>just broadcasting whatever you want

but that's not exactly true unless you wear an eye patch, roll your Rs when you speak, have a wooden leg, and have a parrot perched on your shoulder.

that $200k buys you equipment and land. it does not include any licensing or royalty payments for the content you ultimately decide to broadcast. if you have a full 100k flamethrower of a transmitter, the utility bill for that bad boy is not something I'll envy from you.

Funny I never thought of that now obvious fact that a radio transmitter like this will suck so much power it'd cost a bunch in electricity

while not being a radio engineer myself, i spent some time around them for several years. even got to go to the antenna farm with them on one excursion. these things are no joke with the electrical wiring. just seeing the size of knife switch disconnects is an indicator of don't mess with this. never mind all of the other high voltage signage. there's a few other fun facts of broadcast towers that really makes you wonder if this is something you really want to be doing as a "hobby"

don't know the level of urban legend, but i have heard that BASE jumpers that climb to the top of a tower to jump will start to feel their fillings heat up by the time they get to the top.

I mean, how much would a feed of podcasters’ syndication cost?

I guess that’s not really a thing, but it’s gotta be cheap if you’re sharing some portion of revenue that they weren’t otherwise getting.

>I mean, how much would a feed of podcasters’ syndication cost?

That's like asking how long is a piece of string?

How much is part of negotiations. The more people following, the higher the number. The larger the ego of the podcast producer(s), the higher the number. The more desperate the radio op is, the higher the number. If the podcaster has a set price tag type of licensing, then they must be new or are very naive or just don't feel like negotiating. In content licensing, you always shoot high in negotiations. If they come back with a yes on the first offer, you learn to shoot even higher the next time as you're leaving money on the table. If they do the more natural response of a much lower counter, then you get to play the traditional game. If they are someone so big of a broadcaster that they come in with an offer, never accept on first offer either. Always make them provide at least a second offer.*

*I'm not a professional anything in this regard, so don't take the word of rando inteweb person. Talk to your lawyers regarding licensing offers. I'm just someone who has been near/around these things for a long time.

Does that include licensing of the frequency or just the infrastructure? Even if it includes some duration of the license, I expect there are still regulations and red tape to maintain that license. And regulations about what you can broadcast.

Oh sure, the list of FCC rules is seemingly endless... but it's still a pretty wide margin of media and speech permitted especially on the "talk radio" side of things.

The operational requirements are a bit stringent, though—there are certain staffing and compliance requirements for the studio and transmitter facilities.

And even low-power AM transmission stations need an annoying amount of physical plant maintenance—cutting grass, trimming overgrowth, fixing all the random annoying issues that crop up when maintaining any kind of equipment at a remote site (theft, rodents, water ingress, cooling, power, comms, etc.).

That sounds like "being responsible for a building'. Buy a seagoing boat sometime to play this game on hardmode :-D

How much electricity does an AM station burn?

That and content, unless you are going to broadcast only your own stuff.

I would be surprised if you could not find plenty of podcasts happy to be slotted into your schedule for no fee whatsoever.

Basically an NPR clone

That would kick ass. Part of me wishes the FCC opened the AM band to "public access" (legit radio piracy — perhaps with a 50W or so ceiling?) but the way the internet has unfolded suggests to me what a shitshow that would become.

Just wondering, how did you find them? Just googling it, or through craigslist, or through a friend?

Probably BizBuySell

Yeah, looks like there is a couple there. It looks like there is also a site dedicated just buying and selling radio stations.

That's why AM radio these days is incredibly weird.

Lots of fire and brimstone, and right wing talk radio. Which isn't that weird, it's what you'd expect given our media ecosystem.

But also really niche stuff. A friend of mine told me there's an AM radio station in NYC which plays nothing but Black Metal.

Many of these stations carry Coast to Coast late at night, which is about as weird as you get.

Sounds like shortwave which is, apparently, primarily religious proselytizing these days.

Free-To-Air Satellite TV as well.

Anything a little less mainstream which is cheap to get into.

On shortwave you get the "Supreme Master"- who owns the Loving Hut chain of vegan restaurants. They are nice, but possibly a cult..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ching_Hai

But late night AM, you get "Ministry in the Marketplace with Dr. Richard Hamlet" on WEZE 590. This is the craziest right wingnut radio I've ever heard, even including shortwave. Last week they were ranting on about the "death vaccine".

"By the 1950s, America had forgotten the Biblical principles that it was founded on. In the mid-60s, government-controlled education was implemented. At that time, The Foundation for American Christian Education was formed to help limit that control by educating families and even schools on the . . ."

That last paragraph just sounds like your average right-wing Christian radio station of which there are thousands across the US. Heck, your last paragraph there could've been from Dr. Dobson on the Focus on the Family radio show which is quite mainstream among American Evangelicals (of which there are many).

As for the Loving Hut restaurants... oh, that's what I went to downtown? It did seem culty. They were playing some video on a loop about world peace, etc. I've gotta say, though, their vegan shrimp were quite good - a very good approximation down to the texture.

Yeah, WEZE is a religious station which is fine. But when they talk politics, oh boy. Maybe I'm isolated in the Boston area- many of the religious stations are Catholic. They also sometimes talk politics, but the crazy factor is not as high.

In the 90s, you only heard this on shortwave, but all changed after the rise of Rush Limbaugh. In the 90s on shortwave: "Janet Reno and her lesbian cronies are going to take our guns!" (this is a direct quote)

I've not tried Loving Hut yet, but I found there are two in Worcester which is not far.

Seems like you could get the same thing with ham radio for far less cost (albeit far less cachet by virtue of not being ex officio)

Amateur radio is for 2-way communication only. No "broadcasts" allowed (with some _very narrow_ exceptions).

There is a guy around Boston who did this: Bob Bittner

Bought an old Cambridge AM station for cheap.. runs at low power to keep the costs low.

Check out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WJIB (740 AM)

For years they had no commercials, but took donations (but they were never non-profit).

> Something about just broadcasting whatever you want into a protected frequency band for anyone with an antenna to hear seems really cool.

If I ever get ridiculous amounts of money that could be burned on frivolous stuff like this without a worry, I'd make something similar to Fallout's radio stations.