{"id":48633,"date":"2020-01-05T16:55:37","date_gmt":"2020-01-06T00:55:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiosurvivor.com\/?p=48633"},"modified":"2020-01-05T16:55:39","modified_gmt":"2020-01-06T00:55:39","slug":"the-greatest-flowering-of-community-radio-in-history-happened-in-the-2010s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.radiosurvivor.com\/2020\/01\/the-greatest-flowering-of-community-radio-in-history-happened-in-the-2010s\/","title":{"rendered":"The Greatest Flowering of Community Radio in History Happened in the 2010s"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Mid-way through the last decade I declared<\/a> that, \u201c[w]ith regard to new stations going on the air, 2015 represented the biggest single-year leap forward for non-commercial and community radio in U.S. history.\u201d That\u2019s because 524 new low-power FM stations signed on that year. That was an increase of 56% over the number of existing LPFMs at the end of 2014 (924). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the next four years another 753 signed on, bringing the total number low-power stations to 2,186 as of September 30, 2019 according to the FCC.<\/a> At the close of 2009, when the service was on the cusp of its 10th birthday, there were 864 LPFMs in operation. This means the count more than doubled in the 2010s. No doubt this period saw the biggest expansion of low-power FM in history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But because the LPFM service is specifically designed to be locally owned-and-operated, with hyper-local service, it\u2019s clear that the last decade also saw the greatest flowering of community radio in US history. In fact, low-power FMs now make up a full 35% of all non-commercial stations in the country. That\u2019s an increase of 14% from the end of 2009. The reason why the percentage didn\u2019t jump more is that the last ten years were good for full-power non-commercial licenses as well, with 942 launching in that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Defining & Counting ‘Community’ Radio<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Now, one might argue that not every low-power FM station is operated as a true community station, programmed and staffed by local folks who otherwise wouldn\u2019t have the opportunity to broadcast. It\u2019s true that many are owned by groups \u2013 religious and otherwise \u2013 that fill their schedules primarily with syndicated programming beaming in by satellite or streamed over the internet. There are others that are mostly filled with automated music that feel more like vanity jukebox stations, with no sign of any kind of live or local hosts or DJs. Added together I can\u2019t tell you how many there are, but I could be convinced that they even make up a full half of all LPFMs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem with counting community radio stations is that there is no central authority. The FCC only cares if a station is non-commercial or commercial \u2013 it doesn\u2019t dig into the differences between public, religious, college or community stations \u2013 or that it meets the ownership and operational requirements to have a low-power license. While the National Federation of Community Broadcasters represents and assists community stations, there\u2019s no obligation for a station to join, even though the organization has worked hard to connect with these new broadcasters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, even if only a decent minority of these new stations operate with the spirit of community radio, that\u2019s still on the order of at least 200 to 300 new community stations. This estimate is easy to justify by taking a look at any of the top 100 radio markets in the country, where you\u2019ll find a minimum of one new community LPFM. More likely you\u2019ll hear two, three or more. I\u2019m thinking of cities like Portland, OR, Seattle, Philadelphia and Chicago which all added a few. And while some cities, like Philly and Chicago, long have had rich college radio scenes, they didn\u2019t have true community stations, owned by local non-profits and open to local people unaffiliated with a school or college, until this past decade. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But LPFMs didn\u2019t only go up in major markets, although that was a vitally important aspect of this growth. Dozens or even hundreds of smaller cities and towns got new community stations, too. That leads me to think my estimate of 200 to 300 is too conservative. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Growth for All of Radio, too<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Despite the supposed imminent death of radio, the medium continued to grow as a whole in the 2010s \u2013 by over 2,300 stations \u2013 and community radio outpaced all previous growth in the sector. Radio\u2019s share of most folks\u2019 daily listening may have declined, given so much other audio media competing for their ears. But the need and desire for the terrestrial radio hasn\u2019t gone away. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why a Radio License still Matters<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Today, in this always-connected internet environment, it\u2019s significant that many, if not most, community LPFMs have internet streams, which help them reach audiences \u2013 especially younger audiences \u2013 that don\u2019t use over-the-air receivers. However, this fact doesn\u2019t make their broadcast licenses and terrestrial signals redundant or vestigial. Rather, being a licensed broadcast station is an assurance to the community that the organization is serious, and intends to stick around. The official sanction of a license shouldn\u2019t be underestimated or overlooked, because it\u2019s also a shared asset that a community is more likely to rally behind and value, in part because, if lost, it\u2019s not easily replaced. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Community stations function as community media centers, providing local residents a chance not only to broadcast, but to learn audio or video production, train up on live sound engineering or create podcasts. These are functions that most commercial, public or religious stations don\u2019t serve, even if their programming is a community service. Though an LPFM\u2019s listening audience may be small compared to a town\u2019s local NPR affiliate, the interpersonal network and impact is often much stronger, especially with people who aren\u2019t amongst the local elite or traditionally well-connected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An Historic Global Flowering<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Not only was this the biggest ten-year increase in US history, it was arguably the biggest in world history, too. India certainly adds a lot to that total, with 428 letters of intent (like a US construction permit) issued to groups that applied to build stations, on top of many other countries. This is why the explosion of community radio, especially via low-power FM, is one of the most important radio trends of the last decade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mid-way through the last decade I declared that, \u201c[w]ith regard to new stations going on the air, 2015 represented the biggest single-year leap forward for non-commercial and community radio in U.S. history.\u201d That\u2019s because 524 new low-power FM stations signed on that year. That was an increase of 56% over the number of existing LPFMs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48635,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,16,30,4875,4090,62],"tags":[5042,4015,4045,31,5301,1987],"class_list":["post-48633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-radio","category-fcc","category-localism","category-lpfm","category-op-ed","category-statistics","tag-community-radio","tag-decades-most-important-radio-trends","tag-featured","tag-lpfm","tag-number-of-community-radio-stations","tag-number-of-radio-stations-in-the-united-states"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.radiosurvivor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Flowering-of-Community-Radio-in-the-2010s.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radiosurvivor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radiosurvivor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radiosurvivor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiosurvivor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiosurvivor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48633"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiosurvivor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48633\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48637,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiosurvivor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48633\/revisions\/48637"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiosurvivor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radiosurvivor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiosurvivor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiosurvivor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}