Request for Silent STA

Are any of us really surprised after the last discussion on this topic? Anyone wanna send donations of new equipment or, possibly, cash? We could all come together and bail him out. I'm being serious, too. Not sarcastic. I'm still trying to help with financially bailing out the engineer who exclusively worked on this for the past few weeks with a long agreed upon set rate promised to him and who ended up getting nothing. I see no reason why everyone has to lose, here. We can all look at this positively for everyone involved and help them as much as possible, can't we? If I had money, I'd be tempted to send all new equipment and cash donations to the unpaid engineer so these two would have to work together to salvage things and to make things good. Then again, I'm just weird like that.

While your willingness to help is commendable, sometimes it's best not to. While the desire to reach Selma with the Gospel is praiseworthy, sometimes it's best to prayerfully step aside and let another do the work. Not everyone is blessed with the ability to engineer, program and manage a radio station. Not everyone is blessed with a skill at fundraising. I'm sorry, but at least in my view, to further encourage someone so lacking in those gifts, skills and abilities to continue in this effort is morally and ethically wrong. This isn't about loss. It's about doing what is right.

"Oh, the humanity..."

By helping him, you're nothing more than an enabler. And as far as I'm concerned, one less LPFM cluttering the band with noise is a good thing. Look at how many LPFM's are on the Silent list every month, for godsakes.

I may have actually been being a bit more sarcastic than you both known in my comments. I honestly wish people like Dan had more realistic expectations and realized that, whether or not it's done "in the name of the Lord", bills still come due and must be Paris and not everything can be expected to be handed over on a silver platter with the word "donation" attached. I have been watching this situation but, other than a few words here and there, haven't actually met Dan or helped him in any way. I will openly admit that I was silently cheering from the sidelines in hopes that he would be the one who was different and who would be honest and who would succeed. I was hoping that he would restore my faith in Christian broadcasters in general. Now, I see that it just ain't happenin'. Sad. I'm just glad that I'm one of the lucky ones who didn't get "stung". Have you guys seen the informal objection that's been filed on this STA request, yet?

I haven't looked at the objection yet, but to be honest I didn't know it was possible to file an objection to an STA.

I've checked the FCC site and I don't see any objection at this point.

For Voicetrack of Reason, are you sure you're not talking about a LPFM operator I know? This guy has not figured out if you're going to be the community's station you can't be playing heavy rock and never doing anything local on the air. He claims nobody is coming forward to help him. I asked "Have you asked them to?" I got this look as if you say you have to ask? He thinks folks just come out of the woodwork without saying a word. He can't understand why he's not hearing his station in businesses and why nobody knows about his station. Funny, when you offer him suggestions to improve you get "you're just trying to take over my station". He too is silent.

Search for "WPJB" in FM Query. Click on the "Links and Maps" tab. Click on "Applications List". Select the most recent application "Info" option. Click on "Legal Actions". It's there.

Or, go here:

http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws...tion_id=1759102&File_number=BLSTA-20170616AAQ

tomservo said:

I haven't looked at the objection yet, but to be honest I didn't know it was possible to file an objection to an STA.

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An informal objection can be filled against anything. Will it block an STA? Probably not. Will it trigger an investigation into the underlying causes of the objection? Definitely. This cats best bet would be to settle with his former engineer asap and to beg them to help him. His only other choice will be a communications attorney for some really big $$$ amounts. The clock is ticking and his time to do one or the other is exporting rather quickly. He's soon going to have to be doing as lot of explaining and, as we all are so very well aware, "An engineer did this to me!" is no excuse at all.

I did exactly as you described but looked under correspondence versus application info. It seems that in the past it was listed under correspondence (as well).

I hate to say it, but there are way too many LPFMs I know of that just string up some equipment, apply for a license and then go silent while filing for a minor change. I cannot always blame the LPFM as there are some other factors involved (ie: tower you have applied for taking on another client and no longer has room for the LPFM) The worst was the LPFM that got approval from the city to erect a 50 foot antenna. Once built, an influential citizen convinced the city to reverse the decision. You can spend your money trying to sue the city or take your limited resources and try to move to another spot, which they did but not before their CP was to expire.

b-turner said:

I did exactly as you described but looked under correspondence versus application info. It seems that in the past it was listed under correspondence (as well).

I hate to say it, but there are way too many LPFMs I know of that just string up some equipment, apply for a license and then go silent while filing for a minor change. I cannot always blame the LPFM as there are some other factors involved (ie: tower you have applied for taking on another client and no longer has room for the LPFM) The worst was the LPFM that got approval from the city to erect a 50 foot antenna. Once built, an influential citizen convinced the city to reverse the decision. You can spend your money trying to sue the city or take your limited resources and try to move to another spot, which they did but not before their CP was to expire.

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There is a big difference in something happening that is entirely "beyond the control of the license" and "intentional misrepresentation" otherwise known as "lack of candor".

I apologize for the edits. I do so despise autocorrect when applied to specialty technical terms!

