LPFM ON FIREA Special eBook Supplement

to Radio World

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LPFM on Fire Radio World eBook2

By Paul Mclane

The expansion of the low-power FM service in the United States continues apace, bringing a fresh injection of signals to the band after the recent FCC application window.

Counting both original and new LPFM stations, some 966 are on the air now, according to the FCC database, and another 1,571 construction permits have been issued, with yet more to come.

Such numbers are impressive but don’t reveal the breadth of new content, program ideas and enthusiastic people behind the statistics.

In this eBook, Radio World hears from five of these new broadcasters. In Kileen, Texas, a new radio signal will serve military veterans, families and their supporters. In top-10 market Philadelphia, a nonprofit community media center has found an FM frequency that covers half a million potential listeners. Down I-95, Radio Newark plans to bring its unique programming about astronomy, chemistry, engineering and other scientific topics to the dial. A local news organization in Haverhill, Mass., has found another outlet for its content. And Ronald Reagan’s boyhood hometown in Illinois will be hearing its own Christian radio station with a strong signal in town.

(In an earlier eBook about LPFM, we reported on the outcome of the special application window; we dug into the most interesting MX applications; we talked with several managers of existing stations; and we shared tips for “newbies.” You can read that here.)

Tell us about your own LPFM plans or success story. Email radioworld@nbmedia.com.

LPFM 2015

TABLE OF CONTENTSNew LPFM Slated for Philly 3

Fort Hood Support Network Moves Forward With LPFM 8

This LPFM Can’t Afford to Be a Plaything 12

LPFM Brings Christian Radio to Northwest Illinois 14

Newark Science Station “Builds People Up” 19

Cover art: iStockphoto/zirui01

Radio World eBook LPFM on FIre 3

By Ken Deutsch

Philadelphia is a big city with its share of big problems.

According to drexelmedicine.org, these include high violent crime and unemployment rates, a school district in distress, rampant homelessness and an HIV/AIDS rate five times the national aver-age. Philadelphia also struggles with poverty; a recent Philadelphia Inquirer story reported that the city has the highest rate of “deep poverty” — people with incomes below half of the poverty line — of the nation’s 10 biggest cities.

Enter PhillyCAM. Philadelphia Community Access Media is a nonprofit community media center offering courses in filmmaking, TV pro-duction, acting and related areas. For the last five years, the organization has also run the city’s public access cable TV channel, with a companion live-streaming website.

The organization has received a construction permit for a low-power FM station.

“PhillyCAM is representative of the ethnic and racial diversity here,” said Gretjen Clausing, ex-ecutive director. “We want to add a radio station that gives people an opportunity to have signifi-cant access to what they don’t get in the main-stream media. Our goal is to support local artists and nonprofit organizations, which is a real need

in Philadelphia. Like our TV station, the LPFM will be reflective of the needs of the city, and the idea is to have people coming together to get an edu-cation, gain digital literacy and media training.”

Also involved in the effort are Hawaii-based consulting engineer Don Mussell (see sidebar, page 7) and California lawyer Michael Couzens.

The existing building that houses PhillyCAM’s production studios, education and community spaces has enough room for a radio facility. Equip-ment will soon be purchased or contributed, and people will be trained. No call letters have been granted as yet, and the station will probably start life as an online entity before appearing on the FM band at 106.5.

PhillyCAM had been part of a six-way tie among applicants for this opportunity under the FCC’s point system; five other applicants were dismissed in a batch in December by applicants’ requests, in what appeared to be a negotiated outcome. The FCC at first rejected its application too, saying PhillyCAM hadn’t provided enough infor-mation to qualify for a waiver regarding possible interference to stations WISX(FM), Philadelphia

New LPFM Slated for PhillyPhillyCAM gets a slot in the country’s No. 8 market

Jennifer Walker operates the Broadcast Pix switcher in the control Room.

Gretjen clausing

One of the challenges in launching a new LPFM station is assembling a package of equipment that provides the reliability and ease of use required for broadcast, but also fits your budget requirements.

Building Your LPFM Station: Selecting the right equipment

Recommended Studio Equipment

1. Microphone – choose a directional (cardioid) mic. This will provide better rejection of background noise. A mic without an On/Off switch will help you avoid having the mic accidentally switched off. Your audio board should handle the mic On/Off Function.

2. Microphone boom arm – for mounting and positioning your mic, and isolate it from physical vibration and shock.

3. Microphone processor – a mic processor conditions your announcer voice audio by giving it a consistent output, reducing unwanted background noise, improving intelligibility, and creating the most sonically pleasing on-air sound for talent.

4. Audio Source Equipment – CD players, portable music players, turntables, tape machines, etc.. These will be determined by the various media formats you intend to use for audio playback.

