFMs. It must be done by a non-profit group.
M
MickeyD
Guest
TheBigA said:Piracy of the airwaves is against federal law. Typically, pirate radio operators are often flagrant and defiant in their breaking of federal law. Yes they're passionate, but to an extreme. They know exactly what they are doing, and don't care. Running a community station is no laughing matter, and generally speaking, this is not the kind of person you want to grant a license to. This is like allowing a drunk driver to own a liquor store. Licensees, especially of LPFM community stations, should be responsible community leaders who can represent the needs of the people. This particular writer might see himself as an exception to this characterization. And that might be. But laws are not about exceptions.
If you want to know where I get off speaking this way, it's because I founded and ran several community stations around the northeast. I agree that passion is an important ingredient, but responsibility is more important.
My suggestion to the writer is to have someone else with a clean record become the licensee, and you become an employee. If I remember correctly, individuals can't apply for LPFMs. It must be done by a non-profit group.
The playing field should be level. There are no restrictions against a pirate owning a regular AM, FM TV, or Internation Broadcast Station. Just ask Allan Weiner. The NAB doesn't like LPFM and the restrictions on it are unfair and make owning one nearly impossible.
MickeyD said:The playing field should be level. There are no restrictions against a pirate owning a regular AM, FM TV, or Internation Broadcast Station. Just ask Allan Weiner. The NAB doesn't like LPFM and the restrictions on it are unfair and make owning one nearly impossible.
BS. The bar SHOULD be higher. The purpose of an LPFM isn't to compete with AM/FM/TV, or to give some hobbyist an outlet to play his or her favorite songs. If I had written the law, I would have put in a rule that LPFM can't play music. They should be localized information and community service period. In any case, there will be no shortage of applicants, and hopefully these new stations will serve a purpose beyond ego gratification for a handful of people.
TheBigA said:If I had written the law, I would have put in a rule that LPFM can't play music. They should be localized information and community service period. In any case, there will be no shortage of applicants, and hopefully these new stations will serve a purpose beyond ego gratification for a handful of people.
Bravo!
BS. The bar SHOULD be higher. The purpose of an LPFM isn't to compete with AM/FM/TV, or to give some hobbyist an outlet to play his or her favorite songs. If I had written the law, I would have put in a rule that LPFM can't play music. They should be localized information and community service period.
To play devil's advocate, how exactly do you square this particular circle? On WHWS, from (approx.) 2am to 10am, every morning, we air Radio Bilingue, which is a satellite service from KSJV in Fresno, CA. It's a network, of course...mostly in the American SW and California, but some affiliates elsewhere, too. AFAIK we are the only affiliate in New York state, and certainly we're the only Spanish-language station in the region.
You might think: "Horrors! An LPFM airing a satellite service?!? That's not serving your local community!!!" Well, actually we are. Geneva, NY is in the Finger Lakes, which is mostly farm country...including a lot of wineries. There's a ton of migrant labor in those fields...and while I won't speculate on the legality of their immigration status, they certainly seem to like having a Spanish-language station to listen to. We even have some local underwriters for those times! Radio Bilingue airs all kinds of programming; mariachi music, oldies, techno, news/talk, call-in talk, etc...all of it seems to appeal nicely to that demographic.
Theoretically I would love to be able to hire the 8 to 10 FT people it'd take to duplicate that service locally...but that's patently unrealistic given our market size and demographics.
FWIW, I think LPFM was always a solution looking for a problem. A better solution to the ocean of crapola that the AM and FM dials typically inhabit would be to force the ownership restrictions back in. Perhaps not quite as restrictive as before, but much closer to the old 1 AM, 1FM per market, 8 markets total (IIRC that's what it is before 1996) than what we got now. Sweeten the pot by allowing any company that divests to wipe out its entire debt load.
I never thought it was a good idea to have TOO low a bar for entry into the radio biz; there's something to be said for forcing someone to come up with a viable enough business plan that a bank will loan them the money to make the purchase of a license. But when licenses are going for $100mil a pop, it's just way too high for anyone but the super rich to get into the game. Get those values in the major markets back down to the sub-$5mil range (give or take) and the little guy at least has a chance again. (assuming the medium and rural markets would also have corresponding price drops)
Those saying Low Power FM stations must be different or not air music simply do not understand radio basics or fail to apply them here. I'll explain my reasoning.
