LPFM Advocacy Group (LPFM-AG)

Your LPFM-AG in Washington is fighting for LPFM radio.

We believe it takes three changes to the current LPFM rules in order for the service to survive.

1- Commercials must come to LPFM.

2- LPFM must become a primary service at the FCC.

3- LPFM technical rules must equal those of FM translators.

Nearly 600 LPFM CPs/licenses have been turned back into the FCC in the last 15 years. This is a sign of a failing service.

These three changes must occur or:

1- LPFM must become a fully funded service of the CPB

2- Each LPFM's funding should be nearly 100 times that of the average 100,000 watt radio station.

But we'd rather earn our own money instead of being put on government welfare.

These three changes enable us to do so.

Visit: https://www.facebook.com/groups/LPFMuniversity

From there, you can connect to our 13-15 other groups on Facebook to learn more.

Tell everyone you know about this address: http://facebook.com/ontheair - this is our daily social media action page.

Local radio is returning to local towns - LPFM is how it's gonna happen.

Stay tuned.

Yikes! I can already hear the NAB sharpening their arrows and getting ready to strike should your proposal formally make it's way to the FCC. It's not like this hasn't been proposed before. In fact, when the LPFM service was originally put forward, it was thought that it would mirror LPTV which can air commercials.

But Michi Eyre makes some good points here as to why LPFM should remain non-commercial:

"The following are facts about operating commercial:

Commercial stations pay an annual regulatory fee to the FCC from just over $400 for a translator to as much as $12,000 for a full power station in a major market.

Commercial stations would be required to pay more for ASCAP, BMI and SESAC based on a share of station revenues. You will no longer be considered a non-commercial webcaster in the eyes of SoundExchange.

Mutually exclusive applications are subject to auction. For existing stations needing to make major changes would have to compete with applicants for new stations. Not only will the construction permit be granted to the highest bidder, if a non-commercial applicant is mutually exclusive with a commercial applicant, the non-commercial applicant is immediately trumped.

Under the Telecommunications Act, the current station cap of 1 station per organization is not enforceable under the statute. The laws could also be interpreted to allow for cross-ownership otherwise meaning that iHeart Media or CBS could own LPFM stations."

To this list I would add that should LPFM become a primary service, as you suggest, it would become subject to additional FCC record keeping such as maintaining a quarterly list of programs and issues, political advertising, EEO requirements and EAS RWT--in essence, the same records and tasks full power stations must perform and keep. LPTV stations that became Class A stations in 2001 (protected status) were required to perform the same tasks and record keeping as full service stations.

So, what you're asking for could end up being more of a burden then help for LPFM.


http://home.recnet.com/commercial-lpfm

First, commercials is not an option except by auctioning frequencies to the highest bidder, per Congress.

LPFMs should be primary. I fully agree to this protection.

Why should translators be allowed more power and coverage than a LPFM that provides local service? I think translators that are not in the spirit of the original rules should be required to become full fledged stations with a local presence (office with a live human) and originate programming even if it's just the legal ID inserted amid the satellite delivered programming.

With greater classification comes more monetary requirements and stronger FCC Rules to abide by. There is a price to pay for any 'increase; LPFM might receive.

LPFM has been the stepchild long enough. The idea is good but the serious radio folks really think twice about fitting in to LPFM's restrictive box.

LPFM increase in power & coverage is key

Many LPFMs would succeed if they were granted 250 watts of power. That would have a dramatic effect on coverage and penetration.

Our LPFM has been on the air for about 13 years but we may have gone under if we weren't able to add a translator. For most LPFMs that is not an option.

I sincerely believe the key is 250 watts of power.

You can succeed without running commercials but you have to partner with many nonprofits and businesses alike.

Maybe create an optional Class A for LPFM? They'd get 250 watts but it would come with the additional responsibilities (EAS pass thru, etc.).

joshzz said:

I sincerely believe the key is 250 watts of power.

