MeTV FM and 13 other FrankenFM stations now have an official and permanent home on the far left end of the FM dial. Like I expected, on July 20 the FCC approved a report and order allowing these now-digital low-power TV channel 6 stations to keep their experimental analog radio transmitters on the air. 

It’s a very narrow ruling, premitting only these 14 stations that had received Special Temporary Authority (STA) to broadcast an analog radio signal alongside a digital TV signal. No new stations can apply, and the FCC is not otherwise opening up new FM station opportunitieis on 87.75 MHz FM. However, if these stations are sold, they may transfer their FM rights as part of the sale. This had been prohibited under the terms of the STA.

As I argued last year, the fact that the Commission would even consider letting these loophole stations keep their loophole permanently is evidence that, despite its flaws and contradictions, the FCC tends to see its role as keeping stations on air and maintaining public service. Critically, FrankenFMs always operated within the letter of the law. They only, “took advantage of the physics of their location on the broadcast television band, because the uppermost portion of the channel where these television stations made their home was also capable of reception on the lowermost portion of the FM radio dial,” as Chairwoman Rosenworcel puts it.

Some might say my argument is contractied by how the FCC treats unlicensed, pirate broadcasters, which in many cases may be providing equivalent public service. Like it or not, unlicensed statoins operate in contravention to the rules, and it’s a critical difference for the FCC, and its legal mandates. This doesn’t mean there couldn’t be more productive approaches to pirate radio – indeed LPFM was one – but it does explain why FrankenFMs received different treament.

Adherence to rules is also why the FCC fines licensed stations that break them, even if those fines might jeopardize the station’s viability. However, in reality, it’s extremely rare that the FCC fines a station off the air for routine violations – even indecency – and the Commission will reduce fines if a license holder demonstrates hardship. Again, in the spirit of keeping stations on air and maintaining public service. If a station leaves the air in the face of a fine, more often it’s because the license holder chooses to sell or transfer the license in order to avoid current and future liability. The license and signal is preserved, even if the specific programming changes. 

In any event, it’s been a long, 14-year saga for FrankenFMs.

The post They Live! FCC Permanently Authorizes 14 FrankenFMs appeared first on Radio Survivor.

It’s been nearly three years since the FCC first announced that a new low-power FM (LPFM) application window would be forthcoming. Now we know that November 1 – 8, 2023 will be the third-ever opportunity for qualified non-profits to apply for a license. Jennifer, Eric and Paul review all the pertinent details, explaining why there is excitement around LPFM and this next chance for new community and college radio stations to go on the air.

We also take another look at Franken FMs – vestigial low-power TV (LPTV) stations on channel 6 that can be heard at the far left end of the FM radio dial. They were supposed to go off the air a year ago when the last LPTV stations converted to digital broadcasts. But the FCC eventually granted 13 of them “Special Temporary Authority” to continue broadcasting an analog radio signal experimentally even while their video signals went digital. At its July meeting the Commission plans to vote on rules that would allow these Franken FMs to live on, and we discuss what’s at stake.

Show Notes:

• Podcast #269 – How To Get an FM Radio License in 2021
• New Opportunity for Low-Power FM Community Radio Stations Opens November 1, 2023
• Why There Will Be Fewer Opportunities for New LPFMs in the November Application Window
• The Greatest Flowering of Community Radio in History Happened in the 2010s
• Resources on applying for an LPFM license:
  • Rec Network’s LPFM.app
  • Common Frequency
  • Prometheus Radio Project
• KOMF-LP tour in Denver
• San Francisco Community Radio is a LPFM in a time-sharing agreement
• FrankenFMs Up for Final Vote at FCC
• Chicago’s MeTV FM Takes the Back Door to Radio Ratings Success

Show Credits

• This episode was produced by Paul Riismandel
• Hosted by Jennifer Waits, Eric Klein and Paul Riismandel
• Edited by Eric Klein

The post Podcast #331 – New Low-Power FM Opportunity Coming this November appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Going into the 2023 application window for new low-power FM stations we are unlikely to see the kind of massive expansion of the sort we had after the 2013 window. That’s because there are many fewer open frequencies, stemming from the fact that there are simply more FM radio stations on the dial in 2023 than in September, 2013, right before that last application window opened.

But just how big is the change? The FCC reports on the number of broadcast stations every quarter, so getting an exact number is trivial.

As of September 30, 2013 there were 17,356 FM licensed broadcast stations in the US. As of March 31, 2023 that number was 21,838. That means there are 4482 more – a 25% increase. However, the aggregate growth in FM doesn’t tell the whole story.

LPFMs can be squeezed into the dial on frequencies where full-power stations aren’t permitted. The same is true for translator repeater stations. And the growth in both these kinds of stations has been even greater: 60%!

There were 788 licensed LPFMs in September, 2013, and now there are 1,999 in March, 2023 – 154% more. Translators grew from 6,055 in 2013 to 8,939 in 2023, making for a 48% increase. In fact, combined, LPFMs and translators constitute a full half of all FM radio station licenses today. In 2013 they made up a little less than a quarter.

The LPFM growth is directly attributed to that 2013 application window, which resulted in the vast majority of new stations going on the air between 2014 and 2016. In 2016 and 2017 the FCC conducted application windows for translators, which drove the growth in those licenses. Two of those windows were specifically for AM stations which were newly permitted to obtain repeaters on FM, further fueling demand for valuable space on that dial.

So, that’s the state of things as we head into this next (and possibly final) opportunity for new LPFM community radio stations. Even though there will be fewer opportunities, this is no cause for despair. In the last decade so many more communities got their first – or second, third or fourth – community radio station. For example, my home of Portland, OR – which had two community stations and no true LPFMs in 2013 – added five more. Putting more on the air is kind of frosting on the cake, and at least some will likely be claiming frequencies from some of the LPFMs that weren’t able to survive, especially through the challenges of the pandemic.

The post Why There Will Be Fewer Opportunities for New LPFMs in the November Application Window appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Today there are 13 FrankenFM radio stations broadcasting in the US. These are vestiges of the analog TV past, given a short term lease by the Federal Communications Commission, now with a chance at a longer life.

Until July 2022 FrankenFMs were the analog audio signals of low-power TV (LPTV) stations on channel 6, which could be heard at the low end of the FM dial – at 87.75 MHz, to be precise. But July 2022 brought the final digital transition for these TV stations, which also meant the shutdown of their analog sound transmission.

However, some of these stations managed to build audiences that were generally unaware that they were listening to a TV station, and so they petitioned the FCC for special temporary authority (STA) to continue broadcasting in analog on the FM dial, even though their TV signals went digital. The FCC granted this exception to a baker’s dozen FrankenFMs on an experimental basis, and is now considering making this permanent, with the vote due on July 20.

Some hoped that this might be an opportunity to expand the FM, either by opening up 87.7 FM to more applicants (it’s not part of the official FM dial), or by expanding the dial even further to 82 MHz, reallocating the full bandwidth of what was once assigned to TV channel 6. To some disappointment, the Commission has indicated that it only intends to consider a fairly narrow option, only authorizing these last 13 FrankenFMs, taking additional stations or FM band expansion off the table.

Some public radio broadcasters have opposed any authorization of FrankenFMs because they see them as having taken a back-door into the FM dial, and that their FM service is a happy accident, never intended by the original rules of the game. They also think 87.75 MHz should fall into the non-commercial band (88 – 92 MHz), and object to the fact that many, if not most, FrankenFMs operate as commercial stations.

For its part the FCC seems to acknowledge that these remaining FrankenFMs are serving real listeners who’ve come to rely on their programming, often targeted to minority communities. So this final proposal up for vote represents an attempt to thread the needle, balancing a desire not to negatively impact listeners while also not opening the floodgates or creating additional controversy with the broadcast industry, in which there is no united opinion on expanding the FM band.

I’m not typically given to making predictions, but given the STAs already issued to these last FrankenFMs, combined with the very constrained proposal up for vote, my guess is that the FCC Commissioners are likely to authorize them. We won’t know for sure until the next public meeting on July 20, and you can be sure we’ll report on it here.

The post FrankenFMs Up for Final Vote at FCC appeared first on Radio Survivor.

The FCC is not in the business of taking licensed radio stations off the air.

This is something I’ve been telling community and college radio folks for well over a decade, especially when they get themselves tied up in knots of anxiety trying to read certain regulations like literary theory, worried that a fine over a fleeting f-word or clueless DJ promoting their own live gig once will spell the end. (It won’t, and hasn’t in the last four decades.)

There’s no better evidence for this perspective than the Commission’s latest proposed rulemaking to let FrankenFMs stay resident at the FM dial’s back door of 87.75 MHz, permanently. 

To briefly review: FrankenFMs are TV stations broadcasting as radio stations that were never licensed as radio at all. Instead they’re the vestiges of analog low-power TV (LPTV) stations that broadcast on channel 6, where the formerly analog audio portion of their signals could be heard at the far left end of the FM dial. Essentially, once full-power TV in the US went all-digital in 2009, FrankenFMs exploited what was previously just a technical curiosity to create a backdoor service. 

However, LPTVs had to go all-digital in June 2021, ending analog audio and FM radio reception at the same. But then the FCC authorized Special Temporary Authority (STA) for 13 of these stations to maintain an analog radio signal alongside their digital one, and those stations remain on the FM dial today.

With this new proposal, the Commission is recognizing that to listeners FrankenFMs are real radio stations, even if that’s not what the rules intended them to be. Of course, one could say the same of pirate stations – which the agency is staffing up to fight – but the Frankens at least were authorized to have an audio signal at 87.75 FM, just not necessarily a standalone signal. Yet, that was never prohibited either.

Say it again: The FCC is not in the business of taking licensed radio stations off the air.

(Even if they’re not fully radio stations.)

Of course, this proposal does not come without controversy. The most common objection is that it’s otherwise difficult to put a new FM station on the air, and so it would be fairer not to authorize this backdoor scheme. An additional argument is that if these stations are legitimized, then the Commission should extend the opportunity to more broadcasters.

In fact, the FCC asks if they should do just that, adopting an idea that’s been floating around community radio and public interest circles for the last decade, more recently suggested by National Public Radio: reallocate analog channel 6 TV frequencies 82 – 88 MHz for new FMs. Obviously, this would require new radio receivers to get most of the new broadcasts. But there was a time not too long ago that the AM dial didn’t go all the way to 1710 KHz, so there’s precedent. 

No doubt, many entrenched broadcast interests will probably argue that it’s absurd to license frequencies for stations that won’t be heard on most receivers. I don’t think that is so absurd in today’s radio and media environment. I’ll make that case in a separate post. 

Now we’re waiting for the comment window on this proposal to open when it gets published in the Federal Register. That’s when we’ll see what arguments, pro and con, are made on these ideas, and any of us in the public may weigh in, too.

The post FCC’s Proposal to Legitimize FrankenFMs Proves It Isn’t in the Business of Taking Stations off the Air appeared first on Radio Survivor.

The annual Infinite Dial survey from Edison Research was recently released, showing what people in the US are listening to, and where. It even includes social media platforms like TikTok, which Eric observes young people often use like radio, playing in the background as they go about daily activities. We review the stats, and also get into the FCC’s latest count of radio stations. Spoiler alert: there are more than ever.

Jennifer shares her recent visit to the Pyrite Radio art installation, featuring radios using fool’s gold as their crystal.

Show Notes:

• Edison Research Infinite Dial 2022
• FCC Broadcast Stations Totals for Q1 2022
• For comparison, Radio Station Totals for Q1 2012
• Jennifer’s dispatch on Pyrite Radio for Hii Magazine

The post Podcast #326: The State of Listening and Broadcast Radio in 2022 appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Few topics create as much anxiety at college and community radio stations – not to mention many a commercial radio morning show – than broadcast indecency. Since the dawn of broadcast regulation in the US there have been legal restrictions on the kind of speech that may be broadcast on the public airwaves, with a particular focus on the topics of sexual and excretory functions. Yet, for all the worrying and fretting, for much of history there hasn’t been much action by the FCC. And even when there were more fines and actions, the actual number was still relatively small.

Prof. Christopher Terry from the University of Minnesota joins us to help unravel this history and set the record straight. First we have to define what “indecency” is, because the specific definition used for broadcast enforcement is not necessarily aligned with the common sense definition, nor is it the same as “obscenity,” which has it’s own particular legal definition. Just because some might call a word “obscene” doesn’t mean it necessarily is legally obscene (in fact, it probably isn’t), nor is it necessarily legally indecent (thought it might be).

Then Prof. Terry walks us through a long uneventful period that ends in the 1970s with the very first indecency fine and the Supreme Court decision Pacifica v. FCC, which kicked off a forty year period of increased enforcement and many more fines. Yet, in those four decades, the standard of indecent shifted both due to political pressures and court intervention. It leads up to 2018, when broadcast new organizations struggled with how to report on President Trump referring to some nations as “s**thole countries,” while still remaining compliant.

In the end, in 2021, it’s still the case that airing “indecent” programming between 6 AM and 10 PM may get you an FCC fine, but the risks are different than what you may have thought to be true one, two or three decades ago.

Show Notes

• “The living legacy of FCC indecency enforcement: Trump, ‘shithole’ and profanity in the news.” by Prof. Christopher Terry, Journal of Media Law and Ethics.
• Podcast #318: Battling the Zombie of the Fairness Doctrine

Featured image credit: Paulette Vautour on Unsplash

The post Podcast #321 – The Long Sordid History of Broadcast Indecency Enforcement appeared first on Radio Survivor.

The Fairness Doctrine – a Federal Communications Commission rule that’s been out of commission since the 20th century – just doesn’t seem to die, at least in the minds of politicians, the press and much of the public. Politicos of many political stripes trot out its specter as a bogeyman any time its convenient, while efforts to regulate online speech draw inevitable comparisons.

According to Prof. Christopher Terry from the University of Minnesota, that’s because people fundamentally misunderstand what the Fairness Doctrine was, why it existed, and what it did. Often assumed to be a mandate for “equal time” for opposing positions, it was both more nuanced and less prescriptive. Moreover, the FCC’s interpretation and enforcement evolved over the years, from its first formulation in 1949, until its death in the 1980s.

Prof. Terry is here to set the record straight, explaining the rationale, history and actual life of the Fairness Doctrine. He also details why it was, and would be, a poor tool to grapple with the perceived imbalance of partisan national media, and why he thinks its zombie should finally be laid to rest.

Show Notes:

• The First Amendment Encyclopedia: The Fairness Doctrine
• Podcast #258 – Trump Admin Raises the Specter of the Fairness Doctrine
• A “distraction” that won’t go away: FCC drops Fairness Doctrine again
• The decade’s most important radio trends: #8 The Great Fairness Doctrine Panic

Photo by Nathan Wright on Unsplash

The post Podcast #318: Battling the Zombie of the Fairness Doctrine appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Last Tuesday, July 13, was the last day for analog low-power TV in the US, also marking the last broadcasts of most Franken FMs – legacy channel 6 stations’ whose audio is heard at the low end of the FM dial at 87.7 FM. As I noted then, two stations have retained their FM signals even as their video signals switched to digital (digital TV audio signals cannot be heard on FM radios) under Special Temporary Authority (STA) from the FCC.

Now that number has increased to five, as Radio Insight reports Streetz 87.7 WMTO-LP in Norfolk, Virginia, La Invasora 87.7 KXDP-LP Denver, Colorado and “La Que Buena 101.9/87.7” in Cleveland, Georgia have all received STAs as well. This permits the stations to retain their analog radio signal for six months, but they must also broadcast a fully independent digital TV signal and the station may not be sold in that period. That still leaves about two dozen Franken FMs (depending on who does the counting – there is no official list) that are no longer heard at 87.7 FM.

Living in Portland, Oregon, without any Franken FMs nearby, I’ve only heard a couple of them ever. The first was the one that set me on the journey of discovering these stations, back in June 2009, just after the DTV transition. Chicago’s WLFM-LP was then airing a smooth jazz format, later flipping to alternative rock, and finally to MeTV FM under the new call letters WRME-LP. I’ve heard the station on the FM dial both with the smooth jazz and MeTV formats.

In October, 2019 I tuned in NY Radio Korea while visiting Northern New Jersey. Radio Insight says that station has applied for an STA to stay on FM – we’ll see if it’s granted.

If I happened to live near a Franken FM that was set to leave the radio dial, I definitely would have tuned in last Tuesday to hear what those final moments sound like. Though I wasn’t able to do it personally, lucky for me The Antenna Man on YouTube compiled some recordings of analog LPTV stations signing off. He even traveled to Syracuse, New York just to observe and record the last transmissions of WVOA-LP. This is a particularly fascinating Franken FM because its video signal was just an 8-bit motion graphic synchronized to the audio program, which Antenna Man compares to the Atari Music Video System from the 1970s.

This station actually aired a notice about its imminent sign-off, which he also captured in his video.

In the video’s description he’s posted links to other YouTubers’ unedited captures of other analog LPTV end-transmissions, several of which are quite unceremonious and abrupt. As minor a chapter it seems, it’s still real broadcast history.

The post A Few More Franken FMs Stay on the Radio appeared first on Radio Survivor.

July 13, 2021 was the last day on-air for 95% of the Franken FMs still around. That’s because 11:59 PM marked the final deadline for low-power TV stations to turn off their analog signals, 12 years and 31 days after full-power stations went all-digital.

