Colin McEnroe Show: Low Power To The People, By The People
Will Low Power FM be a new medium for hyperlocal content?
Published: Apr 21, 2011
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Colin McEnroe Show: Low Power To The People, By The People
Wolfie's Last Word February 23 2011.mp3
Radio wears a lot of different outfits. On one end of the spectrum there's Clear Channel Communications, which owns 900 stations. On the other, there's a guy who broadcasts from the back of a truck in the Collinsville section of Canton on Saturdays.
We never did find that guy, but we'd like to meet him. (You will, at the end of this show!)
A few notches up in status and legality from that guy are so called low power stations, usually using 100 watts of power and reaching about 3 and a half miles out or more. People who crave diversity and local focus are pinning their hopes to a new wave of low power FMs, but there are others -- including a more-than-40-year-old station at Hartford's Weaver High School -- that have been scraping along for quite a while.
Hyperlocal media, including low power FM, is very muich a response to the corporate consolidation of the mainstream media during the last 20 years.
Leave your comments below, e-mail colin@wnpr.org or Tweet us @wnprcolin.
***This episode originally broadcast February 23, 2011***
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Another E-mail from Paul
Will the bulk of the LP stations be conventional Analog or Digital format?
E-mail from Paul
Do you see this as a credible threat to NPR?
Not from the perspective of interference, but by a splintering of audience?
E-mail from Brandon
Heard in a promo that you’re gonna do a show on low power radio. One question you might want to ask your guests (whoever they are) is about the opponents of lower power radio. Commercial broadcasters are always against it (which you would expect) but also NPR (which surprised me) also has a history of opposing lower power local radio, because they feel it threatens listenership of NPR stations.
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