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The point of LPFM and Chris DiPaola's "96.7 The Buzz"

reelyreal

reelyreal

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. I know Chris very well. I also know he posts here a lot. I've had this conversation with him in the past.

I'm a huge alternative fan, and I like that there's an alternative station in Westerly.

If you haven't listened to "96.7 The Buzz," WSUB-LP, they run 4-5 minutes of "underwriting announcements" twice an hour. Legally, they're not commercials because they contain no pricing information and the "calls to action" are very conveniently edited out. However, they're the same damn commercials that are run on other area radio stations.

WSUB-LP is also held by the "Buzz Alternative Radio Foundation." The station's controlled by Chris, run by Chris, supported by Chris. Same studios, same staff, same everything.

Here's my question to you: Do you think this is a fine use of the LPFM service? Are you okay with LPFM's running commercials and owned in tandem with a full-power commercial AM station?

I honestly don't know how I feel about it. I don't think the station's being operated in the true spirit of the service, but I think that it's a good station.
 
I will say that I think it violates the spirit of the law. It was to allow people who have no other access to radio to be able to do such. HOWEVER, at least it's not a religious repeater! It's not running CSN or EWTN or anything like that.
 
According to the FCC's own rules, LPFM operators are not allowed to own any other media. I have
been pretty blunt (not about Chris) in comments I recently filed with the Commission.

I am a applicant-to-be for an LPFM. I have never owned an FCC licensed station..and the application itself seemed pretty clear that multiple ownership of media is not permitted.

LPFM is pretty much the only remaining way for an average citizen to have any chance at all of owning a station.

As for the ads, if there is truly no call to action in them, not a problem. The FCC has fined several LPFMs for violations relating to airing commercials. The FCC is complaint-driven in this regard.
 
That's my bigger issue though... there are no calls to action, but they are clearly "commercial" in nature. The ads are running to benefit the business, not as a "thank you for your support" message from the station.
 
I'm a huge Alt fan too, and I had to stop listening to the Buzz after a while when it became obvious to me the station was just running a loop of recorded programming. Hearing the jocks do exactly the same breaks at exactly the same times was a big turnoff for me.
 
The ads are running to benefit the business, not as a "thank you for your support" message from the station.
Click to expand...

THAT is a battle long since fought and lost, my friend. Most well-run non-commercial radio outlets (which includes LPFM's) aren't bad about avoiding the "big three no-no's" of underwriting (no call to action, no sale info/inducement to buy-sell-lease, and no price info). But the prohibition on "promotional language" is widely ignored.

That doesn't make it legal, but certainly the FCC has been resolute in ignoring it.

I don't really have any beef with what Chris is doing, either. But a lot of that is because it's not like there are 20 groups all clamoring for an LPFM in Ashaway, RI. Providence, maybe, but not Ashaway or Westerly. Heck, even I thought what we were doing at WHWS-LP was something of a waste of the concept (not that we did a crappy job, but a lot of what we did as a college radio station could've been achieved with a web-only station...we just adapted to make the most of having an FM signal, too) but nobody else filed for an LPFM and nobody else filed for a station on 90.3 in the area in Oct.2007 either...the only reason I *did* file was to protect my translator from getting stomped, and I end up getting one of only four singletons in all of New York state! Clearly demand for spectrum in that region was at a minimum. I look at SW Rhode Island the same way.
 
Non-commercial public television has the same "issue" - basically, commercials in front and back of programming, and while there is no direct "call to action", Home Depot and Kohler faucets sure get some serious face time before "This Old House".

I'm ok with it when it comes to LPFM - maybe with a few limits, but in order for LPFM to have a shot, money makes the world go round.

reelyreal said:
That's my bigger issue though... there are no calls to action, but they are clearly "commercial" in nature. The ads are running to benefit the business, not as a "thank you for your support" message from the station.
Click to expand...
 
Hello all, nice to see I'm in the "news." By the way, I am not a board member of the Buzz Alternative Radio Foundation. You can check the state of Rhode Island's non profit corporation web site and will find that my sister, Jaime, is the President. I act in a consulting capacity and yes, donate my WBLQ space for the Buzz. So, the Buzz is indeed a legal operation. Furthermore, if you have listened in the last 12 months, you will notice we now have a mixture of live and voice tracked programming, and the tracking has improved 150 percent. Yes, the underwriting announcements are legal too.


Chris DiPaola
 
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