Let's say your church says, wow, it would be great to have a radio station and broadcast our services -- maybe have an outlet for some Christian music or even our own youth programming.
What are the options?
1) Option 1: Purchase a license for a major FM/AM station. The benefit here is that you would have a coverage of many miles, an entire metro area, for example. The disadvantage here is that this would cost you millions of dollars.
2) Option 2: Apply (or perhaps buy) a license for a low-powered FM station. These do not have the same coverage area as major stations (they cover an 3-5 mile radius), yet they are much cheaper (your fee is the application fee to the government (FCC) as opposed to an auction/private market price like the major stations. Three problems exist here: 1) The FCC only accepts applications at certain points; the last window was in 2001. 2) Even when the FCC begins accepting applications again, they can take up to four to five years to process the applications (at least). 3) If a major station comes into your area, they can potentially bump your signal.
3) Option 3: Broadcast using unlicensed micropower AM. Unlicensed does not mean illegal. It simply means the FCC doesn't get involved. And perhaps with good reason. Even with an excellent transmitter, it seems likely that the coverage radius is well under a mile, perhaps as small as 200-400 feet. Now, one can coordinate various transmitters in an area with the internet or perhaps expand coverage using power lines (carrier current) but this significantly increases the technology and costs involved. A single transmitter costs slightly under $1000 dollars.
See comments for more links and details on these three options.
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3 comments:
Becoming a major licensed broadcaster:
The history is rather complex, but basically, you can neither buy nor apply for a frequency from the FCC, but rather buy a previously auctioned one from a media company in a given market. In most media markets, there are very few vendors and the prices of these frequencies are very high (for FM, it can be millions of dollars). However, the permissible signal strength (and thus the coverage area) for a licensed carrier is much greater than for an unlicensed carrier.
http://www.digitalsyndicate.net/part15.htm
Becoming a micropower broadcaster:
There are two strong limitations:
1) “The total input power to the final radio frequency stage (exclusive of filament or heater power) shall not exceed 100 milliwatts.”
http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/14mar20010800
/edocket.access.gpo.gov/cfr_2002/octqtr/47cfr15.219.htm
The extent of coverage resulting from this is debatable. Some companies claim this translates into a coverage area of a 1-2 mile radius. Some are more skeptical, arguing for range of 200 feet to a quarter of a mile. See:
http://www.am1000rangemaster.com/
(See their church brochure)
http://oldsite.prometheusradio.org/alt_unam.shtml http://www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/includes/80-howtoapply.htm http://www.geocities.com/raiu_harrison/mwa/part15faq.html
This range can be expanded using power lines (a method employing “carrier current”). One could cover a small city (perhaps) with this method. See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrier_current http://www.mediaaccess.org/issues/lpfm/the-present-landscape/
It could also be expanded by using multiple transmitters. The best source of information for this, it seems, would be the actual retailers of the transmitters.
2) The device you transmit with has to fit within very tight technical requirements. See
http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/14mar20010800
/edocket.access.gpo.gov/cfr_2002/octqtr/47cfr15.219.htm
Rather than try to figure this all out, it seems wise to purchase such a device from a vendor whose products meet (or at least claim to meet) these specifications. An example of such a company can be found here: http://www.am1000rangemaster.com/
Becoming a Low-Power Frequency Broadcaster:
A bit more on LPFM:
An LPFM station is a 10-watt or 100-watt transmitter. This level of power gives the station a range of approximately 3.5 miles (5.6 km). A transmitter this size and its antenna might cost $2,000 to $5,000.
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/question330.htm
Three minuses about LPFM:
1) The FCC offers no indication of when they would open a window for new applications (which again take years to process). http://www.fcc.gov/lpfm/
2) There are more specific requirements about local programming and local control that LPFM radio stations must meet; most churches would qualify here though.
3) Once approved, your LPFM signal could still be bumped by a major carrier; this does not mean you are off the air, you just have to find a different signal.
http://www.lpfm.ws/lp10/
Perhaps the best way to get into LPFM would be to purchase an existing license. You can see the local LPFM stations in your area from the FCC's website. The FCC has very tight rules about transferring licenses, mainly designed to keep prices LOW but prevent market hoarding by large companies. If you are interested, read carefully the FCC stipulations announced Dec 2007:
http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public
/attachmatch/FCC-07-204A1.pdf
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