What if: No more dinky AMs

[amfmxm]

Oh, music. Yeah, I suppose I'll concede that point. You may have noticed that the radio industry is currently in a swirl of activity involving the gravitation of spoken-word programming from AM over to FM and the corresponding disappearance of music on FM. Seems to have something to do with music being available everywhere else, including your cell phone. And I may have misinterpreted this movement to mean that music on FM is another one of those Grim Reaper targets... and that radio in all its forms will soon largely be spoken-word programming.

One of our FM stations located in a college town used to be CHR, but eventually was forced into an older skewing format after years of hearing "Your target audience doesn't listen to radio anymore."

With no disrespect to the good people who want to build LPFMs to play tunes not found on the radio, I guess I perceive the whole value of the LPFM concept to be the important role such stations can serve in providing information to communities abandoned or passed over by (mostly commercial, but also non-comm) full power stations. In my mind, "Community Radio" doesn't mean playing indy rock or AAA or Classic Country or Deep Tracks or Local Garage Bands. In my mind, "Community Radio" means a source for information that is important--and sometimes even critical--to the people who live there... but is not available anywhere else.

And that will work on AM.

 

[amfmxm]

(Continued) As an aside, that FM of ours that abandoned CHR was (as you might expect) replaced in the format lineup by another FM CHR. They are now for sale, because they've had to virtually give away their advertising. Our "older skewing" station now does three times (3X) the business. The irony is that the CHR actually does have a large and active audience. The local advertising community just won't believe it--ratings be damned.

But, back to LPFM. A few weeks ago in one of these threads we seemed to concur that there seemed to be around three distinct categories of LPFM enthusiasts: the religious folks (who have found battling EMF & Family Radio, et al pretty difficult)... the Community Broadcaster folks (I'll put myself in there, I think--the info junkies)... and the hobbiests (who want to play Grateful Dead or Kitty Wells or Death Cab for Cutie or __________).

My guess is that the hobbiests might be lots of fun to hang with, but I'm inclined to encourage them to do the web-radio thing. Same experience... but the bandwidth is unlimited. Playing DJ seems to still hold some magic for these folks. For those of us who did it professionally it just seems like work.

 

[TVradioguru]

Here is a great example of what's happening with small AM transactions lately: http://www.rbr.com/radio/radio_deals/augusta-am-once-again-yo-yos-back-to-former-owner.html

And it's only going to get worse for AM owners looking for a buyer. Individuals who think they can change consumer habits by doing something "new and original" with an AM station, only to fail as the station reverts back. And as in this example in particular shows; none of the new owners was willing nor able to do a cash deal. The original owner had to carry the majority of the paper. It was his only choice because no other real seasoned broadcaster would buy a 1KW AM in a cash deal.

The facts are in spite of what the aging AM stereo nerds want to believe; consumers have found AM listening to be unappealing, to the point where a ever-growing number have forgotten the medium even exists. The remaining legacy large market stations with news or sports will continue to do okay, but are clearly losing their grip on their audience as people find other high quality, appealing and convenient ways, of getting their news and sports. That leaves the small market or fringe market AM station owners stuck with a complete albatross.

 

[bossbill]

There was an operator near Seattle (Enumclaw) who sold his AM station a few times successfully, getting a down payment each time.

A number of AM stations have successfully jumped on to the FM translator boom.

 

[johnbasalla]

Quote: " consumers have found AM listening to be unappealing..."

This is the quote of the thread, imo. I listen, and will continue to listen to AM radio. I worked at two AM stations and I support AM radio, but I often do find the listening unappealing. Nighttime talk shows with interference galore... having to move my radio or antenna around to get it the best I can (and we're talking about stations in the market)... the obvious drop in quality between AM and FM music stations. Still, there are two AM music-based stations, one local, the other a blowtorch from Canada, that play some exciting things and that keeps me tuned in. I've posted about AM radios sound quality problems on the Engineering board, and a strong opinion shared there is that it doesn't have to be that way. AM can technically sound excellent under certain conditions, some of which the FCC needs to be involved in and the owners have to see value in.

 

[amfmxm]

Okay, let's reset. What I have suggested is that with few exceptions, evidence has mounted over the years indicating that LPFM--as currently configured--is an idea the has turned out to be impractical for all but a few licensees. And that the recent ruling authorizing more of these mistakes to hit the airwaves will just multiply the problem. Giving the non-profits all commercial licenses would just lead (very quickly, in most cases) to abandonement of any altruistic goals... and allowing for-profit licensees to have LPFMs would lead (even more quickly) to sham licensees controlled by the big guys--again, making the origninal intent a foggy, distant memory. And to add insult to injury, cramming the FM band with little signals squeezed in between the big signals is a guarantee of The Death of FM Before Its Time. You don't need to be Carnack The Magnificent to predict that one. Call Vegas and put $2 on 2030--you'll make millions!

