Are there any commercially successful Part 15 AMs?

I have been thinking about doing the same thing here lately..... I have heard that just one SStran AM transmitter will go about a mile and a half or more with a good antenna, but thats just what I have read here is the site if you haven't seen it before http://www.sstran.com/ 😀

Hi Josh,

I thought I'd attempt to answer your question. I have run first an internet-only, and now a Part-15 station with some success. But it has been, and is,
a terribly tough road.

I ended up becoming what is known as a "commercial non=profit." The
station is on a "commercial" frequency but is owned by a non-profit
organization. In my case, that organization is my wife and myself along with my parents. They help behind the scenes a bit, but I am the one running the station since I'm the only one that's ever done it, and I did it in the commercial radio world for over 20 years.

To answer your question, the station does have ads, but I have had very little success locally. All of our paying advertisers are national. I only have
one transmitter with a range of about 2 miles normally. My station operates
as a "daytimer" running sunrise to sunset, then the internet continues on overnight.

The Part-15 station, by itself, isn't that "successful" in terms of money. But
in combination with the internet, and a small "radio mall" I'm now making payments toward the purchase of "Resort Radio," that most of the folks here are familiar with. So my extra $ is going to Bill-B as I work toward the relocation, and resurrection of, Bill's awesome Part-15 station.

My Part-15 station, which is located outside the city limits where I live,
has garnered a fair number of listeners with its hybrid Christian/country morning and classic country afternoon, format. I've been quite pleased with the listener response. "Resort Radio" was, and will be, an oldies-format station with a Christian undertone as originally started by Bill-B.

Best wishes Josh!

radioboy
http://www.expage.com/wjjd

There's some fun old news clippings info about a few part 15 AM operations that were used in a commercial manner ten years ago - read it here:

http://www.part15.us/encyclopedia/news/arlpr.html

Looks like the concept was to find a large audience, even if it was time limited, promote like crazy and deliver a focused message.

There's also some interesting low power radio special applications info here:

http://seagrant.oregonstate.edu/extension/lpr/

with some additional tips.

Seems like there should be a way to make this work...

8)

😀

Agressive marketing and indicating to the 'local' clients that advertising on your station will deliver more clients and patrons to their doors...

I officially am not on the air... still doing airchecks and testing, yet already have willing advertisers slawing to get on the air... because I libe in a more isolated area and have a 'tourist' like enviornment, the need is there!

My goal is to have 4 30 sec. and 4 60 sec. ads on the hour each hour for 18 hours each day... now... at a discount rate compared to the 'big channels', I hope to get sufficient funding to stay on the air... but to do so, you have to have a professional set up! Having a computer, 4 channel mixer, a mic and some cd players on a desk is not going to project 'professional' to prospective clients!

My setup will consist of a 'u-shaped desk', on air board, 2 mics. one for the dj and one or more for 'guests', rack mount units showing equipment (great for having clients google at the complexity), comfortable areas and chairs for clients to feel at home to, etc.....

Rate cards will be faxed and mailed to businesses, planning on posting an ad in the local community paper indicating I exist, and putting up small billboards showing presense!

Do the above and I'm sure you'll get feedback and advertisers!

Radiopilot