This is kind of a big deal. The biggest obstacle for most AM radio stations isn't the low fidelity or increased interference. It's the land required to install an AM antenna.
With AM, the antenna is actually the entire tower. The tower itself is what radiates the signal. That's why most AM towers don't have other antennas mounted on them.
Even the simplest AM antenna systems take up acres of land. The most basic installation consists of a single tower and a field of ground radials. Some stations use multiple towers to create a directional signal. All of these installations require fencing.
Information Station Specialists is introducing the Magnum K1 antenna. It's less than 50 feet tall and requires only a modest, flat area of ground. Or even a rooftop. It will be sold as a complete kit, and no fencing is required.
This is a game changer. It apparently meets the FCC's standards for radiation efficiency, which took quite a bit of engineering to achieve.
I heard some of the legendary Seattle DJs on C89.5 today, representing different eras: Victor Menegaux, Trent Von, and others, as they stunt for an upcoming change.
I was delighted to hear a mix I did representing the 2010s!
That's all. Sometimes I feel forgotten as a DJ. That lifted me up.
My radio station has entered what's often called a "stunting" phase. Usually, that means a station is trying to generate publicity and audience attention for upcoming changes to its programming.
That's not really what I'm doing, although the timing of traditional stunting fits. I'm simply playing a format-between-formats. What I chose for the next few weeks, as I prepare for the new format, is pop music from around the world that a traveller on Highway 95 probably wouldn't hear on Spotify or satellite radio. It's kind of fun to listen to, and it was exciting to hear "My System" by Felicia on FM in the United States.
My imaging also says, "There is no station here. Move on," playing off the ghost-town lore of the desert.
The reason for my format-between-formats is that I have a new music licensing scheme in place on 01 July, and I need the majority of my programming to be music in order to remain compliant while my various online elements come online. Those launches may be staggered, as there are multiple pieces of the puzzle that need to come together. I don't want to launch the new format until everything is ready to go, so I'm not sending listeners to dead ends.
I also get to test out the processing.
Why am I switching formats?
The old format is "Nevada.FM," a mix of local information, desert-inspired instrumentals, and ambient music at night. It was focused primarily on visitors, since it's a major tourist area. I got a lot of positive feedback from people who caught the broadcast on FM. It wasn't a failure in any way. I'm actually proud of what it accomplished.
I was able to identify what worked and what didn't. What worked was the unique format with its strong local focus, particularly the history segments I aired. What didn't work was that the content had an expiration date. Once a listener had consumed all the content I directed them to online, there was no reason for them to check back in with the station. And I can't realistically create that particular content quick enough.
So when the new format launches, that's what I'm focusing on: creating something listeners can take home with them after discovering the station on Highway 95. Fortunately, now that I've gotten to know the town pretty well, I've learned that a lot of the people passing through are truckers, international travellers, and people heading to Las Vegas or Burning Man. That's a "demo" I have a lot of experience with.
Currently listening to: Linda Lampenius and Pete Parkkonen, "Liekinheitin," on the FM dial. :)
---
Note: The old format is still airing on two other frequencies farther down the highway. A local non-commercial broadcaster liked it and picked it up, so it's cool to see it still out there.
I found out this morning that I’ve been approved to build a low power television station on Channel 36 in Tonopah, Nevada. I have three years to get it on the air. It’s going to be a relatively low-cost build, largely because I already have a lot of the broadcasting equipment sitting around from a failed attempt to do this same thing 10 to 15 years ago in the Hawaiian Islands.
That earlier station ultimately failed because of local building codes. In a very unusual local zoning situation that I’ve never seen anywhere else, the local codes had special provisions specifically targeting Low Power TV stations. These rules were actually much, much stricter than the codes for full-power stations. It's possibly an first amendment issue, but because the laws were written decades ago and only affected a tiny handful of independent hopefuls like me, no one ever challenged it.
What those codes did was function as a way to keep the airwaves reserved for big-money broadcasters. Unless you had millions of dollars to drop on a full-power facility, you were locked out. I tried contracting with a grandfathered-in broadcast site, but the costs for the first year alone would have been more than I could reasonably make back over the lifetime of the station.
