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Show HN: I'm launching a LPFM radio station (kpbj.fm)

113 points by solomonb ↗ HN
I've been working on creating a Low Power FM radio station for the east San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. We are not yet on the broadcast band but our channel will be 95.9FM and our range can been seen on the homepage of our site.

KPBJ is a freeform community radio station. Anyone in the area is encouraged to get a timeslot and become a host. We make no curatorial decisions. Its sort of like public access or a college station in that way.

This month we launched our internet stream and on-boarded about 60 shows. They are mostly music but there are a few talk shows. We are restricting all shows to monthly time slots for now but this will change in the near future as everyone gets more familiar with the systems involved.

All shows are pre-recorded until we can raise the money to get a studio.

We have a site secured for our transmitter but we need to fundraise to cover the equipment and build out costs. We will be broadcasting with 100W ERP from a ridgeline in the Verdugos at about 1500ft elevation. The site will need to be off grid so we will need to install a solar system with battery backup. We are planning to sync the station to the transmit site with 802.11ah.

I've built all of our web infrastructure using Haskell, NixOS, Terraform, and HTMX: https://github.com/solomon-b/kpbj.fm

This is a pretty substantial project involving a bunch of social and technical challenges and a shoe string budget. I'm feel pretty confident we will pull it off and make it a high impact local radio station.

The station is managed by a 501c3 non-profit we created. We are actively seeking fundraising, especially to get our transmit site up and running. If you live in the area or want to contribute in any way then please reach out!

19 comments

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polarbearballs
Thats awesome. I'm a huge fan of KEXP and WFMU. I love radio stations like this. I just signed up for your newsletter. I have it on my listen list and will stay tuned here on the East Coast.
raffael_de
Clandestine radio stations would make for a nice counter culture. Judging by the website style I think I receive an appreciation for keeping it simple. In that spirit I'd say ditch the internet stream. Stick to FM.
BoxOfRain
I wonder if more European pirates will appear on medium wave as commercial and state broadcasters abandon the band. Many countries have exited entirely already, meaning it's sometimes possible to hear these pirates at great distance. Most are from the Netherlands but I'm fairly sure every country has these 'hobby' pirates which broadcast sporadically.
edoceo
How does licensing work for the music you play?
abetusk
Can you talk about the process of getting an FCC license and other legal logistics to broadcast?

The technical side, while interesting, is relatively clear to me. The legal side, including cost, is something I have no idea about.

bigfishrunning
When Lorenzo Milam died, i heard about his book "Sex and Broadcasting" that describes this process (as well as other details about running a community radio station). As an avid HAM, i was very interested in the technical side of it, but the political side was interesting as well. I highly recommend reading it.

https://a.co/d/03EQ3Ouo

Congratulations to the OP for getting something like this off the ground!

mkprc
Do you have a direct link to the audio stream? I'd probably add it to my go-to list of stations.
alrs
Why do you need a studio?

If this is completely non-commercial and you have an amateur license you could probably use AREDN as a backhaul instead of HaLow. We've gotten wifi going from a panel in Elysian up to Wilson on AREDN.

100w from the Verdugos should be pretty substantial. I regularly make 70cm FM contacts on 446.500 from Elysian Park down to San Diego at 5w.

shibapuppie
You can't use encryption on AREDN, which really just absolutely sucks on the modern internet.
bloudermilk
Congrats on this! As a born and raised valley kid, I wish this was around when I was living there as a teen.
Denatonium
It's pretty cool to see a licensed, authorized LPFM station being set up by hobbyists!

Prior to the PIRATE act of 2020, running a pirate FM station was effectively legal until the second time you were busted. Prior to 2020, if you shut the station down after getting your NOUO, there wasn't any real penalty. Teenage me loved this, and my buddies and I had a little irregularly-broadcasting pirate radio station, using a cheap CZH-7C transmitter purchased on eBay. One time we went on air from our high school's cafeteria during a study hall, and surprisingly, nobody questioned anything! We did have Microsoft Sam narrate our broadcast so that we weren't making a ton of noise.

We never did get our NOUO; instead, we ran into the much bigger reality, which was that none of us had anything of interest to say. After the novelty of hearing our voices on the radio wore off, the transmitter ended up in a closet, where it probably still sits today. Good times!

josefritzishere
KPBJ should have co-channel interference from KAIA and KCAQ, but the first adjacents are pretty clear. an LPFM has no protected contour. How is the local signal?
yeahdef
We have one of these in my town, Denton TX. KUZU FM. I think it was one of the first. It was originally a pirate radio station, that went legit with LPFM.
susiecambria
As a non-tech person but lover of HN, I love this and have shared with friends. It makes me so happy to see people doing cool stuff.
scottyscotty
I heard art bell when I tuned in this morning - I'm in
ecto
This is so cool, congrats on launching!
nubinetwork
Solar with a 100w transmitter sounds like a huge task, unless you have a gigantic field for panels.
ddmma
Managed to build a full autonomous ai radio from ground up. Let me know if need support on this. I’m also hosting community radio back in my hometown.
athom
Please, please, PLEASE tell us that stands for Peanut Butter and Jelly!

More seriously, how DID you wind up with those call letters? Do applicants get some say in the selection, or is it just whatever they give you?