5. PC - a PC may be used for playback of individual audio files stored on hard disk. It may also be used in conjunction with automation software for playback of multiple audio files controlled by a schedule (playlist).

6. Monitor Speakers – a good set of stereo speakers will work for this, though you may want to look into speakers specifically designed for this task. They are usually listed as “Studio Monitors.” Near field designs can be very compact and accurate.

7. Headphones – look for the “closed ear” variety. This eliminates bleed into open microphones. Also look for headphones with 1/4” plugs – your audio board will most likely have a 1/4” headphone output.

8. Audio Board (Console) – the most critical piece of gear in your studio. The console mixes all your sources (mic, CD Players, PC, remote feeds, etc.) to create the program output that is sent to your on-air processing and transmitter. (See sidebar on facing page to learn why you’d want a broadcast console instead of a pro-sound mixer.)

9. EAS decoder – you will be required to rebroadcast emergency alerts you get from the Emergency Alert System (EAS). The EAS decoder receives these alerts for rebroadcast.

10. Phone Hybrid – a phone hybrid separates incoming audio (the caller) from outgoing audio (the in studio talent). When these signals are separate you can ensure that caller audio is not sent back to the caller. Broadcast audio consoles can create this return signal (called mix-minus – the program mix minus the caller audio).

11. FM Receiver / Modulation Monitor – the Mod Monitor helps you make sure you are not modulating above FCC limits. Most Mod Monitors also have an audio output that can be used as your off air audio monitor. Your transmitter may have a deviation meter. If so it may be adequate for mod monitor use, in which case you’ll need an FM tuner for off air monitoring. PLL varieties that stay locked on frequency are best.

BROADCAST AUDIO PERFECTIONISTS®

Why Use a RADIO Console Instead of a Regular Music Store Mixer?

• A real broadcast board will offer speaker muting that mutes your monitor speakers when your mic is on, eliminating the possibility of feedback.

• It will provide a means of controlling an On Air Tally (light) to alert others that you are currently on air with a live mic.

• It will give you two PGM busses as a straightforward way to output programming to air and streaming, and provide logic associated with the channel ON/OFF circuitry that allows for start/stop control of external devices.

• The console should not have numerous knobs and controls for unneeded functions, typical of many music store mixers. Too many controls provide opportunities to do harm to your program!

• The console is also the most heavily used piece of equipment you will own, so reliability and build quality are of utmost importance.

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LPFM Interface Flowchart

Control Room

Speaker

Automation PC

CD Player FM Exciter/Transmitter

CoaxOn Air Processor

Modulation Monitor

Mic Processor

EAS UnitProgram Output

USB

Microphone

Phone Hybrid and Handset

Control Room

Speaker

Headphones

External Monitor In

Send

Receive

Audio Console

Recommended Transmission Equipment

1. On Air Processor – your on-air processor conditions your final program output before it is sent to the transmitter. It determines your overall station sound and allows you to broadcast the loudest, cleanest signal without overmodulating. It also contains a stereo generator to produce the composite signal required by your transmitter for FM Stereo broadcast.

2. FM Exciter/Transmitter – depending on your antenna type and height above average terrain (HAAT) you’ll typically need a 100 to 200 watt exciter/transmitter.

3. Antenna – your dealer for RF equipment can help you choose a suitable antenna. Polarization and the number of bays are variables in this decision.

4. Tower or mast – various options here include leasing space on an existing tower, mounting your antenna on an existing structure (such as a church steeple), or building your own dedicated tower. Your RF dealer can advise you here as well.

5. Studio to Transmitter Link (STL) – if your transmitter is in the same building as your studio or in near proximity you can use a balanced audio connection. For longer distances you can look at microwave links, unlicensed wireless Internet radios, or streaming over public Internet using a pair of codecs.

6. Cables and Connectors – in addition to the audio cabling required you will need good low attenuation coax cable to connect your transmitter/exciter to the antenna.

Antenna/ Tower

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LPFM on Fire Radio World eBook6

and WLTW(FM), Camden, N.J., formerly WWIQ. Those are on second-adjacent FM frequencies.

PhillyCAM then revised its planned transmitter location in a petition for reconsideration. The new antenna site is atop a six-story office building at 444 North 3rd Street about 10 blocks from Philly-CAM headquarters. According to an engineering exhibit filed with the FCC by consulting engineer Donald E. Mussell Jr., the signal footprint will cov-er an estimated 561,000 persons at the planned 90 watts of power.

Music anD talKThe Prometheus Radio Project is supporting

the effort, offering encouragement and techni-cal expertise.

