87.7FM

I am seriously considering acquiring an 87.7 in two of our markets. Just before I commit, I wanted to know if anyone here has experience (ownership, programming or sales) with an 87.7 station. Especially, if it is a mainstream 87.7 station. . . CHR, Country, AC, Rock, Classic Rock, etc. If so, would you share your observations, challenges, successes, etc.. . .

Also, what are you airing on the video portion? Weather, traffic, advertising slides, photos, etc.

Thank you.

Make sure the FCC is noit going to require that the station goes digital (DTV). If they do, then bye bye FM audience.

True enough, even the attorneys at Wiley-Ryan and the head engineers at the top firms have not given the all clear. That said, it’s believed that if the FCC decided on the digital path, it would take them years to fight their way through the legal suits that would accompany a digital proposal. Chances are the outcome would favor grandfathering.

Plus, they are swamped. They have countless major stations, including WABC-TV, still operating on STAs ever since the digital transition nearly a year ago. They are excessively occupied trying to accomplish simple things that do not entail lawsuits. As I was advised yesterday, 87.7 is not anywhere near their screen.

Take a cue from Pulse 87. They have pretty much abandoned Ch. 6 LPTV in favor of the internet. Speculation is that the FCC may require LPTV stations to convert to digital as soon as this year. To be sure, the days of the Franken FM are numbered.

Of course, you could always purchase these stations and run them as they were intended; as TV stations. Even in that context I know of one LPTV station in my area that has programmed their audio as radio while running some kind of slide show for video. Nothing in the rules says that the audio and video have to relate to each other in some way. In this scenario the listeners tune into the "radio" station through their TV set. Occasionally the station will run an actual television program.

But another reason why you may want to purchase these stations is for Mobile DTV. ATSC M/H will support multiple radio streams in addition to video and the number of handheld devices supporting this exciting new technology is growing.

c5

Many years ago, while visiting Las Vegas for NAB, I stumbled upon a small TV station that was "doing radio.” This was in the early days of MTV when music videos were first getting a foot-hold. Basically, they had cameras in a radio studio. Instead of playing CD's, they played music videos, but they did it just like it was top 40 radio. It was actually pretty good and would make sense with or without the pictures. I wish I'd had something like it at home.

It wouldn't be hard to resurrect a format that was similar and actually use the visual part in some manner that made sense.

Something as simple as putting RDS data in the video would be sufficient.