These vestigial analog broadcasts were primarily of use to a few dozen stations assigned TV channel 6, which meant their audio could be heard at the far left end of the FM dial, at 87.75 MHz. Once just considered a quirky phenomenon in the days of all-analog TV, this capability spawned a new life for these outlets as radio stations which came to be known as Franken FMs.

Their forced digital transition was forestalled so many times in the last decade that none could claim they didn’t see it coming. One might consider their quest Quixotic, lobbying the FCC to retain their back-door to the radio dial, even though they have no legal claim to be heard on the radio.

While the Commission has not acted on a proposal to let LPTVs on channel 6 retain their analog audio broadcasts alongside their digital video transmissions, two stations have received special temporary authority (STA) from the agency to do just that for six months. I first reported on this experiment in June when KBKF in San Jose, CA got an STA. Chicago’s WRME recently also got the same extension. That station is perhaps the most well-known Franken FM, as the flagship station of MeTV FM. Not coincidentally, both stations are owned by the same company, Venture Technologies Group.

Aside from these two, all other Frankens must now be off the FM radio dial, as the stations either go digital or go dark. It’s tough to say precisely how many are affected. In March I counted 23 LPTV channel 6s that appeared to still operate as radio stations, and it’s likely many of them have ceased operations or figured out a different broadcast option in the meantime. Here are four reolocations I was able to find:

• The Bridge WJMF-LP in Jackson, Mississippi > WZQK-AM & 94.3 FM
• Drake FM WPGF in Memphis, Tennessee > 96.1 FM
• Fiesta! WGHD in Las Vegas > 98.1 FM
• Streetz 877 WMTO in Norfolk, Virginia > 102.1 FM

I also looked up a couple of other Franken FMs I’ve followed over the years to see their status. The website for Kickin’ Country 87.7 in Inyokern, California is offline, and their stream is no longer available on TuneIn. The stream for Sacramento’s Hella Radio 87.7 is still going, though there’s no messaging about the TV signal, the website doesn’t seem to have been updated since April 2020 and their last Twitter post was September 2020.

While the ultimate fate of TV on the radio is forestalled another six months until Venture’s STAs expire, it’s hard to say if many other stations will back to 87.7 FM if the FCC gives some kind of approval to the hybrid digital video and analog analog scheme. Even if that happens, I think we can consider the era of true Franken FMs to be over. Chicago’s MeTV FM is no longer actually broadcasting on TV – the station is now required to have a completely separate digital video signal. Its audio transmission is actually just radio – that happens to be paired with a digital LPTV station.

Just like its namesake monster, it seems Franken FM was never meant to live for long.

The post Just 2 Franken FMs Remain (but the Era Is Over) appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Just when we thought the Franken FM era might be over for good, the FCC grants “Special Temporary Authority” to a LPTV channel 6 in San Jose, California to keep its analog signal – heard on the FM dial – on the air while transitioning its video signal to digital. We review this news, along with a proposal in front of the FCC to boost low-power FM stations to 250 watts.

We also take a look at the most recent issue of The Wire magazine, dedicated to radio in both broadcast and internet forms. Dedicated to “Adventures in Sound and Music,” the journal looks at stations that share experimental and forward-looking sounds, highlighting Radio Survivor favorites like Wave Farm and the Pirate Radio Sound Map, alongside community-oriented stations in Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, South Africa and Palestine.

Then Jennifer shares her experience taking the cassette-hacking course that Eric discussed in episode #299, as we analyze the intermixing of radio, physical and digital media in the 21st century.

Show Notes:

• It’s Alive! FCC Authorizes Last-Minute Franken FM Experiment
• Time Is Running Out for FrankenFMs – Just 4 Months Left
• St. Francis High School Files Paperwork to Sell KSFH to Group Focused on South Asian Community
• REC LPFM Advisory Letter #11 – LP250 Upgrade: Technical Planning Considerations for LPFM Stations
• See if your LPFM station might be eligible for a power upgrade at check.LP250.com
• The Wire #449: Radio Activity / On Air
• Dogbotic: Cassette Hacking: A Modern Musician’s Guide to Mangling Magnetic Tape
• Podcast #293: Exploring Radio Art and Transmission Art with Anna Friz
• Podcast #292: The History of Sound Art with Judy Dunaway
• Radio Survivor Podcast #190: Radio Spectrum and Transmission Art with Amanda Dawn Christie
• Radio Survivor Podcast #193: Wavefarm, Reveil and Transmission Arts
• Radio Survivor Podcast #289: Celebrating Women in Sound with Jennifer Hyland Wang and Jenny Stoever
• Radio Survivor Podcast #151: The Wave Farm Grows Transmission Arts
• Sisters with Transistors
• Podcast #163 – The Post Radio is Dead Era

The post Podcast #303 – Radio on TV, Magazines and Tape appeared first on Radio Survivor.

“Special Temporary Authority” kind of sounds like “Double Secret Probation,” but it’s actually a foot in a closing door for Franken FMs. The FCC has granted this “temporary authority,” known as an STA, for channel 6 TV station KBKF-LD to continue broadcasting an analog FM radio signal while its main television signal broadcasts in digital. 

As we’ve noted before, July 13 is the final, long-delayed deadline for analog low-power TV stations to shut off their analog signals in favor of digital, 13 years after full-power stations made the switch. LPTVs were permitted to remain broadcasting in analog, and since the 2009 digital conversion about two dozen stations broadcasting on channel 6, which is adjacent to the FM dial and can be heard at 87.7 FM, have decided to effectively become radio stations. These so-called “Franken FMs” transmit images or a bulletin board on the video signal to accompany an audio signal that is like any other radio station. 

With July 13 set to put these stations off the air permanently, Venture Technologies Group, which owns a number of Franken FMs, petitioned the FCC to allow their San Jose, CA station to experiment with keeping both an analog audio and digital video signal on the air. That means they are complying with the spirit of the DTV transition, while also keeping their FM signal operational. They argue all these signals can fit within the bandwidth already allocated for their station.

The Commission granted this request on a temporary–six month–and provisional basis. One important provision is that KBKF must maintain a real television broadcast on its digital signal, with “at least one stream of synchronized video and audio programming… on a full time (24×7) basis.” That means no slideshow or bulletin board. The company must submit reports to the FCC on any interference between its analog and digital signals or with any other station, and also may not sell the license during this period. 

Venture also owns the license for WRME in Chicago, home to what is likely the most popular Franken FM, MeTV Radio, programmed by Weigel Communications, and syndicated to several real FM radio stations around the country. According to Inside Radio the company is also asking the FCC for an STA for Chicago’s MeTV Radio to broadcast in hybrid digital TV / analog audio after July 13.

While this is an interesting development, it’s still the case that the dozens of other analog LPTV stations – including about 21 other channel 6 Franken FMs – are required to go all digital or leave the airwaves altogether in less than one month. Those Franken FMs may also petition the FCC for an STA, but it’s unclear how many are prepared and how many the Commission would authorize in such short time.

At the same time there is a petition in front of the FCC to make the hybrid digital TV / analog radio system permanent. If I were a betting man, I’d say the Commission will wait six months to see how the STAs work out before making a ruling. Often the FCC is popularly thought of as an airwaves cop on the lookout for violations, it’s more accurate to say that the Commission is in the business of keeping stations on the air, but within the rules, many of which are there to maintain some semblance of a usable service. Granting this first Franken FM STA indicates the FCC is at least open to the possibility of letting these stations retain their analog FM signals while complying with the digital transition. 

NPR and other FM broadcasters oppose such a development. The argument I find most compelling has to do with access and fairness: why should these few lucky channel 6 LPTVs be the only ones permitted to use what is, in effect, a new FM frequency at 87.7 FM that no other entity or organization can apply for. On the one hand, it’s reasonable that the FCC doesn’t want to kick these signals off the air, depriving listeners of a service they’ve become accustomed to. But with so few open FM radio signals left, especially in major markets, it seems like more broadcasters ought to get a chance. 

We’ll be listening for developments in this story. Also check out the Antenna Man on YouTube, who’s been using our “Final Countdown” graphic (with our permission), and is more of a Franken FM advocate than we. 

The post It’s Alive! FCC Authorizes Last-Minute Franken FM Experiment appeared first on Radio Survivor.

The Federal Communications Commission recently announced that November 2, 2021 will mark the opening of the next licensing window for full-power non-commercial / educational (NCE) FM radio stations. The Commission first hinted at this chance back in fall of 2020. Given how often our listeners ask how and when they can get a radio license, we immediately dedicated an episode to that topic. Now that more is known we decided to revisit it.

Even though the application window dates have not yet been announced, now is the time to get prepared. Broadcast attorney Frank Montero guests to help us understand the process of applying for an FM broadcast license. He’s a partner with Fletcher, Heald and Hildreth, which also publishes the CommLawBlog. He explains who qualifies to apply and other requirements to keep in mind.

License application windows are the only time when an organization may apply for an FM radio license, and they don’t happen frequently. The last full-power NCE window was more than a decade ago, and the last chance at an LPFM was 2013. As the FM dial fills up in cities and towns across the country, this may be the last opportunity for a new station in many regions. If you’re interested in operating a full- or low-power non-commercial station we we hope this episode helps get you started. Even if you’re not interested, it’s important to understand just how stations get on the air in the 21st century.

Show Notes:

• CommLawBlog – The Upcoming FCC Noncommercial FM and LPFM Filing Windows: What You Need to Know
• The Next Noncomm FM License Opportunity Opens November 2
• NFCB: Primer On The NCE Radio Filing Window
• FCC Chair: New LPFM & Noncomm License Opportunities Coming Soon
• FCC Awards Full-Power Licenses to 5 LPFMs, Plus 52 More Orgs (2010)
• FCC’s LPFM order will make 2013 a good year for community radio (2012)
• Radio Survivor documented the roll-out of new LPFM stations beginning with the most recent 2013 application window

Feature image adapted from “The FCC’s front door” by Rob Pegararo / flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

The post Podcast #300 – How to Get a Noncomm FM License in 2021 (Replay) appeared first on Radio Survivor.

As we reported on our podcast last October, the FCC plans to open up opportunities to apply for non-commercial FM radio licenses in 2021. The Commission just announced that first application window for full-power Non-commercial Educational (NCE) licenses, from November 2 – 9.

What this means is that qualified parties may apply for a full-power NCE license during those dates. However, there are still a lot of unknown details. Most importantly, we don’t yet know what frequencies, in what cities will be available. Because these are full power licenses, we can expect there will be very few frequencies open in major markets, where the FM dials are already pretty full.

Keep in mind that the requirements for applying for an NCE license are much more technically complex and stringent than for low-power FM (LPFM) licenses. Only qualified non-profit corporations may apply, and you’ll be best off retaining the services of an experienced radio engineer to consult.

While the initial investment of time and money is higher than with LPFM, the payoff is that a full-power NCE signal can serve a relatively large geographic area.

If you might be interested in applying, we highly recommend listening to our interview with broadcast attorney Frank Montero who explains all the details.

The post The Next Noncomm FM License Opportunity Opens November 2 appeared first on Radio Survivor.

The PIRATE Act was signed into law more than a year ago, but the rules governing increased fines for unlicensed broadcasting are about to go into effect on April 26. The Act is intended to give the FCC additional tools for tamping down pirate radio activity in hot beds like Boston and Brooklyn, NY, but there are reasons to be skeptical.

Brooklyn-based writer, post-production mixer and field recordist David Goren joins to help us tease out the real-world implications. Goren is also the creator of the Brooklyn Pirate Radio Sound Map and has been monitoring and recording unlicensed radio activity in the borough for decades.

Also joining the show is Dr. Christopher Terry from the University of Minnesota. A professor of media law, he helps illuminate some of the legal and bureaucratic elements that complicate the Commission’s efforts. He also catches us up on the latest development in the battle over media ownership rules, with the Supreme Court issuing a narrow unanimous ruling in favor of the FCC’s most recent changes, but not quite addressing the decades-long gridlock in that policy area.

Show Notes:

• David Goren
• The Brooklyn Pirate Radio Sound Map
• The PIRATE Act
• Radio World: FCC Can Use New Pirate Radio Fines Starting April 26
• FCC: Enforcement Bureau Warns Property Managers That Tolerate Pirate Radio
• New York City’s Pirates of the Air
• Podcast #133: Preserving Brooklyn Pirate Radio
• Library of Congress’ Radio Preservation Task Force
• Radio Survivor’s most recent episode on Wave Farm, inluding numerous links.
• KCRW: Outlaws of the Airwaves: The Rise of Pirate Radio Station WBAD
• WVIP
• Podcast #168: A Time Machine for All The Radio Plus Shortwave
• Podcast #3: FCC Paper Tiger Teams vs Pirate Radio (episode with John Anderson)
• Listen to this BBC Documentary about 5 Community Radio Stations around the World
• Podcast #282 – New FCC, Who Dis?
• Podcast #277 – How Does the FCC Solve Anything?

The post Podcast #294 – Reading the PIRATE Act / FCC & the Supremes Pt. 2 appeared first on Radio Survivor.

This week we share more evidence of how broadest radio is an important informational lifeline and human connection for so many people. As most of the country enters year two of the pandemic, we catch up again with Becky Meiers, General Manager of community radio station KCAW-FM in Sitka, Alaska. We last spoke with Becky at the end of March 2020, before any cases of COVID-19 had been diagnosed in this remote community, though she shared the station’s preparedness plan.

KCAW serves a vital communications role in Southeastern Alaska where small communities are spread out without overland connections, and the only travel is by air or by sea. Becky tells us how the station has gotten through the last year, bringing local broadcasters back to the air as possible, while also growing its local news coverage. Becky also regales us with stories from her journeys to isolated “translator communities” where local repeater transmitters (a/k/a “translators”) required emergency repairs and maintenance.

Show Notes:

• KCAW-FM Raven Radio
• Podcast #239 – Hunkering Down with Raven Radio in Sitka, Alaska
• Touring KCAW, Sitka Alaska’s Raven Radio
• Podcast #197 – Raven Radio in Sitka, Alaska
• Report for America
• Mt. Edgecumbe High School

The post Podcast #288 – Eagle vs. Transmitter appeared first on Radio Survivor.

The clock is still ticking for FrankenFMs, legacy analog low-power TV stations broadcasting on channel 6 with signals heard at 87.7 FM, on the far left end of the dial. The FCC has determined all analog television signals must convert to digital by July 13 of this year, and just issued a public notice reminding broadcasters of that deadline.

The Commission is pretty unequivocal in its warning:

By 11:59 p.m. local time on July 13, 2021, all LPTV/translator stations must terminate all analog television operations regardless of whether their digital facilities are operational. Stations that have not yet constructed a digital facility must cease analog television operations no later than July 13, 2021, and remain silent until construction is completed. If a station goes silent prior to completing construction of its digital facility, it may file a request for silent authority.

Stations that are still scrambling to get their digital transmissions up and running can make one last Hail Mary pass by filing for an extension no later than March 15. Note that getting an extension doesn’t mean they’re permitted to keep their analog signals going – they just get extra time to get their digital systems ready.

It’s important to note that the FCC makes no mention of FrankenFMs, even though it opened up a proceeding in 2019 to consider what – if anything – to do about them, with final reply comments due February 2020. Today I count 23 analog channel 6 stations that appear to operate as a radio station. The most common format is Spanish-language music, comprising 11 of them. With just 35 total analog LPTV channel 6 stations left, that means only a third are actually operating as true television stations, with video as their primary programming.

If I were to bet, I’d say these 23 remaining FrankenFMs are unlikely to get a stay of execution between now and July 13. Though it’s always possible the FCC will surprise us, the Commission has a pretty full docket as it is, even on the broadcast side, including a radio auction due to launch July 27. Moreover, the idea of letting FrankenFMs remain on the air or get another pathway onto the FM dial remains very controversial within the broadcast industry, with NPR as one of the strongest opponents. 

Chicago’s MeTV Radio is probably the most prominent FrankenFM, having added four true FM broadcast affiliates. When asked about the looming analog shutdown last July, the station’s owner told Chicago media journalist Robert Feder, “We have a solution and [are] moving forward.” The creator of the MeTV Radio format said, “Please stand by.”

Well, I can say I’m standing by and very curious to hear what MeTV and other FrankenFMs will do. Venture Technologies is the largest owner of these stations, and therefore presumably has some resources, as does Weigel Broadcasting, which programs and operates MeTV. 

One solution I can imagine is negotiating space on an HD Radio subchannel (HD2, HD3 or HD4). While there may be some commercial frequencies available for auction this year in some cities that are home to a FrankenFM, that is most definitely not the case in big metroplexes like Chicago and Cleveland. However, it seems like HD subchannels are fairly underutilized, even in big metros, and much easier to lease. Such a move would put a station back on the dial, at least on a large percentage of car radios.

But then that HD Radio channel can be used to feed a low-power translator station, giving it an analog signal, too. Even translators are in relatively high demand in big markets, but still easier to either purchase or lease than a full power signal.

Stay tuned, especially if you have a FrankenFM – operating at 87.7 FM – in your area. If you do, drop us a line and let us know what you hear, and if you catch wind of any announcements about their status.

The post Time Is Running Out for FrankenFMs – Just 4 Months Left appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Back in October 2019 I published a response to the breathless news reported across the tech, music and popular press that “vinyl outsold CDs” for the very first time. While true in terms of raw dollars, as I demonstrated, it wasn’t true in terms of volume. More than twice the number of CD albums were sold than vinyl – the revenue difference likely accountable to the fact that records now typically cost twice as much, or more, than the equivalent CD.

