For the most part, you probably don’t care about FM translators, but I’ve made a substantial change to them that you’ll start to see in the directory.
For the curious or aspiring radiophile, all the boring details follow:
An FM translator takes the signal from a station (usually an FM Station) and rebroadcasts the signal on another frequency to improve the coverage of the primary radio station. You’re most likely to be familiar with FM Translators from your state’s NPR radio network. Typically, a NPR network will have several strong transmitters in the main cities with full FCC FM licenses, and a network of low power translators in rural areas for hog farmers who want to spend their evenings listening to Live from Lincoln Center.
FM Translators have evolved quite a bit and are about to undergo yet more change. An FM Translator is different from an FM Booster – an FM Booster operates on the same frequency as the primary station – it is used to repeat the signal into an area with bad reception – typically a town that is hiding between a mountain and doesn’t have “line of sight” to the FM tower, but is still within the service area of the station. Other than a station ID and perhaps a brief message asking for money, an FM translator may not originate its own programming – it is a slave to the primary station.
Commercial radio stations are only allowed to operate Fillin Translators or boosters (with one exception). Translators are to improve the signal quality within a station’s protected area, not expand the coverage area. Non-Commerical stations CAN creat a network of translators and can feed them by satellite.
George W Bush really had a mission to Share the Love of Jesus with the world, so during his administration some changes were made. The FCC opened the floodgates to allow any religious broadcaster to apply for as many FM Translators as they wanted.
Because they are relatively low power (typically 250 watts), there are huge areas of the country where a new FM translator won’t interfere with existing FM stations. FM Translators owned by non-commercial operators are NOT limited to operating only in the 88-92 MHz Non-commercial FM band – and in fact, a Non-commercial FM translator can be leased to a commercial FM station owner and carry a commercial station in the commercial bank (92-108 MHz). The commerical FM station is prohibited (in general) from helping the Non-Commerial operation acquire the FCC license or build the station, but once it is built, they can then rent or buy it.
Recognizing a huge future revenue source, several organizations with people with FCC paperwork skills starting churning out FCC applications as fast as they could – close to 10,000 in all flooded into the FCC. After a couple thousand were issued, the NAB and others screamed “HOLD ON JUST A COTTEN PICKIN’ MINUTE”.
This rush by a handful of religious broadcasters – most notably CSN (Calvary Satellite Network) and EMF (Educational Media Foundattion – KLove/Air1) was locking out other religious broadcasters who weren’t familiar with the paperwork process, and the NAB resented that these FM Translators were showing up in the commercial band, and would limit their ability to expand or move their stations in the future. But what probably pushed the FCC over the edge was the bullying tactics by the same groups to try to force little used college and high school radio stations to give up their licenses to be replaced a satellite fed 24 hr/day repeater or FM station droning on with prerecorded messages about the wages of sin.
So the FCC slammed the brakes and waited for their process and politics to catch up to them. The Democrats want to see these types of low power FM stations (including LPFM, which are not translators) used instead as communications tools for sympathetic leftist political groups – ACORN, La Raza, Pacifica radio, SEIU, Nation of Islam, GLAAD, etc…
So George Bush is no longer President, and there is new leadership at the FCC – they want to clear up the backlog of 6,000+ (mostly religious) FM translator applications that were put on hold, and be ready by next year (in time for the election) to license large numbers of LPFM radio stations to spread the Gospel of Obama to the masses.
So there will be an explosion in the next 6 months of either new FM Translators or more likely new LPFM stations. LPFM Stations do require a physical location, have to produce some original programming, and can’t just be an FM Translator hiding behind an LPFM license. (See: LifeTalk, run by the 7th day Adventists)
The other huge change is that last year (2010), the FCC green lighted the idea of AM stations being rebroadcast on FM translators. The idea – especially if the AM station is an old daytime-only AM station – is that having the AM station on the air 24 hours a day with FM like coverage is “in the public interest”. Sleepy AM stations on death’s door are springing back to life all over the country as an AM/FM translator combination, which can be very confusing if you don’t know about this change. Non-Coms leasing or selling their FM translators to commercial AM stations is becoming a lucrative source of income the past year.
Adding further confusion is that FM Translator can be HD compatible, which can allow it to be fed by an HD2/HD3 channel of an FM station – resulting in a “New” FM station in a city that doesn’t originate from any FM radio station you can hear (unless you have an HD radio)
So with all that blather, the change is that I’m now paying attention to the data on file at the FCC about which Primary station an FM Translator is repeating – and copying across the URL and streaming information from the primary station each night – so you’ll now see Klove FM Translators with Streaming links and a link to the Flagship KLove web site. This also applies to the AM with an FM Translator stations.
An FM Translator has a Call Sign with three parts – the K or W as the first letter, a three digit number from 201 to 300 (which is the channel number for that frequency) and a two digit character code that is unique. Unlike regular FM, the Call Sign is tied to a specific frequency – so when an owner wants to change the frequence of a translator, the call sign has to change, also.