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I sincerely believe that you do not understand how FM radio waves propagate.
The four db difference in effective radiated power output is barely discernable, and certainly not at all from moving platforms.
Translators are allowed up to two hundred and fifty watts at any height as long as they do not interfere,
or in the case of commercial translators, exceed the main station's footprint.
The major difference is the reduction of radiated power output at heights above thirty meters.
LPFM's must reduce their radiated power to equal a hundred watts at thirty meters.
So, they are only allowed twenty watts at sixty-seven meters and five watts at a hundred and thirty-four meters,
but merely a single itty-bitty watt at three hundred meters.

The way some of these stations enhance their underwriting messages way beyond the original meaning of "enhanced", I do not know how serious of an impediment the prOscription on commercial advertising really is.

ai4i said:

LPFM's must reduce their radiated power to equal a hundred watts at thirty meters.
So, they are only allowed twenty watts at sixty-seven meters and five watts at a hundred and thirty-four meters,
but merely a single itty-bitty watt at three hundred meters.

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The power limitation at high HAAT is what kills LPFM's in mountainous areas. Translators are allowed 10 watts under those circumstances, and 10 db is a significant difference.

Dave B.

If accepted applicants who started up LPFM's didn't know what they would be getting into, then they shouldn't have even tried.

If I'm a licensed commercial or public station working hard to pay the bills and employee salaries, the last thing I'd be sympathetic to are folks who have little to no experience or understanding of what they've gotten themselves into, whining that they want the same status as I have. You want to be in the radio business? Go out and buy a commercial one and find out what it's really like.

So far the only thing LPFM does is increase congestion to the FM band that much more, oh yes.. then let's add in shoe-horned translators for AM's to the mix, shall we?

So your advice is for groups to shell out what may be hundreds of thousands of dollars versus $15,000-$20,000 because they 'didn't know what they were getting in to"? Maybe we should require a minimum $100,000 vehicle be used for Drivers Training in lieu of a mid range or budget priced vehicle. You do understand that many groups hadn't the means to buy a half million dollar facility, right? I gather you think LPFM stations don't work just as hard to survive. That's like saying a class A station doesn't work hard but a full class C does and because they don't, they should buy a class C. Really? Having no experience? The whole service was to establish a way for newcomers to get in the radio business. And the same status...think of their position as you purchasing a house but at any time it can be taken from you even if you never missed a payment. What LPFM wants is to be able to exist without another class of station saying we'll move a bit closer to you so you will have to sign off permanently. I suppose in your mind that is quite fair.

It seems you have a chip on your shoulder for LPFMs and translators because they might prevent you from hearing a distant radio station. Your logic baffles me. Are you actually in radio? My guess is no but I could be wrong.

DaveBayArea said:

...10 db is a significant difference.
Dave B.

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Actually, what I am saying is that even under normal flat conditions, a translator @300M will enjoy a 24db signal advantage over an LPFM at the same height.

Kelly A said:

If accepted applicants who started up LPFM's didn't know what they would be getting into, then they shouldn't have even tried.

If I'm a licensed commercial or public station working hard to pay the bills and employee salaries, the last thing I'd be sympathetic to are folks who have little to no experience or understanding of what they've gotten themselves into, whining that they want the same status as I have. You want to be in the radio business? Go out and buy a commercial one and find out what it's really like.

So far the only thing LPFM does is increase congestion to the FM band that much more, oh yes.. then let's add in shoe-horned translators for AM's to the mix, shall we?

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Somewhat agree with this. I have said before that the lack of any real capital outlay - or proof such capital exists - has been the main cause of so many LPFMs being no longer in existence. There is serious evidence that the lack of capital and in many cases any broadcasting experience has caused hundreds of LPFMs to never even be built. Many applications were submitted with tower commitments that were suspect or fabricated, and then when the first tower option falls through there are no other options due to a lack of money to pursue them. Only 60% of the permits issued in both LPFM windows are currently on the air, and at this point, three years after the second window closed, it is unlikely that many more will actually be built and go on air. The ones that were done by experienced broadcasters are all on air now. Why? Because they had a clear understanding of the capital required and what it would take to get it on air. A quick survey of the CP extensions filed show that money and tower sites were the two top issues, and everything else trails way behind.