Now the sales numbers for all of 2020 are out, and the headlines look much the same as they did. It’s true that vinyl did hit a new sales peak not seen since the late 20th century, increasing its revenue lead over vinyl. In fact, the format’s take increased 28.7% over 2019, while CD’s share dropped 23%.

Nevertheless, 38% more CDs were sold – 31.6 million to vinyl’s 22.9 million. Clearly, the gap is closing. Yet, as audio writer John Darko points out, overall digital album sales outclassed both, at 33.1 million.

Of course, this all seems like peanuts compared to streaming revenue, which racks up $10bn, compared to a combined $1.1bn for physical formats.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not anti-vinyl. I’m also not arguing that CDs are better. Rather, I’m an advocate for looking at the whole picture. In 2021 CDs are simply cheaper and easier to get made than vinyl records. So, while they’re declining in popularity, compact discs are still a very viable medium for distributing music in a physical format.

I stream music pretty much every day, and I buy downloads. But an internet outage or label pulling its catalog cuts off my stream in an instant, while one bad hard drive easily separates a person from their downloads. My CDs, and records, are still the most persistent way to own my most favorite music.

Moreover, the RIAA report does not account for the used market. There, too, vinyl is popular. But so are CDs (and cassettes). In its mid-year 2020 report, online marketplace Discogs said overall physical media sales were up 30% compared to the first half of 2019. Vinyl was up 34% and CDs were up 31%. In terms of raw volume, Discogs saw 5.8 million records change hands, compared to 1.7 million CDs.

Of course, we have to keep in mind that vinyl had a 40 year head start on CDs, and these are global numbers – compact disc was much more delayed in some countries compared to the US or Western Europe. Though I’m not betting that it will surpass used vinyl sales, I expect to see that used CD volume will continue to grow. It will be fueled by renewed interest in physical media, inflation in vinyl prices and concomitantly lower CD prices, combined with the fact that there are thousands of albums on compact disc that never saw a vinyl release that are still hard to find in legitimate digital streaming or download.

As I’ve proclaimed before, now is a great time for music lovers to either get back into CD or give the format a try, especially if the compromises of streaming aren’t quite cutting it for you. Used racks are bursting at the seems with bargains, as are eBay, Discogs and thrift stores. It used to be that way for a fair amount of used vinyl, too, about a decade ago. But just like with records, the compact disc bargains may not last as more listeners realize what is out there, and what they’re missing.

The post More New CDs than Vinyl Records Were Sold in 2020, Yet Again appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Jennifer, Eric and Paul join together to review what’s news as we kick off the month of March. Top of the list is an upcoming FCC radio license auction. Originally planned for April 2020, but delayed by the first coronavirus lockdowns, the auction will see 140 commercial radio construction permits up for bid. We discuss if this is a good opportunity for community organizations hoping to broadcast, and things to keep in mind when applying.

A new Nielsen report shows that the podcast audience has grown more diverse than the US population as a whole, and Jennifer alerts us to a fascinating new podcast the dives into the audio diaries of former first-lady Ladybird Johnson. Then we dig into one of the biggest controversies in podcasting right now, the “Reply All” mini-series on the racist workplace culture at “Bon Appetit” magazine, that brought a spotlight on the racial inequities in the podcast’s own corporate home. Rather than picking apart the details, we analyze how simply being a new medium open to fresh ideas and voices isn’t enough to escape the racial and gender biases that are still pervasive in media organizations and the culture at large.

Show Notes:

• FCC: Auction 109 announced
• Completion of this July commercial station auction is a pre-requisite for the upcoming non-commerical and LPFM license windows.
• Inside Radio: Podcast Audiences Are Increasingly Diverse with Different Strokes for Different Folks.
• ABC News: Audio diaries reveal Lady Bird Johnson’s unseen influence in husband’s administration
• Podcast #135 – Resurfacing Women’s Contributions in Podcasting History
• Podcast #184 – Hidden Women’s Radio History in Uruguay
• NY Times: ‘Reply All’ Podcast Is Paused After Accusations of Toxic Culture
• “Mystery Show” podcast
• “Back to the Double R” is Jennifer’s new “Twin Peaks” rewatch podcast

Feature image credit: Wikimedia Commons – CKUA Radio Tower on campus / Public Domain

The post Podcast #287 – New Station Opportunity, Women’s History Month, and more appeared first on Radio Survivor.

What a difference a week makes. President Biden has appointed Jessica Rosenworcel as acting chair of the Federal Communications Commission, only the second time a woman has held the post. This signals the beginning of a new agenda at the Commission – though currently evenly split down party lines – and Prof. Christopher Terry from the University of Minnesota is here to help us read the tea leaves.

But that doesn’t mean the legacy of the old FCC is gone yet. Just one day before the inauguration, the agency was in front of the Supreme Court petitioning to get out of its nearly-two-decade Groundhog’s Day of repeatedly failing to properly revisit and revise media ownership rules. Although many press reports concluded that the justices were more sympathetic to the FCC’s arguments, Prof. Terry isn’t so sure, and tells us why. He also itemized some other important issues – like Network Neutrality – that the Commission will likely have to deal with in the coming year.

Show Notes

• Commissioner Rosenworcel’s podcast is “Broadband Conversations“
• Broadcasting and Cable says: “government attorneys and broadcasters were likely not unhappy with the tenor of the questioning” when the FCC was in front of the Supreme Court
• Podcast #277 – How Does the FCC Solve Anything?
• Podcast #281 – Wrapping Up Section 230 & the VOA
• Podcast #265 – Inside the “Little Known” Voice of America and the U.S. Agency for Global Media
• Leadership Changes at U.S. Agency for Global Media and Voice of America

The post Podcast #282 – New FCC, Who Dis? appeared first on Radio Survivor.

With the new Biden administration in place, we’ve quickly seen a series of leadership shifts at the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM) and its related international broadcasting groups, including Voice of America (VOA). Up until his final weeks, Trump-appointed CEO Michael Pack had been installing conservative allies throughout the organization and its affiliates.

Pack resigned on January 20 after he was told that he would be terminated. On the same day, Biden appointed former VOA executive Kelu Chao as Acting CEO of USAGM. Chao quickly fired a number of recent appointees and agency leaders.

On Sunday, January 24, USAGM announced that Chao had replaced the heads of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Asia, and Middle East Broadcasting Networks. Additionally, she replaced three board directors that had been appointed by Pack in his final days as CEO.

NPR reported on Pack’s tumultuous seven months at USAGM, with staffers “…characterizing him as seeking political control over their coverage,” adding that, “Pack routinely accused journalists of anti-Trump bias, sought to fire top executives as part of a ‘deep state,’ ominously accused the networks of being receptive to foreign spies and denied requests for visa extensions from his own staffers who are foreign nationals.”

On last week’s Radio Survivor show/podcast, we covered some of the most recent controversies under Pack, including his call for the demotion of a journalist who had asked a serious, yet unwelcome question to the current Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at a Voice of America event on January 11. But that was just the tip of the iceberg, as Pack was also making even higher profile personnel changes in his last few weeks in office. Many of these moves signaled a focus on shifting USAGM and its affiliates in the direction of being a more conservative mouthpiece for the United States.

With Chao now working to undo those last-minute changes by Pack, she emphasized the importance of independent journalism in a statement this week. “I have great faith in these leaders in ensuring the highest standards of independent, objective, and professional journalism,” she said in regards to the new leaders of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks.

It’s also interesting to note that VOA’s new acting director as of January 21, Yolanda Lopez, had been briefly sidelined by Pack following the Pompeo incident. NPR writes, “On Jan. 12, Lopez was stripped of all editorial oversight of the English-language news hub after one of her White House reporters posed pointed questions to then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo about his remarks, made after the presidential election, about a second Trump administration.”

For even more history and context about USAGM and Voice of America as well as some scoop about the first few months of USAGM under CEO Pack, listen to Radio Survivor show #265 from September, 2020, on which we had an esteemed panel of historians and archivists who are experts on the topic.

The post Leadership Changes at U.S. Agency for Global Media and Voice of America appeared first on Radio Survivor.

There are a few stories we were watching closely at the end of 2020, and we wanted to bring listeners up to date. First up is Section 230, the law that provides a degree of immunity to online platforms – from social media to community radio stations – for consequences resulting from what their users might post or share on their platforms. Trump had urged its repeal, apparently to get back at big tech companies like Twitter, and installed a new FCC commissioner in December who is very supportive of the FCC taking over administration of the statute, regulating online speech. That put eyes on the FCC’s January meeting. We’ll tell you what happened.

We’ve also been tracking controversies at the Voice of America, where a political appointee has been pressuring staff to avoid news coverage critical of the US. The situation recently came to another head. Then our reflection on VOA’s mission spurs Paul to share the story of when his grandmother was a broadcaster for the service.

We also spend some time learning about Jennifer’s new podcast project, and discuss the evolution of podcast formats since the early days of the medium.

Show Notes:

• On these two episodes Prof. Christopher Terry discusses the recent controversies over Section 230:
  • Podcast #277 – How Does the FCC Solve Anything?
  • Podcast #258 – Trump Admin Raises the Specter of the Fairness Doctrine
• Podcast #265 – Inside the “Little Known” Voice of America and the U.S. Agency for Global Media
• PBS Newshour: What we saw the day the Capitol was attacked | ‘America, Interrupted’ Podcast
• Marc Maron reflects on the medium of podcasting in the 300th episode of WTF
• Updates on changes at the USAGM and VOA in the days following the recording of this episode: Leadership Changes at U.S. Agency for Global Media and Voice of America

The post Podcast #281 – Wrapping Up Section 230 & the VOA appeared first on Radio Survivor.

A number of months ago I was scanning around the AM dial late in the evening from my Portland, Oregon abode. I stumbled upon a station playing hard rock, which I thought to be an unusual find. As the AM dial has become mostly the domain of conservative and sports talk, I rarely encounter music that isn’t a bumper or part of some leased-time foreign-language programming.

In fact, at first I thought perhaps the music was a lead-in to just another talk show, but eventually I heard a full set of three songs. The station identified itself as “The Bear,” but curiously gave an FM frequency, not one on the AM dial. 

An internet search the next day confirmed that “the Bear” is indeed an active rock formatted station located in Merced, California. Its logo features 105.7 FM prominently, with the 1660 AM frequency tucked in the corner. Yet, the AM signal is actually the primary one – the FM is a 250 watt repeater (translator) station. 

Here’s a quick aircheck of the Bear’s station ID, during a break in the syndicated hard rock “Loudwire” program.

Now, AM stations have been permitted to get FM translators for a few years now as part of the FCC’s so-called “AM revitalization” initiative. But mostly I’ve heard sports and news/talk stations get repeated on FM. 

I filed away this experience in memory, but kind of considered it a one-off. That was until my recent vacation in the Wallowa Mountains of Northeastern Oregon. Stowed away and social distancing in a mountainside cabin with limited internet and no cable, I spent quite a bit of time scanning the AM and shortwave bands in search of interesting sounds.

This time I heard a full set of contemporary hip-hop. At the break the station identified as “The Game, nothing but hip-hop.” After the commercial break, the next ID gave a frequency of 103.5 FM. Listening for about 45 minutes while I made dinner, I never heard the AM frequency mentioned once. 

Here is a short aircheck of two station IDs for “The Game.”

“The Game” was coming to me out of Spokane, Washington, 200 miles north of my Joseph, Oregon location. A later search also identified KGA as an AM station, first licensed in 1927, with translator at 103.5 FM. Unlike “the Bear,” branding for “the Game” has no indication of its AM signal. The station’s website curiously makes no mention of AM, either.

For “the Game” it really seems like the AM signal – with a powerful 50,000 watt daytime power – is just a feeder for an FM that broadcasts with less than 1% the power. Granted, I get that few hip-hop fans are likely to scan the AM dial looking for the station, but they might give it a try if they knew about it – especially if they’re on the fringe or outside the FM’s constrained broadcast radius.

It’s refreshing to hear music on the AM band that isn’t being used as a bumper or bed, and isn’t easy listening. But it’s also a little disheartening to realize that it’s likely few listeners actually tune in to the AM signal. 

December 2020 ratings for the Spokane market still list KGA as a sports talk station, ranking at #22 out of 26 stations in the book. Only the AM frequency is listed, and I’m not entirely sure they’d list the FM frequency, too. So there’s no way to really tell which signal has the listeners.

Merced, home to “the Bear,” is no longer measured by Nielsen, and the new ratings company doesn’t share their rankings online. 

With most medium-to-large market FM dials packed to the gills, it only makes sense that some enterprising AM operators would try music as a way to better leverage their FM translators. I understand this has become a bit of a tiny trend, though I’ve not been able to figure out just how widespread.

It seems like music on AM may get even another boost, thanks to the FCC’s authorization of all-digital HD Radio on the dial in October. Stations that already use hybrid HD Radio – where the digital signal is squeezed in next to the analog one – have higher fidelity when received on an HD-capable receiver. Because more bandwidth will be dedicated to the digital signal, all-digital AM stations should have even better sound quality. 

In December, Radio World reported on KMZT-AM in Southern California, which actually flipped from oldies to classical music on its hybrid HD signal. The programming is also heard on the HD–4 channel of a co-owned FM station. The owner says he’ll consider switching to all-digital when there are more HD receivers in use. 

The downside to all-digital AM is that analog receivers – the vast majority of AM radios that aren’t in cars – won’t be able to hear these signals. That is, of course, unless these stations also have FM translators.

I imagine AM stations that have these translators will be some of those more willing to take the risk of trying all-digital AM, since they can still reach analog listeners on the other dial. At the same time, the tiny broadcast areas of translators mean that the potential audience will be smaller, at least in the daytime, when many AM stations run at full power. 

Only one AM station so far has filed paperwork to go all-digital, WMGG-AM in Egypt Lake, Florida. It is simulcast on both a full-power FM and an FM translator.

Even though many of the largest radio owners have signaled little interest in all-digital AM, it should still be a fascinating year for the dial. I’ll be on the lookout for more music formats cropping up. Let us know if you hear anything interesting.

Feature image credit: Michael Curi / flickr (CC BY 2.0)

The post Why There’s More Music on AM Now appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Even though Trump is leaving the White House on January 19, he’s set up the FCC to carry on his idiosyncratic policy goals well into the Biden administration, especially if a Republican-led Senate resists the new president’s nomination for a new chairman.

At the last minute, Trump decided not to renominate FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly because he dared to opine that the Federal Communications Commission should not be put in charge of regulating online speech – a position consistent with his conservative political views. However, Trump is hellbent on the evisceration of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which provides immunity to internet platforms of all sizes and type for the speech posted by third-parties, such as participants in an online forum, or a social media platform.

Prof. Christopher Terry, from the University of Minnesota, joins to help us untangle this situation and the implications of the president’s last-minute nomination – and the subsequent Senate confirmation – of Nathan Simington to the FCC. Simington is believed to be one of the authors behind an executive order that calls on the FCC to “clarify” regulations on internet speech. With the exit of Republican Chairman Ajit Pai with the change of administration, this leaves the FCC with a two Democrat to two Republican deadlock. Together we suss out how community media could be affected should Trump and Simington get their way.

We also review arguments in front of the Supreme Court in the case of the FCC’s media ownership regulations that have failed to pass Appeals Court scrutiny for more than a decade.

Show Notes:

• Federal Communications Law Journal: “The Score Is 4-0: FCC Media Ownership Policy, Prometheus Radio Project, and Judicial Review“
• Electronic Frontier Foundation: The FCC’s Independence and Mission Are at Stake with Trump Nominee
• Podcast #258 – Trump Admin Raises the Specter of the Fairness Doctrine
• The FCC’s Score in Media Ownership Policy is 0 – 4

Feature image credit: Justin Baeder / flickr (CC BY 2.0)

The post Podcast #277 – How Does the FCC Solve Anything? appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Though there are many good reasons why one might not want to look back at the year that was, we still see some aspects worth noting. In particular, radio and podcasting proved to be resilient media, with broadcasters and podcasters rallying to meet the challenges of quarantines and social distancing brought on by the COVID-19 epidemic. This also brought on renewed interest in legal unlicensed Part 15 radio broadcasting, while the FCC authorized the first-ever terrestrial all-digital radio broadcast service, on the AM dial, no less.

The murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor refocused the nation’s attention on systematic racism and the racial and gender inequality that continues to permeate every aspect of American society. This brought about fresh calls for public and community broadcasters to address the effects of this within their own walls, along with efforts to provide mutual aid, support and guidance to BIPOC and advice to white allies.

An eventful year, it was, and we’re here to run it all down.

Show Notes:

• Social Distancing Sparks Interest in Part 15 Unlicensed Broadcasting, but Caveat Emptor
• FCC’s All-Digital AM Plan Likely Will Be Weak Sauce
• Public Media For All
• Podcast #270: Public Media for All
• FairPlay
• WFUV’s EQFM
• Podcast #240 – WFMU is Still On the Air During the Pandemic
• Podcast #239 – Hunkering Down with Raven Radio in Sitka, Alaska
• Podcast #238 – Social Distancing, Going Remote and Automation during Global Pandemic
• Podcast #237 – How Community & College Radio Can Deal with COVID-19
• Voicemeeter Banana is the free software Jennifer has been using to recorder her radio show from home

The post Podcast #276 – 2020 the Year in Radio and Sound appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Eric, Jennifer and Paul reconvene to catch up on all that is news to us in the worlds of radio and sound. The FCC just unanimously approved all-digital operation on the AM band, while commercial radio – born on the AM band – celebrates its centennial. But keep in mind that broadcast radio is older than that first commodified broadcast.