AM? Not "Beachfront property." But workable... still in nearly every car and on nearly every clock radio. That's near-universal access. And for community radio, access needs to be the top priority.

 

[w9wi]

AM? Not "Beachfront property." But workable... still in nearly every car and on nearly every clock radio. That's near-universal access. And for community radio, access needs to be the top priority.

I think you're underestimating the importance/truth of TVRadioGuru's posts. An 1kw AM facility is MUCH MUCH MUCH more expensive to build & maintain than a 100-watt FM. The difference is far greater than the difference between 100 and 1,000 watts. It starts with the fact that for AM, the entire tower is the antenna -- you can't pop a couple of bays on top of a tall building. Add the ground system. You can't really skimp on either one, or you'll generate more interference than your power level would suggest. (and your useful coverage will be well short of what your power level would suggest)

That doesn't even address the receiver-end issues.

 

[TVradioguru]

"AM? Not "Beachfront property." But workable... still in nearly every car and on nearly every clock radio. That's near-universal access. And for community radio, access needs to be the top priority"

But as to your point that assumes:

1. One can afford to run a "community AM" station. I think we all agree they are more expensive to build/purchase and operate.

2. There are any listeners left. Again, we agree that music on AM has gone the way of dinosaurs. Existing AM stations are aging-out with their existing audience.

Blame time, blame the FCC, blame radio manufacturers, Hell blame guys like me, it doesn't matter; AM sounds bad and is not as available to consumers based on their modern consumption habits. It would be like saying; screw IPods, I have this crank up wire recorder which has the best, most interesting sounds you'll ever hear. Yet reality dictates that nobody cares nor even knows you have a wire recorder. You can make your little wax cylinders with your sounds while everyone else is listening to their IPods. Ultimately, you will be the only one who listens. It's hard to make money and support your broadcasts if nobody listens but you and potentially your immediate family.

That is still part and parcel the plight of LPFM stations; even though the good intent is to bring community-based radio to the local listeners, they don't listen nor support the station, period. The reason? Simple..selfishness. As David Eduardo pointed out in one of his comments; a listener being quickly surveyed will tell you one thing, but actually do something else. Sure, if you talked with Mr. Peabody at the local hardware store, telling him you were going to build a LPFM or buy a local AM station, he'd probably tell you that he'd not only listen but he would tell all his friends to listen. In reality, Mr. Peabody only listens to what he wants to in a given day and it's not by coincidence, your station.

 

[amfmxm]

Okay, you got me. I will admit without shame that I have never personally launched a new AM (few of us have, in recent decades) and therefore cannot speak authoritatively about the costs--and I'll certainly acknowledge the relative technical complexity compared to FM. A friend did rebuild an old one-stick AM a few years ago using a very short folded-unipole antenna and claimed it was very inexpensive, but perhaps that was strictly relative to traditional costs.

FWIW, it is hard for me to believe that state transportation departments have tossed millions at every one of those AM expanded band emergency info "stations" scattered around the country. Yeah, they sound like a Dixie Cup-and-a-string, but I always figured that was because of the minimal audio chain. Are these "Part 15" rigs? They seem to cover several miles--plenty of turf if the intention is to serve a town of 3,000 people...

Plan B: reserve 87.7 and 87.9 for LPFM. Too late?

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

I am woefully out-of-date on the subject... having been a "grandstand coach" within the industry for some time now. I participated in putting a couple of AM sticks on the air and I have always considered a non-directional AM as being the most basic, non-complex, economical animal in the industry.

In my mind the big, 800-pound-gorilla in the room that has changed the landscape in the last 30 years is the cost of land.... sometimes even out in rural America where we always thought they had more land than they knew what to do with. I was looking at a single-stick grave-yarder a few years ago and I was expressing my amazement at the asking price. And part of the answer was that THE LAND (in their mind) was worth more than what I was willing to pay for the whole blooming station. It seems that in this little, rural county seat town, a fourlane highway had been built in recent years and both Home Depot and Walmart were wanting to enter the market. And to get a location where main street crossed the four-lane those retailing giants were paying $50,000 per acre to get THE PRIME LOCATION in the entire county. The station owner took the attitude: My land is worth that also. Forget about the fact it was on the wrong side of railroad on the wrong side of town with all the wrong neighbors when it came to property values. Now if I were in the newspaper business I might find it worthwhile to have my printing plant two counties over where the land is cheaper and the labor pool is more plentiful and affordable. In radio, we have to have land where the transmitter has to be, no matter what the price.

