There has been some grassroots interest and organizing around establishing a low-power AM radio service for a number of years now. The engineering for AM radio is trickier than for FM — the long wavelengths typically mean much bigger antennas and towers. However, some innovative guys like Kyle Drake have come up with some engineering solutions for doing very-low-power 100 milliwatt Part 15 LPAM broadcasting that can be applied to higher-power broadcasts at 100 watts or so.
One of the motivating factors behind the LPAM movement is that some of the original LPFM activists were unhappy that the LPFM service was made exclusively noncommercial. Some parties wanted LPFM to provide an opportunity for new locally owned commercial stations whose existence has been all but stamped out by industry consolidation resulting from the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
John at DIYmedia.net has the lowdown on the new LPAM petition for rulemaking that was just accepted by the FCC. That acceptance means the FCC will now officially investigate the possibility of such a service, and take public comments on it.
John also thinks some aspects of the proposal may not fly. In particular he notes that the LPAM petition asks that new commercial licenses not be auctioned off as currently required by law, and also would like to see competing applications resolved by the FCC reviewing their proposed broadcast content.
Nevertheless, it’s interesting that the FCC actually decided to formally explore the issue, though it’s tough to know what forces or motivations inside the Commission actually pushed the topic to the fore.