The most comprehensive source of LPFM news is here every Thursday. Learn about the most important happenings in low-power FM radio.
10/17/23 Update! The new low power FM filing window has been delayed and is now opening on December 6, 2023. See the FCC’s announcement here. On our latest episode of Radio Survivor, it’s a very special treat, with all four Radio Survivor hosts at the mic discussing an exciting low power FM opportunity. Another low […]
For the first time, the FCC just granted booster stations to two LPFMs in California. Like the name implies, a booster helps a station to fill in parts of its broadcast area where geographic impediments–like hills or mountains–prevent the signal from being received well where it otherwise should be heard. Unlike a translator repeater station, […]
I am following Ferndale Radio’s campaign to raise enough funds to launch a Low Power FM station in and around the Rust Belt Market zone of Metro Detroit. The group has a nice promotional Vimeo on its indiegogo page. It confirms what I already knew but haven’t really wanted to face. Lots of young people really, truly do […]
The FCC has been busy processing more low power FM (LPFM) applications in the last month and just this week issued construction permits to San Francisco Community Radio (SFCR) and San Francisco Public Press for new stations on 102.5 FM in San Francisco. Last month the FCC asked the two groups to come up with […]
A flurry of low power FM (LPFM) updates means that it’s time for another edition of LPFM Watch, two months after we put a pause on our weekly updates. This week we learned that the FCC is closer to resolving the contentious battle for the new LPFM channel in San Francisco, with the application by […]
Los Angeles has been the site of the biggest group of applicants in the country battling it out for a single low-power FM frequency. A partial resolution of this competition has been reached, thanks to the efforts of the LPFM advocacy group Common Frequency and the cooperation of existing stations. As a result many more […]
Although there hasn’t been much FCC action related to low power FM (LPFM) in the past few weeks, numerous stations are working furiously to get on the air. In Texas, KUZU-LP is preparing to launch in the city of Denton. According to the Denton Record Chronicle, the station is actively fundraising and will host a […]
The past few weeks we’ve written about some low power FM (LPFM) application dismissals due to various discrepancies, most notably false addresses listed on the applications. The FCC is making its way through the remaining LPFM candidates from the 2013 application window and is sussing out some shenanigans that have happened along the way. This […]
While recording this week’s podcast, Eric Klein regaled me with tales of his experience hanging on out a roof with Freeform Portland volunteers, as they worked to install an antenna for the new lower power FM (LPFM) station in Portland, Oregon. He described how many of the team were college radio veterans hoping to replicate […]
Licensed radio stations of all types–including LPFMs–are required to stay on the air, unless granted specific and limited exemptions by the FCC. The logic is clear and sound: licenses are for broadcasting, not collecting and monopolizing like so many empty parcels of land. A church-owned station in Buffalo, WY recently fell afoul of this rule. […]