A decent technician/engineer can walk out in the pasture and if he/she knows how, change the tuning coils in the bee-hive or the dog-house at the base of the tower.

Yes, you may think it is a bargain to lease space on someone else's tower, building or water tower but the cost of a crane or helicopter to put that antenna up there ranks right there with buying real estate along the four-lane. And if the FM antenna needs a bit of tweaking, you are not just looking for a garden variety broadcast technician.... you are looking (and paying) for one with steeplejack blood flowing in their veins and has rates that reflect the tower-climbers insurance policies are paid up.

A lot of AM towers routinely take a good lightning jolt and you go out the next day and inspect the spacing of the balls on the spark gap. On your FM you may be installing 300 feet of coax.... paying for people with steeplejack blood flowing in their veins and rates that reflect the tower-climber insurance policies are paid up.

Every station... no matter whether it is AM or FM can have unique circumstances that make it very frugal to operate, or make it a money-pit to operate.

In my mind, dinky little AMs have a high probability of being less costly to operate.

 

[TVradioguru]

Yes, you may think it is a bargain to lease space on someone else's tower, building or water tower but Every station... no matter whether it is AM or FM can have unique circumstances that make it very frugal to operate, or make it a money-pit to operate.

In my mind, dinky little AMs have a high probability of being less costly to operate.

An AM station with land being less costly to operate than some little antenna on the roof of your home?? Again, I'm no engineer..but I can't see any situation where that is the case. Having paid the bills between an FM and AM stations, the AM is always the most trouble prone and expensive to run with the least return.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

In the way you have framed the debate, I would agree with you.

If you are comparing an AM station, properly zoned and pay commercial property rates, you will win the argument hands down.... if the other choice is a 100 watt (or less due to antenna height) LPFM operating in clandestine mode from residential property.

I offer the following re-framing of the discussion: The FCC grants another wave 9f 800 to 1000 LPFMs. And the majority of these stations go to people wanting to do what they would do if they owned a commercial AM... existing broadcaster are going to scream in the FCCs ear and LPFMs will soon find the discipline of Washington leaning them to do what Community radio is supposed to do. (Here I am being so idealistic as to believe any group of people... much less the FCC... could ever agree what Community radio is supposed to do.)

The broadcasters will turn to city government and "rat-fink" the dirty little secret of these stations to zoning people and tax assessors across the country and over a period of time we will see this financial windfall for LPFMs bent and shaped until the financial pain will be palpable.

Frankly this is a discussion, a debate, that probably has no clear end-result. What might work somewhere in the Ouachita Mountains out where Glen Campbell sang as a youngster would probably go down in flames in some southeastern Wisconsin highly industrialized county... for the LPFM hiding in a bedroom closet with a single bay antenna strapped on the chimney.

 

[TheBigA]

The FCC grants another wave 9f 800 to 1000 LPFMs. And the majority of these stations go to people wanting to do what they would do if they owned a commercial AM...

Maybe I'm the idealist here, but I don't see that happening...for two reasons: 1) The requirements to get an LPFM license are just too strict for many of those kinds of people to qualify, and 2) The locations for the new LPFMs are in some pretty rural areas, and there's not much reward for those hobbyists. I see many more of those licenses going to religious groups. Unfortunately very few going to community groups. The religious folks are simply better organized, better financed, and more willing to put up with the bureaucratic hooey.

What may need to happen is someone challenge the use of the peoples' airwaves for the purpose of furthering a specific branch of religion, with no regard for any others. A sort of fairness doctrine for religious radio. Probably as much chance for that happening as there is for one aimed at politics.

 

[amfmxm]

I see many more of those licenses going to religious groups. Unfortunately very few going to community groups. The religious folks are simply better organized, better financed, and more willing to put up with the bureaucratic hooey.

What may need to happen is someone challenge the use of the peoples' airwaves for the purpose of furthering a specific branch of religion, with no regard for any others.

Agreed. EMF and its $88 billion-a-year "non-profit" is out of control, gobbling up licenses--full power, translators, NCE & commercial--at a rate few "for-profits" could tackle and no (as in zero) community licensees can compete with. God is good. God is a money machine.

And either no one at the FCC is bright enough to see what's going on, or they think that ignoring it will get them into heaven...

 

[TheBigA]

And either no one at the FCC is bright enough to see what's going on, or they think that ignoring it will get them into heaven...

I think it's neither. I think they know any challenge will bring about a first amendment challenge that will take years and lots of money. So they just put on ignore hoping they can make it to retirement.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

And either no one at the FCC is bright enough to see what's going on, or they think that ignoring it will get them into heaven...

