STARTING A NEW FULL POWER FM STATION

Commercial FM -- There are still a few opportunities to start new, full power FM stations. Most of the FM dial is assigned for commercial use, and frequencies are either pre-assigned, or allocated when an engineer is able to identify a vacant frequency using the FCC computations for determining interference patterns based on power and antenna height at a specific geographic location (similar to using the FCC’s “LPFM channel finder” tool.)

The FCC fee to file a commercial application is about $3,000, and on top of that, you will need engineering and legal assistance to prepare the application and associated filings. If you are lucky enough to find a frequency and apply for it, there is the added possibility that one or more groups will also file for the same frequency, making you one party among many that are mutually exclusive. Even if you filed first, you will have to invest additional money to resolve the situation. In such a scenario, there is no guarantee that you would be ultimately successful in winning the license.

As you would expect, most empty frequencies are in rural or unpopulated areas where it might not be viable to set up a commercial operation. But it is important to note that a not-for- profit group can apply for a commercial FM or AM frequency, and it does not have to be run as a commercial station. There are a growing number of commercial licenses held by non-profit organizations and run as non-commercial stations, so that there might be a commercial frequency in your area that is no good for a profit-making venture, but would be fine for a community –based radio service.

Non-Commercial FM licenses – The bottom portion of the FM band – from 88.1 – 91.9 FM – is set aside exclusively for noncommercial educational (NCE) use, which means the stations cannot be used for any profit making activity (no commercials) and they must be run by not-for-profit groups. This is why most public radio stations in the US are located at this end of the radio dial.

Just as in the commercial band, though, the NCE band is nearly filled up, and new frequencies are hard to find. But, again, based on your location and the number of other NCE stations in your area, there might be an available space on the dial. The engineering requirements are similar to commercial requirements, but the license applications themselves are much easier to fill out than for a commercial station, and there are no filing fees.

For the past twenty years, it has been very difficult to start non-commercial FM stations. If someone proposed a station on a given frequency in a given location, they had to issue a thirty day public notice. Often, when someone notified the public of their intention to build a station, other groups would put applications in nearby that competed for the same frequency. In order to decide who would get the license, there would be very complex “comparative hearings” where you would have to present all sorts of evidence about why your organization was better to hold the broadcast license, and why your opponents are moral abominations who are not fit to operate a station in the public interest, etc. etc. Then there were appeals, and appeals of appeals. While the process was set up to evaluate the best candidate, it was eventually acknowledged (even by the FCC) that what was really being discovered was who could afford more, fancier lawyers. Sometimes the opponents would buy each other out, and in fact some groups would start competing precisely so that they could be bought out- having no intention of actually starting a station.

Finally, the FCC decided that this set of rules was for the birds. They put a freeze on resolving mutually exclusive applications. This freeze has been in effect for many years now, as they try to figure out a better way. A few months ago, the FCC released the new rules for the system. They are better than they were, but still much more complex than Low Power FM. We can refer you to engineers who know how to go through this pretty complicated process.

The minimum power for a full-service NCE FM radio station is 100 watts. Once you have a construction permit to build the station, be prepared for the cost of purchasing equipment, especially expensive items like a transmitter and antenna, as well as recurring expenses like rent, electricity, and other usual routine and emergency operating costs.