Of course, despite all of the unbuilt permits tying up bandwidth, the call is for more power and commercial status. Michi is right - you don't want to be a commercial station with a tiny coverage area and with a complete lack of experience in many cases. It will just make the already tight finances tighter, ad will cause many to fold. Some will prosper - the ones owned by people with broadcast experience and adequate capital.

b-turner said:

So your advice is for groups to shell out what may be hundreds of thousands of dollars versus $15,000-$20,000 because they 'didn't know what they were getting in to"?

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What I'm saying is: Real broadcasters who have invested hundreds of thousands, or millions of dollars did so at great risk with the knowledge of what they were getting into upfront, and ultimately put their money where their mouth's are. Most, but not all LPFM licensees have gone at it from the delusion of doing radio better than commercial and public stations, thus gaining grassroots financial support from their community, without understanding the risks or doing proper due diligence on how their operations would operate, and a clear understanding the limitations of the licenses they were applying for. Just because LPFM operators had some panacea view of how broadcasting works, now they call no fair when reality hits? No sympathy from me. [/QUOTE]

b-turner said:

Maybe we should require a minimum $100,000 vehicle be used for Drivers Training in lieu of a mid range or budget priced vehicle. You do understand that many groups hadn't the means to buy a half million dollar facility, right?

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Your analogy makes no sense. How does getting a drivers license or owning a vehicle equate to owning and operating a business? If I can't afford to own and operate a business, or even don't understand what's involved before opening my doors, failure is almost certain. This is why many LPFM's continue to fail.

b-turner said:

I gather you think LPFM stations don't work just as hard to survive.

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I believe most of the LPFM licensees started with the best of intentions, but inadequate research and information about what they were getting into.

b-turner said:

That's like saying a class A station doesn't work hard but a full class C does and because they don't, they should buy a class C. Really?

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No, not at all. Again your analogy is flawed. Both Class A and C FM's are considered full-power stations and given all the protections therein. LPFM stations are considered secondary service just like translators, always have been. Having recently sold a Class A station while still owning a C-0, both stations served their communities covered. I built both stations, and understood all the coverage restraints going in. Our sales folks worked around the limitations with the Class A, focusing sales on the communities it covered. Ultimately I sold the Class A to a religious ground because the community never really recovered from the recession and is covered by stations from larger cities. The C-0 covers many more communities, but expenses are also much higher than the Class A ever was. That's just the cost of doing business.

b-turner said:

Having no experience? The whole service was to establish a way for newcomers to get in the radio business.

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Newcomers have gotten into the radio business for years: One works in the business starting from the bottom, moves around to many roles, gains the experience and knowledge of the business, gains investors or mortgages their home and life savings to purchase or build their own business. It's time tested.

b-turner said:

And the same status...think of their position as you purchasing a house but at any time it can be taken from you even if you never missed a payment.

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In case you missed it, there were lot's of prospective homeowners who were victims of bad mortgages. As with LPFM, many didn't read the contracts they signed, understood what balloon payments or other restrictions were baked in. In many cases, they indeed lost their homes because they got caught up in the enthusiasm of owning a home, or in the case of LPFM, playing radio.

b-turner said:

What LPFM wants is to be able to exist without another class of station saying we'll move a bit closer to you so you will have to sign off permanently. I suppose in your mind that is quite fair.

Click to expand...

Again, one has protected status as a full-power station, one doesn't. LPFM licensees should have known that possibility going in.

b-turner said:

It seems you have a chip on your shoulder for LPFMs and translators because they might prevent you from hearing a distant radio station. Your logic baffles me. Are you actually in radio? My guess is no but I could be wrong.

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Wrong again. My concern is the congestion of the FM dial causing frustration on the part of prospective millennial listeners who will default to streaming services or other means of listening. I know it's already happening to a certain extent, but why drive listeners away because everyone wants to have a spot on the limited FM band, whether they can afford it or not?