Low Power FMs hit a tiny percentage of 'ears' compared to full power stations. Thus, your listener universe is tiny compared to the full power station. To air a format that might target 1 or even 5% of the listeners means you are going for 1 to 5% of a fraction of a full power station's audience potential. Simply put, if the full power cannot make it with a 1-5% of the total listeners audience, then why would a Low Power FM with far fewer potential listeners?
To demand talk is death to virtually every LPFM. Unless you choose syndicated programming of a non-commerciual style, you must man the microphone at all times. Talk is not a cheap format...in fact, likely the most expensive except for all news. Again, if the full power boys cannot do it, then how might a Low Power FM find enough support from a tiny group of listeners?
Would it not make more sense to target a LPFM to serve as much as it can of the listeners in their coverage area with local information not typically heard of the full power stations since they cannot afford to pay so much attention to a segment of their potential audience? As an old radio boss told me, it's what local information you do that serves the community and everything else is just 'filler'.
I've never understood how a group could make it that targeted a tiny fragment of the audience with a LPFM. I've seen denominational churches try to do it and wonder why they have to pull from their pocket to pay the bills. Christian radio only hits 3.5% max. If your LPFM hits 100,000 and you're running denomination driven programming, you start at 3,500 listeners and whittle away the southern gospel, contemporary christian, preaching and teaching stations and EZ christian formats until you reach the remainding tens of listeners that will potentially tune to the station. Likewise, a music or talk format that traditionally hits as many or fewer people faces the same challenge. The number of listeners that will support a station is about like a needle in a haystack. Formats that garner small percentages of the population need hundreds of thousands or millions to make it viable.
Running a LPFM is maximizing everything you can to save money and expand your audience potential. If you're well versed at squeezing a dime out of every penny, you qualify for a possibly successful station. Not trying to slam ideas here, but even LPFMs must have a big enough audience to generate the money to pay the bills that seem small since they're nickle and dime stuff, but believe me, they really add up each month.
Low Power FMs hit a tiny percentage of 'ears' compared to full power stations. Thus, your listener universe is tiny compared to the full power station. To air a format that might target 1 or even 5% of the listeners means you are going for 1 to 5% of a fraction of a full power station's audience potential. Simply put, if the full power cannot make it with a 1-5% of the total listeners audience, then why would a Low Power FM with far fewer potential listeners?
To demand talk is death to virtually every LPFM. Unless you choose syndicated programming of a non-commerciual style, you must man the microphone at all times. Talk is not a cheap format...in fact, likely the most expensive except for all news. Again, if the full power boys cannot do it, then how might a Low Power FM find enough support from a tiny group of listeners?
Would it not make more sense to target a LPFM to serve as much as it can of the listeners in their coverage area with local information not typically heard of the full power stations since they cannot afford to pay so much attention to a segment of their potential audience? As an old radio boss told me, it's what local information you do that serves the community and everything else is just 'filler'.
I've never understood how a group could make it that targeted a tiny fragment of the audience with a LPFM. I've seen denominational churches try to do it and wonder why they have to pull from their pocket to pay the bills. Christian radio only hits 3.5% max. If your LPFM hits 100,000 and you're running denomination driven programming, you start at 3,500 listeners and whittle away the southern gospel, contemporary christian, preaching and teaching stations and EZ christian formats until you reach the remainding tens of listeners that will potentially tune to the station. Likewise, a music or talk format that traditionally hits as many or fewer people faces the same challenge. The number of listeners that will support a station is about like a needle in a haystack. Formats that garner small percentages of the population need hundreds of thousands or millions to make it viable.
Running a LPFM is maximizing everything you can to save money and expand your audience potential. If you're well versed at squeezing a dime out of every penny, you qualify for a possibly successful station. Not trying to slam ideas here, but even LPFMs must have a big enough audience to generate the money to pay the bills that seem small since they're nickle and dime stuff, but believe me, they really add up each month.
Goat Rodeo Cowboy said:TheBigA said:If I had written the law, I would have put in a rule that LPFM can't play music. They should be localized information and community service period. In any case, there will be no shortage of applicants, and hopefully these new stations will serve a purpose beyond ego gratification for a handful of people.
Bravo!
