Low Power FM is the one group of broadcast licenses that shrunk last year.
After the NAB got the FCC to stall handling out new licenses for these 100 watt FM Stations for 10 years, the FCC did hold a window for new applications last fall and a trickle of new stations are being licensed, so it is worthwhile to give them another look.
KONR-LP is a typical LPFM station
http://www.outnorth.org/
It combines sexual identity, racial diversity, artistic expression, antiAmerican vitriol and winds up broke. The station is located in Anchorage Alaska.
Another big swath of LPFM stations are affiliated with the 7th Day Adventist and Catholic churches, which don’t have the same pressure to raise money.
The backlog of FM Translator applications from 2003 is in the queue ahead of the LPFM applications. The FCC issued several hundred FM translator construction permits in the last two days, which will probably continue at that pace for a couple months. Look for lots of new religious stations showing up on FM above the 92 MHz boundary.
To show how hard it is to get LPFM, one application stated that if you were within 47 meters (~130 feet) of their antenna, you would have interference with a second adjacent licensed FM station 30 miles away. Because the LPFM didn’t provide an aerial photograph or other evidence that nobody lived within 37 meters of the antenna, the FCC rejected the application. By definition, LPFMs don’t have the legal, engineering or financial resources to launch a protracted legal challenge.