We also reflect on the very first virtual Grassroots Radio Conference and the history of radio dealing with earlier epidemics.

Show Notes:

• FCC’s All-Digital AM Plan Likely Will Be Weak Sauce
• YouTube: Re-enactment Commemorates 100th Anniversary Of First Commercial Radio Broadcast In Pittsburgh
• YouTube: Should We Hate Spotify? [An Objective View From A Professional Musician]
• Podcast #234 – Community Access Radio in New Zealand
• Prof. Kyle Barrett guested on Podcast #221 – The Intertwined History of the Radio and Recording Industries
• Matthew Lasar explains the history of the rise and fall of “turntable style” music community websites on Podcast #26 – Celebrating Radio Stickers & Turntable Rooms
• Podcast #263 – Broadcasting High School Radio through Wildfires and a Pandemic
• 2020 Virtual GRC Sessions on YouTube
• Podcast #240 – WFMU is Still On the Air During the Pandemic
• WHIV-LP New Orleans, Human Rights & Social Justice Radio

The post Podcast #271: AM Radio Goes Digital as It Celebrates a Centennial appeared first on Radio Survivor.

The Federal Communications Commission has announced that it will open two filing windows for non-commercial FM radio licenses. First up will be an opportunity to apply for a full-power non-commercial / educational (NCE) license, followed by a low-power FM opportunity.

Even though the application window dates have not yet been announced, now is the time to get prepared. Broadcast attorney Frank Montero guests to help us understand the process of applying for an FM broadcast license. He’s a partner with Fletcher, Heald and Hildreth, which also publishes the CommLawBlog. He explains who qualifies to apply and other requirements to keep in mind.

License application windows are the only time when an organization may apply for an FM radio license, and they don’t happen frequently. The last full-power NCE window was more than a decade ago, and the last chance at an LPFM was 2013. As the FM dial fills up in cities and towns across the country, this may be the last opportunity for a new station in many regions. If you’re interested in operating a full- or low-power non-commercial station we we hope this episode helps get you started. Even if you’re not interested, it’s important to understand just how stations get on the air in the 21st century.

Show Notes:

• CommLawBlog – The Upcoming FCC Noncommercial FM and LPFM Filing Windows: What You Need to Know
• NFCB: Primer On The NCE Radio Filing Window
• FCC Chair: New LPFM & Noncomm License Opportunities Coming Soon
• FCC Awards Full-Power Licenses to 5 LPFMs, Plus 52 More Orgs (2010)
• FCC’s LPFM order will make 2013 a good year for community radio (2012)
• Radio Survivor documented the roll-out of new LPFM stations beginning with the most recent 2013 application window

Feature image adapted from “The FCC’s front door” by Rob Pegararo / flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

The post Podcast #269 – How To Get an FM Radio License in 2021 appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Eleven months after opening a proceeding to consider allowing AM stations to go all-digital, the FCC appears ready to render its verdict later this month. According to Radio World’s Paul McLane, “[B]ased on anecdotal evidence, the commission will likely approve it.”

To recap, the Commission is considering proposals to allow AM stations to voluntary convert to all-digital HD Radio transmission, turning off their analog signals entirely. The purported benefits are better fidelity with no audible noise or interference. The tradeoff is that digital stations will effectively disappear from analog AM receivers, which make up the vast majority of radios.

It is true that about half of all car radios on the road now are HD Radio capable, and that the car is the site of large proportion of terrestrial radio listening. However, HD Radio has very little presence outside the car. It seems to be a big bet to cut off anywhere from a quarter to nearly a half of your listeners by ditching analog radios.

That is the takeaway from the experience of oldies station WIOE-AM in Fort Wayne, IN, which converted to all-digital this past May as an experiment. According to Inside Radio, the station turned the analog signal back on in early June after getting complaints from listeners, some of whom assumed that technical difficulties were to blame.

On the surface, an oldies music format would appear to be a fitting application for digital AM, with the tunes better served by the increased fidelity and reduced noise. At the same time, the older audience is probably less likely to be listening in cars, and even less likely to have an HD Radio capable home receiver.

For what it’s worth, the other station conducting experimental all-digital broadcasts in Maryland reports more positive results, saying that an HD Radio awareness campaign has resulted in it showing up in the Nielsen ratings for the first time.

True All-Digital AM Very Unlikely

Gazing into the crystal ball, Radio World quotes a “veteran engineering professional” who predicts that no major radio company is likely to invest in all-digital AM. Of course, those are the companies that own the vast majority of stations.

If the FCC chooses to authorize voluntary all-digital AM broadcasts, it will be consistent with the Commission’s overall strategy on digital radio. HD Radio, the current digital standard, is also voluntary and squeezed into the current analog dial. By comparison, most other countries with digital radio dedicated separate spectrum to use the DAB or DRM standards. While those systems also required new receivers, the promise of fresh and differentiated programming – like BBC 6Music – gave listeners an incentive to invest in new radios, which cost as little as $50.

On the other hand, the commercial radio industry has provided little incentive for listeners to switch to HD Radio from a content perspective. Mostly it’s just been the promise of lower noise digital sound. While there are at least a dozen different HD2 or HD3 digital-only signals in any major market, they’re generally poorly advertised, and many of them are just repeaters of an AM or just used as a way to feed an analog translator repeater station.

US Digital Radio Continues To Be Weak

By failing to commit the US to a true all-digital broadcasting standard, the FCC and Congress have consigned the nation to a digital radio system that is still unknown by the average person because it offers nebulous benefits. Certainly the broadcast industry has been successful in forging adoption of HD Radio in dashboards, but since the average car is on the road for more than a decade, this has been a very slow road. The adoption outside vehicles is pretty much a failure.

Letting AM stations voluntarily switch to all-digital will be just as weak and ineffective.

My principal concern for all-digital AM broadcasting is that it would undermine the vital emergency communications service these stations provide. During a hurricane, super storm, wildfire or other natural disaster when power and cellular service are cut or intermittent, a person’s lifeline is often that battery operated analog radio receiver. Who is going to run out to the car to tune in that HD station in the midst of 75 MPH winds?

But if it turns out that most major broadcasters won’t be interested all-digital AM, then the worst-case scenario of a disappeared analog band probably won’t come to pass.

Instead it will be just another weak step in the so-called AM revitalization initiative, which has really just been about giving FM translator stations to AM broadcasters. And that’s just a bribe to entice them to keep their AM stations, by making the FM frequency contingent on staying on the AM band.

Seems like a lot of time in the kitchen to cook up a very weak sauce.

Feature image credit: N Migo / flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

The post FCC’s All-Digital AM Plan Likely Will Be Weak Sauce appeared first on Radio Survivor.

It seems that social distancing has made unlicensed Part 15 radio a bit more popular. “Part 15” refers to the part of the US broadcast regulations that cover unintended transmissions and radio frequency interference. Essentially, this means tiny radio signals whose transmission can’t be avoided or are negligible. It also covers tiny radio transmitters, like the kind that fit into your cars 12-volt socket to broadcast your smartphone into your dashboard FM receiver, or, less commonly, AM transmitters used by real estate agents to create “talking houses” for drivers by. 

With restrictions and good sense preventing many churches from holding in-person services, many apparently have looked to Part 15 broadcasting to transmit sermons to parishioners parked in their car. With a broadcast range of several hundred feet on the AM dial, it’s a way to bring people together for a shared experience while keeping them safely apart. All without requiring attendees to have smartphones or use up their mobile bandwidth (assuming a church is somewhere with reliable wireless coverage).

While a variety of Part 15 AM transmitters have been on the market for years, a new system actually calling itself “Parking Lot Radio” is in development right now. Suggesting uses for the system, the project’s website says,

In the current climate of Covid–19, the Parking Lot Radio allows churches to hold “drive-in” services. Other organizations can hold lectures, film screenings and other events, while maintaining social distancing.

While a few hundred feet or broadcast range is probably sufficient for a large percentage of worship houses, I can imagine it’s still not enough for some larger mega-churches, which might want to reach hundreds of cars in acres of parking lots.

It’s possible this limitation is behind a letter from Tennessee Rep. Mark Green, who wrote to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai asking for temporary waivers be issued to houses of worship for “long-range FM transmitters.” He specifically asked for the ability to “operate FM transmitters with an effective range greater than 200 feet.”

Careful with that FM Transmitter, Pastor

It’s notable that Rep. Green’s request was for FM transmitters, which are far more limited under Part 15. While the regulations for the AM dial put significant limits on transmitter power and antenna length, there’s no explicit limit on the signal distance. Clever and careful engineering can wring out a little more reach, and distances closer to a half-mile or more can be achieved.

But the FM band is regulated by a tight signal strength limit (250 uV/m) at 3 meters from the antenna, causing one engineer writing in Radio World to summarize the situation as, “[b]asically if you can hear them more than 250–300 feet from the site they’re not legal.”

Yet, a simple search for “FM Transmitter” on Amazon quickly turns up a product advertised as “Transmitter for Church, Dual Mode Long Range Stereo Broadcast with Antenna,” that promises, “[t]ransmission distance more than 300 meters (In the line of sight, field, open land).” It even promises, “FCC certified,” leading the average shopper to think they’d be ready to broadcast legally more than 900 feet away.

Don’t hit that “Buy Now” button yet. 

Digging deeper into the product description we see the transmitter clearly listed as delivering “0.5W” which very like means a half-watt of power. Though it doesn’t sound like much compared to even LPFM’s 100 watt power limit, that’s still way too much. 

Compare this to a truly legal and FCC certified Part 15 FM transmitter from the radio company C.Crane. The company states in the product’s FAQ that,

Most of our customers achieve 40 – 60 feet depending on their situation. The signal will travel up to 70’ under good conditions. 

That’s less than a tenth the distance the Amazon until promises.

C.Crane doesn’t list their transmitter’s output, only specifying that it measures at “the maximum allowed by the FCC.” Though if we just look at the power consumption of 22.3mA and the fact that it runs on two AA batteries that provide three volts, then we can safely estimate it consumes less than a tenth of a watt. It most certainly transmits only a fraction of that.

What this means is that there is no way the Amazon half-watt transmitter is legal to use under Part 15 regulations, and the likelihood that it’s actually FCC certified is about a snowball’s chance in Hell. However, the fact that transmitters like these sell for about $100 and have the patina of legality probably means there are dozens, if not hundreds of churches and other well-meaning organizations using them all over the country. I wouldn’t be surprised if even just one of Rep. Green’s constituents has fired one up on Sundays, and maybe got tipped off that they could run afoul of the FCC.

The Challenge of Expanding FM Part 15

It’s not surprising that Chairman Pai recently denied Rep. Green’s request. In effect, he writes that the existing regulations are there for a reason, and that applications for licenses require proof that the proposed station would not interfere with existing ones. 

I certainly would love to see a more robust legal unlicensed radio regime in US. Ideally it would be like New Zealand’s, which reserves a few frequencies for transmissions up to a one watt of power. I’d even settle for something tinier.

That said, I can actually empathize with the FCC on this one. The Part 15 rules are set under law; any changes would be difficult and slow. An attempt to provide waivers would result in howls of protest from the broadcast lobby, who are already in a tizzy about the rampant pirate operators in places like Brooklyn, Boston and South Florida. 

I can also imagine the waivers would be challenging to enforce. Without a license to revoke, how would the FCC ever verify that anyone is keeping to the new limit, without basically further stepping up overtaxed field enforcement operations? Moreover, there aren’t commercially available FCC certified transmitters that would fit the bill. I doubt the Commission would want to tacitly authorize the currently-illicit transmitters that are all over online marketplaces.

Of course, a Sunday morning half-watt broadcast on an otherwise empty frequency in a small Tennessee town is unlikely to generate much harm, nor much attention. There are relatively few FCC field agents, and it’s hard to guess how many would enjoy spending their Sunday mornings cruising around looking for churches to bust. That doesn’t make it any more legal, and I’m not advising any law-abiding house of worship do this. I’m merely assessing the real-world risks. 

Yet I would also agree that there’s a slippery slope from the well-meaning, conscientious and non-interfering broadcaster to the also well-meaning, but more loosey-goosey operator who decides to go for even more power, or to try squeezing their station onto a frequency that really isn’t that clear. On top of that, I understand that a lot of the transmitters you can get online put out a pretty dirty signal that cause additional interference by “splattering” onto adjacent frequencies. Using one responsibly is difficult or – as some would argue – impossible.

It takes knowledge, research and skill – and proper equipment – to broadcast cleanly above Part 15 limits without causing problems. So, caveat emptor.

Ultimately, this is why the Part 15 rules exist, even if some might argue that they’re too conservative and stringent.

Legal Unlicensed Part 15 Options Abound

That doesn’t mean churches, theaters or other organizations can’t leverage Part 15 broadcasting. As I mentioned earlier, there is a whole industry around manufacturing well-engineered and reliable transmitters, particularly for the AM band, where the achievable distances are greater. Despite the AM band’s diminished reputation, you can still get very good sound for voice and many kinds of music. Plus, the vast majority of cars still have AM receivers built in, which are also well optimized for the band.

Hobby Broadcaster should be the very first place you visit, where proprietor Bill DeFelice has done the hard work of testing and reviewing transmitters and writing guides for broadcasting legally and effectively without a license. We talked with Bill on episode #120 of our podcast, and I humbly suggest it’s a must-listen if you’re thinking at all of getting into Part 15 broadcasting. 

Radio World also published a series of editorials and letters on Part 15 this summer, which might be of interest to the more technically minded. 

Admittedly, the better FCC certified Part 15 AM transmitters are quite a bit more pricey than the sketchy FM ones on Amazon. You can expect to pay anywhere from $700 to $1000 for something like a Hamilton Rangemaster or ChezRadio Procaster.

But I’m also happy to report that the venerable Talking House transmitter – originally designed for real estate agents – can be had new for around $130. I own one of these that I use for my own tiny Part 15 broadcasts, transmitting experimental radio sounds to the surrounding neighborhood and passing cars. Using the stock antenna and very little optimization I can get the signal about a block away on a portable radio (that’s just 200 feet here in Portland, Oregon). In a car I’ve heard it faintly as much as four blocks away when the wind is blowing just right. That performance meets my expectations, and it sounds just fine for what I’m doing. 

We at Radio Survivor love a tiny radio station. We’ve written and podcasted about the topic many, many times. If your interest is piqued, dig into the world of Part 15 with us:

• LA’s KCHUNG Radio Demonstrates the Power of Part 15 Broadcasting
• Radio Station Visit #117 – KCHUNG Radio in Los Angeles
• Podcast #74 – Station or Static? KCHUNG Is L.A.’s Underground Radio
• Podcast #51 – Carrier Current is Cool
• A Middle Ground Between Unlicensed Micropower & LPFM?
• Reviving the southwest with community radio
• Pacifica’s KPFK to try unlicensed radio

P.S. I wanted to note that while Part 15 FM radio is limited compared to the AM band, if you prefer to try the FM band there are a number of fully-legal and FCC certified transmitters out there. Beyond the consumer-grade C.Crane model mentioned above, Progressive Concepts has been building and selling sturdy pro-grade transmitters for a couple of decades. Their ACC100 models promise a 200 foot radius transmission distance, which pretty much the most you can expect while staying legal.

Photo credit: Lorie Shaull / flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

The post Social Distancing Sparks Interest in Part 15 Unlicensed Broadcasting, but Caveat Emptor appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Jennifer, Eric and Paul get the gang back together to remember community radio innovator Lorenzo Milam, who passed away on July 19. We reflect on how he helped to propagate a community access model of broadcasting that departed somewhat from the model of the first Pacifica stations, and was reflective of the counter-cultural currents of the 1960s and 70s. Jennifer shares highlights of her correspondence with Lorenzo about his days in college radio at Haverford, where Jennifer also broadcast.

Then we catch up on some important news from the summer, including terrestrial radio’s continued #1 “share of ear,” new non-commercial radio license opportunities in the US, the clock ticking down on Franken FMs and a lament for the closure of Radio Free America.

Show Notes:

• R.I.P. Radio Trailblazer Lorenzo Milam
• Lorenzo Milam’s College Radio Days
• Lorenzo Milam books in the KRAB Archive
• Lorenzo Milam Memorial archived recording on ACORN Radio
• FCC Chair: New LPFM & Noncomm License Opportunities Coming Soon
• The Final Countdown for Franken FMs
• NFCB: Radio Free America Announces Shutdown
• Podcast #125 – Radio Free America Is an Online Hub for Noncomm Radio

The post Podcast #261 – Remembering Lorenzo Milam appeared first on Radio Survivor.

The FCC is testing its luck with the Supreme Court, after years of failure in attempting to revise media ownership regulations using justifications that pass Constitutional scrutiny. Prof. Christopher Terry from the University of Minnesota joins us to explain what the Commission argues, and what its odds are.

However, a more immediate concern is that the Trump administration is pushing against Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. This is the piece of law that protects websites of all kinds from liability resulting from the content that users post. While this provides a shield to social media like Facebook and Twitter, the umbrella stretches to cover more grassroots media, like any community media platform – including radio – that allows user comments or contributions.

