The trickle of new LPFM radio stations are arriving on the air. I’m starting to go through the new arrivals to see what I can find about them.
As Clear Channel and Cumulus essentially withdraw from any significant local programming or advertising, the time is right for low-power FM stations to fill that vacuum – however the NAB structured the rules to prevent any effective competition. (the FCC was the bastard stepchild created by the NAB)
LPFM licenses are limited to 100 Watts, and cannot have a listening distance beyond 5 miles. They must be owned by a nonprofit entity, and the programming must be commercial free. That leaves them with basically no business model beyond contributions. Some are affiliated with left wing advocacy groups, some are satellite repeaters of religious entities – even though they’re not supposed to be. Some are operated by local governments and a few are just operated by volunteers who love radio and probably would be running a pirate radio station if there was no license.
Let’s look at one – to see the potential, and why the framework is broken.
http://www.tcrtroycommunityradio.com/
WTJN is located in Troy Ohio. Troy is the county seat of Marion County – it has a population of about 25,000. It has no radio station that serves its needs. It’s located about 20 miles north of Dayton. The most significant radio station that reaches it is WHIO, owned by Cox radio. But a radio station in Dayton has very little interest in tiny little Troy and no connection with the businesses in the town.
Enter Troy community radio. The station is located right on Main Street. It has a local phone number, a 24 hour stream, and a Facebook page. It appears to have two people involved in its operations – the owner is s a person with experience in radio. It looks like it started as an Internet radio station prior to getting its approval from the FCC. Their 5 mile service area touches no other state or country, and there is no Interstate Commerce being conducted.
The website has four “advertisers”. LPFM stations are not allowed to have commercial sponsors – although it leaves a gray area of whether they can accept money for off air advertisements – i.e. websites.
If I were king of all Radio policy, a station like this should be allowed to sell advertisements. The benefits to the community it serves are pretty obvious. Competition is good, government licenses to big corporations to give monopolies is not. Why is this station even regulated by the Federal Government?