Kelly A - Thank you for your clarification. I appreciate you doing so.

I agree, many LPFM stations believe they know what they don't know. I agree that is their biggest problem. The ignorance on many LPFM operator's part is what kills many stations. I know one station where the board imploded because one board member insisted on his music library as the format. I know of one station where they dismissed any help from a multi-decade radio pro that had managed several major market stations on the basis they knew just as much about non-commercial radio as he did. For many LPFM stations, the issues start long before the realization the predicted coverage on paper was not reality. Many of those that get on the air and operate have no plan to fund their station. Many go belly up within a few years after the board gets tired of digging in their own pockets to pay the bills.

Some stations wound up on leased towers after being forced to do so by uncooperative cities and counties that seemed to not have a problem until they were ready to build. Another issue was promises of studio space, tower site and such went unfulfilled because the donor had a falling out with the board or simply got cold feet. Most groups I talked to had about $15,000 to $20,000 but when costs went to $30,000 and the monthly operating cost tripled, they had problems generating the cash needed. I personally know of one station that got approval from the city, erected the tower but about a year later with a new city council, was told to take it down, refusing to grandfather it when passing a new ordinance. Plainly put, the station could spend to go to court or use those dollars to move to a new tower site somewhere out of the city limits. They were silent a long time and literally had to start from scratch again. They made it. Still a third of LPFM licenses go away within a few years, proof the lack of radio knowledge likely coupled with egos and problems created by outside sources are at play.

The smaller percentage that make it are generally run by organizations where LPFM is not the primary operation, where the station is a hobby or the LPFM is run by a radio pro. There are stations successfully competing for listeners against full power local stations. These stations are successful at gaining listeners and revenue to sustain the operation. That number is small. I think the greater number of small town or rural LPFMs do best. They tend to be the only station in town.

I gathered from your comments that if you didn't know radio one should buy a full power station so you'd know what it was like. Thus, my analogies.

I don't see having more signals on the FM band as a bad thing. It seems to me more signals would mean there is a greater chance someone would find something they like. As for streaming radio, I think we are headed that way. From what research I've done on streaming radio, it is those with an alternative (ie: an AM or FM or even audio on a cable TV channel) way to listen that have the greatest audience. If we break down to just listeners, the device used to receive an over the air broadcast can be either a radio or online device. Except for the high cost for streaming, I doubt over the air stations that stream care if their listeners use a radio or, say, a mobile device since they are all listeners. Granted we haven't found a great plan to monetize the online part yet and the listening numbers still indicate we are in the 'pioneering days'. Online listening is growing.

As a side note: I looked at lots of college stations that have a streaming only radio stations and several where they have an alternative such as a cable TV channel or an over the air product. They tend to have these issues: over the air radio is geographically restricted. If you move a state away to go to college, with over the air radio you have to create new listening habits (different stations in each location). With online radio, that's typically not the case. Most do not need to make new listening habits. Streaming radio costs the listener in data or plan. Listening over the air is free. The mobile device is used for many reasons with streaming a radio station not at the top of the list. Inconvenience: getting a phone call while listening to the radio over the air does not interrupt listening. All I spoke to that share listening habits agree that people listen longer per session and more often to a non-online signal. Online listening averages about three 40 minute sessions per month. Over the air stations that do things right might have a listener for about 2.5 hours a week (10 hours a month). While not considering programming, streaming only stations average about 1/16th the number of listeners compared to an online station that is simulcasting the over the air college station. I contacted about 50 schools from about 1,000 to 45,000 students. About 40% had an alternative to online listening. I chose stations that had been going only a couple of years to stations that had been streaming for years and won awards for their programming. It is not an exhaustive study. Many schools won't share the data.

OK Walters make a good point. Many applicants wound up applying for a station using an existing tower. Tower rent isn't cheap. The LPFM that has an owned piece of land, an approval of government entity to construct and a place for a studio that is owned are in the best position. The lack of knowledge is the biggest culprit.

