Your Thoughts on Low Power FM Stations: Are they worth it?

[rdcuffpa1]

If you were listening to WBEN's FM, you were listening to WLKK, which is NOT a low power FM. It's a Class B licensed to Wethersfield, NY, which is kind of like Brigadoon. There's nothing there except when the FCC comes to visit.

As a native East Auroran, gotta love the characterization!

"Wethersfield" is really the Town of Wethersfield, (what we'd call Township down in PA) which does exist in Wyoming County.

Population 891!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wethersfield,_New_York

Richard in Allentown, PA (ex-WNY)

 

[Play Freebird]

To get back to the original question, in its purest form, as to whether the LPFM service is "working" as a whole? After running WHWS-LP at Hobart & William Smith Colleges for 3.5 years, I would argue that it really isn't. The non-commercial nature of LPFM really hangs some serious shackles around what you can do to raise revenue. The only way to get enough potential listeners with the power restrictions (100w ERP @ 10m HAAT or equivalent) is to be located in a high-population-density area...and none of those areas have enough "room" on the dial to fit any new LPFM stations in.

Aaron, I agree with your observations. LPFM was supposedly introduced as a "remedy" for the loss of local programming caused by increasing corporate consolidation of stations in larger markets (companies overpaid for licenses during the buying spree, then were forced by the bankers to reduce operating expenses) but few LPFM opportunities were found in urban areas. Some will open up now that the third-adjacent prohibition has been dropped -- but in places like NYC, LA, Philadelphia, etc. the band is already packed.

Therefore, most LPFMs were assigned to small towns that simply don't have the financial base to sustain a non-commercial service. In most cases, it makes more sense to allow the local AM commercial station to operate translators on these channels, particularly if the AM is a daytimer under local ownership and control.

Concerning MERP limits on translators, this rule applies only to non-fill-in facilities and was adopted in the late '80s after the former TPO limits were dropped. The original translator rules specified a maximum of 1 watt TPO east of the Mississippi and 10 watts to the west, but antenna gain and HAAT were unrestricted and multiple directional antennas could be installed at a common site, each serving a different community. I guess the -3 dB points on the patterns weren't supposed to overlap, but I saw many questionable installations in those days. (Did a gust of wind put those antennas 10 degrees apart?) Waivers to allow 1 or 10 watts at the antenna input (to account for line loss) were routinely granted, and some stations ran 1 watt per polarization. W249AA, licensed to serve Lebanon, Lancaster, Ephrata and Manheim, PA put up eight long yagis -- four for H pol and four for V, each with its own line and 1 watt PA. The revised MERP rule probably makes more sense -- but the Mississippi River remains the dividing line for permissible coverage, allowing a non fill in translator in the Houston, Dallas, or west coast metro to reach a larger land area than one in the mountains of Kentucky or northern New England.

 

[Play Freebird]

As a native East Auroran, gotta love the characterization!

"Wethersfield" is really the Town of Wethersfield, (what we'd call Township down in PA) which does exist in Wyoming County.

Population 891!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wethersfield,_New_York

Richard in Allentown, PA (ex-WNY)

And that name is quite appropriate -- the town largely consists of fields which are subject to severe winter weather, i.e. lake-effect storms. I served a stint as contract engineer of 107.7 when it was still known as WBIV and spent a weekend snowed in up there when Rt 78 became impassible.

Rumor has it that the WUWU people built the present tall tower because the former 100 ft stick wasn't high enough to keep the antenna above the snow.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Therefore, most LPFMs were assigned to small towns that simply don't have the financial base to sustain a non-commercial service. In most cases, it makes more sense to allow the local AM commercial station to operate translators on these channels, particularly if the AM is a daytimer under local ownership and control.

From a regulatory point of view, I doubt if there is any way to implement your concept... but it is a great idea.

In the Atlanta market it is interesting to watch for news reports on how the business world prostitutes the rules set up to encourage minority owned businesses by giving them an advantage in bidding processes. Month after month there are reports of contractors operating retail outlets in the airport concourses, or selling printing to local government. Some large corporate entity sets up a "fronting company" headed by some person of "minority qualifications" who owns maybe 5 or 10% of the company, with the balance of the ownership some big national company. (retailing has nothing quite like the FCC public posting of ownership reports.)

The other problem woud be... if the market does not have the financial base to sustain a non-commercial service, then the market may not have the financial base to sustain the AM daytimer to do anything more robust than it is doing today.

If there is local AM coverage and it is doing a credible job, then what local not-for-profit group is going to take on the risk and headache of establishing an LPFM? They can accomplish their goals of communicating their organizations community goals through the AM station.

The challenge is the same... whether in the metro market, or the Mayberry market: The not-for-profit community service and activist groups find no time available for their advocacy programming.

Though many LPFMs do exactly this.... LPFM was never intended to be used by me and my brother-in-law to pretend we are a not-for-profit community organization while really just squeezing in our dream of a traditional commercial radio station the way we dreamed it should be done because we are so much smarter that the people who are hogging the available commercial channels.

 

[Play Freebird]

Though many LPFMs do exactly this.... LPFM was never intended to be used by me and my brother-in-law to pretend we are a not-for-profit community organization while really just squeezing in our dream of a traditional commercial radio station the way we dreamed it should be done because we are so much smarter that the people who are hogging the available commercial channels.

It's interesting to study the success and failure of various LPFM stations. Aaron shared some valuable insight on WHWS-LP, which makes perfect sense given its location and staffing.

Another LPFM which seems to be "hanging in there" is WXOJ-LP (aka Valley Free Radio) in west-central Mass. Checking their blog, it looks like they were off the air for a while, but they try to maintain a fairly consistent schedule:

http://www.valleyfreeradio.org/filed/latest-station-news/

On the other hand, I question whether the closest LPFM to my southeast PA base, WLRI-LP (I guess that's the current callsign, if they haven't changed it for the 20th time) actually exists on the FM dial. I tune to 92.9 most every time I drive through Gap, PA and hear nothing but distant signals from Wilkes-Barre and Dover. The station website looks good these days, but the "live stream" is several days old:

http://www.mywlri.com/

For the most part, WNAR-LP in Arcade appears to be a Seventh-Day Adventist satellite repeater -- I'll need to confirm this next time I'm in that area:

http://wnarlp.org/

Then we have a growing list of LPFMs which have gone silent, such as WQDD-FM in Girardville, PA which told the FCC last March that the transmitter building was flooded out. AFAIK, they're still off -- but with 60 watts at 77 meters below average terrain in a depressed former coal mining town, their chances weren't good to begin with.

Also, WXND-LP in Etna, NH seems to be gone for good:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WXND-LP

WXND had a very good signal for an LPFM: 51 watts ERP from the summit of Moose Mountain, with a clear shot into the "upper valley", including Hanover, NH. I hiked up to that site several years ago and found WXND co-located with NH Public Radio's Hanover station. But with an HAAT greater than 300 meters, the FCC shouldn't have allowed WXND so much power; the normal LPFM limit would be 1 watt! Apparently, someone screwed up in granting that CP, which may explain why the station is now deleted.