Pursuing Low Power Radio vs. Internet Radio

Sometimes I think I'd be better off to just stay..well..retired.

Some days, I tune into the new 1610 and think, "Well, I got 'er on the air. I know she don't go far and there's not much potential..but golly, this little station is just a lot of fun."

Then I'll think, "But it's about $1200 in the red. Maybe I SHOULD try to sell some air time on it."

Other days I'll think that it's pointless to make anything out of 1610 and I should position the internet station as a PRO station and sell air time on it. It reaches more people..

..But then everytime you go LIVE, it kicks off your listeners, and I have to manually enter the artist-track-album-time on every song that I play..so I'll decide I don't want to go LIVE after all..

See? I told you it'd be easier to stay retired!

I'm having an absolute blast with 1610. The format is fun, I've been doing a lot more live shows, and I can listen to it everywhere in the house. It also doesn't stop playing to ask me, "Are You Still There?"

Lately I've been leaning more towards either low power FM (LPFM) or some form of low power AM (LPAM). I'm looking into a local silent LPFM now to see what, if anything, could be done with that particular station/frequency. I believe the LPFM is holding a license, but the organization itself has been dissolved by the state. I've sent out the proper notice..so far, no response.

The best LPAM docket, which was filed back in 2005, was one that I was a signatory on, along with a number of other parties. Together we are considered the active LPAM people. In 2005
there were roughly 12 of us. I believe a few other parties signed on, even though they were not LPAM'ers, bringing the total signors to 19.

The FCC likes the idea but there are some engineering details that they've requested be worked out. I don't know what they are, but..

Musicbox 1610 is located here on our farm, where we have 17 acres. I have both a 30 foot and a 50 foot tower, both which were donated, available. I got to thinking that if a testing site/station is needed I'd offer to be one of the testing sites.

We don't have any TIS stations on 1610. Matter of fact, Musicbox is the only station on the expanded band here. Any wattage from 10 to 100 and maybe 250 could be tested here without interfering with any other licensed stations.

Whether anything comes of it or not, I want the LPAM folks to know that a lot of behind the scenes activity is going on. I'm in this fight along with the other LPAM folks.

We're all hoping that something happens to give us viable radio stations.