Category: low-power radio
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How About Low-Power AM Radio?
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…
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What to fix? LPFM or Translators?
John has some dirt on what’s going on behind the scenes in Congress with regard to restoring LPFM: [Rep. Louise] Slaughter has learned about the translator speculation and trafficking scheme that threatens to eat up space for new LPFM stations, and she’s pissed. So pissed, in fact, that she wants to include language in her…
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Calvary Chapel: The Decentralized Christian Clear Channel
John does some more digging into the various Calvary Chapels that are putting together what look like turn-key radio networks, partially built from translators purchased from Edgewater/Radio Assist Ministry: Unlike the Calvary Chapels of Twin Falls and Costa Mesa, which had to grow their networks over time by applying for more and more FM stations…
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Calvary Chapel, LPFM and Plausible Deniability
Today’s San Francisco Chronicle has an article on the Church incursion into low-power FM, making up half the applications currently approved by the FCC for new stations. And what organization should turn up as a leading force in this movement? Why, none other than our pals at Calvary Chapel: This month, the Calvary Chapel Radio…
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Something Fishy in Right-Wing-Christian-Translator-land, Grabbing Spectrum away from LPFM, Maybe Profiting from the Venture?
John at DIYmedia cites some research from REC networks that points to some nefarious hi-jinks going on with non-commercial FM translator licenses. Looks like some of our old pals at Calvary Chapel of Twin Falls, Idaho–the Clear Channel of FM translators–are buying up recently acquired translator construction permits to add to their 358+ station empire…
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Happy 5th Birthday LPFM — Tomorrow Is LPFM Day
Tomorrow is Low-Power FM Radio Day at the FCC. The Commission plans to have two forums discussing how LPFM stations can meet local needs, and some of the issues facing LPFM stations, with representatives from various LPFM stations speaking. The FCC will webcast the proceedings at its Audio/Video Events page. The Prometheus Radio project has…
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Prometheus to Celebrate 5th Anniversary of LPFM at the FCC
From a Prometheus e-mail: On the morning of Tuesday, February 8th, 2005, the Federal Communications Commission is inviting Low Power FM radio broadcasters and their allies to attend an important meeting in Washington, DC. We worked hard to establish the service in 2000, and five years later, the FCC wants to see how well these…
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Prometheus ‘Zine
The other day I recieved the new edition of Prometheus Radio Project’s newsletter Prometheus Delivered in the mail. Although they call it a newsletter, it more resembles a ‘zine to me, with a simple photocopied layout. There’s good stuff inside, including a story on how a LPFM in Idaho Springs, CO kept the town informed…
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New Jersey Broadcasters Association Threatening Low-Power Radio, Licensed and Unlicensed – But the Real Issue Is Localism
In my old home state of New Jersey, the state broadcasters association is making efforts to knock back licensed LPFM, translators and pirates in the state. Today, Inside Radio reports that the Telecommunications Committee of the New Jersey Assembly has unanimously passed out a bill that would make unlicensed broadcasting a state offense, similar to…
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Peer-to-Peer Low-Power AM Broadcasting — Some Interesting Ideas, But Not All That New
Andrew points to the RHZ Amateur Radio Network, which is a participatory experiment aiming to create the possibility of a legal, publicly owned and operated broadcast radio that is built like a peer to peer network. The idea is to use legal unlicensed low-power AM transmitters operating at Part 15 levels — under 100 milliwatts…