The activist group has been a prominent LPFM advocate since launch of the service, with a stated goal to “free the airwaves from corporate con-trol.” It pursues its mission in places such as Im-mokalee, Fla., where the Coalition of Immokalee Workers broadcasts in five languages to help or-ganize immigrant farm workers and assist them

in getting higher wages and better working conditions in the fields; and in Opelousas, La., where it helped a station that is run by an African-American community development organization. The latter entity spon-sors agriculture programs, leases land to farmers and preserves the region’s heritage of zydeco music on the air-waves.

“The Prometheus Radio Project has not given us any money,” said Claus-ing, “but they have been very gener-ous with their advice. We are a sub-scriber to their Torchlight service that keeps an eye on our application and gives us alerts if things happen.”

When PhillyCAM’s LPFM hits the air, what will it do for its community?

“It’ll be a combination of talk and

the exterior of the PhillycaM building at 699 Ranstead street, Philadelphia.

We want to add a radio station

that gives people an opportu-

nity to have significant access

to what they don’t get in the

mainstream media.

— Gretjen Clausing

Radio World eBook LPFM on FIre 7

music, based on where we see the energy of our producers going,” said Clausing. “We have a tre-mendously diverse music scene here, and I want to feature home-grown musicians of all different genres, as well as people from the poetry commu-nity. And of course, we’ll have a lot of community news, but not just studio talk. Radio producers will be out in the field creating documentaries.”

Because a large portion of Philadelphia is non-white, the content on this LPFM will reflect this diversity.

“If you look at the ownership of stations here, there’s a lack of representation of people of color,” said Clausing. “We want to hear from all those dif-ferent perspectives. For example, one PhillyCAM television producer tells stories from the Indone-sian community and is interested in creating work for the new radio station. Over 50 percent of our producers represent the large African-American community. There’s also a wonderful, rich and deep history of innovators here in Philly repre-senting places such as Liberia, Cambodia, Mexico and Puerto Rico.”

Clausing also looks forward to bringing some surprises to the Philadelphia audience.

“You’ll discover new things because the sta-tion’s programming will expose you to ideas you normally wouldn’t be seeking. Radio helps build communities where you can learn more.”

Ken Deutsch is entering his 30th year of writing for Radio World and its sister publications. l

“Viable, Alternative”A few words with Don Mussell, PhillyCAM consult-ing engineer.

How did you manage to wedge another station into the Philly market?

The LPFM rules allow for a second adjacent waiver for overlap, as long as no population is affected. That was the case in Philadelphia and other large cities across the country. I simply looked for openings in the allocations, and re-searched the possibilities. I found a number of channels in Philadelphia, and the one chosen was decided by the applicant as the most desirable on the basis of incoming interference potential.

Were you involved in other engineering projects for this client, or was this the first?

During this window, I was involved in a number of LPFM applications across the mainland U.S., as well as Hawaii. This was the only proposal done by PhillyCAM. I had not worked with them previ-ously.

What is your general feeling about LPFMs? The FCC rules allow them, so they have as much

right to apply as any other permitted radio ser-vice. In some cases, the LPFM process is the last

viable means for an al-ternative radio service in many locations. I am well aware of the op-position of many other interests, but the FCC felt that the public ben-efits outweighed their objections, and the FCC allowed for this new ser-vice. I am happy to be of service in this regard.

PhillycaM members salima hakeem, Mike Pleasant, Jim Brossy and Bintu Kaaba are inter-viewed by lynn Washington in the Main studio.

LPFM on Fire Radio World eBook8

By Paul RiisManDel

Radio by and for military veterans, families and supporters is coming to Killeen, Texas, and the Fort Hood Army base.

A low-power FM construction permit was re-cently awarded to the Fort Hood Support Net-work, a 501(c)(3) non-profit established in 2008 to provide third-party mental health and legal re-sources to veterans.

From 2009, FHSN’s main project was the Under the Hood Café and Outreach Center in down-town Killeen. The center provided a space for vet-erans to organize around issues of importance to the Fort Hood community, along with educational and cultural programs, art workshops and discus-

sion groups; but it closed in December. FHSN stated in an announcement: “We feel that we need to have a lighter and more flexible approach to serving the GIs at Fort Hood (and beyond). We need to explore new options.”

Malachi Muncy was the manager of Under the Hood and filed the group’s LPFM application. He says that staff at the Prometheus Radio Project sparked the idea for a station when they informed FHSN about LPFM opportunities.

VisiOn“It seemed in line with our vision and our mis-

sion to meet the needs of our community through educational programming,” Muncy said.

With the transition from the outreach center to

Fort Hood Support Network Moves Forward With LPFMVeterans organization changes tactics to better serve community

Veterans attend an event at under the hood. Malachi Muncy stands in the doorway.

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LPFM on Fire Radio World eBook10

a radio station, a goal still is to provide “a safe space for veterans and members of the military community to share their individual experiences, not just about war and not just what you see on recruitment posters.”