Most amazing to me is the lack of logic. Many LPFMs think they can opt for a format that attracts maybe 1 or 2% of the listeners but fails to consider the population served. If anything, a LPFM should be mass appeal if going for anything other than a geographically small ethnic neighborhood and even so, that is mass appeal. When you reach 40,000, running those numbers at 1% of the listeners being attracted to your format, you're heading 90 miles per hour down a dead end street...you're going to crash and burn.

Boards often implode. Radio does strange things to people. I was working with one group. Things were rolling along fine. There was some pressing to play obscure album tracks. When that board member said it was his music preferences or nothing, 3 of the 4 board members quit. Why? Too much drama and the board member that insisted his way or the highway quit because he didn't get his way. The fallout of this meant the place the studio was to go was no longer available nor was the separate tower site. The board positions went unfilled due to the fallout and word about town. It was sad. The station had huge potential in a place that was very under-radioed yet was sandwiched between a couple of metros that meant no new full power signals would fit there. I've seen boards that voted the founder out on more than one instance. Board members tend to not think radio for their community but radio to serve only them.

There is a group of LPFM operators that typically fail. They are so anti-corporation in their thinking, they feel their station, by being not for profit, cannot resemble a business operation in any form. They have the misconception. A business is either a for profit or non-profit entity and that a business is providing a product or service with a path to funds to keep it self sustaining whether as a for profit or non-profit entity. If you conduct a bake sale with contributed cakes and sell them, that is a business function although the funds further the work of the non-profit. Simply put, these stations have no plan to obtain the funds to operate and usually fall short after the 'newness' or excitement wears off.

LPFM, by opening itself only to new entrants to radio means most that apply do not know radio. Even those groups spearheaded by experienced radio people get opposition from their board that typically does not know radio. It seems the more successful stations have been run by a board of one by incorporating in a place like Delaware where a non-profit only requires one person, not three or more like most other states. Because board members need to be mostly local, that itself creates an issue of experience versus no experience. Just because you are in radio does not mean experienced. I had one GM tell me he was shocked advertisers were not beating down his door when he signed his station on, complaining it was a month before the first commercial aired. I was just a DJ then but I asked him how often a business called a station to buy advertising and he answered almost never. I didn't say it but thought then why did you expect anything but the normal result of businesses almost never calling?

Another thorn in LPFM's side: sales. Most LPFMs have no clue how to sell underwriting, price it, develop a relationship with a business owner, etc. Most sell way too cheap and are perceived by the business owner as insignificant.

b-turner said:

A business is either a for profit or non-profit entity and that a business is providing a product or service with a path to funds to keep it self sustaining whether as a for profit or non-profit entity. If you conduct a bake sale with contributed cakes and sell them, that is a business function although the funds further the work of the non-profit. Simply put, these stations have no plan to obtain the funds to operate and usually fall short after the 'newness' or excitement wears off.

Click to expand...

That's an excellent point. In advance of going on the air, talking to enthusiastic neighbors ("sure if you play more Doo-wop, I'd totally support the station!"), which as we in the business know, ultimately don't come through when the rubber meets the road. Certainly not consistently enough to keep the lights on. That in itself will kill the earlier enthusiasm for those who aren't used to the rejection found in the business of broadcasting. When I put my Class A on the air back in 2001, there were business owners and community members, literally lined up at the door, all wanting to get some form of announcements on the air. Wait, you won't advertise my business for free?? But as a new member of the business community, you should! It wasn't until a full year of solid performance before we started breaking even. Then the recession of 2007-08 hit, the bottom completely fell out. It wasn't that the station was any less popular, it was the media revenue potential in that community dried up.

b-turner said:

Another thorn in LPFM's side: sales. Most LPFMs have no clue how to sell underwriting, price it, develop a relationship with a business owner, etc. Most sell way too cheap and are perceived by the business owner as insignificant.

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You're spot on here too. It seems that about the time LPFM broadcasters realize underwriters aren't beating down their door, their operating capital resources have already reached critical. By then it's simply too late to get an education on how to sell.