The administration has filed a petition asking the FCC to evaluate its options to regulate speech online – a chilling thought for any radio station that’s worried about the consequences of getting an indecency fine. Yet, this regulation would extend way beyond the boundaries of indecency, into political speech. Prof. Terry says that it looks a lot like the boogeyman version of the Fairness Doctrine, something that Republicans have trotted out as an imminent threat to free speech for decades since it was abandoned by the FCC. So it’s ironic that it’s a Republican administration pushing for its reinstitution under different pretences.

We also touch on the Trump administration’s attempt to challenge state-level net neutrality laws that sprung up in the wake of the FCC’s decision to overturn its Open Internet order.

Show Notes

• EFF: Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act
• Podcast #236 – FCC and the Supremes
• The FCC’s Score in Media Ownership Policy is 0 – 4
• Deadline: White House Withdraws Nomination Of FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly, Who Doubted Donald Trump’s Executive Order On Social Media

The post Podcast #258 – Trump Admin Raises the Specter of the Fairness Doctrine appeared first on Radio Survivor.

One of the most frequent questions we get via email is, “how can I get a radio station license?” Most often the inquiry concerns a low-power FM license, but the correspondent isn’t always particular.

Aside from the years 2010 and 2013 – the last noncomm and LPFM license opportunities, respectively – our answer is usually “sorry, you can’t, unless you want to buy an existing station.” Looks like we’ll need to modify that advice soon.

As the Broadcast Law Blog reports, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai told Congress in written testimony that licensing windows are coming for both full-power non commercial stations in the reserved band (88.1 – 91.9 FM) and for LPFMs. The full-power window will come first, Pai says, because It’s been 13 years since the last opportunity, while the last LPFM window was seven years ago.

For those not acquainted with how radio station licenses are allocated, it’s important to understand that the Commission only accepts applications for new ones during assigned windows of time. Each window is reserved for a specific type of station – such as an LPFM, a translator repeater or a full-power commercial FM – and as you can see, they don’t come about very often. It’s only during these windows that one can apply for a new license, and the process can be very competitive. Commercial stations also require a monetary bid, which is not the case for non commercial stations, including LPFMs.

Just to give you an idea about how rare these windows are, note that there have been only two LPFM applications windows in the twenty years since the service was founded. The second followed the first by 13 years. So, hearing that a new one might happen in the next year sounds downright speedy.

Submitting an application for a full-power non-commercial station is significantly more complex than for an LPFM. It’s up to the applicant to identify an open frequency, and then to make an engineering case that a station can be located on that frequency, in a specific geographic location, without causing interference to existing stations. This will be difficult to impossible in most major metropolitan markets.

It’s also important to understand that in some markets the non-commercial licensing window will probably use up frequencies that could be used for new LPFMs. Once we get to the next LPFM window, it’s very likely that there will be very few eligible frequencies in major cities, except for the possibility that some shuttered stations’ channels might be available. Even so, expect tremendous demand and competition for those.

Despite the caveats, all of this is good news for organizations that are interested in starting new stations. But the time to start organizing is now. While you’ll receive something like fair warning that a license application window is coming – at least 6 months – that still may not be enough time for an organization that’s new to broadcasting to get their ducks in a row.

The post FCC Chair: New LPFM & Noncomm License Opportunities Coming Soon appeared first on Radio Survivor.

It’s the final countdown for Franken FMs. On July 13 the FCC’s Media Bureau issued a public notice to remind low-power TV operators that July 13, 2021 is the date when they must terminate analog broadcasts and go digital, “regardless of whether their digital facilities are operational.”

Among those LPTV stations still transmitting analog signals are approximately 31 assigned channel 6 which principally operate as radio stations, due to the fact that their audio signal can be received on the far left end of the FM band, at 87.7 FM. Dubbed Franken FMs, it looks like they have a little under a year to figure out their exit strategy.

Of course, these TV stations were never intended to be radio stations, and mostly did not function as radio prior to the digital television transition in 2009. But after the U.S. made the move to DTV, low-power stations were given a longer leash to make the conversion. An initial lease of six years has since turned into 12, but now it seems eviction is likely.

Now, the FCC has acknowledged that this set of TV stations are acting like radio, and even taken up questions about possibly giving them an exception to carry on. The Commission updated the record on that proceeding in December 2019, taking in a round of public comments, but nothing else had been heard of the issue until the recent public notice. However, there is no mention of Franken FMs in this latest notice.

As I noted in December, it seems that few existing Franken FMs broadcast anything particularly unique – most air syndicated programming that can be heard on other legitimate radio stations. One exception is Chicago’s MeTV FM, which also appears to be the only Franken FM to appear in Nielsen radio ratings. In fact, it’s so successful that the format has now been syndicated to four true FM stations around the country. 

Recently Chicago media reporter Robert Feder asked the owner of the Chicago LPTV station that airs MeTV FM what the future looks like. Venture Technologies Group CEO Paul Koplin told him that his company has submitted technical studies to the FCC for a hybrid system that would maintain the analog audio signal along side the digital LPTV signal. Venture owns additional channel 6 LPTVs in markets like Los Angeles, San Diego and San Jose.

This dual digital-analog scheme was submitted in comments from the LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition to the Commission’s updated record proceeding, which Radio World detailed back in March. Most radio groups, including NPR, oppose the idea, noting that letting channel 6 LPTVs carry on as radio stations past the digital deadline amounts to an unfair advantage because the opportunity to have a new radio station at 87.7 FM has not been opened to all possible qualified applicants, as is the case with all other radio licensing windows.

The hybrid digital-analog LPTV idea sure looks like a Hail Mary pass, though not surprising. Putting aside the arguments over fairness and formally authorizing a backdoor practice, hassling over saving fewer than three dozen outlier stations may be more trouble than it’s worth for the FCC. That said, the book is not closed yet.

The post The Final Countdown for Franken FMs appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Poet Kenneth Goldsmith created UbuWeb in 1996 as an online repository for obscure avant-garde art that, by virtue of having little commercial potential, was hard to find. Audio was an early component of the archive, owing to Kenneth’s interest in sound poetry, an even more obscure art form.

Since then he’s served as the chief, and only, curator and proprietor of UbuWeb, which has become an invaluable resource for anyone with an interest in underground and unpopular culture. Kenneth chronicled his efforts in the new book “Duchamp Is My Lawyer: The Polemics, Pragmatics, and Poetics of UbuWeb.” He joins this episode to recount some of these tales, telling us what inspired him to build UbuWeb in the first place, and why he maintains it using simple html code of the sort used in the early web, rather than updating to use the latest database and dynamic website platforms.

Because much of the work on UbuWeb is archived without explicit permission from the creators – living or dead – Kenneth explains why he views “cease and desist” orders as an invitation to dialog and how community radio station WFMU was one of his inspirations. We also get into the relationship between piracy and preservation, why he loves “the misuses of UbuWeb” and the value of “folk archiving” and “folk law.”

Show Notes:

• UbuWeb
• UbuWeb Sound
• Kenneth Goldsmith at the University of Pennsylvania Department of English
• Playlists and archives for Kenny G’s Hour of Pain on WFMU
• Duchamp Is My Lawyer at Columbia University Press
• Duchamp Is My Lawyer at Amazon (Radio Survivor will receive a small commission if you purchase from this link)
• What Is an Interlaced GIF?

The post Podcast #256 – The Robin Hood of the Avant-Garde appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Community and college radio stations are unique in broadcasting because in addition to being important community services, many are also a community crossroads, hosting dozens or hundreds of people in their studios and spaces in any given week. That means the novel coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic poses a specific challenge for these broadcasters.

KPFA’s “UpFront” co-host Brian Edwards-Tiekert and National Federation of Community Broadcasters program director Ernesto Aguilar join to help us understand how college and community stations should deal with the pandemic on and off the air. As a community journalist, Brian has been on the front lines of helping Bay Area listeners get the best information and advice. He has recommendations for how stations should address critical information, and misinformation, on air, and how they can frame issues for vital community discussion.

Ernesto observes that the pandemic is a “learning opportunity” for stations to be sure they have an emergency response plan that keeps them on air, even if functioning with just one staff, volunteer or engineer. Having automation can be one important tool, causing him to warn that the current situation is a “wake up call” for stations that have resisted the technology as a “badge of honor.”

We also review feedback from listeners and readers who let us know how the stations where they work and volunteer are managing the pandemic.

Show Notes:

• KPFA UpFront
• Brian Edwards-Tiekert shares thoughtful, well-researched advice on Twitter
• Ernesto Aguilar in Radio World: Community Broadcaster: COVID-19 Concerns
• National Federation of Community Broadcasters: Coronavirus Resources For Community Radio

The post Podcast #237 – How Community & College Radio Can Deal with COVID-19 appeared first on Radio Survivor.

FCC policy has left media ownership diversity at “obnoxiously low levels,” especially considering that more minority and women ownership is one of the desired objectives. That’s what Prof. Chris Terry from the University of Minnesota tells us on this week’s show.

The Commission may be headed to the Supreme Court to defend its diversity policy, along with other attempts at ownership rules, after striking out at the Third Circuit Court of Appeals an astonishing four times in 2004, 2011, 2016 and 2019. We’ve been discussing these failures for quite some time on the podcast and Chris helps us understand what the Commission might expect from the Supreme Court.

The FCC’s repeal of Open Internet rules may also land at the Superme Court, as the group challenging that repeal, lead by the Mozilla Foundation, considers a high court appeal.

After the heavy FCC discussion, Jennifer, Eric and Paul lighten things up with a consideration of the first-ever International Minidisc Day, celebrated on March 7.

Show Notes:

• Legal Information Institute: The Chevron Deference
• Podcast #224: How the FCC Could Support Diversity, Localism & Competition in Radio & TV
• The FCC’s Score in Media Ownership Policy is 0 – 4
• Happy International Minidisc Day – A Post-Modern Revival
• International Minidisc Day

The post Podcast #236 – FCC and the Supremes appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Jennifer, Eric and Paul have some college radio news to review, but first they pull back the curtain to survey the state of affairs in Radio Survivorland. They note some recent attention from The A.V. Club and Podnews along with a nice uptick in podcast audience as they reflect on the importance of sticking with and your niche, and how passion for that niche can build a like-minded community over time.

Sad news comes from the University of the South, which just turned in its license for WUTS-FM to the FCC, apparently prompted by outsized and unrealistic fears of a massive fine for public file violations. Jennifer puts these fears in stark perspective, as the reality is much less dire. The job of the FCC, Paul comments, is to keep stations on the air, and Jennifer observes that the Commission has worked with many college stations to bring them into compliance. Yet, there’s no indication WUTS got good advice or ever reached out to the FCC.

Happier news comes from the University of Illinois, where former cable radio station WBML – “Where Black Media Lives” – appears poised for a comeback.

Show Notes:

• The AVClub reviews episode #232 – Documenting & Preserving Radio at HBCUs (6th review down)
• Podcast #232 – Documenting & Preserving Radio at HBCUs
• Podnews gives a tip of the hat to episode #231 with Eric Nuzum
• The unedited bonus version of the Eric Nuzum interview, in which the guest helps Eric Klein frame how the interview should go
• Podcast #145 – Hip-Hop Radio Archive
• Podcast #152 – The Longest Running Hip-Hop Radio Show in The World?
• Jennifer’s Radio World cover story, “KSFP Highlights Journalism, Public Affairs“
• Intercollegiate Broadcasting System Conference 2020
• College Radio Watch: WUTS-FM Turns Back License, the Return of WBML and More News

Photo by Rots Marie-Hélène on Unsplash

The post Podcast #235 – Pulling Back the Curtain appeared first on Radio Survivor.

The PIRATE Act, recently passed by Congress, is intended to stem the tide of unlicensed radio broadcasting by providing the Federal Communications Commission with new tools. Chief amongst them are new maximum fines, and a shortcut to issuing them. But will this really work?

Author and radio scholar John Anderson says that a lot of the Act’s provisions amount to “unfunded mandates,” requiring the FCC to make semi-annual sweeps in pirate radio hotspots, but without any additional budget. John joins the show to details all of the PIRATE Act’s provisions, and assess what effect they may have.

We also analyze the role of unlicensed radio stations in their communities –recently recognized by even the Boston Globe – and what effect, if any, the Act might have on Part 15, legal unlicensed broadcasters.

Show Notes:

• Boston Globe: Give Radio Pirates a Chance to Go Legit
• The PIRATE Act text
• The PIRATE Act was sponsored by former New York Rep. Chris Collins who was just sentenced to prison for insider trading
• Part 15 Lab: A Look Back at KENC 1620 AM, Stayton, OR
• Internet Archive Wayback Machine: Allston-Brighton Free Radio
• Internet Archive Wayback Machine: Boston Globe article on Allston-Brighton Free Radio’s Part 15 network

The post Podcast #229 – Reading the PIRATE Act appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Though most large market radio dials around the country are pretty full, there remain places where are there some spots in the commercial band. The Federal Communications Commission will be auctioning off 130 of them beginning April 28.

Before anyone gets too excited, it’s important to note two substantial caveats. First, very few of these licenses are in large or even medium-sized markets, and they’re only in 30 states. Folks looking to broadcast in Indiana, Delaware, Idaho, New Jersey or Pennsylvania, for instance, are out of luck.

The second caveat is mostly for those interested in pursuing community-style broadcasting – unlike the licensing windows for full-power non-commercial and LPFM stations, these will cost money. It’s a real auction, with the opening bids starting at $750 for signals in places like Yakutat, AK (pop. 662), Essex, CA (pop. 89) and Wamsutter, WY (pop. 451), all the way up to $100,000 for one license in Sacramento, CA (pop. 508,530), the biggest city and market on the list by far.

It must be stressed that these are opening bids. Depending on how many bidders there are, those prices could skyrocket.

Also note that that’s just the price for the license. An actual station – with studio, tower and transmitter – is not included.

That said, if you’ve ever dreamed of owning your own radio station, this is your next best opportunity. Moreover, entering this auction is likely – but not guaranteed to be – less expensive than trying to buy an existing license on the open market.

Those that are still not discouraged have a few steps to complete before the bidding begins on April 28. The Broadcast Law Blog has a rundown of the timeline, beginning with filing a short-form application to tell the Commission what channels you’re interested in between January 29 and February 11. Keep in mind that you’ll also need the cash in hand ahead of time; the FCC requires a minimum bid deposit be made by March 20.

A final caveat is that you need to be serious if you want to be successful. Should you win an auction, the Commission will require you to fill out a full application form that specifies all the technical details for where you will site your transmitter. It’s definitely not a lottery, or a make-it-up-as-you-go-along process.

Though I have no plans to cover this auction as closely as the LPFM licensing window from 2013, I’ll be curious to see who wins.

The post Want a Radio Station License? April Is the Next Chance (at Least for 127 Cities) appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Mid-way through the last decade I declared that, “[w]ith regard to new stations going on the air, 2015 represented the biggest single-year leap forward for non-commercial and community radio in U.S. history.” That’s because 524 new low-power FM stations signed on that year. That was an increase of 56% over the number of existing LPFMs at the end of 2014 (924).

Over the next four years another 753 signed on, bringing the total number low-power stations to 2,186 as of September 30, 2019 according to the FCC. At the close of 2009, when the service was on the cusp of its 10th birthday, there were 864 LPFMs in operation. This means the count more than doubled in the 2010s. No doubt this period saw the biggest expansion of low-power FM in history.

But because the LPFM service is specifically designed to be locally owned-and-operated, with hyper-local service, it’s clear that the last decade also saw the greatest flowering of community radio in US history. In fact, low-power FMs now make up a full 35% of all non-commercial stations in the country. That’s an increase of 14% from the end of 2009. The reason why the percentage didn’t jump more is that the last ten years were good for full-power non-commercial licenses as well, with 942 launching in that time.

Defining & Counting ‘Community’ Radio

Now, one might argue that not every low-power FM station is operated as a true community station, programmed and staffed by local folks who otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity to broadcast. It’s true that many are owned by groups – religious and otherwise – that fill their schedules primarily with syndicated programming beaming in by satellite or streamed over the internet. There are others that are mostly filled with automated music that feel more like vanity jukebox stations, with no sign of any kind of live or local hosts or DJs. Added together I can’t tell you how many there are, but I could be convinced that they even make up a full half of all LPFMs.

The problem with counting community radio stations is that there is no central authority. The FCC only cares if a station is non-commercial or commercial – it doesn’t dig into the differences between public, religious, college or community stations – or that it meets the ownership and operational requirements to have a low-power license. While the National Federation of Community Broadcasters represents and assists community stations, there’s no obligation for a station to join, even though the organization has worked hard to connect with these new broadcasters.

Nevertheless, even if only a decent minority of these new stations operate with the spirit of community radio, that’s still on the order of at least 200 to 300 new community stations. This estimate is easy to justify by taking a look at any of the top 100 radio markets in the country, where you’ll find a minimum of one new community LPFM. More likely you’ll hear two, three or more. I’m thinking of cities like Portland, OR, Seattle, Philadelphia and Chicago which all added a few. And while some cities, like Philly and Chicago, long have had rich college radio scenes, they didn’t have true community stations, owned by local non-profits and open to local people unaffiliated with a school or college, until this past decade.

But LPFMs didn’t only go up in major markets, although that was a vitally important aspect of this growth. Dozens or even hundreds of smaller cities and towns got new community stations, too. That leads me to think my estimate of 200 to 300 is too conservative.