FHSN plans to locate its new studio and trans-mitter in downtown Killeen, a city of 127,000 that sits directly adjacent to Fort Hood, which has its own population of 53,416. Muncy says that the station will reach most of the base housing and cover most of Killeen.

The city has three full-power FM stations, three existing LPFMs and two translator stations. How-ever, “I don’t feel like there’s anything with a Fort Hood identity on the airwaves now,” said Muncy.

With so many active military service members in the potential audience, “one of the main things we want to try to do is keep people on the base informed of their rights,” Muncy says. “In the mili-tary, service members have different rights than a civilian population might have, especially when dealing with military law or regulations.”

He elaborates: “Social justice issues that apply on a broader scale in our society also apply within the military context. There’s racism in society, and

there’s racism in the military. There’s sexism in so-ciety, and there’s sexism in the military. We want to encourage dialog and make sure those things are being talked about.”

Those objectives raise the question that if hav-ing a station brings more attention, will this stoke controversy or create friction with military brass? Muncy’s opinion is that “it won’t necessarily make us more or less controversial.”

FHSN has had a presence at community events like the Veterans’ Day parade and Memorial Day ceremonies, along with hosting public charitable activities, such as a sleeping bag drive for vic-tims of Hurricane Sandy, he explains. So Muncy believes that the group has become sufficiently established in the community that “even folks who disagree with us on a particular matter had a chance to see that we’re doing good things.”

iRReFutaBle ValueMuncy acknowledges there has been “a little

bit of tension” with military leadership, but he also hopes that “regardless of politics or viewpoints, we can provide some value that is irrefutable in a way, that we’re a value to the brass, just so long

as it doesn’t compromise our values.”One way the station might provide

that value is by providing vital com-munications during emergencies or crisis situations, such as the mass shootings that occurred on the base in 2009 and 2014.

Prometheus helped FHSN’s radio plans get off the ground, providing en-couragement, instructional webinars and engineering consultation to get through the application process. The group also referred FHSN to engineer Jim Ellinger in Austin, who will assist with transmitter and tower installation.

FHSN’s singleton application for 94.3 FM was approved by the FCC in

the banner from under the hood website.

Social justice issues that apply

on a broader scale in our

society also apply within the

military context.

— Malachi Muncy

Radio World eBook LPFM on FIre 11

January 2014. Muncy admits that they were sur-prised to receive their authorization so quickly.

eXPensesNow the group is focused on fundraising and

plans to create a paid position to supervise the station building through to launch. Muncy esti-mates that FHSN has spent $2,000 so far and will spend another $30,000 to get on the air; this in-cludes the salary for the paid position.

Because they are still looking for studio space, Muncy is not sure what the station’s ongoing op-erating expenses will be. However, once on-air, he hopes the underwriting announcements and on-air fund drives will contribute to making both FHSN and its station financially sustainable.

The FHSN board, made up of veterans and sup-porters, is also working out how to run the station, defining their decision-making processes and programming policies. Muncy found some guid-ance at the Grassroots Radio Conference held in Iowa City, Iowa, in August 2014, a mostly annual convergence of community radio broadcasters and activists. That event allowed him to forge

some strong connections in community radio. More locally, the group has been in contact with

staff at Wimberley Valley Radio, which is building an LPFM station in Wimberley, Texas, and is “a little further along,” according to Muncy. “We’ve got a lot of good people on speed dial to help us when we have questions.”

Muncy, an Army National Guard veteran with two tours in Iraq, has a degree in journalism, but had no radio experience prior to starting the sta-tion project. That led him to pursue an associate’s degree in radio broadcasting.

He says there is a lot of enthusiasm about the station, both in Killeen and amongst national and global veterans groups.

“It’s sort of like an extended community, if you’re at Fort Campbell or Fort Bliss it’s like you’re at Fort Hood.”

Muncy sums up the potential of FHSN’s new low-power station, calling it “super-exciting.”

Paul Riismandel is co-founder and operations director of Radio Survivor; he has more than 20 years of experience in noncommercial radio and instructional media. l

the former under the hood café in downtown Kileen is shown prior to its closing.

LPFM on Fire Radio World eBook12

By tiM cOcO

When low-power FMs were first debated, wide-spread concern was expressed that any new sta-tions might merely be playthings for hobbyists.

I can’t speak to the merit of the argument as it applies to other stations, but WHAV in Haver-hill, Mass., will be an instrument of local service. Even in its current incarnation as an Internet sta-tion, Part 15 AM and background audio service to seven public access cable television stations, it is the local news leader.