So in other words, you're talking about nothing more than a glorified TIS station. With all due respect, "TheBigA", I'll have to differ with you on that. There are some LPFM stations that truly serve their community quite well providing unique music that other stations totally ignore. And if you think that all LPFM's are run by people whose sole purpose is for "ego gratification for a handful of people", you're sorely mistaken. I know one LPFM station run by a small college that has a very strong following in their area. These people take their work seriously and the listeners in the area they serve are quite supportive if their efforts, year in, year out. Local music, specialty music shows, local college sports and a staff of some great students, faculty and so on really make the station stand out. I have heard many other outstanding LPFM's at colleges, high schools and community groups that really sound great. Yes, there are some LPFM's out there that really sound horrible. But then again, there are some full-powered stations that sound really lousy, as well. But that's the way it is in radio. And that is (IMHO) my take on LPFM.
The longer I contemplate broadcasting as a whole, and LPFM in particular, the pragmatic-centrist-practical side of me begins to cry out: This is not something government can ever, ever, ever manage and regulate in an even-handed sensible way. Government must bend over backwards to avoid being or appear to being showing favoritism and discrimination.
SIDE TOPIC: Not too long ago I was the site manager for government-subsidized house for the elderly and disabled. We were the country-cousin of the Section 8 housing program in the cities. This was Section 515 operating under the direction of the Department of Agriculture. I went to work every day with the same satisfaction I would have experienced if I were managing housing that was church sponsored as a helpful charity, BUT I went to work every day knowing that at least one day out of three I would be caught up in the grasp of all those bureaucratic limitations designed to keep me from granting favors to the senior citizens I liked while dishing out some form of inconvenience and grief to those tenants I disliked. And to be honest about it, I looked for loopholes that would enable me to sometimes do a little of both of those directions. ;D
The dream of LPFM is that creative things should be done to fill empty segments of of our nation with things that are needed and desirable, but not practical under the tension faced by commercial radio. I have no problem with an LPFM doing what Aaron Read describes when he carries some unique "syndicated" material.... particularly when the station then turns in and "seasons the salad" with a reasonable amount of locally flavored dressing.
I do have a problem with someone putting an LPFM into a piece of geography, a community, where 25 to 60 commercial stations playing music are available and then programming nothing more than the music found on some of those stations.
I do have a problem with someone putting an LPFM into a piece of geography and putting syndicated religion on the air with absolutely "NO local flavoring on the salad" when those same programs or their identical twins are already available on maybe 5 to 10 other channels. Far too many of the religion based LPFMs appear to only clear programs that "preach and teach" from the exact same Articles of Faith as the sponsoring congregation. They may be a Baptist congregation and forbid programs produced by other Baptists who are the wrong kind of Baptist. If you are Methodist or Presbyterian or Pentecostal don't even ask! You have about the same probability of getting time on the station as would a Hindu or a Muslin.
Here is an observation that will throw cold water all over your warm fuzzy day-dream of running the perfect, broad-spectrum community-serving radio station.... not just LPFM but commercial as well. For those of you old enough to remember radio of yesteryear, what ever that decade might be in your mind.... that era when for you radio was Golden: If you could go back to 1945, 1955, 1965 or 1975 and get two or three days of tape of every minute of the broadcast day and analyze them, You know, the days we talk about as being live and local, we had a lot of inert matter to fill up the day. Yes, we threw some morsels of localism in there and for it's day it was good.
I remember sitting there in 1958 thinking of myself handcuffed to the console and turntables. would talk for 10 to 40 seconds and then kick off a record. Sit there twiddling my thumbs for 2 minutes 40 seconds so I could say something for 10 to 40 second and kick off the next record. How great it would be to sit down and my average break-in of 25 seconds each bang-bang-bang on some kind of recording medium. 12 to 16 of those little segments would last an hour and now I would have an un-interrupted 45 minutes or so to get on the phone and gather news, may zip down the street to the Chamber of Commerce and do an interview, or sit in the production studio with the mayor for 25 minutes and record half a dozen segments to be dropped in randomly for the next week.
When I see how automation has become a license to dehumanize the broadcast product, I can only mutter the old cliche: What was I thinking!
Folks. It wasn't easy to achieve localism and community service in the old days. In sitting down and trying to reduce to writing an operations manual for a station today, commercial or non-commercial, you can run out of writer's inspiration very, very quickly.