Growth for All of Radio, too

Despite the supposed imminent death of radio, the medium continued to grow as a whole in the 2010s – by over 2,300 stations – and community radio outpaced all previous growth in the sector. Radio’s share of most folks’ daily listening may have declined, given so much other audio media competing for their ears. But the need and desire for the terrestrial radio hasn’t gone away.

Why a Radio License still Matters

Today, in this always-connected internet environment, it’s significant that many, if not most, community LPFMs have internet streams, which help them reach audiences – especially younger audiences – that don’t use over-the-air receivers. However, this fact doesn’t make their broadcast licenses and terrestrial signals redundant or vestigial. Rather, being a licensed broadcast station is an assurance to the community that the organization is serious, and intends to stick around. The official sanction of a license shouldn’t be underestimated or overlooked, because it’s also a shared asset that a community is more likely to rally behind and value, in part because, if lost, it’s not easily replaced.

Community stations function as community media centers, providing local residents a chance not only to broadcast, but to learn audio or video production, train up on live sound engineering or create podcasts. These are functions that most commercial, public or religious stations don’t serve, even if their programming is a community service. Though an LPFM’s listening audience may be small compared to a town’s local NPR affiliate, the interpersonal network and impact is often much stronger, especially with people who aren’t amongst the local elite or traditionally well-connected.

An Historic Global Flowering

Not only was this the biggest ten-year increase in US history, it was arguably the biggest in world history, too. India certainly adds a lot to that total, with 428 letters of intent (like a US construction permit) issued to groups that applied to build stations, on top of many other countries. This is why the explosion of community radio, especially via low-power FM, is one of the most important radio trends of the last decade.

The post The Greatest Flowering of Community Radio in History Happened in the 2010s appeared first on Radio Survivor.

All nine judges on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals recently denied the FCC’s request for a rehearing on its many-times rejected media ownership rules. Prof. Christopher Terry calls this the Commission’s “Legacy of Failure.” But it begs the question, what does success look like?

Prof. Terry, who teaches media law at the University of Minnesota, joins us to discuss what another broadcast world might look like. Going back to fundamentals, he explains that media ownership rules are expected to serve the objectives of furthering diversity, localism and competition, and that is the standard against which they are judged. The Third Circuit has ruled again and again that the Commission has failed to provide evidence that rules changes – in the face of 23 years of increased consolidation, reduced localism and a dwindling number of women and minority station owners – would stem this tide.

While these seem like difficult trends to reverse, Prof. Terry thinks that a recent FCC policy initiative might actually work, with just a few modifications. He tells us how this could happen. He also fills us in on the status of Network Neutrality as public interest petitioners file their appeals in the appeals court case that upheld the Commission’s reversal of the 2015 Open Internet rules.

Show Notes:

• “Localism as a Solution to Market Failure: Helping the FCC Comply with the Telecommunications Act” by Christopher Terry
• The FCC’s Score in Media Ownership Policy is 0 – 4
• Podcast #199 – The FCC Is ‘Flunking Statistics 101’
• Podcast #214 – Net Neutrality Is a Local Issue Now
• Wikipedia: National Cable & Telecommunications Ass’n v. Brand X Internet Services
• Ars Technica: FCC’s “illogical” claim that broadband isn’t telecommunications faces appeal

The post Podcast #224: How the FCC Could Support Diversity, Localism & Competition in Radio & TV appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Internet radio experienced a sea change in the middle of the last decade that washed away many independent broadcasters, and changed the atmosphere for others. While the medium continues to sail on, it is also more fractured – and more diverse – than ten years ago. That’s why this evolution is one of the decade’s most important radio trends.

Internet Radio’s Indie Roots

Independent broadcasters have been a cornerstone of internet radio since the very beginning. Looking back 26 years to the very first internet broadcasts, we see that – much like terrestrial radio – they were initiated by hobbyists and experimenters, not big media companies.

In fact, one can argue that the U.S. commercial radio industry largely neglected internet radio for a good portion of its first two decades. I think we can mark the founding of iHeartRadio as an app and platform in 2008 as the turn, when American commercial broadcasting finally embraced the internet as a useful and profitable medium, rather than a pesky nuisance. I don’t mean that commercial stations weren’t streaming before then. Rather, that streams were treated as low priority obligations.

During that time thousands upon thousands of independent internet radio operations were founded, taking advantage of a very low cost of entry and an absence of any sort of governmental licensing. Esepecially in the late 90s and early 2000s, it was mostly a matter of getting a Live365 account, loading up some music, and going for it.

The DMCA Takes a Bite, but not a Mouthful

Beginning with the passage of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in 1998, internet broadcasting transitioned from its anything goes days to being a little more regulated. This was due to being required to pay royalties to songwriters and musicians for playing their music.

However, thanks to lobbying efforts on their behalf, small, independent and hobbyist webcasters got a break from Congress, twice. The Small Webcaster Settlement Acts of 2002 and 2009 established reasonable performance royalty rates for internet broadcasters not intent on going commercial, making much income, or serving large audiences. In effect, they were for webcasters that are akin to a small community LPFM or college station.

While this meant running a legit internet radio operation in the U.S. wasn’t free, the costs could be low enough to be comparable to, or less than, any number of other hobbies. Live365, then one of the biggest platforms offering streaming radio services, make it particularly easy by bundling those royalty payment in with the hosting costs. Some of the smallest webcasters could be on the hook for less than $100 a year – less than the cost of cup of Starbucks a day.

2016: The Year of the Great Seachange

The independent internet radio train ran off the rails in the middle of this last decade, January 2016 to be exact. That’s when the medium was dealt two massive blows: the expiration of the Small Webcaster Settlement Act of 2009 and the closure of Live365. Though the expiration of the Settlement Act was perhaps the final nail in the coffin, Live365 had been struggling for some time before hand, largely due to the loss of key investors. Its demise on January 31 of that year left some 5000 internet broadcasters of all sizes scrambling for new hosts.

Despite the hopes and prayers of many a small webcaster, Congress never took up their cause again, and their royalty rates skyrocketed. Instead of paying a percentage of revenue as under the Settlement Act, they would started having to pay royalties based upon tracks streamed per listener. That meant a station that averaged 100 listeners tuned it at any time – not a huge audience – playing an average of 15 songs an hour, was on the hook for as much as $22,000 a year.

An untold number of independent internet broadcasters called it quits. That number is untold because there’s no central authority or accounting. But anecdotal evidence from looking at the Shoutcast directory of internet radio stations and monitoring internet forums indicated that the reduction was pretty substantial, especially amongst stations that served narrow niches and very small audiences.

Many mid-sized independent broadcasters seem to have been able to hold on by virtue of fundraising or ad revenue. SomaFM is one such group, which survives on listener contributions. Back in 2016 founder and operator Rusty Hodge told me that he anticipated his costs to jump to as much as $20,000 a month, and he would be implementing automatic stream time-outs for people listening for more than a couple hours, to be sure SomeFM wouldn’t be streaming music to empty rooms.

Non-commercial terrestrial stations dodged the bullet because the royalties for their online streams are negotiated separately by groups like National Public Radio and the National Federation of Community Broadcasters. Commensurate with their non-commercial and non-profit status, their rates remained reasonable, though only as a result of careful diligence.

Short-Lived Alternatives

Many small U.S. webcasters left homeless by the closure of Live365 migrated to the France-based Radionomy service, which acquired the Shoutcast internet radio server technology and Winamp media player app from AOL in 2014. That’s because Radionomy offered free streaming hosting, even covering royalties, to broadcasters who could maintain a minimum audience size. In exchange broadcasters agreed to have a few minutes of advertising inserted into their streams every hour.

However, the bloom started to fall from that rose pretty quickly. In February of 2016 four major record labels filed suit against Radionomy claiming non-payment of royalties since “late 2014.” The service soldiered on, but stopped serving U.S. based listeners and broadcasters earlier this year. At the end of November the service shut down altogether.

Radionomy broadcasters were offered the opportunity to migrate their stations to the Shoutcast for Business service. While it’s reasonably priced – starting at about $15 a month – that doesn’t include any royalty coverage. Accounting for and paying royalties is up to the individual broadcaster, and that’s where the significant costs set it.

After Live365 closed in 2016, other U.S. webcasters turned to a company called StreamLicensing.com. The company offered to cover a station’s royalties for a cost lower than paying them directly. It seems the way they did this was probably by aggregating all the member stations into one license and single payment, using the economy of scale to reduce the liability of individual broadcasters. Stations had to find their own stream hosting – which is easier, with costs very proportionate to audience size – and StreamLicensing.com took care of royalties beginning at about $60 a month. Though more expensive than the lowest cost pre–2016 Live365 plans, that $720 annual rate was still on par with cable TV or a gym membership.

But beginning last year I started hearing scuttlebutt that not all was well with the company and that the numbers weren’t adding up. Whatever the case really was, StreamLicensing.com shut down in May of this year, again setting dozens or even hundreds of small webcasters adrift.

The Re-Birth of Live365 Is a Bright Spot

The story for small webcasters hasn’t been all doom and gloom since 2016. In 2017 Live365 was resurrected by a young internet entrepreneur named Jon Stephenson. The new service also offers internet radio hosting and royalty coverage for one monthly fee. The costs begin at $59 a month if your station runs Live365-placed ads – not much more than the old StreamLicensing.com alone without hosting – or $79 a month if you want to remain ad-free.

These introductory plans limit a station to 1500 total listening hours a month – equivalent to an average of 2 listeners per hour. But since the reality is that listeners tune in and out, and few should be listening for more than a few hours at a time, this is more than enough to sustain a small niche webcaster.

Of course, that adds up to $708 to $948 a year, and still might be too much for some would-be broadcasters. The price is not the fault of Live365 or other similar providers because their costs are pretty well fixed, especially the royalties. But small webcasters do still benefit from the economy of scale and and the convenience of one-stop-shopping these platforms offer.

If we’re being honest, spending $1000 a year or so to be a broadcaster is still a bargain compared to the costs of starting and running a terrestrial broadcast station, even a low-power FM. Many folks will spend more on a set of golf clubs, a digital camera or a couple cases of wine.

Early Promise Tarnished

It’s the contrast with the early promise of internet broadcasting that makes the situation feel unfair. In 1997 it seemed that all you needed to be a broadcaster was an internet connection and a few bucks a month to host the stream. The realities of intellectual property and commerce quickly caught up, but for a while – about 14 years, actually – the scrappy indie webacaster caught a break. But by 2016 it seems like folks stopped caring, especially Congress.

It’s not really clear why no congressperson saw fit to try renewing the Small Webcaster Settlement Act. Maybe the rise of streaming music services like Pandora and Spotify, music hosting sites like SoundCloud, or on-demand music show and podcast services like MixCloud made it seem like there were plenty of other opportunities for folks to get their audio out across the interwebs, whether by playlist, DJ set or podcast.

The opportunity hasn’t gone away. Live365 and similar services still offer the most cost-effective way to start broadcasting on the internet legitimately. But it’s probably not the sort of thing you do on a whim. At the same time there are many more outlets for casting out audio on the internet, and that is a net good.

Internet Radio Is Fundamentally Changed

That doesn’t change the fact that internet radio in the U.S. fundamentally changed in 2016. I’m certain many of the broadcasters who found themselves high and dry that year just gave up. This doesn’t mark the end of indie internet radio, just a major shift.

It should be mentioned that it’s conceivable to run an internet radio station without any costly royalty obligations. If you only run talk programming, with no music, then you bare no liability. But no music means you’re not using any commercially released music at all, not as bumpers or stingers or music beds. Now, podcasters manage to do this by relying on royalty-free music libraries, contracting directly with musicians or making their own music. So it should be possible for a talk-only internet station to pull this off.

Another option is to work directly with artists and labels to obtain permission to play their music royalty-free, or pay them directly. Note that this may not be as simple as it seems. If an artist is signed to a label it’s not good enough for them to say you can use their recordings, since the label will own some portion of them. You’ll need the label to give the OK, too. If an independent artist also self-releases, then you’ll have an easier time.

The Free Music Archive was actually founded to provide community and other non-commercial terrestrial radio stations high-quality royalty-free music alternatives back in the early days of the DMCA, before separate negotiations brought their rates down to a reasonable level. While the FMA’s ownership has shifted twice in the past 12 months, experiencing some downtime in the process, the music uploaded there from 2009 to 2017.

Also keep in mind that beyond the performance royalties, there are royalties owed songwriters via rights organizations like ASCAP and BMI. If an artist owns their songs and recordings, then again you’re free and clear. But if they’re playing cover versions or their label shares in the composition ownership (not unusual), then you’ll need more stakeholders coming to agreement. It’s not impossible, but it’s also not straightforward.

Some internet broadcasters have skirted the royalty issue by pivoting to video. Last year I wrote about the new breed of “YouTube pirates” who run live streams of music accompanied by static or looping images. They’re kind of the internet equivalent of FrankenFM channel 6 TV stations that maintain the bare minimum amount of video service to qualify as television stations, while primarily functioning as radio stations.

In harmony with my advice above, it seems that many YouTube stations survive by relying on independent music that falls outside the mainstream music industry’s royalty structure. For instance, the Netherlands-based Chillhop Music channel streams “jazzy beats / loft hip hop” that’s mostly devoid of recognizable hits.

Other channels that skirt closer to major label tunes end up playing a cat-and-mouse game with YouTube. The only real penalty seems to be having your channel shut down, which results in the loss of a potentially large listener and subscriber base. But there’s no indication that a bill from SoundExchange or other royalty collections authority will show up in your mail, in part because you don’t need to provide any legal identity to set up a YouTube channel.

The irony is that YouTube isn’t a radio platform, and that hosting streaming video is more expensive that streaming audio by a significant margin. But YouTube is free, and there are few free radio streaming options out there. In particular, there are none even remotely as prominent as YouTube.

The Future Is Fractured

So maybe the future of internet radio is video? I know that many podcast listeners actually consume their favorite shows – like Joe Rogan’s – on YouTube and think of the platform as the place to find podcasts.

In reality that’s probably overstating things. Like all online media, internet radio has become more fractured in the last decade. While some platforms and opportunities have disappeared, others have come to the fore.

If you’re looking to create a traditional 24/7 live streaming station using copyrighted music, services like Live365 are there to help you do this legally at a variety of price points. YouTube is there to let you stream for free if you don’t mind dealing with that platform’s restrictions, and the likelihood that you’ll need to rely on underground, independent and unsigned artists if you want your channel to stay up for the long haul.

If you don’t mind confining yourself to an on-demand show, DJ set or virtual mixtape, then Mixcloud is a pretty good alternative, since the service is free and covers all royalties.

Both YouTube and Mixcloud are largely confined to the web and their own apps on mobile devices, and platforms like Chromecast, Roku and Apple TV. That does give audiences a fair number of ways to listen, though not appearing alongside pure-play streaming radio stations, like on iHeartRadio or TuneIn.

I will note that the Sonos wireless speaker system supports Mixcloud. It also supports YouTube Music, which sort of lets you access the music available on YouTube, but I haven’t yet figured out how to hear any of the live streaming stations – just their archive streams.

The last decade was marked by a significant shake-up in internet radio, and I don’t think we’ll ever turn back the clock to the heady days of the mid–2000s, when it seemed like medium would be the new “pirate radio,” as the mainstream press often proclaimed. That doesn’t mean there isn’t ample opportunity to broadcast online.

Rather, our definition of radio has expanded. If the platform is about getting audio programs out to an audience, then we can argue it’s radio. If it’s on the ’net, then it’s internet radio. It may change, and morph from platform to platform. But it’s still here as we enter the third decade of the 21st century.

The post The Near-Death of Independent Internet Radio Is One of the Most Important Radio Trends of the Decade appeared first on Radio Survivor.

The Federal Communications Commission is all about radio at the end of 2019, and we catch you up on what you need to know. We all have questions about the possibility of AM stations going all-digital, including the FCC. The regulatory body released the things it wants to know about how digital stations would work, and how it would impact listeners, especially those in rural communities.

Also, the Commission is reconsidering restrictions on duplication programming between AM and FM stations, and the fate of Channel 6 TV on the radio, a/k/a FrankenFMs, hangs in the balance.

Then we dive into the reports that CMJ – the publication and event series that documented and supported the cultural influence of college radio – will come back from the dead. Will it return to print? Will there be an annual Music Marathon in NYC? We ponder.

There was more to discuss about the CMJ return than we had time for, including provocative questions, like: Do we even need a CMJ anymore? Our Patreon supporters get to hear this unvarnished exchange in a Patron-exclusive bonus episode. You can hear it, too, when you sign up to support our work at Radio Survivor, starting at just $1 a month.

Show Notes:

• Call for Papers: ‘Century of Broadcasting: Preservation and Renewal’ Conference
• Podcast #192: Saving Radio History with the Radio Preservation Task Force
• FCC Opens Proceeding for All-Digital AM Radio
• Radio World: FCC Takes Your Questions on AM All-Digital
• Multichannel News: FCC Seeks Input on Analog Radio as Digital TV Service
• Davis Wright Tremaine LLP: FCC Seeks Comment on All-Digital AM and Radio Non-Duplication NPRM
• The Rise and Possible Fall of FrankenFMs Is One of the Most Important Radio Trends of the Decade
• College Radio Watch: CMJ to Return in 2020 and More News
• College Radio Watch: CMJ Lawsuit, WREK’s 50th, Station Tours, and More News
• Podcast 62 – The FCC’s Legacy of Failure & CMJ’s Uncertain Future
• What is the Future of CMJ?
• College Radio Participants Meet Up at CMJ’s Inaugural College Day on Tour in Portland

The post Podcast #223: Will CMJ Return, Will AM Go Digital and Will FrankenFMs Disappear? Plus Other Big Questions appeared first on Radio Survivor.