Very interesting thread.

There is some confusion about LPFM. It was never meant to sound professional, It was never meant to generate revenue. It was meant to give voices to groups who felt they were not being heard. Many have turned them into so called "Pro" stations. It was meant to serve niche groups in a community. Some of the most interesting LPFMs I've heard are from grassroot organizations, or show hosts with no radio experience.

Groove1670 said:

There is some confusion about LPFM. It was never meant to sound professional, It was never meant to generate revenue. It was meant to give voices to groups who felt they were not being heard. Many have turned them into so called "Pro" stations. It was meant to serve niche groups in a community. Some of the most interesting LPFMs I've heard are from grassroot organizations, or show hosts with no radio experience.

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So, this is a good reason to rip-off people who want to help and to just not pay people for products and services? Sorry. I'm not seeing it. If that's the case,i should've applied for one so I could steal a new car. My old one needs a transmission and getting a new one without having to pay for it seems better to me. (That's sarcasm, by the way.)

Radio Observer said:

So, this is a good reason to rip-off people who want to help and to just not pay people for products and services? Sorry. I'm not seeing it. If that's the case,i should've applied for one so I could steal a new car. My old one needs a transmission and getting a new one without having to pay for it seems better to me. (That's sarcasm, by the way.)

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My comments were directed to LPFM in general. I was commenting on LPFM's not sounding like major market stations.

Actually niche might be an adjective for serving the community in their 60 dbu. That does not mean they have to be very mainstream but that sure helps. In a city it might mean a segment of the population not currently served by radio. As for 'professional', I feel the FCC has an expectation of professionalism in operating properly utilizing professional standards but not necessarily 'polished' as major market station might sound. From my interpretation of not being professional I would extend that to every not for profit station in the context it was presented. I don't consider NPR non-professional, for example. I contend, you might not be earning a living doing radio but that is no excuse to to strive for a professional sound.

I contend the FCC does intend LPFMs to generate income. There are operational expenses and obligations not unlike any other broadcast facility. Granted, the investment in a 100,000 watt FM is not that of a 100 watt LPFM, the fixed expenses are for the most part the same. For example, renting a studio is not less expensive for a 100 watt FM versus a 3,000 watt FM. Certainly the same as that 100 watt NCE FM versus that 100 watt LPFM.

I see no issue if a radio professional chooses to form a non-profit to gain a LPFM to serve it's community. I suspect the FCC does not choose to discriminate either. Certainly they'd be doing so not for the money but rather the satisfaction of serving their tiny coverage area. Certainly professionalism is an option and any organization seeking to operate an LPFM should strive for it if for no other reason to offer a quality of programming listeners will choose to listen to versus not choosing. I say that because I have heard plenty of really bad radio, unfocused hosts, long periods of silence and such that made me switch the dial. I have also heard grassroots radio programming that was well executed and informative and/or entertaining.

I agree with b-turner. The smaller the available audience, the more "mainstream" a station (LPFM or otherwise) will have to be as a necessity. Aside from the obvious differences in the rules, what's the difference in commercial radio and non-commercial radio? Commercial radio seeks to attract listeners (business owners) who will appreciate the fact that they serve a large enough audience to want to use that station for delivering a message to those listeners. Just because the wording is different for non-commercial stations, don't let it fool you for a single minute! The wording is different. The goals are the same. This is why you can find five or more C&W (How long has it been since you s saw that listing as a format?) stations serving any small town in South Alabama and not a single all-polka formatted station when it would clearly be the only one in the market?

b-turner said:

As for 'professional', I feel the FCC has an expectation of professionalism in operating properly utilizing professional standards but not necessarily 'polished' as major market station might sound.

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This is probably the part of building an LPFM that trips most would-be operators up. Pretty much all LPFMs are built on a shoestring budget and I'd bet pretty much all of them have one or fewer "knowledgeable radio people" available for consultation. That leads to people acquiring inadequate, non-type accepted transmitters or exciters, or getting donated equipment like an EAS box that is not compatible with current standards. Or worse, putting a station on air that's at serious variance with the licensed parameters.

If you're not a person with experience in the technical side of broadcasting, and you have one person who says "this is the proper equipment and it costs $X thousand to do it right at a bare minimum" and you have another person who is saying "if you look hard you can source this, this and this for next to nothing", someone who doesn't know better is going to go for the "next to nothing" advice even if it's going to get you the wrong equipment.

It's understandable to some degree that someone could get snookered by bad advice while looking to save a buck. What's less understandable to me is why people who are considered "knowledgeable radio people" would be giving the bad advice in the first place. I mean, I am FAR from an expert on FCC rules and regulations, but even I have had a passing knowledge of CAP-enabled EAS equipment. (What I didn't know until today, to be fair, was that CAP messages come over the internet, which means your transmitter location needs to have reliable internet access!) Because "I don't know what I don't know" I would never consider myself to be a viable source of knowledge on building an LPFM.