(By Damon Collins and Mathew Wesolowski) In recent weeks, Chairman Ajit Pai of the Federal Communications Commission has boasted of the increased relevance of radio broadcasters, while simultaneously acknowledging that they are having a difficult time wrestling with the sudden and unpredictable effects of the Covid-19 virus pandemic. In a trade publication interview last Friday, Pai stated “broadcast stations are more important than ever, (but) they’re also struggling to keep the lights on.” Chairman Pai, who is perhaps the most significant ally that broadcasters have had in decades, went on further to say that the Commission is open and willing to consider any and all ideas that could help radio broadcasters.
Radio station WLYB 96.3 FM in Livingston, Alabama is almost certainly the type of broadcast operation that Chairman Pai wants to help. Livingston is situated in Sumter County, Alabama, which USA Today identified in January, 2019 as the poorest county in the United States, with a poverty rate of 36.0% and median household income of just $21,663. Residents are fleeing the area at a staggering rate, and at fewer than 13,000 people, the county has never had a population as low as it is today, not even since its founding in 1832. The surrounding area is not much better, with neighboring Choctaw, Pickens, Greene, and Marengo Counties in largely the same situation, all making up the western edge of the notoriously impoverished “Black Belt” region of Alabama.
Sumter County was beyond distressed economically prior to the Covid-19 virus pandemic, but now, the situation has become truly critical. Still, WLYB 96.3 FM has operated a radio station in Sumter County’s Seat of Livingston for nearly a decade, with a welcoming studio right on the main thoroughfare. WLYB provides vital community information to an area that other broadcasters have long left behind, and residents depend on the radio station in a region of the country where there are very few alternative information sources. Even the Internet, hardly widespread in the county, is unreliable most of the time.
Due to the economic hardship found in west Alabama, WLYB 96.3 FM depends on outdoor radio commuters who listen to the station on their way to and from work, often in somewhat distant places like Demopolis, Alabama or Meridian, Mississippi. Outdoor in-vehicle listening has largely been the only salvation for the WLYB. Those listeners have been just valuable enough for the station’s advertisers to reach, allowing WLYB to keep things going for awhile longer. In west Alabama, like much of the rest of the country, however, the Covid-19 outbreak has eviscerated commuter listening.
Because of the Covid-19 virus pandemic, most of WLYB’s listeners are now “sheltering in place,” meaning that the station’s in-vehicle audience has all but disappeared. They try to listen in the home, but as WLYB is limited to just 3,400 Watts of power, it is difficult for the station’s signal to make it inside of many buildings. Listening to the station’s Internet stream is simply not an option for most of the WLYB’s loyal audience. If WLYB had access to a bit more power, however, then the station would be able to recapture the temporary, and possible permanent listeners lost due to Covid-19. On April 24, 2020, WLYB 96.3 FM tendered a waiver-based application with the FCC to increase in power from 3,400 Watts to 8,000 Watts using a little-utilized license option: the FM Auxiliary authorization. In effect, the FCC would have the ability to grant a secondary power level to most radio stations through the auxiliary permitting process. The extra power would be available on a secondary basis and would not cause interference to any other broadcast service, even LPFM and FM Translator stations. If interference were to occur, then the Commission would simply cancel the extra power from the auxiliary permit and WLYB would return to its existing licensed levels.
The FM auxiliary license’s boost in power, which would carry no interference consequences whatsoever to neighboring stations, would allow WLYB 96.3 FM to reach formerly commuting listeners who are no longer tuning into the station in their cars. A modest increase in power would be a lifeline to WLYB and could serve as a model for similarly-situated radio stations battling the Covid-19 pandemic situation. If the FCC were to grant this specific relief tool for broadcasters, then many radio stations would be able remain viable and “keep the lights on,” even in face of the incredibly difficult times impacting the radio industry.
Damon Collins is the President of Blackbelt Broadcasting (WLYB) in Livingston, Alabama. Matthew Wesolowski is the GM of SSR Communications in Flora, Mississippi. Reach Damon at [email protected] and reach Matt at [email protected]
The thing I don’t get is if you cannot get the job done with 3.4 Kw’s of power what more would you want? How many stations running class A have transmitters idling at 15% capable of bumping it up another 5 Kw? I think I would check into the antenna engineering if they can’t get into buildings with 3.4 Kw class A power. We have many 2-6 Kw stations around here that do better then several 50 Kw FMs using 2 bays. If this was a 100W LPFM I might get it. I do think Pai needs to help the mom & pops. Let the corporates die away.
No question the Commission needs to really step up and get some of these things done … for instance how about simplifying the process for people to take their AM’s dark while keeping their associated FM on the air? How about relaxing the time deadline for CP’s on the last round of Auctioned “free” FM translators (many of those CP’s are beginning to loom)? The BIG problem that isn’t even being addressed by the administration, the FCC, the NAB, etc, etc is power costs. It would be great for this rural station to be allowed to increase its ERP to the 8400 watts but that comes with a higher cost. Since we local broadcasters are so essential (and we are), let’s get the multi-billion dollar, tax supported, government protected, power companies and power co-ops to, at the very least, suspend and forgive their power charges for a three to six month period of time. There are a lot of other fixed cost radio vendors and some variable cost (PRO’s I’m looking at you) who need to be compelled to at the very least significantly reduce their costs to the industry for a three to six month frame. Without all of the local broadcasters their business lose (yes, power companies I’m looking back at you now). These industry “vendors” are IN the broadcast business. If there should be anything we learn from this just beginning crisis it should be that the counties, the cities, the states, this county and, indeed, the globe (you know, the earth, god help her) is interconnected and relies on one another – even if it’s invisible to us most of the time. Step up FCC – we need to hear much more than just a small speech here or there.
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