In a few dozen markets around the country there is a rare species of FM station that is only heard on the far left end of the dial. Because of the unusual spot on the dial, and sometimes unusual programming, some listeners may think they’ve tuned in a pirate. But these stations are legal, if not quite something the FCC intends to exist.

When I first found these stations more than ten years ago, I called them “Back Door FMs.” Later some commentators would call them “FrankenFMs.” The first instance of this moniker I can find is from Radio World in November 2014. The term became more popular when writer Ernie Smith covered the phenomenon for Tedium in 2016.

I think FrankenFMs are one of the most important radio trends of the last decade because only a handful of them were around when the decade started, and their number has nearly tripled in the intervening years. Yet, the 2010s might be remembered as their heyday, since they’re scheduled to go away in June of 2020, unless the Federal Communications Commission decides to intervene.

How Digital TV Inadvertently Turned a Curiosity into a Service

When I was a kid growing up at the Jersey Shore, I was fascinated by the fact that I could hear channel 6 WPVI-TV, Philadelphia’s ABC affiliate, on the left end of my radio. And disappointed that I couldn’t listen to other TV stations.

The existence of that phenomenon is owed to the fact that the first six channels of analog TV are just below the FM dial, with channel 6’s audio portion – which is also frequency modulated – situated at 87.76 MHz, receivable on most radios. For the roughly 44 years that analog television and FM radio were neighbors this was mostly a curiosity, since only some television shows make sense without the picture.

This changed on June 12, 2009, when all full-power television stations turned off their analog signals, becoming fully digital. The ones on channel 6 disappeared from the FM dial. But not every channel 6 station went away.

Because they were designed to serve local communities at a lower cost – similar to low-power FM – low power television stations were given a longer lease to hold onto their analog signals. That also meant that channel 6 LPTVs could still be heard on the radio.

As television viewers made their adjustment to digital receivers, the value of these low-powered analog signals began to fall. Those on channel 6 found a new lease on life: embrace their existence on the radio dial.

A Decade of FrankenFMs

I discovered my first such station on the Chicago radio dial just days after the analog TV shutoff, in June 2009. Back then WLFM briefly returned smooth jazz to the area’s airwaves – the station is now MeTV FM, which will I’ll return to in a bit. I soon learned there were a number of these stations around the country, from Anchorage, Alaska to New York City.

When the digital TV transition happened there were 77 analog channel 6s remaining on the air in the U.S. Two years later the FCC decided they would all be required to transition to digital by September 1, 2015. Then they received a reprieve in 2014, getting to stay analog while the Commission conducted what is known as the “incentive auction and repack.” This process allowed digital TV stations to trade in spectrum to be auctioned off for advanced digital services. Stations in affected markets then “repacked” in bunched up spectrum. It concluded in June of this year, and analog LPTVs were given an addition twelve months past this point to make the digital transition.

Today there are just 41 analog channel 6 stations left, just a bit more than half as there were a decade earlier. But now most – 31 – appear to operate as radio stations, with a majority broadcasting either a Spanish-language or religious format, usually syndicated and non-local. The last time I counted them was in 2014, when I came up with about 18. This increase certainly indicates that there’s little value left in analog television broadcasting as a visual service. The audio signal is clearly what’s most valuable.

A Stay of Execution?

Once more an analog sunset is upon us in just over six months when the post-repack grace period is finished. This time around the FCC isn’t asking the question if analog LPTVs should stick around – their digital transition appears imminent. Instead the Commission is directly addressing the existence of channel 6 FrankenFMs.

The Media Bureau is asking for the public to weigh in (MB Docket No. 03–185) on whether or not these stations should get an exception to continue broadcasting an analog audio signal as a “supplementary service” even while their video signals go digital. Moreover, should the FCC only consider stations that are actually operating as radio, or should all be considered?

If this supplemental audio service were to be allowed, should only existing channel 6s be eligible, or would someone be able to apply for a new station and also get permission to broadcast an analog radio signal? The FCC also asks if a channel 6 license is sold or transferred, should that right to the analog audio transmission also be transferred.

It’s significant that the FCC is in effect proposing to officially recognize channel 6 LPTV stations as radio stations, rather than just sort of tolerate the loophole. Of course that’s because the loophole is about to go away.

Should FrankenFMs Be Saved?

As I noted above, the majority of the FrankenFMs seem to broadcast syndicated programming. Only a handful broadcast anything I’d call interesting or unique, which is unfortunate to me.

On the one hand I have to tip my hat to clever broadcasters exploiting a loophole to get onto the radio legally, especially in tight markets with few or no opportunities to squeeze another station onto the dial. But I really want these stations to be run by passionate folks, eager to do something innovative or different, not just rebroadcast some satellite or internet signal, or another iteration of a tired format already heard everywhere.

Even though it’s formally an oldies station, I think the aforementioned MeTV FM is the clearest example of a unique Franken-FM. Deviating from the usual canon of 60s, 70s and 80s music, the station mixes in a healthy dose of what I’d call “forgotten oldies.” These are one-hit-wonders or even hit songs by established artists that were popular in their day, but somehow never endured heavy rotation in the years after.

MeTV FM’s eclectic oldies format stands out so much that it now has an audience big enough audience to show up in the Nielsen ratings beginning four years ago, even beating out the nine-decade-old news/talk station WLS-AM.

Previously only available to terrestrial listeners in the Chicago area, MeTV FM now streams online, so you can check out its distinctive oldies format for yourself no matter where you are. It even has picked up four FM affiliates: KXXP 104.5 FM serving the Portland, Oregon metro out of White Salmon, Washington; WXZO 96.7 FM serving the Burlington, Vermont and Plattsburgh, New York area; KQEG 102.7 FMserving the LaCrosse, Wisconsin metro from La Crescent, Minnesota; and WJMK 1250 AM in Saginaw, Michigan, which has a translator at 99.3 FM. HD Radio listeners in Milwaukee, Wisconsin can tune it in on WMYK-HD2.

As far as I can tell, MeTV FM may be the only FrankenFM that serves as the flagship station for burgeoning network of true FM stations.

A couple of other interesting and notable FrankenFMs include indie/alternative Hella 87.7 FM in Redding, California, and Kickin’ Country 87.7 FM in Ridgecrest, California.

Though channel 6 TV stations have been tucked into the bottom of the FM dial for more than four decades, it’s only in the last one that this has been systematically exploited, turning into a small shadow service. Yet every broadcaster taking this advantage has known the lease would eventually expire, and now they’re definitely making a last-minute Hail Mary. I’d be more inclined to rise up in their defense if the majority were idiosyncratic, eclectic or at least locally programmed.

Instead, I’d rather see that little bit of spectrum freed up for actual FM broadcasters, and non-commercial ones at that, since the space from 87.7 to 88.1 is in the non-commercial band. Because there are many more markets without a TV channel 6 than there are with FrankenFMs, such a change could open up the possibility for dozens, if not hundreds, of new local radio stations. I’d even go so far as to reserve the space just for LPFMs, which would allow for even more stations, and more diversity. This is the sort of innovation that engineering firm REC Networks has been advocating since at least 2008.

At the same time, I empathize with the broadcasters who have built compelling and creative services on channel 6s, but who now see their stations on the chopping block. I think it would be a true loss to their local radio dials if MeTV FM or Hella 87.7 were to go away. But it’s also true that radio stations and formats go away all the time, often for more mysterious or wrongheaded reasons. In this case the broadcasters can’t say they weren’t warned – in fact, they’ve had an effective five year extension.

It will be fascinating to see how the FCC decides to resolve this issue, and how the rest of the broadcast industry reacts.

The post The Rise and Possible Fall of FrankenFMs Is One of the Most Important Radio Trends of the Decade appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Last week The Verge wrapped up a three-part series on pirate radio, examining a US-government-sanctioned form in Afghanistan, radio-like conference call services used by the Hmong diaspora and unlicensed Haitian stations in Brooklyn, NY. Recovering from the holiday weekend I finally had a chance to catch up, read the three articles and listen to their accompanying podcasts. They’re well-researched pieces that put the production and use of radio in social and political economic context, rather than relying on well-worn tropes of over-romanticized rebellion (not a single skull-and-crossbones image to be found!).

The value of radio communication to communities that are not well served by mainstream broadcasters is something we’ve emphasized here at Radio Survivor when discussing unlicensed or pirate radio. For the article on Brooklyn stations, reporters Bijan Stephen and Andrew Marino use the looming specter of the PIRATE Act as a frame for understanding why government prohibition, even escalated by the threat of multiplied fines, poses little disincentive for the unlicensed broadcaster serving their friends, families and neighbors.

Stephen and Marino profile a former news program host on an unlicensed station, Joan Martinez, who studied broadcasting in college. Now in graduate school, Martinez reflects a first-person insider’s view that is informed by her broader understanding of the tightly controlled radio industry, especially in New York City, where opportunities for new stations are few and far between.

In fact, only three low-power FM stations are licensed in the entire city: one in Brooklyn, one in Queens and one in Flushing. All were approved only in the last LPFM licensing window, and have been on the air only a few years. Just one LPFM seems hardly enough to serve the diverse needs of Brooklyn alone, home to 2.5 million people.

For the podcast the hosts talk with scholar John Anderson, who has been studying pirate radio for some two decades, and journalist David Goren, who created the Brooklyn Pirate Radio Sound Map. Both John and David discussed the Brooklyn scene on our podcast last year.

David’s comments on why he thinks the PIRATE Act will not do much to stem the tide of pirate radio were particularly incisive. He predicted, “it will be gentrification that takes the pirate stations off the air,” as new, high-rent residential high-rise buildings go up in the Flatbush neighborhood that is home to countless broadcasters.

That’s probably true, and it’s also likely that stations will spread out to new areas as people are pushed out or Brooklyn by a skyrocketing cost of living. At the same time, pirate radio is a pervasive phenomenon throughout the New York City area. I’m not sure other hotbeds, like Paterson, NJ, will gentrify at the same rate. Nevertheless, the point is well taken. Go to other cities with prominent ethnic and immigrant communities, but where they’re not so densely clustered as around NYC, and you’ll encounter far less pirate radio, too.

Calling the Radio

While comparisons of other media to pirate radio – like internet radio, in particular – often grates on me, I’m fine with reporter Mia Sato’s likening Hmong conference call services to it. These conferences are as similar to terrestrial radio as podcasts and internet radio. While not legally prohibited, like pirate radio, they serve a very similar communitarian function as the Haitian stations in Brooklyn, though obviously with the opportunity for more immediate dialog.

Moreover, telephone and radio have been intricately tied pretty much since the beginning, noting that radio was a two-way medium before one-to-many broadcasting came to predominate. And, of course, listener calls have long been a feature, making the one-way medium more two-way.

Outside of broadcast, amateur radio and citizens’ band radio are also two-way, where monopolizing a frequency to broadcast is actually prohibited. So I see these conference call “stations” as a sort of hybrid.

Back to the radio-telephone connection. There have long been stations that also simulcast on the telephone to reach listeners without access to their air signals. In the days before cell phone and unlimited minutes, this could be an expensive service for listeners outside of a station’s immediate area. But today that’s much less of a concern.

In fact, a couple of dozen stations around the world currently simulcast over the phone using a service called Audio Now, including BBC World Service and Voice of America service programs in Somali, as well as news radio WTOP in Washington, DC. If you’re low on smartphone data and don’t have access to a radio, then it’s not a bad alternative.

The Irony of the Radio in a Box in Afghanistan

The first article in the series tells the story of Afghan broadcasters who were given a “radio in the box” to broadcast on behalf of U.S. military PsyOps during the heat of the American invasion. These broadcasters created programming in opposition to the Taliban, including popular music, alongside news and propaganda. Unfortunately, they were also left high-and-dry when the U.S. military pulled out.

Radio has long been a tool of war, and of those opposing totalitarian rule, both from within and outside the borders of conflict zones. Of course, it’s hard to escape the irony that the American government is happy to promote pirate radio elsewhere, while simultaneously working to stamp it out at home. But any student of history should know such ironies are not that rare.

The post From Brooklyn to Afghanistan, The Verge Does Right by Pirate Radio appeared first on Radio Survivor.

On Nov. 22 the Federal Communitications Commission voted unanimously to adopt a proposal for rulemaking to allow AM radio stations to convert to fully digital broadcasting, using the MA3 all-digital mode of HD Radio. There was no dissent, and all three Republican commissioners issued separate statements of support. As I noted earlier, if approved, all-digital AM broadcasting would be voluntary.

In addition to deciding if AM stations can convert to digital, the proceeding will also pose questions about how these new all-digital signals will be required to protect adjacent stations from interference. The FCC hasn’t published the full proposal for these details in docket 13–249 yet. Once published in the Federal Register a 30-day comment period will open up where any interested party may let the Commission know their opinion on the idea.

If approved, stations that go all-digital will no longer be receivable on analog receivers, which includes most portable and home radios. About 50% of new car radios feature HD reception. Though because the average vehicle on the road is 11 years old, a smaller percentage of them are HD-capable. 

The question AM broadcasters will need to consider is if the gain in fidelity is worth the potential loss of half or more of their audiences. For listeners and radio enthusiasts, the question is what is the toll for communities when more than half of listeners lose access to a station’s signal. Even if the programming is of interest to just a fraction of listeners, many AM stations still serve an important community service function.

The thought experiment is to consider what it would be like if a major top-rated AM news broadcaster like KFI in Los Angeles, WCBS in New York or WLS in Chicago went all-digital. These are the stations that millions depend on during an event like Superstorm Sandy, major blizzards or wildfires, when electric or cell service may go down for hours or days.

Of course, just because they can go all-digital doesn’t mean these stations will. But I also don’t expect millions of people will rush out to buy HD capable radios if their favorite station converts. They’ll just switch over to listening online or stop listening altogether. It won’t be like the 2009 digital television transition, where it was a case of buy a new TV or coverter box, or lose free over-the-air television altogether. 

Also under consideration is removal of the programming duplication rule, which has been around in some form for decades. Since its last modification in 1992, commonly-owned or operated AM and FM station in the same market may only air the same programming for a total of 25% of airtime during a week. The rule already excepts FM translators, which are permitted to full rebroadcast AM station programming under certain conditions.

We’ll take a closer look at both of these full proposals when released. 

The post FCC Opens Proceeding for All-Digital AM Radio appeared first on Radio Survivor.

In April 2020 the FCC will open up the next auction for FM radio licenses. This is the next, and only currently scheduled opportunity to build a new radio station in the U.S. Jennifer, Eric and Paul discuss this news, along with celebrating the 60th birthday of KFJC-FM at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, CA. We reflect on how KFJC and other college stations were trailblazers in programming and service, functioning a lot like public radio in the years before National Public Radio was created.

We also dive into the proposal to allow AM radio stations to all-digital, using HD Radio. These stations would be unreceivable on the millions of radios that don’t receive digital HD signals. We survey the supposed benefits of the idea, and the deficits.

Finally, we celebrate another momentous occasion, the 25th anniversary of a terrestrial station simulcasting on the internet. And, wouldn’t you know it – both stations credited with being first are college stations.

Show Notes

• Happy 60th to College Radio Station KFJC
• Can We Save AM Radio by Killing It? Considering All-Digital AM Radio
• Inside Radio: FCC Is Auctioning 130 FM Signals. Here’s What You Need To Know
• Internet Radio Is Older Than You Think

.@DVD points out that today is the 25th anniversary of @wxyc debuting the internet simulcast stream of its broadcast radio signal. This was indeed the birth of modern streaming media as we know it (not just streaming audio, but streaming media, period) 1/4 https://t.co/F4RDHkx5By

— Andrew Bottomley (@abottomley) November 7, 2019

The post Podcast #219 – The Next Chance To Get an FM Station License; a College Station 60th; All-Digital AM appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Can you save AM Radio by killing it?

The original broadcast band gets little love as it prepares to celebrate its 100th birthday. Plagued by electromagnetic interference from wi-fi routers, LED lights and all sorts of other modern electronics, and dominated by tired right-wing and sports talk programming targeting a shrinking demographic, there’s not much love for AM radio these days.

While the FCC has talked about revitalizing the AM band for something close to a decade, all that’s resulted is letting AM broadcasters have translator repeater stations on the FM dial. That’s not so much AM revitalization as welfare for AM broadcasters.

Another idea that’s been floating in the ether is taking the band all-digital. Just like the FM band, there are digital HD Radio stations on AM right now. Because AM stations have just a fraction of the bandwidth of FM channels, they don’t feature additional channels, like FM’s HD–2 and HD–3. Instead HD Radio stations on AM just have a digital channel accompanying the analog one which offers audio that is stereo and markedly free of noise and static, provided you have an HD Radio tuner and are in range of the lower-powered digital signal.

The idea behind an all-digital AM band is that stations would drop their analog signals altogether in favor of a digital HD Radio signal. The supposed benefit is that the new digital signals would be higher fidelity, free of noise, and somewhat more resistant to interference. The downside would be that they would be unreceivable by the hundreds of millions of analog AM radios in use around the country. Only HD Radio equipped car radios and the much-rarer home receivers would get the broadcasts.

