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The LPFM debacle

Having money to purchase a radio station does not mean you have a CLUE what you are doing. That has been proven recently in the Indy market - everyone on this board knows who we're talking (laughing) about every time these threads flame up.

Is 'playing radio' spinning old stale jukebox cuts that only appeals to the owner/manager?

OR ... is it giving the COL vital community information, local sports, VITAL EMERGENCY WEATHER information, and covering community events?

The big bucks have ruined radio -
 
Radioho,
Is this all you can ever offer? It's just a constant stream of b----ing about how bad indianapolis radio operators are, whether it's Old Skool or Monument Circle. Geeze, go get a new career if this industry is so distasteful to you. A lot of us out here are trying to deliver the most value to our listener customers, and advertising customers. I work hard. You piss and moan. Seriously, monster.com dude. :)
 
I'm very happy with my position/contribution to the company I work for. I can give my opinion on anyone I feel needs it. You just ripped on me -- why can't I rip on others - especially when select individuals who ARE the problem in this market get on here and fan the flames?

go back to your board, don't you have a break coming up?
 
But that's just my point. It's not, as you say, the people who ARE the problem getting on this board and fanning the flames. Lew Dickey, John Hogan, Jeff Smulyan; these are the companies you constantly rail on, these corporate folks who don't know anything about radio on the front lines, and have screwed up the industry so bad. They don't even know you, or this board exists. And they certainly aren't on here all the time "fanning the flames." You are.

So, go hit the top of the hour ID, read a drop, a liner, a PSA...whatever; or like I said, there's always monster.com and hundreds of other careers out there.

I'm personally pretty happy to have had a nice, long, rewarded career in broadcasting. ;D
 
mouseman said:
But that's just my point. It's not, as you say, the people who ARE the problem getting on this board and fanning the flames. Lew Dickey, John Hogan, Jeff Smulyan; these are the companies you constantly rail on, these corporate folks who don't know anything about radio on the front lines, and have screwed up the industry so bad. They don't even know you, or this board exists. And they certainly aren't on here all the time "fanning the flames." You are.
Click to expand...

I find this following post on this very thread by an FCC licensed metro radio station owner to be insulting on MANY levels ... and they ARE certainly here -

"LPFM is a buch of zealots with a personal agenda and 21 year old Howard Stern wannbes with a point to prove and no monetary
motivation to keep within FCC guidelines. It is legalized pirate radio. The largest mistake the FCC has ever made."
 
Juan Bodley said:
Here's a thought:
Take the LPFMs and give them to EDUCATIONAL entities, not religious groups, not community groups, since after all, the FUTURE of radio is YOUTH. Let the church groups and the non-comms (public radio, community foundations) have the higher power space on 87.7-91.9. Then LPFM is the garden of which new talent can grow.

Just thinking outside the box...
Click to expand...

Radio outside the box? Let me suggest you need to look at reality and your suggestion.

Youth is presented supposedly with High School stations (educational) which end up (largely) the old ideas and thoughts of school administrators. How many of these stations which are manned by youth have room for Youth to program with their music and ideas?

One school station has a manager who was 'asked to leave" by the school and parents after touching a student in the production studio. Largely covered up to protect the student and the school. Now at another school putting his hands on students again and working closely and physically. I hope you are nervous about this - I am. It IS a new way to intimately involve students in radio though.

The old Ben Davis was a bright spot for awhile in the late 70's and 80's. WEEM has some great ideas for students as does WKPW. Let me note this is only the tip of a large iceberg of stations.

Apathy has grown and any youth interested in radio are summarily stifled. Until you find a way to change this there will be NO change. Corporations only can own non com frequencies. This includes lpfm because that is what they are. Educational equals Educational Non Commercial Corporation.

Religious groups are Educational Non Commercial Groups. Church groups are indeed Non Commercail organizations. They couldn't receive a frequency if they were not. Non Com and Church Or religious are synonymous. Your look at this is flawed because you don't understand the structure.

No plan I have heard to change the law. Any idea that longstanding Rules at the FCC will change is ....(can't find a word that explains this but isn't condescending).

What seems to be your idea though is VERY valid.

What corporation plans programming for children? None. Radio Disney is a fluke in our world and has no talent development because it uses adults and one studio with many stations. (Programming for kids but not involving them in the production and programming).

On a Non Com I have worked with several student groups who HAVE produced programming and have been very dedicated. I couldn't listen to the show much because as they say "if we're too loud you're too old." This was on a "religious" station too.

How can you take High School stations into the 1990's? This is Indiana's educatioanl problem. IPS and many schools are at 69 percent graduating. And this number may indeed be lower because students who drop out aren't included. This is 69 percent of students currently enrolled who don't graduate. Schools do not include students who leave school as "they may enroll or be enrolled elsewhere."