Just recently, for example, WHAV carried live a police press conference regarding the Christ-mas day desecration of a local church’s nativity display. The thousands of Internet tune-ins and simultaneous public viewing of text stories at whav.net brought down the servers. While we immediately upgraded the servers, the incident was instructive. Haverhill’s 61,000 residents are clam-oring for local news and information they cannot receive elsewhere.

I know the value of news because my career started in the newsroom of the original WHAV(AM) in 1978. I then went on to work as a reporter for daily newspapers. My mentors were old-time newsmen (as they were called in the day) Bernard J. “Barney” Gallagher at the former daily Haverhill Gazette and Edwin V. Johnson at WHAV.

The original WHAV went on the air as a 250-watt station in 1947. I imagine those post-World War II

250-watters were looked down upon by some for their feeble powers, just as are today’s low-power FMs. These relatively weak stations, how-ever, play vital roles in serving communities.

FillinG a neWs neeDPublic Media of New England Inc., WHAV’s

parent, sought an LPFM because a city of this size desperately needs a radio station to serve news-hungry residents and provide emergency information.

While Haverhill sits within the outer boundar-ies of Boston media, the city is largely ignored. In fact, a regional newspaper chain closed its local office nearly three years ago — leaving WHAV as the only local, full-time news medium to be based in the city. In addition, the once-local FM outlet changed its city of license to a neighbor-ing town 10 years ago.

This LPFM Can’t Afford to Be a PlaythingLocal news emphasis gives purpose to Massachusetts station WHAV

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LPFM on Fire Radio World eBook14

These are not complaints about the business needs and decisions of others, but rather a dem-onstration of the need for WHAV to fill a niche.

Despite its low signal strength, WHAV faces many of the same expenses and challenges of other commercial and noncommercial stations alike.

Obtaining a construction permit was a costly endeavor, due to back-and-forth legal filings and an eventual settlement with an applicant in a nearby city. Thanks go out to engineer David J. Doherty of Skywaves Consulting LLC, Mill-bury, Mass., and attorneys Howard M. Liber-man and Lee G. Petro of Drinker Biddle & Reath

LLP, Washington. On the home front, WHAV is now incurring expenses toward obtaining zon-ing board approval for a new 60-foot tower and pre-fab transmitter building on a 255-foot hill in a remote part of the 36-square-mile city.

Other than additions of EAS and modulation monitor equipment, WHAV’s studios in the city’s Ward Hill neighborhood are largely in place. We previously built the on-air and news studios with professional broadcast boards, microphones, hybrids, computers, automation, studio desks and ancillary equipment, almost all of which was obtained from Radio World advertisers.

Besides news led by News Director Dana A. Esmel (formerly associated with stations WCCM and WCAP), WHAV carries customized local weather from Nashua, N.H.-based Hometown Forecast Services, a local talk program that trac-es its roots back to the original WHAV, “Commu-nity Spotlight” every hour, Pacifica Network edu-cational programs and its own “Soft Gold” music

blend. Esmel and producer Nathan E. Webster III are, thus far, the only paid regular staff. Interns from Northern Essex Community College and volunteers augment their work.

My fellow board members include Anita M. Purcell, a retired banker and real estate broker, and William D. Cox Jr., a prominent local at-torney. The more controversial aspects of local news reporting likely make them nervous, but they recognize the importance of a fully inde-pendent news department.

Beside myself, many alumni of the original AM station have played roles at the new WHAV. These include Phil Christie, who voices image lin-ers and started at WHAV in 1948 as a disc jockey (the term was so new then, station managers explained the expression by dressing Phil in ac-tual horse racing jockey garb in local newspaper advertising). Others include Jack Bevelaqua, the last host of the original station’s “Open Mike Show,” and Marc Lemay, former news direc-tor. A few years ago, “Dancing with the Stars” host Tom Bergeron and retired WBZ news an-chor Gary LaPierre returned to the station that launched their careers on what would have been WHAV’s 60th anniversary.

Bergeron, incidentally, just agreed to serve as honorary chairman of WHAV’s forthcoming “Make Waves” capital campaign to pay the es-timated $100,000 cost of putting the new FM on the air.

This LPFM can’t afford to be a plaything.The author is president of Public Media of

New England Inc. and volunteer general manag-er of WHAV. He started his career at the original WHAV(AM) in 1978. Contact him at (978) 374-2111 or email to tcoco@whav.net. l

Haverhill’s 61,000

residents are clamoring

for local news and

information they cannot

receive elsewhere.

Radio World eBooks are a hit!You can access this free content anytime at radioworld.com/ebooks.

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LPFM on Fire Radio World eBook16

By scOtt FyBush

Ronald Reagan’s boyhood hometown of Dixon, Ill., has plenty going for it: 16,000 people, a sce-nic location along Interstate 88 two hours west of Chicago, even an annual Petunia Festival each summer. But until this year, it was missing some-thing: a Christian radio station with a strong signal in town.