I think it's neither. I think they know any challenge will bring about a first amendment challenge that will take years and lots of money. So they just put on ignore hoping they can make it to retirement.

Point well made. Any government agency that attempts to change the "god-caster" genre becomes a fat, juicy political target.

When the atheists and the agnostics go after the "god-caster" genre the political machines of the day are happy to inherit that fat, juicy political target also.

It would appear that the only way to ever break the cycle is for people who have good religious credentials but lean a different direction than the stereotype "god-caster" frame of mind and have a religious leaning that says good civic and community health is useful to both our American civilization and our own religious credentials.... are the only people who can mount the charge.... and politically live to tell about it.

 

[joebtsflk1]

Something else to consider, it's possible that all those great translator invasion apps from 2003 that are still just apps will be dismissed if they can't be granted, and in some of the larger markets they'll all be dismissed. All in preparation for an expected LPFM window.

It would seem that the stand alone micro-power night-time AMs should be first in line for FM translators. Then LPFMs, but not on an unlimited basis, probably only two for a particular service area. From there...???

 

[TVradioguru]

In my view, it's past time to stop handing out new licenses on AM or FM, translator or LPFM. The medium would benefit from fewer insignificant or tenuous operations, less interference to the two bands and allow qualified operators with larger and well capitalized stations to do what they do best.

The politicans in DC believe that providing channels and licenses to LPFM stations, is somehow turning the public airwaves over to the public. Unfortunately as we've all witnessed it's the opposite, as loophole-seeking "Christian" broadcasters with deep pockets are the only ones able to meet the requirements to apply-for and construct these stations.

Time to 'thin the herd' I say. Let's start with not issuing any more LPFM or translator licenses, then encourage AM stations to turn in their licenses before they eventually go bankrupt.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

guru: Maybe you could further define what you really want to see happen. Part of what you are proposing seems to be a suggestion that we lock everything in place as it now is, except to delete any current operations that shutdown. That could penalize a community.... not because they don't deserve to have a broadcast outlet, but simply because the current license-holder is financially and/or business incompetent. Why should a community lose it's outlet forever because one stumble-bum made bad business decisions?

Your proposal also assume that communities as we know them never change. I've been gone from Arkansas for 50 years now. Every once in a while I come across a "factoid" in the news that causes me to grab the Atlas and/or the Census numbers.

I can remember when Springdale, AR was a town of maybe 10,000 people with a little bare space between it and Fayetteville, and between it an Rogers. A few years back I came across a news story that the pastor of a 16,000 member church in Springdale was a candidate for denominational office. How can you have a church of 16,000 members in a town of 10,000. Well.... when I got through looking up the financial numbers and population numbers for northwest Arkansas, I was blown away.

Today I came across another one of those factoids: Conway, AR has a population pushing 50,000!!! That is not the same Conway I used to hitch-hike through coming and going to college.

Similar changes are constantly happening all across this nation. Why would we FREEZE IN PLACE the current distribution of licenses to broadcast? Five years from now, ten years from now some communities will have too much radio and others will have too little. Broadcasting law and regulation needs to be designed to adjust to those changes.

SECOND TOPIC:

I have become a fan of the idea of LPFMs... even though they present a lot of challenges and problems. The problem is NOT the existence of LPFMS.... the problem is that bureaucracy has tried to process the applications without getting their hands messy in the process. I am not a fan of the fact that such a large percentage of the current stations are simply conduits for satellite based "godcasting". That has been caused because other people did not get in there and fight for those same channels. That has been caused bacause bureaucracy has looked the other way and not demanded that these stations do what they are licenses to do: allow community expression. I read through the web site of a religious LPFM and the church that was the licenses put IN WRITING that their policy is that no one can have a program on that station "if their theology is not identical to that of the licensee church". That means if that church is Pentecostal in its teachings, non-Pentecostals will not be allowed to make use of the station. If the church is Baptist, that means there are other Baptists who could not be granted use of the station.

If I were to apply for an LPFM in my community and I found my organization in competition with a local church that wanted to have the frequency, it might become the contest that made national headlines. Does that mean there would be NO RELIGIOUS PROGRAMMING on the station if my group won the battle? No there would be a basketful of programming involving the religious groups of the community... but the content would have to focus on the community.

 

[TheBigA]

I read through the web site of a religious LPFM and the church that was the licenses put IN WRITING that their policy is that no one can have a program on that station "if their theology is not identical to that of the licensee church". That means if that church is Pentecostal in its teachings, non-Pentecostals will not be allowed to make use of the station.

They can't do that. Maybe the way to fire a shot over the bow is to challenge one of these licensees.