Groove 1670 makes a great point. I call it that new car smell. There's all the excitement of a new car until you start driving it. Then it becomes just a car. Lots of LPFM operators see the generosity of those that help with a one-time gift that helps them start but usually doesn't continue. After you're on the air your core base is weary and ready for a rest and the excited givers at the start have felt they have done enough.
The biggest issue I see with LPFM is the lack of radio knowledge. I'm talking well rounded knowledge. I know lots of folks in radio that don't know radio because they never got to experience it from all sides. If you were a jock for years or sold commercials for years, you likely don't understand the full operation, just that part of the operation you worked. And many LPFM stations don't even have the luxury of having help from those that worked, say, on air or in sales. In many respects it is like starting a restaurant having never worked in a restaurant and your 'person in the business' flipped burgers at McDonald's in high school. By LPFM's very nature, licenses are doled out to groups with no radio experience.
Many do not understand the similarities between commercial and non-commercial radio. Both program for listeners. Commercial radio sells those listeners to advertisers. Non-commercial radio does too, but it is called Underwriting. Too many seem to think underwriting that benefits the business somehow destroys programming but if the business did not benefit, why bother offering it because the business sure wouldn't care to buy in to the idea. Some think the listener will love the station so much they'll contact them and hand them a blank check. I ask them how many times they've done that themselves.
Some think if they just serve the underserved the money will magically appear. I'm not saying don't do that but there is always a reason the underserved aren't all over the other stations and it is usually financial. And that's where the argument starts. The thinking is if they have their financial house in order, programming suffers, being manipulated by the finances. The reality is every station and all programming is controlled by the finances. Without money it doesn't exist. I see many stations taking an attitude that they quit their job and go help the disadvantaged and poor all day (a very noble act in my book) only to wind up living under a bridge themselves because they did not take care of their financial side. To those I say money is not evil but a tool that allows you to serve.
There are quite a few rather successful to amazingly successful LPFM stations. They're not all run by radio people either. Some are well meaning and sincere community groups that do their brand of community radio. I know of an LPFM doing over $10,000 a month. They actually have some paid employees now and they super serve their small coverage area. They think they have about 5% listening.
There are many exceeding $20,000 a year but many many more unable to even bring in $5,000 a year. In fact a friend is off the air. He only does about $200 a month and now he has to replace an essential piece of equipment, needing $3,500. The saddest part is all his hard work will have likely become a distant memory by the time he gets back on, so it will be as if he is starting again at square one. He thinks of selling Underwriting as begging for money so he hates to do it. If he didn't have that attitude he'd likely have the cash he needed on hand. He knows firsthand the hardest part of fundraising is when you have no on air signal to do it with.