“There was plenty of secular radio, and one Christian station that came from Rockford that you could get some of the time,” says Pastor Don Beasley of Turning Point Community Church.

Over the years, the church looked into using ra-dio to promote itself.

“We had talked about it for a long time and looked into having something on the radio, but

the expense of doing more than just advertising [on commercial stations] was prohibitive,” Beasley says. But when a window for low-power FM ap-plications opened in 2013, a mentor of Beasley’s suggested the church apply for its own low-pow-er FM station, referring him to consultant John Broomall of Christian Community Broadcasters.

Broomall found the church a frequency — 104.3 — on which it ended up as an uncontested “singleton” applicant, and by January 2014, the church was the proud holder of a construction permit.

“Then we had 16 months to build it,” Beas-ley says. “In the beginning, there were a couple of people who said, ‘What do we know about doing radio?’ and the answer was, ‘Absolutely nothing!’”

LPFM Brings Christian Radio to Northwest IllinoisWLPL is a religious station with local focus, programming

Pastor Don Beasley sits in the temporary control room of his WlPl(lP), Dixon, ill. this space, carved out of the library of his church, will soon be replaced with a purpose-built studio that will double as a recording studio for the church’s worship music team.

Radio World eBook LPFM on FIre 17

Fortunately, the church’s base of about 175 members included several with useful experience.

“One of the young ladies in our church went to school for broadcasting, and a lady in our church works in secular radio, so she’s been helpful for programming, and we have another who went to school for sports broadcasting,” Beasley says.

liFe POint RaDiOAn early challenge was finding a set of call let-

ters the station could use. “I spent an hour and a half one day on it,” Bea-

sley says. “It’s like you’re trying to pick out a do-main name for a website.” Most of his initial choic-es were already in use, but then Beasley thought of a plan to start a show called “Life Point Live,” which led to the choice of WLPL(LP). The “Live” part never materialized, but the calls led to the sta-tion’s eventual on-air nickname, “Life Point Radio.”

With a budget of about $25,000, the church spent much of 2014 getting its new station built, a project that included finding temporary space in the church’s existing building for a small studio and transmitter room.

“I cleared out my library, put it in storage,” Bea-sley says.

While WLPL began testing from that temporary space in late December 2014 and signed on offi-cially from there in early January 2015, Pastor Bea-sley plans to get his library back pretty soon. The church expects to spend about $20,000 this year to build out an addition to its building that will house a permanent studio. The new radio space will double as a recording studio for the church worship team, which composes much of its own music and hopes to begin releasing some of it on CD — and playing it on WLPL.

Unlike some religious LPFMs, WLPL is locally programmed.

“Right now, we started off with music, and we’re getting everything figured out, sweepers, liners, beds,” Beasley says. The next step will be adding more ministry programming. “We have a bunch of different stuff, one- and two- and 10-minute pieces and three half-hour shows that we’re go-ing to run during the week. Saturday is going to be all news and local events that are going on in the area, Sunday will be all preaching,” Beasley

says, including broadcasts of Turning Point’s own services.

In a stroke of luck, Turning Point’s building is lo-cated on a bluff overlooking Dixon and the Rock River, providing excellent line of sight for the 100-watt signal.

“We already have a lot of people listening that I’m finding out about,” Beasley says. “It gets out to about 15 miles,” a radius that encompasses nearly 100,000 potential listeners. In the next few months, WLPL hopes to reach out to more of those listeners with a publicity campaign that will include billboards, window stickers and interviews in the local newspaper and secular radio stations.

“There hasn’t been a new radio station built in our town in at least 35 years,” Beasley says.

WLPL also plans to add streaming audio, in part to provide a connection to ministries the church operates overseas. Along the way, Beasley says the radio station will become an important part of the church’s local ministry, too, helping to raise

visibility for seminars the church runs on faith is-sues that include premarital counseling.

“It was an eye opener that we needed a better delivery system, and the radio opened that up for us,” Beasley says.

Another eye-opener has been the amount of detailed regulatory compliance that goes into running a licensed radio station.

“I had no idea of all the stuff that’s in there that you had to do. You listen to the radio, and you never think of what it takes for it to be there. It’s a lot more than people realize,” Beasley says. “We’ve learmed a lot more about radio than I thought I ever would.”

That doesn’t mean he’s having second thoughts about putting WLPL on the air, though.

“Every day I think of another way we can use it,” he says. l

Every day I think of

another way we can use it.

—Don Beasley

LPFM on Fire Radio World eBook18

By stePhen WORDen

Fabulously bored with talk of the Kardashians, monotonized by narrow musical genres, left vacant by newscasts that are little more than headlines, I looked at radio and saw bad juvenile humor; auto-mated, satellite-based talking heads and robotic music hosts; super-narrow playlists from New York, Nashville and L.A.; the right bashing the left and the left bashing the right; the same programs in every market across the country — it’s like Subway has franchised radio.

