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SPRINGFIELD RADIO

I remember Urban Light Ministries and Springfield City Schools both applied for LPFM's on 97.5 during the window. Urban Light's app became moot when they purchased WULM, and the schools gave up on the project. {quote}



Whoops!!! ULM would have done better on FM!!!
 
Can WULM apply for a LPFM if another window opens?

If they had gone with the original plan they would have done better in the providing of a voice for their mission. However LPFM is not permitted to be commercial, not to be confused with repeaters and translators. So if part of their intent was to have an income source as well as a radio voice then 1600AM was the better deal to go for. I still say that their failure was 60% haven't got a clue and 30% lack of community support. The rest may be attributed to lack of AM awareness among younger people but none of what was done on WULM was really targeting youth, not the oldies or the news talk.

It is true that the music of today would not sound good on AM, though to me it doesn't sound good anywhere. Older rock and big band (adult standards) was originally broadcast on AM and especially early R & R was originally mixed for AM radio, as was "Classic Country". WBZI and its 2 satellites seems to be doing OK.
People when are offered compelling content that they want to hear will put up with reduced fidelity, even a little noice to tune in. To prove my point tune in to any station anywhere broadcasting local college or high school sports. No wide band full range audio there, actually a properly processed AM sounds a lot better.
 
The answer is yes Urban Light can go for an LPFM. I believe they are also not for profit
so a non-commercial license would not hurt them at all.

They appear to have made a mistake when they gave up on a license the FCC was about
to give them for free and instead paid Yontz for AM.

I like AM myself. Too bad people under 40 have never tried it. That's the problem!
 
Flying-Dutchman said:
The answer is yes Urban Light can go for an LPFM. I believe they are also not for profit
so a non-commercial license would not hurt them at all.

They appear to have made a mistake when they gave up on a license the FCC was about
to give them for free and instead paid Yontz for AM.

I like AM myself. Too bad people under 40 have never tried it. That's the problem!
Click to expand...

Yes Urban Light itself is a non profit but I do not believe that low power FM's can sell time. Maybe they can do the underwriting thing like NPR but I'm not sure about that. The intent of the FCC was to allow them as "community" stations and most of them are run as that though a lot of them have gone to religious broadcasters and churches.

I understood that Urban Light hoped that WULM would be revenue generating as well as an outreach vehicle. Obviously that did not play out so the question now is if they could afford to get on the air with LPFM.

I remember that WEEC originally, for their first year, was commercial. I was just starting college at Wittenberg then and Smilin' Bob and Jim Bissey at WBLY helped me get an audition tape together before WEEC went on air but I was never hired. I ended up transferring to OSU and getting a part time job at WOSU-AM_FM-TV with their help. I would have loved working at WBLY / WAZU but it never happened and I moved on to Cable TV. I miss Springfield and Ohio but c'est la vie.
 
LPFMs can sell spots (Thank Yous) but no call to action or prices. Who knows if ULM would go for a low power license?
But, someone will.

Jim Bissey was my GM at WCOM in Urbana. Smilin Bob lived in my neighborhood in Springfield.
 
Gotta think Urban Light's out of the radio business at this point but who knows. I'm aware of what 100 watts can do as I volunteer for the LPFM in Huber Heights, and can get the 101.5 translator strong in Huber Heights and Fairborn and have followed it almost to Springfield. I still don't know that it would be a better signal than 6kW located just north opf Springfield. It would have a shot if they were very Springfield-specifically sports centric.
 
Hey gr8..

Are you back on the air and DJing again since you're volunteering for Ultimate Oldies?

I hear one person on Sunday evenings doing a live show,but that's about all I have heard so far.

Kirkiefan
 
Flying-Dutchman said:
LPFMs can sell spots (Thank Yous) but no call to action or prices. Who knows if ULM would go for a low power license?
But, someone will.

Jim Bissey was my GM at WCOM in Urbana. Smilin Bob lived in my neighborhood in Springfield.
Click to expand...

I remember when he left Springfield and I lost touch he was, at least to me, always a nice man.

I guess the limiting factor to spots is then the low coverage area. However a 100W station carefully sited could cover most of Springfield looking at WUSO for a guide. I do not know exactly where the WUSO antenna now is, when I was living there it was on a TV antenna type of tower back of a residence hall. Actually the original WBLY-FM tower was a similar structure on the Chamber of Commerce Building at Spring and High where their studios were but they were a 1KW class A at 103.9 then and they barely made it out to Lawrenceville where I lived then. I got WUSO quite faintly, if at all, but they were only at the 10 watt level then as well.

In any event maybe WULM could go LPFM but financing it would be a problem given that they are getting out of their problem with only paying some of what they owe on the purchase of WBLY. Then if they were to try and make it go they would have to do better in getting support or it would just be another fiasco.

I sincerely hope that you or somebody will someday get something local on the air for my original home town, up to 1965, and then off and on until 1979, but those those last years were mostly Columbus. I loved the old days listening to WBLY, WIZE, and later WAZU. I never had too fond of regards for WEEC, besides not hiring me, when they went on the air with 77KW and I was in Lawrenceville they wiped out my poor little homebrew FM tuner. Had to buy and build a new one (a kit from Allied Radio as I recall but it was stereo).
 
Thanks for the mention Kirkie but I would have to be nuyts to enter into radio in this day and age. If anything I am looking at internet radio but anything else "No Thanks". I might as well take my maoney and throw it off a bridge. I hate to say that after 30 in years in the business but I will never own a radio station unless it is an internet one.
 
In all honesty I have to agree. Radio has lost a lot of its excitement and magic since the 60s and 70s thanks to consolidations,clustering and corporate weasels insisting their way is the right way. I tried getting a job at WIZE in 1981 and was told by the guy (who replaced Steve Joos) that I wasn't cut out for the biz since I had a lightweight voice compared to that of John Hall.

But look what happened to WIZE after his greed took over? John Hall left for WKSW and later WLW for a few years before returning to Springfield at WULM after his gig at Oldies 95.

Oldies have pretty much moved to internet stations...but at least a niche can be filled there thanks to the likes of Rock-It Radio among others. Low power FMs like WSWO and micropower FMs are pretty much that are left.

Would like to visit your place in St. Paris sometime soon. My teenage son is graduating from JVS next week and is interested in a carreer in inteactive media.
 
Would love to have you out, just finished a big move into a new studio and working toward the conversion of a barn. I would still consider doinga LPFM if the FCC would approve more of them. I have been approach by the powers to be in Saint Paris and I believe if it would get approved I would have the support. I have the equipment so I wil just sit and what to dust it off. Graham HS Sports would be well received!
 
gr8oldies said:
On the other hand, the upstart"Springfield Paper" seems to be doing well with free distribution and maybe that group (who also own/run low power TV 55) would be the ones who could pull it off if it is to be pulled off at all.
Click to expand...

As a sports writer for The Springfield Paper, I know that it's parent orginization Philadelphia Ministries has no interest in currently in aquiring a radio station. They're focusing on "spreading the word" through The Springfield Paper and through their television outreach, which has taken awhile to get the ball rolling on so to speak.

The Springfield Paper and Harvest Studios will be expanded in coming years, and that is what Philadelphia Ministries will focus on.
 
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