But I don't favor giving the LPFM licensees a Get-Out-Of-Jail card just because it is difficult. We're back to another cliche: Do something, or get off the pot and let someone else do something.
SIDE TOPIC: Not too long ago I was the site manager for government-subsidized house for the elderly and disabled. We were the country-cousin of the Section 8 housing program in the cities. This was Section 515 operating under the direction of the Department of Agriculture. I went to work every day with the same satisfaction I would have experienced if I were managing housing that was church sponsored as a helpful charity, BUT I went to work every day knowing that at least one day out of three I would be caught up in the grasp of all those bureaucratic limitations designed to keep me from granting favors to the senior citizens I liked while dishing out some form of inconvenience and grief to those tenants I disliked. And to be honest about it, I looked for loopholes that would enable me to sometimes do a little of both of those directions. ;D
The dream of LPFM is that creative things should be done to fill empty segments of of our nation with things that are needed and desirable, but not practical under the tension faced by commercial radio. I have no problem with an LPFM doing what Aaron Read describes when he carries some unique "syndicated" material.... particularly when the station then turns in and "seasons the salad" with a reasonable amount of locally flavored dressing.
I do have a problem with someone putting an LPFM into a piece of geography, a community, where 25 to 60 commercial stations playing music are available and then programming nothing more than the music found on some of those stations.
I do have a problem with someone putting an LPFM into a piece of geography and putting syndicated religion on the air with absolutely "NO local flavoring on the salad" when those same programs or their identical twins are already available on maybe 5 to 10 other channels. Far too many of the religion based LPFMs appear to only clear programs that "preach and teach" from the exact same Articles of Faith as the sponsoring congregation. They may be a Baptist congregation and forbid programs produced by other Baptists who are the wrong kind of Baptist. If you are Methodist or Presbyterian or Pentecostal don't even ask! You have about the same probability of getting time on the station as would a Hindu or a Muslin.
Here is an observation that will throw cold water all over your warm fuzzy day-dream of running the perfect, broad-spectrum community-serving radio station.... not just LPFM but commercial as well. For those of you old enough to remember radio of yesteryear, what ever that decade might be in your mind.... that era when for you radio was Golden: If you could go back to 1945, 1955, 1965 or 1975 and get two or three days of tape of every minute of the broadcast day and analyze them, You know, the days we talk about as being live and local, we had a lot of inert matter to fill up the day. Yes, we threw some morsels of localism in there and for it's day it was good.
I remember sitting there in 1958 thinking of myself handcuffed to the console and turntables. would talk for 10 to 40 seconds and then kick off a record. Sit there twiddling my thumbs for 2 minutes 40 seconds so I could say something for 10 to 40 second and kick off the next record. How great it would be to sit down and my average break-in of 25 seconds each bang-bang-bang on some kind of recording medium. 12 to 16 of those little segments would last an hour and now I would have an un-interrupted 45 minutes or so to get on the phone and gather news, may zip down the street to the Chamber of Commerce and do an interview, or sit in the production studio with the mayor for 25 minutes and record half a dozen segments to be dropped in randomly for the next week.
When I see how automation has become a license to dehumanize the broadcast product, I can only mutter the old cliche: What was I thinking!
Folks. It wasn't easy to achieve localism and community service in the old days. In sitting down and trying to reduce to writing an operations manual for a station today, commercial or non-commercial, you can run out of writer's inspiration very, very quickly.
But I don't favor giving the LPFM licensees a Get-Out-Of-Jail card just because it is difficult. We're back to another cliche: Do something, or get off the pot and let someone else do something.
aaronread said:Theoretically I would love to be able to hire the 8 to 10 FT people it'd take to duplicate that service locally...but that's patently unrealistic given our market size and demographics.
I agree. What's wrong with volunteers? I had a staff of mainly volunteer air people. They were in the community, they came from various other businesses, and they brought unique experience and knowledge to the station that was outside of radio.
bturner said:Would it not make more sense to target a LPFM to serve as much as it can of the listeners in their coverage area with local information not typically heard of the full power stations since they cannot afford to pay so much attention to a segment of their potential audience?
I think that's what I'm saying. But I also agree that the LPFM concept is bad for this time. It might have been a good idea ten years ago, but you can do more for less with a hyperlocal web site, and I think a lot of people who might have been suited for LPFM are doing that.