As of now, approximately 50% of new cars are HD-capable. Taking into account that the average vehicle on the road is nearly 12 years old, a much lower percentage of all vehicles have the capability, meaning the majority of radio listeners still can’t hear HD Radio signals.

Nevertheless, for the first time this month the FCC is officially taking up the idea of letting AM stations go all-digital. The proposal, docket 19–311, wouldn’t force stations to go HD Radio. Instead, if approved, it would allow stations to choose this route.

Arguing All-Digital AM

To understand the motivations for this, we can look to a Radio World editorial, in which the petitioner behind this proposal, radio group GM Ben Downs, argues for the sonic advantages of HD Radio on AM. I admit that on its own the fidelity argument is hard to find fault with. But there are many more significant nits to pic. He takes up several common objections.

To the argument, “there aren’t enough [HD] radios,” he answers: “And if we broadcasters don’t step up, there won’t be any listeners either. Every year more and more HD Radios are hitting the market. Can we say the same about AM listeners?”

I think what he’s saying is that listeners are fleeing AM because of the noise and interference, but a growing segment of them are using HD-capable receivers that would relieve them of the sound constraints. I’m not certain there’s much evidence for this. Fidelity is not much of an issue for listening to Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, or endless listener calls debating NFL stats. Audiences interested in anything else naturally turn to FM.

Downs anticipates this critique, writing, “There are always people who say poor programming damaged AM. I suppose that’s possible, but those choices were forced on us by radios that had such poor performance we were embarrassed to try to compete against FM music stations with what we had to work with.”

That seems a selective view of the past, at best, and ahistorical at worst. FM music radio became predominant in the early 1980s, way before the AM dial became so noisy. Moreover, I’m not sure when this mythical time of wide-spread high fidelity AM receivers was, but that’s one I wished I’d lived in (and I was a radio listener in the early 80s).

He also takes up the argument that, “I’ll lose listeners when I switch [to all-digital],” answering: “The beauty of the AM revitalization process was that it allowed us to pair our AM stations with FM translators. Your translator can carry the audience load while the audience becomes accustomed to all-digital AM.”

I find this just as paradoxical as the idea of FM signals for AM broadcasters representing any kind of “revitalization” for the band. My question is: if listeners have to hear your station on the FM dial, why would they ever go back to find it on AM? Would they even know to do so?

While much of radio listening has moved to the car, and HD Radio is far more prevalent in vehicle dashboards than in home receivers, my own experience is that most listeners are relatively unaware of HD Radio. Their tuners may bring in the signal, but since it sounds roughly identical to the analog one, it’s all in the background. I don’t think most seek it out. This is evidenced by the fact that there are no HD–2 or HD–3 stations – only receivable with an HD capable receiver – at or towards the top of the ratings for any U.S. market.

Now, I agree that the fidelity difference on AM is more pronounced and noticeable. But I’m still not sure that listeners really notice the difference as their radios shift between analog and digital signals. Any AM listener is accustomed to the signal strengthening and fading as they travel, and the analog to digital shift doesn’t really sound all that different.

Importantly, we’re only talking about listeners in vehicles here. AM stations that switch to all-digital will most certainly lose nearly all their listeners outside of a car. No doubt there are nerds like me who own HD Radio home receivers, or some die-hard fans who will go out to buy one of the handful of HD-capable models when it becomes necessary. But the vast majority will just listen to something else.

I have a hard time seeing how going all-digital will save stations. More likely, it will just alienate listeners, and make those stations even more niche and less viable.

The Problem Isn’t Digital Radio, Per Se

I do want to be clear that, despite my cynicism, I don’t actually wish for stations to fail, nor do I think digital radio is a bad idea. I think it would be good for the U.S. to have a truly viable digital radio service. However, it would be better as an additional service, rather than a replacement for analog radio. Something more like the DAB service prevalent outside the US.

Even with its limitations, there are significant advantages to analog AM radio. It’s a proven technology that has lasted a century, and there are millions upon millions of receivers out there. Heck, it’s so simple that you can build a crystal set receiver that doesn’t even require electricity. Moreover, AM signals can easily travel hundreds to thousands of miles.

All of this means that AM is an efficient want to broadcast to large groups of people over a large area. That is particularly important during emergencies, natural disasters or other times when communications by cellular phone or internet is compromised.

Who Loses When Stations Go All-Digital?

What I’d hate to see during a wildfire, hurricane or earthquake thousands of people resorting to their emergency radios, only to find that where there used to be a reliable source of local information there is only digital hash.

Though I have doubts that all-digital AM broadcasting will be any more successful, nor as sustainable as analog, I certainly prefer it to be optional rather than mandatory. On the one hand I suppose it’s not terrible to let station owners to make their bets and choose their own fates.

On the other hand, these consequences are not borne only by stations alone. Communities continue to depend on broadcasters, and there is still something of a remnant public service obligation in exchange for the monopoly license to use a frequency on the public airwaves. If going all-digital ends up driving a station out of business, what’s the likelihood that another one will take over the license and take its place?

I honestly don’t doubt the sincerity of many all-digital AM proponents, that they honestly would like to see a higher fidelity, “improved” service on the dial. However, they may be naïve.

Is This Even About Radio?

A more suspicious take would be that a drive to all-digital AM has nothing to do with radio as an audio service. Rather it’s an effort to turn the band into a data service, with audio as a justification, but more of an afterthought. That’s not unlike the required, but mostly useless video signal of channel 6 low-power TV stations, that mostly serve as “Franken FM” radio stations sneaking onto the FM dial at 87.7 FM. Think of all-digital AM as a cheap way to send traffic, weather and other commercialized data to in-car receivers without the need for mobile internet.

That said, I also have doubts about how many broadcasters would take advantage of all-digital operation. I have difficulty seeing top rated big-city AMs dump the millions of analog listeners that keep advertisers coming back just to gain a little bit of fidelity for a minority of the in-car audience.

The question becomes: Is all-digital AM Radio actually AM Radio? If we’re being pedantic, no, it isn’t. AM means Amplitude Modulation, which is an inherently analog technology. If all the stations on the AM dial were to go digital, that would in fact mean the death of AM broadcasting in the U.S., along with the death of many of the technology’s advantages.

It’s possible this wouldn’t be as tragic as I predict. Maybe analog FM and more robust internet technologies would pick up the slack. Maybe even such a transition would stimulate the production and sales of more HD Radio receivers.

I’m not committed to being a luddite, and I wouldn’t mind being wrong. I just won’t bet on it.

The post Can We Save AM Radio by Killing It? Considering All-Digital AM Radio appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Net neutrality received a very mixed ruling from the DC Circuit Court of Appeals last week. The Court largely upheld the significantly looser rules passed by the FCC in 2017 under the leadership of Republican Chairman Ajit Pai. But at the same time the Court said the Commission overstepped its bounds in attempting to forbid state and local governments from passing their own open internet rules.

Prof. Christoper Terry from the University of Minnesota is back again this week to help us understand the implications of this blow to net neutrality. He’s joined by Tim Karr, Senior Director of Strategy and Communications for Free Press. We learn how the Court justified the Pai FCC’s dismantling of Open Internet rules the Obama-era Commission had passed just two years prior, rules that survived a previous challenge in front of the same court.

However, hope for an open internet lies with state and local governments, which have been passing their own rules in the last two years, and are now specifically cleared to do so by the Appeals Court. We’ll understand what those efforts look like, and why Tim Karr is optimistic about the future of net neutrality.

Show Notes:

• Free Press: Court Defers to FCC on Dismantling Net Neutrality for Now but Opens Door for States, Higher Courts and Congress to Act
• Podcast #157 – Restoring Net Neutrality, One State at a Time
• Net Neutrality Is Over (For Now) – What It Means for Radio
• Why Radio Survivor Supports the Day of Action for Net Neutrality
• The FCC Passes Network Neutrality, Kills Internet “Fast-Lanes”
• Four reasons why net neutrality matters for mobile radio

The post Podcast #214 – Net Neutrality Is a Local Issue Now appeared first on Radio Survivor.

The FCC lost in court for the fourth time on September 23, in what’s become a really bad habit in the case known as Prometheus Radio Project v. FCC. The Third Circuit Court of Appeals keeps sending the Commission back to do homework to justify with evidence the changes it wants to make in loosening media ownership rules. And the Commission just keeps failing.

Prof. Christopher Terry of the University of Minnesota returns to tell us why the FCC failed again this time. He notes that the FCC has been at it for fifteen years. This means media ownership policy has seen nary an update pretty much since the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which infamously triggered massive consolidation in broadcast radio and television. Prof. Terry explains why this stalemate doesn’t serve the public interest, in part because the overall diversity in media has declined sharply in that time.

He also lets us know about a recent buried change in FCC procedure that threatens to undermine the voice of local citizens and groups in commenting on Commission rules and proceedings.

Show Notes:

• Prof. Terry’s companion piece: The FCC’s Score in Media Ownership Policy is 0 – 4
• The FCC’s Legacy of Failure: Failure Then Gives Us More Failure Now
• Could the FCC’s Legacy of Failure Trigger Even More Consolidation?
• Podcast #33 – 20 Years Ago Local Radio Was Crushed
• Happy (?) 21st Birthday to the Telecom Act of 1996

The post Podcast #213: Four Strikes for the FCC’s Media Ownership Policy appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Prof. Christopher Terry also guests on this week’s podcast to review the FCC’s recent court loss in detail. -Ed.

“Here we are again.”

That is the opening of the recent decision written by Judge Thomas L. Ambro in the latest judicial review of media ownership rules, in what is now Prometheus Radio Project v. FCC (IV). The FCC is 0-4 in court, in what amounts to another wipeout of the agency’s policies.

This is a process that has been ongoing for 15 years. Following the 1996 Telecommunications Act, the FCC conducted Congressionally-mandated biennial reviews of ownership regulations in 1998 and 2000 without significant action. The agency then suffered its first loss in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in June of 2004 over the agency’s biennial decision release in June of 2003, something that has now happened three more times since then. This 2017 post gives a neat summary of the Commission’s “legacy of failure” in those first three rounds.

Nothing changed with Tthe election of Donald Trump. In fact,, and the election and the subsequent the promotion of Republican Commissioner Ajit Pai to the head of the FCC also had a trickle-down effect to media ownership policy. In a November 2017 Reconsideration Order, the Commission radically rewrote ownership rules. As I explained at the time,

The changes are substantial and include:

• The elimination of the Newspaper/Broadcast Cross-Ownership Rule

• The elimination of the Radio/Television Cross-Ownership Rule

• A revision to the Local Television Ownership Rule that eliminates the Eight-Voices Test and will incorporate a case-by-case review option in the Top-Four Prohibition.

• The elimination of the attribution rule for television Joint Service Agreements (JSAs)…

Now, put simply, the agency has had what I have coined as the “Legacy of Failure” on media ownership policy for one important reason above all: There is no empirical evidence to support the agency’s decision-making on media ownership…

The changes.. are justified, at least in part, by the failings the FCC has created with previous merger adjudications and ownership policy. The FCC cites, “the decline of radio’s role in providing local news and information,” as a justification for the rule changes it now seeks to make. That decline, in what was once radio’s bread and butter, can be directly tied to the agency’s decision making, the mergers it approved and the rise of radio giants (like Clear Channel, now iHeartRadio) in the early 2000’s.

The November 2017 order, like all of media ownership policy since 2002, returned to the Third Circuit for review over this past summer. Again, it did not go well for agency in oral arguments (as I discussed in episode 199 of the podcast), which previewed the outcome of the case.

But after all that, on September 23, 2019, the Third Circuit sent the FCC packing, again, in what amounts to close to a complete defeat for the agency. Judge Ambro writes,

“Here we are again. After our last encounter with the periodic review by the Federal Communications Commission (the ‘FCC’ or the ‘Commission’) of its broadcast ownership rules and diversity initiatives, the Commission has taken a series of actions that, cumulatively, have substantially changed its approach to regulation of broadcast media ownership. First, it issued an order that retained almost all of its existing rules in their current form, effectively abandoning its long-running efforts to change those rules going back to the first round of this litigation. Then it changed course, granting petitions for rehearing and repealing or otherwise scaling back most of those same rules. It also created a new ‘incubator’ program designed to help new entrants into the broadcast industry. The Commission, in short, has been busy.”

While, the Court suggests the agency has been busy, the Court will also go on to point out it has not been busy resolving the two core issues that the court has ordered the agency to get busy on: providing empirical evidence to support a rational policy decision and second, and coming up with a rational policy that increases ownership by women and minorities.

“We do…agree with the last group of petitioners, who argue that the Commission did not adequately consider the effect its sweeping rule changes will have on ownership of broadcast media by women and racial minorities. Although it did ostensibly comply with our prior requirement to consider this issue on remand, its analysis is so insubstantial that we cannot say it provides a reliable foundation for the Commission’s conclusions. Accordingly, we vacate and remand the bulk of its actions in this area over the last three years.” 

Problematically, the FCC is not embarrassed to admit, this failure is their own, failing to even argue otherwise, as it had at least tried to do in the past:

“Problems abound with the FCC’s analysis. Most glaring is that, although we instructed it to consider the effect of any rule changes on female as well as minority ownership, the Commission cited no evidence whatsoever regarding gender diversity. It does not contest this.”

No evidence whatsoever. None. Zip. Zilch, and as a reminder, this has been at the core of FCC ownership decisions since 2002. Not bad for an agency that is staffed largely by economists.

“The only ‘consideration’ the FCC gave to the question of how its rules would affect female ownership was the conclusion there would be no effect. That was not sufficient, and this alone is enough to justify remand… Even just focusing on the evidence with regard to ownership by racial minorities, however, the FCC’s analysis is so insubstantial that it would receive a failing grade in any introductory statistics class.”

Importantly, the Third Circuit is forcing the FCC to recognize the outcomes of ownership policy are not natural effects, but rather the results of choices (bad ones) made by the agency. Judge Ambro’s decision suggests that the FCC has to show its work, and even determine if other choices or approaches might have been better:

“And even if we only look at the total number of minority-owned stations, the FCC did not actually make any estimate of the effect of deregulation in the 1990s. Instead it noted only that, whatever this effect was, deregulation was not enough to prevent an overall increase during the following decade. The Commission made no attempt to assess the counterfactual scenario: how many minority-owned stations there would have been in 2009 had there been no deregulation.”

So, we remain where we have been for over 15 years, with an agency that can’t pass basic stats, nor do what it has been told to do three times in the past. Going 0-4 at the plate is bad by any metric in any sport, and at this point this situation would be comical if the stakes were not so high. The FCC regulates the industry that delivers information, a key component of that thing we like to call democracy. We, regardless of one’s viewpoint or ideology, need this to work. But the Circuit says no, again:

“Accordingly, we vacate the Reconsideration Order and the Incubator Order in their entirety, as well as the ‘eligible entity’ definition from the 2016 Report & Order. On remand the Commission must ascertain on record evidence the likely effect of any rule changes it proposes and whatever ‘eligible entity’ definition it adopts on ownership by women and minorities, whether through new empirical research or an in-depth theoretical analysis. If it finds that a proposed rule change would likely have an adverse effect on ownership diversity but nonetheless believes that rule in the public interest all things considered, it must say so and explain its reasoning. If it finds that its proposed definition for eligible entities will not meaningfully advance ownership diversity, it must explain why it could not adopt an alternate definition that would do so. Once, again we do not prejudge the outcome of any of this, but the Commission must provide a substantial basis and justification for its actions whatever it ultimately decides.”

Stick around. I’ll see you next time, and probably the time after that as well.

Feature image adapted from a photo by Mark Mauno shared on Flickr with a (CC BY-SA 2.0) license.

The post The FCC’s Score in Media Ownership Policy is 0 – 4 appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Radio waves don’t obey borders, and stations have been taking advantage of this fact since the dawn of the medium – often despite the rules of government regulators where the signals go.

Dr. Kevin Curran of Arizona State University has been studying border radio stations extensively, making it the subject of his doctoral dissertation. Everyone has a ton of radio nerd fun as he takes us back to the 1920s, when Canadian and U.S. regulators struck a treaty to split up the AM dial and limit maximum broadcast power, but left out Mexico. That opened up an opportunity for stations in that country to cover the continent with hundreds of kilowatts, attracting broadcasters from north of the border wanting to take advantage.

Many infamous and colorful personalities were amongst this group, from Dr. John Brinkley, who promoted goat glands to cure male potency problems, all the way to man named Bob Smith – later known as Wolfman Jack – who blasted rock and roll that most American stations wouldn’t touch.

Dr. Curran explains why stations along the Mexican border remained popular with U.S. broadcasters even after that country lowered maximum power levels, in treaty with its northern neighbor. He also explores the relationship of U.S. stations to Canadian markets, where stations are more highly regulated. If you’ve ever wondered why radio is different along the border, you’re curiosity will be satisfied.

Show Notes:

• Radio World: Goat Gland Man Has Enduring Appeal; Though His Remains Are Safely Entombed in Memphis, Dr. Brinkley’s Legend Lives on
• Wide Open Country: How Border Radio Helped Popularize Country Music
• Texas State Historical Association: Border Radio
• SpectacularOptical: Clap for the Wolfman
• The Classic CKLW Page
• Wolfman Jack biography
• Wikipedia: XEROK-AM

The post Podcast #212 – Border Radio in North America appeared first on Radio Survivor.