Educational programs that don't grab the students mentally are destined to fail. Radio programs or English or Math or any other area. Can we cahnge this by making learning interesting rather than a palce to aprk their butts several hours a day?
 
As a child, as a youth, I had a lot of trouble seeing "the big picture". What is it the drivers at the Indy 500 have said through the years: "If a wreck occurs in front of you, aim for it. By the time you get there, all vehicles involved will be somewhere else."

When some of us "more seasoned" participants were growing up, broadcasting seemed to be where the action was AT! You're artistic or dramatic? Radio was the center of drama and music. Get into radio. You have a scientific bent? Get into radio. It's the leading edge of all things electronic. And there was this movement toward Educational Radio. If radio is where all the talent in the world will find it's place, lets introduce students to this gateway.

A lot has changed since then. You want your child to change the world and you are convinced your child has the ability for great accomplishments? Your grandchild actually has a moment where they ask an old codger for some advice about the future. Where do we steer them? Computer science. Nuclear Physics. Law. Medicine. DNA research. A young friend of mine entered college this year to study International Affairs. What middle class family have you heard say recently: "We had so hoped at least one of our children would have a passion for radio." (Maybe the owner of a radio station would say that.)

What middle class family have you heard say recently: "I hope at least one of my children grows up with a passion to be the designer and installer of public address systems and sound reinforcement systems for public gathering places."

I guess some of us are having trouble visualizing what radio should be and how it should happen in the 21st Century. We are still stuck in the mentality of 1938 and 1948, and maybe 1958.

I you were superintendent of schools or chairman on the school board in your town, and some irate taxpayers showed up demanding to know what the justification was for the high school owning a radio station in these revenue stretched days.... what would you say to them?
 
Most say : We have an automation system and need students to keep it running.

This is exactly the problem.

I don't even know a radio station owner who wants his child to grow up and run his own radio stations (unless that includes Artie). Maybe an aspect no one considered is : is this the only thing a college education is good for or the only thing my child can do because no one else will give him a job...

The radio station isn't a destination it is a vehicle. Brownsburg has a Challenger Center. Maybe none of the kids will ever be astronauts. the center uses it's facility to establish social networking and cooperation among children. They fix problems by working together and providing a solution. A neat concept.

Radio as a whole has issues and answers. We CAN fix problems by the way we address them. This isn't liner cards folks.
 
How many parents want their kids to grow up to be insurance agents? I don't think the insurance industry is going anywhere despite this.
 
Flying-Dutchman said:
The FCC is expected to license thousands of new low power FMs in 2009. Many who dream
of owning their own station will have their first chance.
Click to expand...

The FCC is going to have to deal with the 2003 translator issue first ... they tried to eliminate all but 10 from each remaining applicant but their plans are being held up. It is amazing that nearly six years after the window and a year after the final granted singleton applications expired if not built those translators are still pending.
 
PTBoardOp94 said:
How many parents want their kids to grow up to be insurance agents? I don't think the insurance industry is going anywhere despite this.
Click to expand...

There will still be telemarketers as well ... although some may not consider that their career.

I've met a lot of people who are just passing though whatever job they have. Too many get to retirement before getting the job that they wanted. They look forward to an obituary that lists what they managed to do instead of their real dreams.

Good parents and other advisors won't try to box the kid into what they want them to do. They won't complain about wasted potential as long as their child is happy and fulfilled (and what they are doing is legal). There are probably parents who don't want their children do become artists or missionaries ... or military or foreign correspondents ... until they put aside self and see what their child aspires to be.

Showing children the possibility ... seek something that you enjoy and make it your career ... if radio seems like fun let's find out if it really is. Find someone at a radio station to tag along with ... intern there if possible ... or arrange "a day with a DJ" (or whatever position the child is interested in).

While school and college stations provide some experience with operations it is often fake experience with no real world responsibility. I believe they SHOULD be run by trusted adults with the doors open to budding talent who have seem the real world and still want to be part of it.
 
As a former broadcaster, almost 25 yrs, I was amused at how the NAB feared the creation of LPFM. My theory, the big guns were afraid they would be out-programmed by LPFM...ie, more and better local content. So NAB lobbied for LPFM to be non-commercial. As for AM's using FM translators...I don't see this as a long term solution. The Big Guns are pushing increases in Digital Power for Digital radio...of which no small market stations in my area that I am aware of, or looking to pursue. The Big Guns..i.e. NAB will end up killing off analog FM just like they screwed up AM and LPFM. I am all for ALL broadcasters to be able to air commercials. America was built on free enterprise. I fear eventually we will see most stations airing pretty much the same programming....just available on different frequencies...from a handful of Big Guns...or worse..the Government. NAB killed the radio star.
 
MANY wonder if fictional broadcaster Arthur Agnosti III (ala Lujack Snotnose little Arti) could get a job if his dad didn't give it to him? He could sell insurance I'm sure.
 
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