During my East Coast travels last week, I met up with folks from two new low power FM (LPFM) radio stations. During one of the visits, I was peppered with questions about community radio and it was suggested that Radio Survivor publish some pieces about what makes for a good community radio station. In a serendipitous coincidence, Paul Riismandel started a new series this week, Sound Advice, in which he shares tips for community radio stations. Monday’s piece, Sound Advice: 5 Ways New LPFMs Can Build Community Support Today, is a must-read for all LPFMs and LPFMs-to-be.
I agree with Paul that it’s important for community radio stations to reach out to others in their communities, making friends with local press, community groups and non-profits. I’d like to add that it’s also incredibly valuable for radio stations to get friendly with other nearby radio stations. When I visit other radio stations, I always encourage people to connect with radio colleagues. Sometimes I’ll even bring another radio friend with me on my station visits and connections have been made that way. Particularly when it comes to community-based radio, including LPFM, college radio and high school radio, it can be imperative to share ideas and resources with like-minded stations.
New LPFMs for Texas and Louisiana
Two more LPFM stations received construction permits this week, including Lafayette Jesucristo es Mi Refugio (Lafayette, Louisiana) and Church of God-Greenville, Texas (Greenville, Texas).
Seven Dismissals Related to Guel Applications
Additionally, there were some dismissals this week, including: Lake Charles Iglesia Cristo Viene (Lake Charles, LA), Columbia Hispanic Education Family Fundation (Columbia, SC), Lufkin Iglesia Cristo Viene (Lufkin, TX), South Jacksonville Community Radio (Jacksonville, FL), North San Antonio Community Radio (San Antonio, TX), South Mc Allen Hispanic Education Family Fundation (McAllen, TX), and Gary Hispanic Community Radio (Gary, IN).
As REC Networks has pointed out, these dismissals are due to discrepancies in applications associated with serial filer Antonio Cesal Guel. In the past week, REC’s Michelle Bradley filed additional objections against some lingering Guel-related applications, stating, “…we are finding that a large number of them had sudden board member changes and phone number changes (from Texas to a local number) which may suggest the possibility that applications were filed by Guel ‘blindley’ and then they were improperly ‘sold’ or otherwise transferred during the application process. Some of these ‘buyers’ are associated with well-established churches in their communities.”
So far, 149 Guel-related applications have been dismissed. See the status of these applications on REC Networks.