I made a pact with the universe. “Let’s build a radio station that builds people up.”

Radio Newark is a Science Radio Station. If you Google those words you’ll find radionewark.org on the first page. According to Google, we’re the number one science radio station in the world. Dozens of broadcast partners provide a magical combination of entertainment, information and inspiration as we learn of the latest developments in astronomy, chemistry, engineering, astronautics, oceanography, me-teorology and so on. Science — but not the boring kind!

I began to work on our program format, affiliate, rebroadcast and content partner relationships and automation systems in early 2009. In the fall of that year, the business plan was written with the help of a counselor from the Service Corps of Retired Executives (now a board member). We incorporated in 2010 and applied for our 501(c)(3) designation in 2011 as an “educational broadcast service.”

To date our station has been heard online, but now we also have a construction permit for an LPFM at 99.9 MHz.

GOalsRadio Newark has three main aims: 1) to promote science, technol-

ogy, engineering and math as fascinating fields of study and employ-ment; 2) to develop the arts of broadcast journalism and storytelling; and 3) to give the residents of greater Newark the opportunity to write, record and broadcast stories about their lives, experiences, businesses, charities, organizations, events and activities.

Our focus is on the community as a whole, not any particular seg-ment or interest group.

Looking back on five years of programming, here are the principles we followed:

• Spoken word programming, interstitial music — not the other way ’round

• STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) is cool

Newark Science Station “Builds People Up” Delaware LPFM avoids a “franchised” sound through unique programming choices

this image is a mockup of the Kathrein-scala FMV-4 to scale at the cP location (building permit documentation).

Ste

phen

Wor

den/

Rad

io N

ewar

k

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Specifically for low-power FM applications, the Flexiva Compact range offers FCC LPFM Type Accepted, solid-state models ranging from 1 W to 1kW. Overall, Flexiva Compact transmit-ters deliver a robust, high-performance over-the-air solution that boosts reliabil-ity and simplifies maintenance across all power levels up to 3.5kW. This best-in-class operational efficiency is rooted in GatesAir’s unique PowerSmart® 3D technology, based on 50-volt LDMOS FET transistor devices and GatesAir’s innovative amplifier designs. These advances equate to the industry’s high-est power density and efficiency, result-ing in a compact, lightweight and modu-lar transmitter series that helps broadcasters save money and reduce carbon footprint.

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Finally, GatesAir’s PowerSmart 3D maximizes energy and operational efficiency at the transmitter site through an enhanced cooling design to keep heat waste and overall power bills low; and fewer spare parts to minimize labor and streamline ongoing main-tenance. Broadband, frequency agile designs also eliminate tuning and adjustments on the maintenance side for consistent and stable performance, keeping station management, engineers and listeners alike satisfied.

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LPFM on Fire Radio World eBook20

• No need to partner with major national net-works

• The upper end of the bell curve, not the middle

• “Snackable” content, no block program-ming

• Never hear the same thing at the same time• Partner/affiliate with great organizations• No blathering; get to the point• Excellent production values• Constant content changes• Topics of general interest• Storytelling matters• Education + entertainment + inspiration =

radio magic

Radio Newark promotes radio journalism and storytelling. Last year we wrote our “How to Broadcast Handbook.” This spring we will hold our first “How to Broadcast” class at the Newark Senior Center. We are training a small army of citizen broadcasters.

Newark, Del., is a good city for LPFM. We have an affluent, dense population centered on our broadcast location. There is a civic conscious-ness here with deep roots, going back to the founding of the University of Delaware. But no local AM station, and the only FM station is the student-focused WVUD, the voice of the Univer-sity of Delaware.

enGineeRinGI’ve been an analog and digi-

tal electronics technician since the 1970s and worked as a master ra-dio-electronics officer in the U.S. Merchant Marine. I’ve been in and around radio since getting my first amateur radio license in 1971. I han-dle the modest LPFM engineering responsibilities for Radio Newark.

coverage plot from Fcc construction permit

We are training a small army

of citizen broadcasters.

FCC

.gov

www.progressive-concepts.com

Progressive ConceptsNeed Help? Contact Us Today!

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LPFM on Fire Radio World eBook22

But crowbarring a new LPFM station into the already packed I-95 corridor took some real work from a genius we found via Radio World.

Doug Vernier of V-Soft Communications writes software that the broadcast industry uses to solve adjacent-channel problems. After under-standing how close our application was going to be, he agreed to help with our need for two second-adjacent channel waivers.

