I was happy to see that our friend Jim Ellinger’s Low Power FM event last Saturday in Austin, Texas went well. “Half a dozen applicants, commissioners and academics, radio talent and sponsors showed up,” the Austin Airwaves Facebook page reports. “A phone in call from Ian Smith of the Prometheus Radio Project answered a lot of […]
The Federal Communications Commission has identified clusters of Mutually Exclusive (MX) application groups for Low Power FM signals in United States markets. What is an MX group? Well, it all depends on who you ask. Here’s the FCC’s definition: “When the distance between two window applications does not meet the minimum distance separation requirements specified […]
On Monday Sanjay Jolly of the Prometheus Radio Project dropped by the Federal Communications Commission’s Media Bureau offices and talked Low Power FM with Peter Doyle of the Audio Division and representatives from various Commissioners. Jolly pointed out that signal range is big issue for LPFM operators. In a 2012 survey run by Prometheus, around […]
We’ve reviewed LPFM applications in Los Angeles and San Francisco, so in this week’s LPFM Watch it’s time to dive into apps from the nation’s Second City, Chicago. I also take a look at the current count of applications that have been accepted and dismissed. Finally, I review instructions for telling the FCC that you […]
It’s been a busy few days as far as news on the low power FM (LPFM) front goes. Advocates like REC Networks are analyzing the recently filed applications and are starting to find some discrepancies. Earlier this week, REC Networks filed informal objections with the FCC in reference to 245 applications that were all prepared […]
LPFM advocate REC Networks has been cranking out reports and analysis in order to make sense of the nearly 3,000 LPFM applications that were filed in the October-November, 2013 window. In the course of that, it has been flagging applications that seem to have errors or that look to be masquerading as local applicants. Today […]
Low power FM (LPFM) applicants are on pins and needles as they await word about applications that were filed in the recently closed window. In order to answer some of the burning questions and give a sense of timing, today the FCC released a notice (PDF) offering guidance for LPFM applicants. The notice also provides […]
The FCC just released a list of eight California radio stations that did not submit license renewals by the August 1, 2013 deadline this year. Per FCC regulations, as of December 1, 2013, all eight of these licenses are considered expired. The disappearing stations include two FM stations, three LPFM stations, and three FM translator […]
This week I’ve been largely fixated on digging into the details of LPFM applicants from all over the country. As I mentioned last week, it looks like there could be around 100 college radio groups applying for new licenses, including a few in the San Francisco Bay Area. Upon further research, I found out that […]
No less than fifteen different organizations have applied for a single Low Power FM signal in Los Angeles, California: 101.5 FM. I would not want to be the Federal Communications Commission staff person who has to decide which of these groups get access to that frequency. Here are some excerpts from their application statements. Future […]
