In Philly just this morning where I live (well in a suburb of philly) TWO new LPFMs signed on.
WJYN 98.5 "Jawn Radio" NO LIE THAT IS THEIR NAME
WQEW 98.5 Chinese talk
They share the freq- WJYN 3pm-3am WQEW 3am-3pm. It is a total mess. Both of the stations' audio sounds like trash and the signals are both killed by a commercial station 50 miles away.
Oh but it's the kid with a 1 watt transmitter that's the real threat.
And wasting FM space with Chinese talk? What's wrong with AM for that?
No disrespect to the Chinese.
Mark
While I agree that most -- not all, but most -- LPFM's are a waste of spectrum, guess what? They're legal.
As for kids with 1 watt transmitters? If the FCC were to legalize them, which they won't, watch what would happen to the broadcast band(s). EVERYONE, including existing commercial operators, would jump on that wagon. You'd have interference galore, and unlicensed one-watters battling it out on the same frequencies. It would be a total nightmare.
These are the LPFM Stations in Houston
92.5
94.1
94.9
95.3
96.1
98.3
99.5
2 99.7
99.9
2 101.5
2 101.7
102.5
104.5
106.1
And about 4 to 7 translators to
For more info http://www.angelfire.com/nj2/piratejim/lpfm5.html
Not any room left on the FM band here to run a part 15 station or a little ipod transmitter
I also wanted to add 103.5
In the Cuyahoga Falls-Akron Ohio area it's WCFI-LP 96.1 FM. A public safety educational station owned by The City of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. Although much of our broadcast day is automated we do provide weather updates twice a day along with three different news formats (local, world and Tim's Headliners for comic relief.) The High School built a studio and developed a vocational broadcasting class. Students have classroom time and produce one hour shows Monday through Friday.
Right now I'm running a live remote, broadcasting the High School football game as we do for all home games. I also do live remotes for community events and rock/music concerts.
We have a purpose...
Another community group in Akron, Ohio plans to be on the air within a couple months at 96.9.
In Saint Leo/Dade City Florida, WLSL-LP-92.7 is operated by Saint Leo University. The tiny footprint covers all of Saint Leo and Dade City a town of about 6,000. The station is working in conjuction with the Multi-Media Department of the university as well as Pasco County District Schools.
Students at Centennial STEM Magnet Middle School are intergrating programming skills as part of their STEM education.
When other scheduled programming is not running, we air an eclectic mix of music NOT heard on Tampa Bay area commercial stations.
I don't believe that if they made 1 watt legal with a separate service for hobby Broadcasting that everyone would have one. Oh but wait A lot of people broadcast with them right now and legalization has nothing to do with it. I'm not I'm not going to reiterate about New Zealand but think about it just because it's legal doesn't mean everyone will do it.
That's 21 out of 200 frequencies available.
Seems there's lots of space left. There aren't 179 commercial stations there.
Mark
"Legalize It!" should be the new slogan for people's broadcasting. Ah, but unlike the herb was, it's not so illegal is it, to where you'd shout Prohibition. It's just that you get a little, not a lot, with an enigmatic set of rules that muddles the situation, so much that a lot of people just give up I think.
Rules seem to be so set in stone, we're fed a little change, so slowly that it seems like nothing gets done forever, but it's good what Legacy is doing and others are working on with getting experimental licenses, I like those hopeful ideas.
Rules seem to be set in stone, that no one can do anything, but really rules are changed and bent all the time. Take the "HD" AM. The NRSC (National Radio Systems Commitee) worked for a long time to get AM stations to a total bandwidth of 20 khz from 30 khz, the new face of the AM band, because it was the only way to stop stations from interfering with their neighbors, NRSC said.
It was "the answer" and so stations fell in line, nothing could be done, accept fate, buy a 222 processor. Decades later, HDAM comes in, and where do they put their digital signals? They put them beside the AM signal, in the 10 khz that was evacuated by the NRSC, going to a 30 khz signal again, just like the old days. Not such a done deal, but analog signals are penalized, they're still bound by the 20 khz bandwidth rule.
I've heard of FM stations that took years to negotiate getting on the air, finding a frequency and clearing it with other parties, or going for their power increase, especially school stations. I've heard phrases like "It took forever" or was a protracted battle to finally get their authorization, working for 5-10 years for it to clear.
Suddenly the rules were changed to allow all the extra LPFMs and translators, in the same area where "nothing" was open before, making what the stations did a waste of work. It makes me think of the Twilight Zone episode about the guys who robbed the gold bricks and went into suspended animation...
You asked for it, radio people of the 1920s, crying out for a savior when stations were interfering with each other, and you wanted guidance, bringing regulation upon radio broadcasting, and eventually the FCC.
Here's something I haven't seen yet, what studies were done about the effect of adding the stations to FM, there must have been some rationale for saying the band was full before, then deciding that many more stations could fit. I'd think there'd be extensive tests on this for years to see what the impact might be.
I think everyone here and there(other forums) would like to see some change. Then why does Thelegacy say that there doesn't seem to be much interest and not very many want to join the cause. Seems he's almost alone in trying to get the change everyone complains about.
Mark