It was a hard lesson, but it’s one of the main reasons I ended up pursuing Tonopah as a site to build my commercial FM radio station. Out here, the building codes and zoning processes are super reasonable.
I’m still figuring out exactly what I’ll broadcast on Channel 36. Over-the-air television seems to be in a downward spiral these days for anything other than live sports. When I was trying to get my foot in the door in Hawaii, OTA TV was experiencing a bit of a renaissance with the early wave of cord-cutters. Now, the quality of programming has dropped significantly. It feels less like a video delivery system that is ad-supported, and more like a dedicated ad delivery platform that delivers video on a secondary basis.
It might be kinda cool to run it as a functioning performance art project, like https://weatherstar.netbymatt.com/ . There aren't a lot of copyright advantages to running music formats on subchannels like there are with FM radio, so that's not a big motivator. I have an ambient music internet station where I own the compositions and sound recordings, so that might end up there.
Anyway, it's not at the top of my list of priorities, but it's kinda cool and I'm pretty sure I'll be able to build it out. The only other TV station in town runs old TV shows, and it's only a couple of years old. So, there's not really an existing OTA audience at the moment. The biggest audience is probably the RVers coming through town (and there are quite a few of them), but even with that, you're competing with Starlink.
As an avid listener to radio, I can report that linear audio advertisements are incredible friction for me.
Stations licensed as “Non-Commercial Educational” (NCE) stations in the US can’t run commercials, but they can run underwriting acknowledgments, which is basically the on-air “thank you” to business donors connected with a message that contains no promotional language.
As much as I hate to admit it, linear audio underwriting announcements are also friction to me (although much less than outright commercials). Visual, though? I don’t see that as friction.
Radio, in 100% of new cars, has a visual element.
I feel that some NCE radio stations can reduce, and maybe even in some cases, eliminate, these points of audio friction with visual text messages acknowledging underwriters. And heck, images too. I’m talking about doing it through RDS (sometimes called RBDS) and HD Radio text.
According to 47 CFR 73.503(d), “No promotional announcement on behalf of for profit entities shall be broadcast at any time in exchange for the receipt, in whole or in part, of consideration to the licensee, its principals, or employees. However, acknowledgements of contributions can be made. The scheduling of any announcements and acknowledgements may not interrupt regular programming…”
It’s clear that text messages on NCE radio must be non-promotional and follow the same content rules as the linear audio. The phrase that catches my eye and makes me nervous is this one: "announcements and acknowledgements may not interrupt regular programming.”
In a 1981 report, Congress stated that interruptions must be "at the beginning and end of programs,… between identifiable segments of a longer program" or during "station breaks" where programming was "not unduly disrupted." The FCC officially adopted this definition the following year.
For argument’s sake, NCE-TV stations have the same limitation. And it’s clear that an NCE-TV station can’t run an underwriting acknowledgement in a picture-in-picture as Antiques Roadshow runs (outside of a break). So, wouldn’t an NCE radio station be prohibited from running a visual acknowledgement during programming?
At face value, without added context, it’s a grey area at best. But let’s look at historical definitions. (They go back many, many decades, before RDS and HD Radio).
"Interrupting regular programming" means stopping, suspending, or unduly disrupting the normal broadcast. RDS, according to 47 CFR 73.295(a), is not an SCA, so it’s a broadcast service which enhances the main program broadcast service. HD metadata is embedded in the broadcast signal along with audio. So this makes it seem like the same standards as TV may apply: no visual acknowledgements during the program.
47 CFR § 73.310(a) defines an “FM broadcast station” as “a station employing frequency modulation in the FM broadcast band and licensed primarily for the transmission of *radiotelephone emissions* intended to be received by the general public.”
I think that’s the key! “Radiotelephone emissions” means *audio-only*!!
This makes radio text *only* a parallel stream. While there is zero mention of visual displays, data streams, or text, it appears that the stream that cannot be interrupted is the audio stream.
So I think visual acknowledgements via RDS or HD Radio text/images are legit, even if it occurs during programming, and has the potential to make NCE radio even better!
[I’m not a lawyer, just a questionable radio metadata freak]
.jpeg)
 to reduce friction.png)