Toledo Low Power FM Radio Project

September 2013 - Toledo City Paper - Good Morning Lucas County - "Local radio station planning to hit Toledo's airwaves"

"The only criterion that we set early on is that we want this radio outlet to give a voice to underrepresented perspectives. Those perspectives could be musical or social, almost anything so long as they aren't already being done to death by some mainstream media outlet."

Jazz pianist Herbie Hancock once said “creativity shouldn’t be following radio; it should be the other way around.” This sentiment appears deeply embedded in the goal of a number of Toledo residents who recently have been hard at work organizing the creation of a low-power FM community radio station.
The Toledo Low Power FM Radio Project has been incorporated as a non-profit group with the moniker TIME, or Toledo Integrated Media Education. TIME is now appealing to the Toledo public to submit radio program content ideas.

During the last year, the members of the Toledo Low Power FM Radio Project have worked to ready their non-profit for the FCC license application process which begins on October 15. The group is actively accepting applications for programs to be included with the FCC application.

“It’s an FCC provision that at least eight hours of our daily content must be locally produced,” TIME board member and mediator Sean Nestor clarified. “The only criterion that we set early on is that we want this radio outlet to give a voice to underrepresented perspectives. Those perspectives could be musical or social, almost anything so long as they aren’t already being done to death by some mainstream media outlet.”

LPFM broadcasting does not use as much energy as traditional high-power FM stations, meaning the reception range of the community station will be somewhat limited. However the station’s signal, broadcast at 106.1, should cover most of the Toledo area.

“Since we’re only operating on 100 watts of power, we’re looking at around a five mile terrestrial reception radius,” project member and technology supervisor Josh Eppert explained.

TIME plans on mediating the issue of reception range by offering live online streaming of its programming. Internet streaming also will enable the station to potentially garner a global audience.

“While the FCC doesn’t allow us to advertise on LPFM, we can still underwrite our programs,” Williams confirmed, “and that’s good in the sense that we can represent local places that need support.”

https://www.facebook.com/ToledoLpfmRadioProject

Old Toledo Talk posts about LPFM

One of the supporters of the original restrictions on LPFM was NPR.
"According to this ReclaimTheMedia article, the Local Community Radio Act of 2007 (PDF) would remove the artificial restrictions imposed on LPFM by a 2000 law passed at the urging of corporate radio giants and NPR, claiming that small community stations would interfere with the signals of larger stations. If passed, this bill will pave the way for educational groups, nonprofits, unions, schools and local governments to launch new local radio stations across the country."

July 2005 comment :

Maybe Toledo needs a low-power all-news radio channel. AM, FM, doesn't matter.

November 2005 comment

The problem is the lack of local talk options. Maybe an O for someone to startup a low power FM or microradio project if one doesn't exist.

December 2006 post titled User-generated radio content

June 2005 comment

January 2005 comment

June 2006 comment

Another June 2006 comment

Elsewhere:

March 2012 - Nieman Journalism Lab - New FCC rules offer a “historic opportunity” for low-power community FM radio

Sep 2013 TT comment

"Their local programming on the other hand, not so much."

Toledo Low Power FM Radio Project

https://www.facebook.com/ToledoLpfmRadioProject
Next meeting: Mon, Sep 30, 2013

September 2013 Toledo City Paper story

The Toledo Low Power FM Radio Project has been incorporated as a non-profit group with the moniker TIME, or Toledo Integrated Media Education.
During the last year, the members of the Toledo Low Power FM Radio Project have worked to ready their non-profit for the FCC license application process which begins on October 15. The group is actively accepting applications for programs to be included with the FCC application.

"It’s an FCC provision that at least eight hours of our daily content must be locally produced,” TIME board member and mediator Sean Nestor clarified. “The only criterion that we set early on is that we want this radio outlet to give a voice to underrepresented perspectives. Those perspectives could be musical or social, almost anything so long as they aren’t already being done to death by some mainstream media outlet."

TIME hopes the station will be able to help support local businesses, artists and entertainers, one of the reasons that local radio host Kayla Williams jumped at the chance to get involved with the Toledo LPFM Radio Project. “While the FCC doesn’t allow us to advertise on LPFM, we can still underwrite our programs,” Williams confirmed, “and that’s good in the sense that we can represent local places that need support.”

“Since we’re only operating on 100 watts of power, we’re looking at around a five mile terrestrial reception radius,” project member and technology supervisor Josh Eppert explained. TIME plans on mediating the issue of reception range by offering live online streaming of its programming.

However the station’s signal, broadcast at 106.1, should cover most of the Toledo area.

June 2005 Toledo Talk comment

Micro Radio or Low Power FM provide small overhead options.
"The LPFM station is designed to let individuals and small organizations own and operate radio stations for a wide variety of not-for-profit reasons. In this sense, the FCC is trying to bring station creation closer to normal people."

"An LPFM station is a 10-watt or 100-watt transmitter. This level of power gives the station a range of approximately 3.5 miles. A transmitter this size and its antenna might cost $2,000 to $5,000."

Normal people? Does that imply that the rest of radio is managed by abnormal people?

I wonder if any Kool-Aid drinkers, mouth-breathers, has-beens, never-will-be people and so on will appear on this Toledo LPFM radio station.

Radio personalities come and go, but if the city has a soul, it might be heard on radio projects, such as LPFM.

Speaking of infotainment disguised as news ...

Sep 14, 2013 TechCrunch article about Evan Williams and his new Web project. Williams has founded Blogger, Twitter, and Medium.com. For the TechCrunch interview, Williams said:

"News in general doesn’t matter most of the time, and most people would be far better off if they spent their time consuming less news and more [on] ideas that have more lasting import. Even if it’s fiction, it’s probably better most of the time."