Peter Q. George (K1XRB) said:There are some LPFM stations that truly serve their community quite well providing unique music that other stations totally ignore. And if you think that all LPFM's are run by people whose sole purpose is for "ego gratification for a handful of people", you're sorely mistaken.
Did you read the editorial this thread is based on? Read it, then re-read my post. I have no reason to believe that former pirate is interested in providing community service, other than to play his favorite records. That, to me, is not community service. On the other hand, I know a lot of LPFM operators (one who is just down the street from me) who does seek to provide unique community programming.
The problem with the LPFM in my neighborhood is that everything takes on a revolutionary political bent, which is too bad, because it alienates the majority of the community which isn't interested in politics. They run "Democracy Now" every day, and only use volunteers who agree with their political POV. That leaves out a majority of the people in our area.
As far as fringe music, I believe that should be the domain of higher power non-coms. To do it well, you need better facilities and frankly more audience. Unfortunately, most public stations are foresaking their arts heritage for news and talk. I think that is a mistake, and one of the community stations I ran had a jazz format that encouraged and broadcast live performance. But we were full power, not LPFM.
Some great points in the previous thread.
My experience with volunteers must differ from yours. I found a revolving door and lack of dedication from many. It seemed the PD was working 24-7 trying to fill slots. I frequently found most volunteers did only what they wanted to do, frequently would ignore directives from the station and sometimes created legal issues. In short, it was a little bit worse than trying to get a bunch of zealous, recently graduated from Broadcasting School jocks to follow the format and stay away from the 15 and 16 year old groupies.
Many times the guy that followed my 3 hour shift was way too drunk to go on the air, frequently passing out, leaving me to do his show as well. My end came when the PD, who I was filling in for because he was 'running late' called to complain about how I was sounding, so I reminded him I had been on air 8 hours, at the station 11 hours and was tired, hungry and a volunteer to boot. He griped more and I put on a long album, telling him he had about 22 minutes before there was dead air.
I prefer paid staff because there is a level of dedication to getting the job done as best as possible when money is involved.
I too agree LPFM can be viable in only a few locales, specifically in unradioed areas and very underadioed locations.
I'm amazed at some of the LPFMs. One is operated by a Church with about 7 or 8 in attendance each week. The frequency was found, filing made, equipment found, installed and put on the air without the Church lifting a finger. The format is denominational satellite programming and local programming is simply the legal ID. The Church pays the monthly operating expense of running the station, however. This is the use of LPFM I dislike. How many actually listen at any given time...a fraction of a person?
My experience with volunteers must differ from yours. I found a revolving door and lack of dedication from many. It seemed the PD was working 24-7 trying to fill slots. I frequently found most volunteers did only what they wanted to do, frequently would ignore directives from the station and sometimes created legal issues. In short, it was a little bit worse than trying to get a bunch of zealous, recently graduated from Broadcasting School jocks to follow the format and stay away from the 15 and 16 year old groupies.
Many times the guy that followed my 3 hour shift was way too drunk to go on the air, frequently passing out, leaving me to do his show as well. My end came when the PD, who I was filling in for because he was 'running late' called to complain about how I was sounding, so I reminded him I had been on air 8 hours, at the station 11 hours and was tired, hungry and a volunteer to boot. He griped more and I put on a long album, telling him he had about 22 minutes before there was dead air.
I prefer paid staff because there is a level of dedication to getting the job done as best as possible when money is involved.
I too agree LPFM can be viable in only a few locales, specifically in unradioed areas and very underadioed locations.
I'm amazed at some of the LPFMs. One is operated by a Church with about 7 or 8 in attendance each week. The frequency was found, filing made, equipment found, installed and put on the air without the Church lifting a finger. The format is denominational satellite programming and local programming is simply the legal ID. The Church pays the monthly operating expense of running the station, however. This is the use of LPFM I dislike. How many actually listen at any given time...a fraction of a person?
bturner said:My experience with volunteers must differ from yours. I found a revolving door and lack of dedication from many. It seemed the PD was working 24-7 trying to fill slots. I frequently found most volunteers did only what they wanted to do, frequently would ignore directives from the station and sometimes created legal issues.
I drone on about geographical communities and sociological communities. The problem you are describing is one of the attributes of a given community one must evaluate before plunging into radio, commercial or non-commercial.
