[HN Gopher] Show HN: I'm launching a LPFM radio station
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Show HN: I'm launching a LPFM radio station
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!
Author : solomonb
Score : 83 points
Date : 2026-02-17 20:15 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.kpbj.fm)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.kpbj.fm)
| polarbearballs wrote:
| 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.
| solomonb wrote:
| Thanks! We haven't been using the mailing list much, I'm afraid
| of coming off spammy, but I appreciate the support and hope you
| enjoy the station!
| MisterTea wrote:
| WFMU is fantastic. That was where you heard all the fun weird
| stuff and WSOU was right next to it playing (back in the day at
| least) the latest hard core, punk, and metal.
|
| Fun fact, the Go Gopher drawn by Renee French was originally
| drawn for a WFMU tee shirt given out at a fun raiser they
| hosted.
| raffael_de wrote:
| 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.
| solomonb wrote:
| To be clear this is an FCC licensed LPFM station.
|
| Also I am /much/ more interested in terrestrial radio but the
| reality is that the vast majority of listeners are online and
| not using a radio. : (
| raffael_de wrote:
| I'm probably looking at this a little naive, no doubt. It's
| just that (in my fantasy) a pure good ole radio could be a
| great medium for enthusiasts and odd balls (#cyberpunk). But
| as soon as there is an internet stream then the actual radio
| is going to be a gimmick. The whole experience changes if you
| actually _have_ to use a radio to listen. Of course, your
| audience is limited by design ... so, realistically there
| just might not be a sustainable audience in your FM radius.
| Anyway, cool project!
| solomonb wrote:
| I agree that there is a strong allure to being strictly
| terrestrial. I actually started such a station 15 years ago
| under the Part 15 rules for unregulated broadcast band
| transmission: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KCHUNG_Radio
|
| Almost immediately (like within the first week or so)
| everyone involved demanded an internet stream and now that
| station has two internet streams lol.
|
| I've been thinking about setting up another part 15 station
| at my house as a personal project but for something like
| KPBJ the goal is to be a community resource. Terrestrial
| broadcast is super important to me and helps cement the
| station's place in our local community but we also want to
| be accessible to those who are not in this immediate area
| or who don't know how to use a radio (yes in 2026 that is
| an issue!).
| MisterTea wrote:
| How many listeners actually have a radio these days? How many
| people under 30 listen to radio? Under 20?
| dylan604 wrote:
| This whole thread makes me think of Pump Up the Volume. As a
| teen, we used to get together in one location and everyone
| would tune in to the same station and leave doors open or
| windows down so music was everywhere just like scenes in the
| movie. Doing that with streams makes this impossible. Even
| with the popularity of streaming, if there was a station with
| a show that catered to the teen hang out like this I can see
| it regaining popularity.
| themafia wrote:
| The biggest problem is failover configuration and the needs
| of programmatic advertising insertions. So most providers
| will have you carry at least a 60 second buffer to start,
| but possibly closer to 120 seconds in most observed cases.
| Then as you listen an ads are inserted, or removed, the
| amount of delay between your audio and the live edge
| changes.
|
| We could solve this, however, the royalty rates on music
| and other content are so high, that it would be insane to
| pay for that as well as the bandwidth and not get
| programmatic revenue back from it.
| RF_Enthusiast wrote:
| Even with a smaller pool of listeners compared to 10 years
| ago, there are still a lot of people listening to FM.
|
| Within your coverage area, you're one of maybe 60 stations.
| That's far better than being one out of 150,000 discoverable
| internet radio stations.
|
| When you get on the air, be sure to set up RadioDNS and DTS
| Autostage, with service following, and Amazon Radio Skills
| Kit. They are great tools for converting on-air listeners
| into "captured" online listeners.
| solomonb wrote:
| Thank you! I'm going to take a note about doing this.
| BoxOfRain wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| How does licensing work for the music you play?
| solomonb wrote:
| For terrestrial broadcast or online? You go through a handful
| of music industry organizations such as ASCAP and BMI. For
| terrestrial broadcast the costs are scaled to approximate
| listenership.
| dylan604 wrote:
| Gonna be hard to prove you have 10 listeners whether that's
| really all you have or just downplaying the fees!
| themafia wrote:
| The congressionally created entity is called "Sound
| Exchange."
|
| And.. don't worry! They _will_ audit you.
| josefritzishere wrote:
| They just pay into ASCAP, BMI and SESAC. The royalty groups
| disburse on estimated airplay. Non-coms pay a reduced rate. I
| can go mch deeper if you want. I used to work in that field.
| abetusk wrote:
| 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.
| solomonb wrote:
| You essentially have to be in the right place at the right
| time. The FCC releases LPFM channels every year all over over
| the country. If you have a 501c3 non-profit within the
| designated broadcast area you can apply for the channel. They
| tend to award the channels to more established non-profits.
| There are no filing fees.
|
| In our case we created the non-profit in anticipation of
| applying for this license. We got really lucky and no one else
| applied for the license and it was awarded to us.
