The Prometheus Radio Project grew out of the microradio movement in the late 1990s and some of the founders of our organization were radio pirates before we started advocating for the FCC to allow legal low-power broadcasting. They founded pirate radio stations as an act of civil disobedience because they believed that this country`s broadcasting regulations were fundamentally unfair. They operated excellent community radio stations despite the rich structure of our broadcasting system. The FCC eventually seized their stations, but announced that it had received the news and would create a legalized, low-power FM radio service. Unlike Africa, Asia, and parts of Europe and South America, shortwave listeners in the United States are widely considered a hobby. Most radio stations in the United States included AM and shortwave until the introduction of FM in 1948. The story we have been told is that government officials, concerned about communist shortwave radio stations, encouraged manufacturers in the United States to remove the shortwave tuner and use an FM tuner that can only receive local signals. In most countries, people like to listen to shortwave to get a different perspective than their country`s media. Even in the United States, thousands of people tune in to shortwave every night and regularly listen to a wide range of domestically and internationally produced programs. For some projects, this may be an appropriate and affordable approach. You can contact the transmitters directly to save time, or you can read this ehow page about starting your own shortwave station. Another issue is accessibility.
Radio receivers are so inexpensive that they are ubiquitous, so cost is not a factor in having the right equipment to listen to the free radio waves of a broadcast. Every person in any signal range has the opportunity to listen to the station at the price of a cheap radio, which is why transmission is so cost-effective. Once you invest in the main cost of a transmitter, a station can reach literally millions of people with minimal operating costs. Back in the days of “WKRP in Cincinnati,” there may have been room for a small business to compete, hire locals, and run a nice little business. Today, most stations are almost fully automated. The owners feed these stations with generic content via satellite, so they pay a DJ to record audio files for a hundred stations. They also have cross-marketing advertising systems that allow them to sell ads in hundreds of markets across the country. I encourage you to think carefully about your business model before trying to compete with Clear Channel Communications, which owns over 1,000 radio stations across the country. The only legal way to stream your service or any other audio content without an FCC license is to use an FM transmitter that does not generate a field stronger than 250 microvolts/meter at 3 meters. These FM transmitters usually have a very short range (up to 200 feet) and have not yet been approved by the FCC. In this case, you do not need to apply for a broadcast license, but the device itself must be approved. As you might expect, most empty frequencies are located in rural or unpopulated areas where it may not be profitable to establish commercial operations.
However, it is important to note that a not-for-profit group may apply for a commercial FM or AM frequency and does not need to operate as a commercial broadcaster. There is an increasing number of commercial licences held by not-for-profit organizations and operated as non-commercial stations, so there may be a commercial frequency in your area that is not good for a for-profit undertaking but would be suitable for a community radio service. A: FM broadcasting is very strictly regulated. Title 47 Part 15 of the CFR covers most topics related to FM and AM broadcasting. In short, FM broadcasting requires an FCC-certified station and a license. Also for low power FM broadcasts. The only type of FM broadcasting that does not require an FCC license is on very low power transmitters with low field strength (less than 250 μV/m at 3m or 9.8 feet). But even then, the transmitter must comply with FCC regulations (Part 15 device) and be FCC approved. The FCC-certified device has an FCC ID, and you can use the FCC ID lookup tool to verify that this ID is valid. According to FCC online filings, #1, #2, #3, #4, and #6 of your “Top 6 of 2021” are the same device with different names. It`s interesting that you`ve compared and evaluated the exact same electronics with five different chassis and name stickers. And #5 doesn`t mention any FCC ID or approval, so it`s safe to assume, especially since the Amazon listing says it transmits within 200 meters is illegal.