I think when you do due-diligence on a community (of either kind) there are signals there waiting for the reading that will give advance notice whether volunteers will be available and pliable, or if they will be troublesome and stubborn.
Then you weigh against that your own skills at recruiting and harnessing volunteers or employees as the case may be. As bad as I wanted to acquire a station of my own in recent years, I had to walk away from a couple of possible opportunities because I could see that only SUPERMAN could pull together the co-operation and support of those locations.
It is interesting if you have the opportunity then to watch from a distance as someone coming along behind you takes the deal. How does it work for them? Did the problems you perceived turn out to be true, or did they melt away in the hands of a superior entrepreneur?
bturner said:I prefer paid staff because there is a level of dedication to getting the job done as best as possible when money is involved.
To paraphrase, my experience with paid staff must be different from yours.
The stories about people not showing up or showing up drunk happened to me in commercial radio.LOL! People are people. Whether they get paid or not isn't the issue. Some of the most dedicated people I've ever known are volunteer firemen. But the example you give about the church is pretty typical, and is probably what most LPFMs will become, because they have money and dedicated staff.
Good point on paid jocks missing work and showing up drunk but I still find when one's livlihood is on the line, there is more dedication to the job. I know I've put up with tons of hassle and done jobs I hated many times in order to get to the next payday. And when I had enough, I even gave two weeks notice. I know some volunteers are exceptional but they are few and far between in my experience.
Volunteer Firemen are very dedicated...if only they wanted shows!
Volunteer Firemen are very dedicated...if only they wanted shows!
The idea of LPFM is, indeed, warm and fuzzy. There are those
people out there who truly believe that their point of view,
politics, etc. is not being served elsewhere. From my
involvement behind the scenes in talk radio, I found that
many of the callers really had nothing much to say. They were
more interested to tell their friends that they got on the air,
than contribute anything of substance to the discussion. I maintain
that those people who constantly tell us what Boston "needs" are
self-serving, at best. If you gave them an open mike so they could spout
all of their views, it might fill 10 or 15 minutes of airtime, ONCE.
LPFM is, by definition, hyper-local. If you appeal to a like minded
audience, located within a very small area - and will be content to
continue that way, legally - then have at it. In this area, however,
the dial is just to crowded. Markets like Boston, Worcester, Manchester,
Providence - they are fairly close to each other in geographic distance.
Realistically, in this area, it is never gonna happen. Never...
people out there who truly believe that their point of view,
politics, etc. is not being served elsewhere. From my
involvement behind the scenes in talk radio, I found that
many of the callers really had nothing much to say. They were
more interested to tell their friends that they got on the air,
than contribute anything of substance to the discussion. I maintain
that those people who constantly tell us what Boston "needs" are
self-serving, at best. If you gave them an open mike so they could spout
all of their views, it might fill 10 or 15 minutes of airtime, ONCE.
LPFM is, by definition, hyper-local. If you appeal to a like minded
audience, located within a very small area - and will be content to
continue that way, legally - then have at it. In this area, however,
the dial is just to crowded. Markets like Boston, Worcester, Manchester,
Providence - they are fairly close to each other in geographic distance.
Realistically, in this area, it is never gonna happen. Never...
My mind says Low Power FM works in only specific instances. Purely localized content is the major factor. Don't get mne wrong. You can have purely localized content utilizing a computer driven jukebox or a satellite dish as long as you're using the computer or satellite as the filler between the local content.
The best case scenario for Low Power FM is rural areas with no local radio presence. If you have a couple of stations in town, it won't likely do very well, but if you are it, you have a chance.
There are lots of small communities where there is nothing on the AM or FM dial or simply distant signals. One town I looked at could receive a distant AM in good weather but otherwise nothing on the AM or FM dial. There was a weekly newspaper selling around $5,000 in advertising a month. You say great, but LPFMs are non-commercial and I say you're correct but have you looked at these small town papers? The ads are pretty much business card types and very, very few have price and item or comparative statements. The exception is usually the grocery store. Even bank newspaper ads are something like "It's Spring. If you're planning home improvements, Terri and John in the loan department are there to help you turn your plans into reality." Even that can be modified for non-commercial without using many brain cells.