| abetusk wrote:
| Do you have links to resources for people wanting to go
| through this process?
| solomonb wrote:
| I worked with https://commonfrequency.org to acquire the
| license. Their mission is to help local community groups
| acquire LPFM licenses nationwide.
| bigfishrunning wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| Do you have a direct link to the audio stream? I'd probably add
| it to my go-to list of stations.
| solomonb wrote:
| https://stream.kpbj.fm
|
| At the moment we are only airing a few new shows per day and
| filling the rest of our airtime with content from archive.org
| and other free sources (chosen by all our hosts), but over time
| more of the schedule will fill with original content.
| alrs wrote:
| 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.
| mothballed wrote:
| Broadcast radio is, with caveats, prohibited on amateur radio.
| solomonb wrote:
| I would be really surprised if we are allowed to use AREDN.
|
| We need a studio to be able to do live radio shows. Currently
| our hosts have to pre-record and submit through an online
| dashboard. The goal is to have a live studio in Shadow Hills
| where hosts can do their shows, bring on guests, take calls,
| etc.
| giantrobot wrote:
| There are many examples of Internet radio/livestreams that do
| all the live studio work virtually. It would be so much
| cheaper and more flexible as guests just need a microphone
| and Internet connection. Getting good audio is not terribly
| difficult even with a laptop or phone's built in microphones.
| Positioning and some isolation do wonders for voice quality.
| solomonb wrote:
| You are technically correct but taking that approach misses
| out on the purpose of community radio: community.
|
| As a terrestrial radio station our goal is to serve and be
| a member of our the local San Fernando Valley community.
| Creating a physical space for the radio station is about
| creating a 3rd space for community members and hosts as
| much as it is for recording radio shows.
| alrs wrote:
| You wouldn't be "broadcasting" with it, you'd just be using
| it as backhaul.
|
| AREDN users would probably be pretty happy to have a node at
| 1500' in the Verdugos.
| fortran77 wrote:
| You're not allowed to "broadcast" (with a few exceptions) or
| play music with an Amateur licence.
| solomonb wrote:
| I think the suggestion is to use AREDN for our backhaul from
| the station to the transmit site instead of 802.11ah. So it
| wouldn't be for broadcast per se, but I am still skeptical
| that is an allowed use for AREDN.
| fortran77 wrote:
| one-way communication is prohibited (with a few
| exceptions):
|
| https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/chapter-I/subchapter-
| D...
|
| I'm not sure what's on the amateur radio exam these days,
| but when I got my Extra back in 1977 this was definitely
| covered.
| themafia wrote:
| LPFMs are licensed. You are responsible for everything that is
| broadcast and you can be held liable for FCC violations or for
| any criminal acts conducted on or through your station.
|
| I would simply not feel comfortable opening the door to the
| station in this way. Even where we do allow remote broadcasters
| there is /always/ a person physically in the studio controlling
| the board, the automation system, and the remote host
| connection directly.
|
| Finally.. one of the great joys of working in radio.. is,
| honestly, taking phone calls while on shift in the studio. If
| you're going to do a call in show it's basically required. The
| induced delay on digital connections is often too high to make
| a quality show out of. It's honestly one of the pain points of
| podcasts today.. watching two hosts bounce off the delay while
| trying to have a natural "conversation" on any level.
| bloudermilk wrote:
| Congrats on this! As a born and raised valley kid, I wish this
| was around when I was living there as a teen.
| solomonb wrote:
| Thank you! The LPFM license system was started in 2000 so its
| pretty new.
| Denatonium wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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?
| solomonb wrote:
| Great question, sadly we haven't gotten to the point of
| operating our transmitter yet so we don't know if co-channel
| interference is going to be a significant issue or not. I can
| say tho that neither KAIA or KCAQ come through clearly within
| our contour.
| empressplay wrote:
| Test it ASAP -- I'm an 80s/90s kid, I loved Pump Up The
| Volume and I did a little umm broadcasting of my own (so I
| love your vision) but I would have concerns that even if the
| larger FM stations aren't coming through there can still be
| enough power there (you should be able to test that though)
| to nix out your low-power signal.
|
| Also:
|
| > Stations authorized in the LPFM service will operate with
| effective radiated
|
| > powers (ERP) between 1 watt (0.001 kW) and 100 watts (0.100
| kW). In any case,
|
| > the distance to the 1 mV/m (60 dBu) contour from an LPFM
| station or
|
| > application will not be permitted to exceed a reference
| distance of 5.6 km.
|
| Your area map seems a little big(?)
|
| Good luck!
| yeahdef wrote:
| 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.
| dylan604 wrote:
| I'll have to see if I can pick that up. KNTU is my go to for
| music while in the car while hoping to not hit dead spots. It's
| also a favorite joke on why UNT can't have its station call
| letters updated when they rebranded from NTSU.
| susiecambria wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| I heard art bell when I tuned in this morning - I'm in
| ecto wrote:
| This is so cool, congrats on launching!
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(page generated 2026-02-18 23:01 UTC)