Hello everyone, I am a new member to the forum and came here to find some information on commercial broadcasting. I have had kind of a dream about owning my own radio station to broadcast music. My family collects old vinyl records so we are very much music enthusiasts. So anyway, if FCC opens up applications for new full power radio stations, what would be the best choice, AM or FM? I know FM is better quality but AM can travel farther. How much is the cost of equipment for each? How much should the initial investment be? 50k, 100k, 200k? Thank you all for your help!
Question about starting a full size commercial radio station
- Thread starter Bebyb
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N8IAA
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Multiple millions I would presume. You would have to presume the need for a building, transmitters, tower and a whole lot more.
Just saying.
Larry
mmckenna
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Really depends on what you want to do and what your expectations are.
Near me there is a couple of -legal- low power FM stations. One plays just Hawaiian music, the other one rap. Coverage of a couple of miles (we're in a valley).
Coverage costs money. If you are going to try covering a wide area, major urban area, etc. it's going to cost.
For FM broadcast stations, height is key, that means high tower or tower on a mountain. Tall towers are expensive ($hundreds of thousands to millions) Good high sites can be expensive to lease space at, as in thousands a month, unless it's a less popular site or you have access to something.
AM doesn't need prime mountain top sites, but it does need some land. AM antennas are tall and generally require a substantial ground plane network to make it work well.
Transmitters can be expensive depending on what you are looking for. Low power = less expensive. High power = expensive. Again, looking from a few thousand for a low power transmitter to several tens to hundreds of thousands for a high power transmitter. Add in engineering time, ongoing support, etc. and it gets expensive.
Licensing will be required.
Might want to try webcasting first, see how it goes, if you can keep it up, if there is a market, etc.
Good luck.
rfradioconsult
Member
With very few exceptions all broadcast licenses have been issued. There is one possibility search the FCC broadcast section for "dark" stations. A dark station is one that has gone off the air, these may be available for sale, most are AM maybe a few FM become available. The second suggestion is locate a broadcast broker that specializes in broadcast properties. Hopefully Grandpa left you a million of 2 to fulfill your dream. Another suggestion maybe you can contact a small station in your area and lease x numbers of hours per week and host your own show.
mmckenna
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Good point. There are a few local stations around me that will let individuals host their own shows. One AM station in particular.
College radio stations, too.
Much cheaper than starting up your own radio station.
glen4cindy
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We have a non-commercial listener supported station on one of the strongest signals in our DMA. They began with a bold plan. Near the end of every October they have a "signal payment drive" where they solicit donation pledges from people. They are currently on payment 8 of 10. They explain it takes about 5200 people giving about $1 per day which equals $1,898,000. Now that's 1 payment so 10 of those is $18,980,000. That's the signal payment.
In March or April, there is another drive, and I do not remember the exact numbers, but, in that drive they solicit donation pledges for operational expenses.
They usually make 100% of their goal on both drives, but, as you can tell, it takes A LOT of money. Of course, if you are doing a commercial station you can offset hundreds of thousands of these dollars with advertising but that would not come immediately.
In March or April, there is another drive, and I do not remember the exact numbers, but, in that drive they solicit donation pledges for operational expenses.
They usually make 100% of their goal on both drives, but, as you can tell, it takes A LOT of money. Of course, if you are doing a commercial station you can offset hundreds of thousands of these dollars with advertising but that would not come immediately.
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