Writing for the Boston Globe, Mark Leccese spot-lighted the “little-noticed” FCC action making it easier to start a low power FM station, and encouraged citizens in the area to think about doing so.
Leccese noted that the Boston urban area doesn’t have a single LPFM, but said there is probably has been room for them in surrounding communities. In fact, he said there are 12 in the state of Massachusetts, and four of them are local community stations such as he has in mind (seven are religious, one is a college station).
He believes that in a small community, citizen volunteers could divide up coverage duties for local government meetings and other matters of local interest and pick up the slack left by the damage done in recent years to the newspaper business.
Of course, there can be much more. “In addition to news,” Leccese wrote, “the station could program call-in talk shows about local issues, shows featuring local music and musicians, shows about books or computers or food – all-community based.”
RBR-TVBR observation: We still believe that the local signal is broadcast radio’s key advantage over satellite and internet audio platforms. We know that there is no chance for a small-watt station to blow a full power station out of the water, but we would be paying very close attention to how well these stations do once the next LPFM wave gets on the air and has a chance to gain a foothold in their service areas.
