I don't really get the regulatory aspect, but they're seemingly only operating this AM station as some sort of stipulation for their FM license? If that's true, why do people care? Why does the FCC care?
Check out this video, they go into what operations look like at a probably similar but better run commercial AM radio tower. Still probably a lot of the same concepts. There's a cool clip of them arcing off the tower to ground and you can hear the audio through the plasma.
And yeah, I feel ya, the hobby is often filled crusty old get off my lawn kind of people. There's still a lot of nice people to meet on the air as well, and hopefully with the FCC rethinking rules about digital operations on ham bands it could open up to some more interesting stuff soon. I've had a good bit of fun and learned a good bit getting a tech, probably going to get my general soon and take advantage of this solar cycle. Now's the time to get into the hobby instead of waiting a few years.
73
I looked into getting my technician's license at a few points over the years remembering how much fun I had listening to my dad's friend talk to folks from across the world on his capable home rig. If you ask someone in the amateur radio scene what it's like, they'll paint a utopian picture of community bonding around a shared passion.
... But man, if that's true, y'all sure hide it well behind an incredibly frosty exterior.
Every few years I'll lurk on radio forums and social media to get a sense of the community-- as I do with many other current/potential hobbies-- and it reveals a punitive, cantankerous, spiteful, and patronizing stance towards anyone that isn't already 'in the club.' I've been using the net since about 1993 and have seen a whole lot of toxic communities in my life, but man... the online ham communities I've seen were bad. Then I see people in them blaming poor character among younger generations for not taking the torch. Yeah... sure. That's it, bud. Surely it has nothing to do with the people in your forum that race to belittle someone asking to be pointed in the right direction. And heaven help them if they have a feminine sounding username. It's like a perpetual feedback loop of the angry nerd crowd dynamic that's slowly becoming less acceptable in tech culture as the decades pass.
> THE FCC IS NOT ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS FOR NEW FM COMMERCIAL BROADCAST STATIONS AT THE PRESENT TIME.
Even if they were, your application just puts the allocation up for the next auction. I don't think the FCC has held an auction in a long time.
Is it because of pointless administrative gridlock? If so, good on them for finding a way to get around some bureaucrat's unwillingness to wield their approval stamp.
Is it because of some technical reason? Ok, bummer, but that's totally different. If it's someone's bottom line vs a public resource, that's that... but I get the sense the FCC would have said that explicitly, no?