How about including a link to the website.
Thanks.
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FCC to consider ongoing operation of existing FM6/Franken FMs, Expanded FM Band and Elimination of Reserved Band Protection Requirements
- Thread starter Michi
- Start date
Thanks.
Not sure if it's a "new website," or a general statement of their views on the subject, posted on recnet.com.
In it they ask the question: "what constitutes community need?"
But the real question is who makes that determination. The obvious answer is the FCC. But the article points out some very obvious conflicts that exist withing broadcast law where decisions have to be made, and the process isn't clear.
FCC is not going to expand the band...it's not going to happen. Period.
I'm wondering if it wasn't obvious that VHF-Lo was unsuitable for digital broadcasting in 2006-2009 during the run up to the transition. If it was, then the FM BCB could have been expanded to 76 or even all the way to 54 Mhz then and maybe, just maybe now, 15 years later there would be enough radios in use to make the new FM spectrum inhabitable.
If it was the TV industry refusing to let go of five broadcast channels that were unusable for digital TV because of spectrum crowding, then even that doesn't explain the numbers of LPTV stations that seemingly popped up out of nowhere and were unviewable in analog (if they were even broadcasting at all before digital.)
I just look at a 76 MHz expansion as a missed opportunity coming about two decades too late to be useful. The fact that some countries are already doing this still makes it a possibility, I suppose.
The most I can really see happening is 87.9, 87.7, and maybe 87.5 offered as overflow channels to displaced stations. If 76-88 is opened up then I'd only support existing AM and shortspaced FM moving to the new band on a one-for-one basis. I don't think we need anything else.
If it was the TV industry refusing to let go of five broadcast channels that were unusable for digital TV because of spectrum crowding, then even that doesn't explain the numbers of LPTV stations that seemingly popped up out of nowhere and were unviewable in analog (if they were even broadcasting at all before digital.)
I just look at a 76 MHz expansion as a missed opportunity coming about two decades too late to be useful. The fact that some countries are already doing this still makes it a possibility, I suppose.
The most I can really see happening is 87.9, 87.7, and maybe 87.5 offered as overflow channels to displaced stations. If 76-88 is opened up then I'd only support existing AM and shortspaced FM moving to the new band on a one-for-one basis. I don't think we need anything else.
I know Michi and REC in particular are working hard on this and I would certainly not suggest they stop, but it's hard to disagree with this assessment.
How long is it going to take for this initiative to work its way through the FCC, even assuming it's ultimately successful? Then after that, how long before radio makers, and especially vehicle makers, would start to implement the expanded band into their products? Once they do, won't it take another 15+ years beyond that before most people have purchased new vehicles that even have the capability of receiving these stations?
Meanwhile, nearly everyone has a smartphone and all of the momentum is with digital now, the growth of streaming apps and smart devices.
Sure there will always be people who continue to embrace terrestrial analog FM radio but any meaningful tipping point for this proposed expanded FM band looks to be at least 1-2 decades away. Will most people still be interested in analog FM by then? All you have to do is look at what a flop HD radio has been despite being around for about that long, even having the advantage of being digital, to predict what the uptake of yet another expansion of FM radio might look like.
Then again, the stations that seem to be doing the most with HD are non-commercial, and the people pushing for this expansion are mainly from the non-com side. So the expansion isn't being promoted because it would be popular or make any money. But it would give more people access. However it would be a whole lot cheaper to just drive around with a loud car stereo and the windows down.
I'd think even new non-comms would need someone to be able to hear them. Even fire and brimstone preacher stations.
In most markets with large ethnic populations, there are HD services in everything from Farsi to Russian to Kreyol.
But the big... excuse me... huge success of HD is the FCC's concession to allow HD channels to have standard FM translators. So there are hundreds of HD subchannels that have their very own translator. In a small to medium market, a translator at a good height is a viable service.
I don't know the exact count of the translators sustained by HD subchannels, but with a current count of just under 8,500 translators in the US, I suspect that the number is significant.
There are almost 4850 commercial translators. A significant percentage of them are sustained by AMs, but a very significant number (I can't find a break-out) are operated based on an HD channel which is simulcast.
But that's not a success of HD Radio in any way other than broadcasters exploiting an unanticipated loophole that ended up shoehorning a bunch of new analog signals into the existing FM band.
The actual HD Radio signals themselves are not getting much audience, and that may be predictive of the kind of interest an expanded FM band might get as well. Unless of course their main role will end up being to feed even more translators to be built in an already overcrowded existing FM band.
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Not even just small markets. All-sports WIBC-HD2 in Indianapolis (Market #39), paired with 2 translators, has been surprisingly successful since WFNI 1070 signed off last year, especially when the Indianapolis Colts were in season.
The summer ratings periods haven't been so kind.
I think Atlanta also has a few rated HDs.
I agree, but the need for ratings isn't there.
It's a technicality, but it gives enormous value to the HD proposition. What it does is allow station owners to have another FM outside the normal market limits. In all but the largest geographic metros a good translator with adequate height is essentially another competitive FM.
Two separate issues. An expanded band requires new radios. Statistically, nobody is buying new radios today... they buy multi-use devices, whether they are cellphones, tablets or Amazon's friendly Alexa. Ain't gonna' happen. Oh, and the average car is about 12 years old today. So it will take over a decade to get a "new" piece added to the FM band into less than half of all cars.
The only people who think the band is crowded are those who were in the habit of listening to stations that are not protected in the listening location... in other words, listening to out of market area stations.
But the way Nielsen lists commercial stations is by the originating signal and the translator is not allowed to be listed separately as it is not allowed to originate. In all but a couple of cases that have been examined, the listening is to the translator but it is aggregated with the HD channel.
Non-coms have a different rule, as those translators do not have to have a local AM or FM or HD to "translate".
I agree, too. Most religious broadcasters use different metrics to evaluate "success" with donations at the top of the list... but the list may also include church attendance and other metrics, too.
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