Kelly A, I sure hope you were able to hang on and make it though the tough times, not that every day isn't tough! Hitting breakeven in just a year is no easy feat. The education process of teaching the value of your station and demonstrating it usually seems like it goes at a snail's pace and the burning of the midnight oil is significant enough to pay for the midnight oil salesman's daughter to graduate college debt free!

It seems the few successful (and I rate that by programming, operation and especially revenue) are run by radio people who have had sales, programming and management experience. The few that take in, say $7,000 a month on average or more are these people. There's always consistency in programming, plenty of local information and direct involvement with both the community and the business community. If it happens in their town, they're involved somehow. In fact, dare I say, it is quite old school radio where there are no shortcuts to the position they hold and defend daily. They all have something in common, knowing how to work a dime and get a dollar's value out of it by tapping it's many resources (not being cheap but getting the most you can out of all you do).

We did okay, as mentioned, recently selling the Class A to a Catholic broadcaster for a fair price. Sure, there was an outcry from the community when we announced the sale, but we also made it clear to the local business groups well in advance, that taking monthly losses from the lack of collections for advertising by the same involved with the crying, was unsustainable. It was kind of a gut check selling one of the kids, but it all worked out.

In the meantime, I still have the C0 FM, which is doing pretty well, and am looking at parlaying funds from the Class A sale, possibly into a couple of stations in a community which seems to have weathered the recession better than the last one. We'll see.

b-turner said:

OK Walters make a good point. Many applicants wound up applying for a station using an existing tower. Tower rent isn't cheap. The LPFM that has an owned piece of land, an approval of government entity to construct and a place for a studio that is owned are in the best position. The lack of knowledge is the biggest culprit.

Most amazing to me is the lack of logic. Many LPFMs think they can opt for a format that attracts maybe 1 or 2% of the listeners but fails to consider the population served. If anything, a LPFM should be mass appeal if going for anything other than a geographically small ethnic neighborhood and even so, that is mass appeal. When you reach 40,000, running those numbers at 1% of the listeners being attracted to your format, you're heading 90 miles per hour down a dead end street...you're going to crash and burn.

Boards often implode. Radio does strange things to people. I was working with one group. Things were rolling along fine. There was some pressing to play obscure album tracks. When that board member said it was his music preferences or nothing, 3 of the 4 board members quit. Why? Too much drama and the board member that insisted his way or the highway quit because he didn't get his way. The fallout of this meant the place the studio was to go was no longer available nor was the separate tower site. The board positions went unfilled due to the fallout and word about town. It was sad. The station had huge potential in a place that was very under-radioed yet was sandwiched between a couple of metros that meant no new full power signals would fit there. I've seen boards that voted the founder out on more than one instance. Board members tend to not think radio for their community but radio to serve only them.

There is a group of LPFM operators that typically fail. They are so anti-corporation in their thinking, they feel their station, by being not for profit, cannot resemble a business operation in any form. They have the misconception. A business is either a for profit or non-profit entity and that a business is providing a product or service with a path to funds to keep it self sustaining whether as a for profit or non-profit entity. If you conduct a bake sale with contributed cakes and sell them, that is a business function although the funds further the work of the non-profit. Simply put, these stations have no plan to obtain the funds to operate and usually fall short after the 'newness' or excitement wears off.

LPFM, by opening itself only to new entrants to radio means most that apply do not know radio. Even those groups spearheaded by experienced radio people get opposition from their board that typically does not know radio. It seems the more successful stations have been run by a board of one by incorporating in a place like Delaware where a non-profit only requires one person, not three or more like most other states. Because board members need to be mostly local, that itself creates an issue of experience versus no experience. Just because you are in radio does not mean experienced. I had one GM tell me he was shocked advertisers were not beating down his door when he signed his station on, complaining it was a month before the first commercial aired. I was just a DJ then but I asked him how often a business called a station to buy advertising and he answered almost never. I didn't say it but thought then why did you expect anything but the normal result of businesses almost never calling?

