Last week we were looking at LPFMs. This week we have a follow up with some other sites of interest for LPFMers.
As you know, the first group of stations went on the air over 10 years ago. There were over 3,000 applications and nearly 2,000 were dismissed. Eventually 907 were licensed. As of today, 778 are still on the air.
With this round of LPFMs (expected to be the last), a little under 3,000 groups applied. Over 600 were dismissed. Today almost 160 are on the air and licensed while another almost 1,200 construction permits have been issued, while the rest are being processed or analyzed.
This information is from the Christian Community Broadcasters Website. Overseen by LPFM activist John Broomall, it has a lot of useful information and looks to keep things up to date.
LPFM Radio Yahoo Group
This site was once an excellent resource but things have slipped over the past year with the number of posts down. But there’s still a lot of great old posts with some information about everything from programming to technology. You’ll need to scan through the archives to find things (as this group dates back to November of 1998).
MonsterFM.com
This is an excellent site and I promise to repost this link since they have a TON of great radio station information here (not just LPFM). This link takes you to their LPFM section.
National Federation of Community Broadcasters
There are really a lot of LPFM, radio, community radio, pirate and “freedom of speech” radio sites out on the Web. This is a formal, more organized group dedicate to community broadcasters. I’d invite you to explore the site and see if your station might be interested in participating and supporting this group (there are fees).
SCMS LPFM
Equipment dealers and manufacturers (like Nautel, which was posted last week), often have some very useful information posted on the website. Naturally this helps with sales, but the fact is that this also provides an excellent service to broadcasters (including LPFMers). Keep your eyes open for webcasts as they’re an excellent resource for educating yourself with technology. On the left side of SCMS’ web page are excellent resources.
Micronetixx’ LPFM Antenna Application Guide
After last week’s LPFM “Off the Beaten Path,” I was contacted by Bill from Micronetixx, another equipment manufacturer (of antennas). He pointed out that Micronetixx has produced a great guide for LPFM antenna installations. You can find it under “News and Engineering” on their web site.
And finally …
Here’s a website you really should know — the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations at the U.S. Government Printing Office. This one contains documents related to broadcasting. It bothers me when I see someone selling this info on-line when it is readily available for free. The LPFM section is Subpart G — Low Power FM Broadcast Stations (LPFM), which starts at 73.801. There are other FCC rules and regulations here you should familiarize yourself with.
If you stumble across a good or unusual web site that might be of interest, please don’t hesitate to send me the link and any info you might have about it. My email address is [email protected].
