…but not because of a sense of fear.
Rather, it would be more due to the fact that with as much time and effort as I put into my station operation, it is leading to the desire to put the licensed LPFM station on tne air. Given the restrictive nature of Part 15, and my location a bit outside of a conventional neighborhood, the likelihood of anyone hearing my AM signal is small. An aunt told me last week she tried to pick it up and couldn’t. I expect no one is hearing or listening except via the Internet. 204,600 folks have heard it that way.
But, I have been out of a day job for quite a while and there are no prospects in sight. I am too young and active to sit on the porch with nothing to do. So I have been actively networking with LPFM operators in other cities and licensed station owners. Most have been helpful. The engineers, including contract engineers, are good people to know. The local Cumulus engineer knows me. The primary local contract engineers know me.
I put my Part 15 station on the air back in 2003. I had a different system and a better, but still legal, signal. The programming was country, as it is now. No one ever complained, although a lot of folks have said they wished it had more power. Clear Channel bought air time on it. It made a little money, but again, it was streaming.
My wife now has three jobs. I need ONE that might help bring in at least a LITTLE income. I know a lot of LPFMs struggle, and mine may, but I am going to have to make a change. I just would like to be able to stay in the field of radio, the one thing in life I love and am decent at.
Week of Loss
Your plans are well thought out and make sense, so I can’t disagree with what you say.
But I can hope that things change in a useful way.
Finding paid work is the top priority.
However, as time goes on, in the future I hope you think of reasons to continue some kind of Part 15 operation in conjunction with LPFM and streaming.
You have a creative mind. You just might have an entirely new idea that starts things up again.
You know, Carl…
If and when the recent NOUOs are sorted out, I may revisit the idea of the iAM transmitter with the ATU operating as kind of a translator-in-reverse by simulcasting the LPFM on the AM band.
That way, while everyone fights for a translator I will just offer local content on the band that has already died in this area. Roughly six AMs have gone silent and been deleted within a 100 mile radius of me.
Think Bigger
Hey, don’t just plan on LPFM…..
Think of grabbing one of those silent AMs and making it your own!
We will have known you before you really hit the big time.
I….
…will have to bake and sell a lot of bread and cookies to pay for all my ideas!
Snack Break
Bread and cookies sounds so good right now.