By specifying the four-bay phased vertical ar-ray (Kathrein-Scala FMV-4), height and power level we were able to meet all of the spacing re-

quirements of §73.807. Cue the Happy Dance! Our antenna location is fortunate. Geologi-

cally speaking, Newark sits at the junction of the Atlantic Coastal Plain and the Piedmont, a region of rolling hills. The station is sited on the first hill of the Piedmont, overlooking the city, which lies on the flat coastal plain. Our natural HAAT allows us to use an inexpensive Class 3 telephone pole and aluminum mast to meet interference and adjacency requirements (and building require-ments; we’re situated in a residential neighbor-hood).

We run our own servers, supply our own bandwidth (Verizon FiOS), use Dell servers with RAID 5 arrays (production and backup units) and rely on StationPlaylist for scheduling and playout. We also heavily utilize RoboTask for content acquisition and prep. We spent a long time designing and proving our DIY automation sys-tem. We use Windows Media Servic-es running on Windows Server 2008 and Shoutcast DNAS to serve Win-dows, Apple and mobile-compatible streams.

Most of our audio work (prep and production) is done in home studios with modest equipment. I use a Røde

stephen Worden is shown working on commentary from cateX Reports.

Our focus is on the

community as a whole,

not any particular segment

or interest group.

Kirk

Sm

ith/T

he R

evie

w

Radio World eBook LPFM on FIre 23

Projected coverage of WIZU in a car radio, using the Nautel RF Toolkit.

Station coverage plot based on the FCC construction permit, FCC.gov.

Maps: Nautel RF Toolkit/Nautel.com

LPFM on Fire Radio World eBook24

NT1 with a pop filter running through a Really Nice Com-pressor RNC1773 working in “Super Nice” mode to a gray-haired Tascam M-308B mixer. Audio then goes to a decent Dell dual-monitor worksta-tion. We’ve settled on Audac-ity so audio-editing skills can be shared across the organi-zation. Other home studios use RE-20 mics, Behringer MDX2600 audio process-ing, small Mackie mixers and so on.

Plans“A home to call our own”

is on our list of priorities, but only as the budget allows.

Our current priority is to obtain the remaining funding needed to get WIZU(LP) 99.9 MHz constructed. We’re halfway there. Once on the air, we have volunteers to manage, community events to attend, people to train and many, many stories to write and pro-duce.

With negligible exceptions, I have found great support, guidance and assistance from the radio community. Experienced, brand name people have spent time understanding our mission and

offered sound, practical advice on how to make our station better. Others with business back-grounds have steered us operationally, keeping our business plan on track. It is truly the work of 1,000 helping hands, and that might be the best part of this whole project — working with people who love radio.

Stephen Worden is the founder and GM of Newark Community Radio. Reach him at (302) 709-1620 or email steve@radionewark.org. l

Email: radioworld@nbmedia.com Website: www.radioworld.comTelephone: (703) 852-4600 Business Fax: (703) 852-4582 | Editorial Fax: (703) 852-4585

Editorial StaffEditor in ChiEf, U.S. Paul J. McLane nEwS Editor/waShington BUrEaU ChiEf Leslie Stimson gEar & tEChnoLogy Editor Brett Moss intErnationaL Editor in ChiEf Marguerite Clark Latin aMEriCa Editor in ChiEf rogelio ocampo tEChniCaL Editor rich rareytEChniCaL adviSor tom McginleyaSSiStant Editor Emily reigart

adminiStration & ProductionPUBLiShEr John Casey EditoriaL dirECtor Paul J. McLaneProdUCtion dirECtor davis white ProdUCtion PUBLiCation Coordinator Karen Lee advErtiSing Coordinator Caroline freeland

radio world founded by Stevan B. dana

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advErtiSing SalES rEPrESEntativESUS rEgionaL & Canada: John Casey jcasey@nbmedia.com t: 212-378-0400, ext. 512 | f: 330-247-128US rEgionaL: Michele inderrieden minderrieden@nbmedia.com t: 212-378-0400, ext. 523 | f: 866-572-6156 EUroPE, MiddLE EaSt & afriCa: raffaella Calabrese rcalabrese@broadcast.it t: +39-320-8911938 | f: +39-02-700436999 Latin aMEriCa: Susana Saibene susana.saibene@gmail.com t: +34-607-31-40-71JaPan: Eiji yoshikawa callems@world.odn.ne.jp t: +81-3-3327-5759 | f: +81-3-3322-7933 aSia-PaCifiC: wengong wang wwg@imaschina.com t: +86-755-83862930/40/50 | f: +86-755-83862920CLaSSifiEdS: Michele inderrieden minderrieden@nbmedia.com t: 212-378-0400, ext. 523 | f: 866-572-6156

It is truly the work of

1,000 helping hands,

and that might be the

best part of this whole

project: working with

people who love radio.