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Dead air on KDXB-LP 95.3 (except for...)

Admittedly, it's been almost a year since I was in Ocean Shores, but when I was last there, I did tune in their LP. At the time, they positioned themselves as an information source for the community's tourists... sort of an upgraded "traveler's information station", of sorts. At the same time, they promoted the fact they were hooked in to weather and emergency services sources that everyone would want access to, were there some sort of problem in the community. The music was unobtrusive... something you could leave in the background most of the the day.

I thought this was a good purpose for LPFM... filling targeted needs within a limited area without getting too complicated. From what I hear, the Vashon station does much the same thing.
 
Miss Tuned said:
But why run a station with 3 watts of power? Who's going to listen? How can it possibly be viable or worth the effort when the power level allocated is so low?

Your station's Facebook page says that you "haven't determined your exact format yet". Why did you apply for a license not knowing what programming you were going to produce?
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I agree. My advice to anyone considering applying for an LPFM in the next window should there be one is get on the internet with an established program schedule now so that you're ready to go when you have the opportunity to get on an analog signal of any kind.
 
bobdavcav said:
I agree. My advice to anyone considering applying for an LPFM in the next window should there be one is get on the internet with an established program schedule now so that you're ready to go when you have the opportunity to get on an analog signal of any kind.
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That's usually the idea. But wagons tend to come before horses when you have a very narrow time-frame/income window to get your application in. So some people put all their energy into getting the license first. Then when they get approved, they're like the dog that caught the bus because they've spent so much time, money and effort in getting the license itself that they've forgotten what the station was even going to be for.

And you're right. It only takes few hours to cobble up a demo internet radio station out of old cheap/trash PCs and some free software/programming material and you don't need to be too tech talented.
 
We have a clear idea of what the station is for, it just takes serious time to get programming all up and going (it takes people). I think power levels are not very relevant on their own, we are in a nice high spot and the coverage is pretty good even with the low ERP (note the radiated power is more like 7 watts as the antenna has a negative gain resulting in 3 watts of ERP, this was intentional to make sure we covered the dense areas well). In fact we are close on getting a program director sorted out and are likely to add HD radio to it as well.

I keep an ear out, we are in this for the long haul and are not trying to rush and create a dumpster fire.

John
 
3 watts Effective Radiated Power is still 3 watts Radiated Power. A single bay CP antenna will emit 3 watts horizontal and 3 watts vertical, and that's not much. Wishing you success, but among the plethora of full power signals, you'll have to fight hard to get more than a few listeners.
 
so ERP is effectively saying "if the antenna radiated in a sphere, the ERP is the equivalent of that towards the horizon". It is common in low power stations to use antennas that have negative gain (IE more downward radiation than radiation towards the horizon). That is the case with this station and most other low power stations as well. Unless you have a VSWR mismatch the antenna will radiate exactly the amount of power delivered to it (conservation of energy and all).

John
 
bobdavcav said:
I agree. My advice to anyone considering applying for an LPFM in the next window should there be one is get on the internet with an established program schedule now so that you're ready to go when you have the opportunity to get on an analog signal of any kind.
Click to expand...

It's more than just having a programming schedule ready to go: Form a non-profit corp (local business license), get a CP (consultant fees), buy equipment, install equipment per the CP, test station, license station, go live. In the meantime, try to gain community support, but understand that the local's will be eagerly supportive to your face, but when it comes to supporting the station financially it will be a different story. Only having three watts will mean your ability to reach potential donors is highly limited. Volunteers will be eager to help IF they get an air shift, but will drop like files when they need to follow a format or schedule. Big gaps in programming will ensue, schedules will be blown up, you'll get tired of hearing people comment that they can't get the signal at their home..wash, rinse repeat. Having the local municipality, visitors bureau, or county fund the station to be a traveler or tourist information station with automation playing a rotating announcement about the area is about the only reasonable use of a LPFM. This is especially true if the local tourist bureau pays for construction and upkeep.
 
Your point may or may not be well taken. I would think any station would have the same problems you describe, though the limited signal of an lp would exasperate those issues. Still, a station can still try to build community support and everything you describe on the internet before the opportunity arises to get a license, so that the only new costs should, at least in theory, be those associated with the CP itself. Imo KDXB should be a lot farther along than this. They could have made the attempts they're making now with the license back in 2014-15 so that they then knew what kind of support they could get when applying for a license in the 2016 filing window. No that may not be a guaranteed recipe for success, but it can't be any worse than the scenario you describe.
 
bobdavcav said:
Your point may or may not be well taken. I would think any station would have the same problems you describe, though the limited signal of an lp would exasperate those issues. Still, a station can still try to build community support and everything you describe on the internet before the opportunity arises to get a license, so that the only new costs should, at least in theory, be those associated with the CP itself. Imo KDXB should be a lot farther along than this. They could have made the attempts they're making now with the license back in 2014-15 so that they then knew what kind of support they could get when applying for a license in the 2016 filing window. No that may not be a guaranteed recipe for success, but it can't be any worse than the scenario you describe.
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Perhaps exacerbate
 
And once again, KDXB is soldiering on with dead air and no TOH ID (at least that I've managed to hear). It's been like this for weeks, you'd think that somebody associated with this station would have tuned in during that time. Perhaps everybody's dropped like flies.

Val
 
valvashon said:
And once again, KDXB is soldiering on with dead air and no TOH ID (at least that I've managed to hear). It's been like this for weeks, you'd think that somebody associated with this station would have tuned in during that time. Perhaps everybody's dropped like flies.

Val
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That's not dead air your hearing...its non-music. Its what all the bearded Wallingford basement dwellers are listening to these days. These guys at 95.3 aren't asleep at the wheel, they're ahead of the curve!

(In all seriousness, how difficult is it to hook up a laptop at the tx site to broadcast *something* if you're doing maintenance work? Or at least shut the tx down? C'mon, man!)
 
valvashon said:
And once again, KDXB is soldiering on with dead air and no TOH ID (at least that I've managed to hear). It's been like this for weeks, you'd think that somebody associated with this station would have tuned in during that time. Perhaps everybody's dropped like flies.

Val
Click to expand...



we had an lpfm near me broadcast dead air for months... they got their act together and have largely fix it but once or twice a week will have dead air for a few hours at a time
 
I actually thought that might be the I actually know about that album. Weren't there three albums with that title? My mom has all of them.
 
Well it finally happened- somebody actually pulled the power plug on their tiny transmitter or it finally failed on it's own. Driving through downtown on Saturday I heard static on 95.3 for the first time in forever instead of the usual dead carrier. I verified it today as still being off the air. I was hearing the dead air about a week or so ago so this is relatively recent. The person running this passed away over a year ago and the non-profit was dissolved by the state in 2020 for failure to file annual reports. Would love to know what happened to the transmitter, the last part of this operation to still be "going" as it were.

It dawns on me that I'll have nothing more to post about now.

Val
 
It's shocking that it was on for this long! The unfortunate part is that KDXB is a prime example of why so many radio insiders don't support LPFM radio. The reality is that most LPFM stations will not succeed unless they have a clear audience to target and a service that isn't found anywhere else on the dial. Most LPFMs don't come close to meeting this benchmark. A jukebox-like format without any other actual content didn't have a chance.
 
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