Here is something that might not only hurt LPFM but might cause you to lose your part 15 FM channel as well.
Bruce.
Another genius idea from the FCC right up there with moving AM stations to FM.
The FM spectrum will eventually turn into the Wild West Days where people will just do whatever. I see the FM band being ruined just like AM is ruined and the noise will be so great that people will forget regular Radio and move to the Internet. Verizon already supports this theory when people are screaming for Verizon to enable the FM chips in the Galaxy Note 5 and other flagship smartphones. Verizon claims that FM Radio will be dead in a few years and again this is Verizon a company the FCC seems to feed into when they lobby. So I wonder sometimes.
Of course Verizon is going to say that, enable the FM chip and you lose a bit of that data usage that was previously spent listening to online radio.
Well there are organizations that are pushing hard to force all carriers to enable the FM chip in these phones. Personally it would be great. I've heard the quality of the FM chip when I had a Sprint Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime and Installed NextRadio. It even gives you RDS on the app and the reception was not bad for a smartphone connected to a earphone for an antenna.
Since everyone has cell phones it would allow people to listen to Radio more which is what the NAB and other organizations want. Its really a win win situation.
I think Apple's issue is that it competes with iTunes.
Bingo, its greed keeping FM off smartphones. The iphone 7 makes FM impossible.
Here is the ugly truth as to what it will take to get the FM Receivers turned ON in the US for all smartphones that were capable of receiving FM Radio elsewhere. It is the truth in Home Of The Greed.
A group of folks to have been caught in a natural disaster and I mean a devastating one where cellular Internet was cut off in that spot because of lack of power. Meanwhile a Radio signal was broadcasting what to do in this emergency situation. The death toll would be Huge and about 90% of the death toll would be youngsters and young adults who normally carry cell phones all the tome. Now this needs to have happened in a Rich area say Hollywood, CA or to a Donald Trump style family who mostly picks one major cellphone carrier.
Because their children died and again most had cell phones that Did Originally Come With FM Radio's in them a multi billion dollar lawsuit is waged against Verozon Wireless for criminal negligence and putting lives at risk when the manufacturers originally put the Radio's in these phones to prevent such a occurrence. The people would have to organize and get a major cell phone manufacturer to testify and the money from the suit would benefit the manufacturers as well.
The lawsuit would have to be so great that it would almost put that particular carrier out of business or where someone would have to buy them out. Then you'll start to see more of these chips re enabled on these phones. You say it won't happen? It will and its a matter of time. It definitely makes that carrier liable for their actions.
I have a cast off Consumer Cellular phone made by AT&T. When the previous owner upgraded he was gonna toss it so of course I grabbed it.
Even though it has no cell service the WIFI works so I use it as a browser.
But the unexpected bonus, it has an FM receiver and it works quite well.
Maybe I'll put TeamSpeak on it for a dedicated live remote.