Another thorn in LPFM's side: sales. Most LPFMs have no clue how to sell underwriting, price it, develop a relationship with a business owner, etc. Most sell way too cheap and are perceived by the business owner as insignificant.

Click to expand...

Good post - mostly. You talk about programming a niche format when the population count is too low to support it being a huge issue, which is spot on. This is big factor in many of them failing AFTER they get on air. Considering this widespread lack of common sense programming throughout the LPFM community, the limited coverage area, and the non-commercial status, I don't know that many of them could price the sponsorships low enough to even make sense. Your pricing should be in line with the actual audience size as that is what you are selling - listeners - and with the above mentioned factors many have almost no audience. If there is little or no audience, there is no such thing as too cheap - free would be closer to the right price.

The biggest issue with LPFM demanding more leeway from the FCC - mainly more power and commercial status - is the fact that about 40% of the total LPFM permits issued in both windows are not on air and likely never will be. This clearly points to inexperience and lack of funding, which makes the other arguments null and void. Why give a group who has performed so poorly more?

The secondary status complaint is baseless as well. A LPFM has only a fraction of the investment that a commercial station has, and is not burdened by regulatory fees and other regulations like having to man a studio during business hours. They also paid ZERO for the permit - a commercial permit is awarded in an auction to the highest bidder. Huge difference in how much "skin" they have in the game, and then add in the poor history of LPFM permits and the case for demanding more doesn't hold water.

I do see your point and rationale. I disagree on only one point: to not consider the stations that managed to get on the air, holding them accountable for those that did not, seems unfair.

There is no denial many LPFM formats serve tiny audiences and overall lack the knowledge of most all broadcasters. In fact, my following of LPFM's track record, approximately a third of stations that get on the air wind up turning in their license.

It would be interesting to know the percentage of CPs in general that go unbuilt. I'm talking from LPFM through class A, AM stations, TV and LPTV. It would be interesting to know how many bid for stations at auction and never build. I do not know those percentages.

I know one commercial broadcaster facing many of the challenges LPFM stations faced. He already has had two CPs expire after trying to unload them for a fraction of the cash he had invested. Primarily it is a tower issue and the costs demanded versus the potential from the sparsely populated service area and existing radio services. In each case, promises were not kept by those entities that agreed to allow him on their tower. To build his own after buying land would add too much debt considering the billing potential. The reality is a tower might be available when you apply, but the tower owner gets new customers in the meantime, locking the applicant out on the given tower by the time they're granted and ready to build. In some rural areas that tower is the only option.

I'm merely guessing, but I think it would be fair to say the average LPFM takes in under $5,000 a year. One station I know never brought in a cent. After several years a full power FM moved, knocking the LPFM off the air. There was no frequency they could move to in the immediate area. One station does $480 a year doing Christian programming about 50% of the time. An eclectic FM in a community of 15,000 manages to attract about 250 listeners and about $200 a month, enough to break even. An oldies LPFM in a small town did $20,000 their first year and about $30,000 their second. Another community-involved classic hits station had approximately 22 Underwriters at $500 a month (one of the best stations I've heard in small market radio). Naturally the last two were run by radio people who understand radio. Most LPFMs lose a little money each year primarily because they do radio the way their board wants things versus the community at large.

In fact I had a discussion with a LPFM operator about his programming. He was perplexed because the community did not embrace him. His mission was to share views not found in mainstream radio to offer a platform for people to expand their knowledge on various subjects. I told him that because much of that was political in content, he was viewed as far left by the community, not his intent. He could not see that moving away from that, in time, would bring the core of the community to him if he embraced only subjects that the community at large was affected by. He didn't get that his desire to expand knowledge had backfired. Plainly put, he doesn't get that running Amy Goodman in a mostly conservative community goes unheard by the very people he hopes would listen. And he does not get that he is viewed as not a part of the community at large. If he centered on community non-political subjects, avoiding the controversial material (in his community's eyes) he stands a chance at being a station embraced by the community. He even admits selling underwriting is a challenge because of how he is perceived.