Another Good Day in Small Town Radio!

A listener sold his pontoon boat thanks to our "Rummage Report" program...another one found the fencing material he was looking for. We also helped two lost dogs find a home. The only bad news is that we currently have seven obituaries in our local news.

What the #@$!! Were They Thinking!

The Supreme Court, as you probably know, just upheld a lower court ruling giving the FCC the ability to fine stations for "fleeting expletives". The vote was 5-4. Hopefully, it will go down if it gets back to them for a ruling on constitutionality. In the meantime, I'd better tell my sports guy to watch out. He was covering a town-team baseball game on a nice summer day when he said, "It's a beautiful day for a ball game, look at all those people shittin' under a tree over there!" I wonder what that one would have cost us?!! I still think it was funny.

Multi-Tasking Makes Radio Fun!

I do my own engineering at KLQP-FM, Madison-Dawson, Minnesota and I do the engineering for KSCR-KBMO in my hometown of Benson, Minnesota. I'm also president, general manager, news director, program director and sales rep at KLQP-FM. That's what I love about small market radio...you can do it all! Life is always interesting and fun. My hobby? You guessed it, radio, ham radio, that is. Here's the link to my amateur radio web site...take a look! http://www.angelfire.com/ma4/madisonmn/

Pending Localism Rulemaking

As you probably know, the FCC is currently formulating some new rules on localism. If you read my comments at the link on the previous post you will find that I am in agreement with many of their suggestions...including a requirement for at least some origination of programming from the city of license. I also agree with proposed rulemaking which would make it much more difficult to move a station from a small community to a larger city. I do, however, have a serious problem with the possibility of a requirement for 24 hour staffing. This would absolutely devastate small market radio service making it virtually impossible for a small station to provide 24 hour broadcast service.
Not so many years ago we shut the station down around 10:00 PM and came back on the air at 6:00 AM. That's what we will be doing again if the 24 hour staffing requirement is put in place.
The automated weather updates, hourly network news updates and automated EAS alerts which are all available to our listeners during the night time hours will all disappear. How that is supposed to improve local broadcast service is beyond my understanding.
If this requirement is put in place, I will be on the front lines fighting it....I hope a few other broadcasters will join me.

My Comments on Localism

In May of 2004 I was invited by the FCC to be a panelist at their hearing on localism which was held in Rapid City, South Dakota. My comments may be found in their entirety at the link posted below. I'm sure many broadcasters were not happy with me...but I call 'em like I see 'em and this is what I feel the same way today.

http://www.fcc.gov/localism/052604_docs/meyer_statement.pdf

Welcome To My Radio World!

Welcome to my blog! I have over 40 years of experience in small market rural radio, all in communites with a population of 5,000 or less. I have made a living in this environment and I have a lot of stories to tell....a lot of tips to pass along...which may be of use to others in this business. Come back often and see my story. Visit my station's web site at www.klqpfm.com if you want to see what I've been up to for the past 26 years since we put the operation on the air from the ground up.