The point is that smaller rural communities without radio service can be great candidates for LPFMs funded by underwriting. Simply put, the success comes by being the audio companion of a small town newspaper. Ask them why they want a station and you'll get answers like: "I'd like to know something when bad weather comes", "I'd like to get my news today instead of waiting until Thursday afternoon (when the local paper hits the stands)", "It would be nice to have a way to get word out quickly", and "It sure would be nice to have a local radio station so we could announce school closings. We have no way to tell the parents when the kids get a snow day".
Another point: Some communities that lost their local newspaper, especially in the Midwest, have had volunteer groups establish a weekly newspaper, attesting to the need for a local media.
The best case scenario for Low Power FM is rural areas with no local radio presence. If you have a couple of stations in town, it won't likely do very well, but if you are it, you have a chance.
There are lots of small communities where there is nothing on the AM or FM dial or simply distant signals. One town I looked at could receive a distant AM in good weather but otherwise nothing on the AM or FM dial. There was a weekly newspaper selling around $5,000 in advertising a month. You say great, but LPFMs are non-commercial and I say you're correct but have you looked at these small town papers? The ads are pretty much business card types and very, very few have price and item or comparative statements. The exception is usually the grocery store. Even bank newspaper ads are something like "It's Spring. If you're planning home improvements, Terri and John in the loan department are there to help you turn your plans into reality." Even that can be modified for non-commercial without using many brain cells.
The point is that smaller rural communities without radio service can be great candidates for LPFMs funded by underwriting. Simply put, the success comes by being the audio companion of a small town newspaper. Ask them why they want a station and you'll get answers like: "I'd like to know something when bad weather comes", "I'd like to get my news today instead of waiting until Thursday afternoon (when the local paper hits the stands)", "It would be nice to have a way to get word out quickly", and "It sure would be nice to have a local radio station so we could announce school closings. We have no way to tell the parents when the kids get a snow day".
Another point: Some communities that lost their local newspaper, especially in the Midwest, have had volunteer groups establish a weekly newspaper, attesting to the need for a local media.
M
MickeyD
Guest
TheBigA said:MickeyD said:The playing field should be level. There are no restrictions against a pirate owning a regular AM, FM TV, or Internation Broadcast Station. Just ask Allan Weiner. The NAB doesn't like LPFM and the restrictions on it are unfair and make owning one nearly impossible.
BS. The bar SHOULD be higher. The purpose of an LPFM isn't to compete with AM/FM/TV, or to give some hobbyist an outlet to play his or her favorite songs. If I had written the law, I would have put in a rule that LPFM can't play music. They should be localized information and community service period. In any case, there will be no shortage of applicants, and hopefully these new stations will serve a purpose beyond ego gratification for a handful of people.
The bar should be higher you say? An LPFM is is a non-comm and a hobbyist is precisely who would apply for one if the restrictions for owning one weren't so expensive. The NAB made LPFM's almost impossible to support. You can't operate them in the larger markets and you are restricted to 100 watts. They have to the nerve to suggest that an LPFM will cause interference but a Translator will not. Technically they are identical in nature and translators can operate up to 250 watts. LPFM's have to use certified transmitters while the other stations can use type certified.
The rules were written so that if a full power station increased power it could completely wipe out an LPFM's signal and force them off the air.
No shortage of applicants? That must be why over 800 LPFM's were not built. How do you fund your gradiose plan with such restrictions?
M
MickeyD
Guest
TheBigA said:Piracy of the airwaves is against federal law. Typically, pirate radio operators are often flagrant and defiant in their breaking of federal law. Yes they're passionate, but to an extreme. They know exactly what they are doing, and don't care. Running a community station is no laughing matter, and generally speaking, this is not the kind of person you want to grant a license to. This is like allowing a drunk driver to own a liquor store. Licensees, especially of LPFM community stations, should be responsible community leaders who can represent the needs of the people. This particular writer might see himself as an exception to this characterization. And that might be. But laws are not about exceptions.
If you want to know where I get off speaking this way, it's because I founded and ran several community stations around the northeast. I agree that passion is an important ingredient, but responsibility is more important.
My suggestion to the writer is to have someone else with a clean record become the licensee, and you become an employee. If I remember correctly, individuals can't apply for LPFMs. It must be done by a non-profit group.
Laws are indeed about exceptions. Don't get me started on Illegal Aliens!
- Status
- This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.