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Seattle Area LPFM Applications
- Thread starter speer360
- Start date
...like fast cars.
...like big butts?
That’s a pretty broad brush. LPFMs work for some metropolitan areas…Denver and Portland are a couple of examples.
I'll chime in here.
PDX has a set of very active LPFM stations.
KQRZ 100.7(Simulcasts on KICN-LP 96.7) (Western Suburbs) - Oldies
KISN-LP 95.1 - Oldies (in PDX)
KFFP-LP 90.3 FM and KFFD-LP 98.3 FM(In PDX) - Freeform
KNUM-LP 96.7(In Portland and Central East Side) - Rap and Hip Hop
KPRP-LP 99.1(In PDX) - Local Music.
Very active is a relative claim. It's an easy argument that a small city like Portland has too many radio stations to population. The term saturation, comes to mind.
They all are still alive years later, not many LPFMs can hold that claim.
Just because they're on the air doesn't mean they're worthwhile.
Someone is paying the bills. In this case donors. So it is worth it to them.
I guess Kelly can't lie.
How are those two oldies LPFMs doing in Portland in terms of donations/funding BTW? NONE of those were on the air the last time I visited Portland/Gresham in 2012. Nor were most of the translators. I had KZOK, KMPS (now KSWD), KISM, and others via tropo visiting in September 2012.
Both are on air and active online, they also have underwriters which are local business who have spots.
Hopefully, you mean 'underwriting credits'.
In metropolitan areas, instead of spotty LPFM stations all over the dial, It might be better just to have one big full power KRAB-like station for all the oddballs. Operate it as a Co-Op a brand new type of hybrid commercial license) This reduces dead air LPFMs, gives the non-profits a simple weekly two hour radio slot covering the region instead of a whole complicated 100 watt LPFM radio station to figure out. It gives AM stations and some lucky FMs more room for translators. And concentrates the deep, the challenging and the crazy all in one convenient spot on the dial. It's a win/win
Now who's going to offer the sacrificial frequency, tower space, office and studio space and sales/promotions, voice over talent and management of this volunteer staff of real, actual no-pro broadcasting skills whatever?
Of (looks at today's schedule) the Stamp Collecting Talk Hours at 8am and Ralph's acoustic gramophone record show, "Great-Great-Great-Great Grandma's Best Rock at 10? Or Angie, The Performance Artist Dominatrix's speeches at noon? The Firebreather's Political Roundtable at 2pm, At 4pm, it's For The Lumberjack Looking Guys Downtown Who Secretly Wish They Were In Deep Rural Kentucky Right Now Bluegrass Jamboree and so forth?
Don't look at me man.....I'm just the early Sunday morning volunteer DJ at this hypothetical pipe dream, playing the weekly album feature.....
Trying to get the various groups to work together would be like herding cats. Just look at Pacifica to see what the infighting will be like. Every group will have their own agenda that they feel is more important than the other. Fighting over the preferred time slot. Who gets 2am to 4am versus 2pm to 4pm. I just see infighting between the groups involved if this were to happen.
Isn't that what KSER is trying to do? Or even KBCS? However, we've seen it over the last several years - volunteer DJing is on the decline. Some high schools and colleges have ceased their radio broadcasting classes for those reasons. So a new surge of LPFMs is counterintuitive in many markets. Meanwhile, there's a CP for a 98.3 in Ellensburg that will be operated by a non-profit arts foundation. Seattle is saturated with radio, but Ellensburg isn't. KXLE is completely satellite-based now, and the only local voice is KCWU. The 98.3 would be a nice addition to the dial there as long as they can get a schedule of volunteers and local programming.
That's assuming one could get the community to adequately support it. One reason we sold a Class A in CleElum, which also served Ellensburg, was like any smaller town, local businesses that would advertise were on the decline. Even car dealers weren't buying radio anymore. All that was left was notoriously poor collections like restaurants and health clubs. The total population of Ellensburg is just less than 20,000. There are roughly 37 broadcast radio signals between Yakima and Ellensburg. I'd say that the geographical area is beyond saturated.
And that's another problem with an LPFM in that area. Because Ellensburg is tucked up against the Cascades, the line of site coverage for an LP is that much more limited, and tower rental on one of the existing sites isn't cheap. Like most smaller communities, citizens are all for a new radio station coming in, but they don't expect to provide anything more than verbal or moral support either.
From my personal experience, many non-profit radio stations become a lord of the flies scenario. This was the case with a college radio station I volunteered to work for (just for "fun"). "Fun" is in quotations for a reason. The final straw was when they told me that my time slot would be from 2am to 4am on some random weekdays. If I had literally nothing else to do, why not? But given that I had some difficult classes to be at by 8:30 in the morning, it hardly seemed worth it.
37 radio stations in which most of them are noisy and inaudible in Ellensburg, and ESPECIALLY Cle Elum. Scan the dial in downtown Cle Elum and it's mostly a lot of noise. 107.3 KFFM makes it from Yakima, KPQ, and once you get above downtown I get decent signals from KXXO, KDDS, and at times KSWD/KIRO from the other side of the Cascades. As for Kittitas County radio, KXLE, KNWR, KCSH, and KXAA are fine. KCWU is noisy, the K-LOVE 88.5 too, and KATS' translator on 94.3 barely makes it.
There's a CP for an LPFM on 92.9 in Roslyn. "Swiftwater Foundation" based out of Spokane...I can't find much about whether it's religious or a secular non-profit.
Soon, KXLE may also be leaving the dials in upper county due to a new CP that puts them on Manastash Ridge to rimshot Yakima. The 60dbu will not cover Roslyn, Ronald, Easton, or even Cle Elum anymore. That's a major loss of service!
The new CP on 98.3 in Ellensburg is from the Laughing Horse Arts Foundation...they own a streaming-only station, Ellensburg Community Radio. Perfect way to get the audience out there on FM. 100 watts from Manastash will be fine. That will provide ample coverage to Ellensburg, Kittitas, and Thorp. And Ellensburg city is home to many professors and ex-Westsiders, politically purple (deep red outside of the city), and they would appreciate the new radio service I'm sure.
There's a CP for an LPFM on 92.9 in Roslyn. "Swiftwater Foundation" based out of Spokane...I can't find much about whether it's religious or a secular non-profit.
Soon, KXLE may also be leaving the dials in upper county due to a new CP that puts them on Manastash Ridge to rimshot Yakima. The 60dbu will not cover Roslyn, Ronald, Easton, or even Cle Elum anymore. That's a major loss of service!
The new CP on 98.3 in Ellensburg is from the Laughing Horse Arts Foundation...they own a streaming-only station, Ellensburg Community Radio. Perfect way to get the audience out there on FM. 100 watts from Manastash will be fine. That will provide ample coverage to Ellensburg, Kittitas, and Thorp. And Ellensburg city is home to many professors and ex-Westsiders, politically purple (deep red outside of the city), and they would appreciate the new radio service I'm sure.
Laughing horse? Then why the long face?
The question remains; will the community support it financially? Can't pay the tower or power bill with happy thoughts and prayers.
Whereas you can be as optimistic as you please, you've never owned radio stations in that area, (or anywhere) so everything you say amounts to impression and magical thinking. Until you're built a station from scratch, written those big checks, deal with the economic challenges of the community, you're just a DX'er who has an opinion.
Looks like they have filed to put in a low powered booster to at least cover Cle Elum following the move.