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 […]
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 […]
Though we’ve been waiting some three years, the Federal Communications Commission has finally announced the third-ever application window for low-power FM (LPFM) stations, running November 1 – 8, 2023. An application window is a set period of time during which qualified organizations and entities may submit their applications to get a broadcast license. The FCC […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
On this week’s show, we take a trip back in time to look at radio in the 1940s and 1950s. During this post-war period, women’s roles were shifting in the workplace and in popular media. Television arrived on the scene, bringing with it some, but not all, of the programming that people knew and loved […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
