Indiana Receives Third LPFM License
January 15, 2025
Indiana County has received a license for its third low-power FM license, making it the third such station to come on the air within the past 25 years.
Worldwide Pants, Inc., the license of the new station – which has not been assigned call letters as of this writing – will celebrate its accomplishment with a kick-off event to be held this Saturday at the Elks Lodge at 475 South 13th Street in Indiana. The event, which is free and open to the public, will include live music and giveaways.
If Worldwide Pants sounds familiar, it should be. It was the name of former late night talk show host David Letterman’s production company, but that entity and this one are not related.
The new station, which will be billed under the moniker “Indy 94.9”, will operate at a power level of 100 watts. The FCC granted the construction permit to Worldwide Pants in mid-December.
Shari Topeka, executive director for the new station, told PBRTV.com that the organization is still seeking a studio location from which it can operate.
D.P. McIntire, a Raleigh, North Carolina-based broadcaster who operates Oak City Media licensed WKRP-LP, has been offering assistance to the new startup.
“I promised myself that when the next opportunity arose, I’d offer whatever experience and knowledge I could to others who sought stations for their communities,” McIntire said in a social media post.
For McIntire, this one is personal.
“I wanted to help one be built where I got my start in radio 42 years ago: Indiana County, Pennsylvania.”
McIntire graduated from Indiana Area High School in 1987, later getting his start at the campus radio station while attending Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He went on to work at WNQQ (now WLCY) in Blairsville, as well as Punxsutawney-based WPXZ and WECZ, before he relocated to North Carolina in the early 1990’s.
The new Indy 94.9 joins Indiana-based Christian-formatted LPFMs WFSJ-LP 103.7FM and WMUG-LP 105.1FM, founded by the late Chris Lash and J.D. Varner, respectively. Indiana County currently has four commercial radio stations, all of which are owned by Indiana native Tony Renda.
It’s unclear at this time what format direction the new station will take. For McIntire, it doesn’t matter. He was only happy to help.
“Kind of a teenage disc jockey’s dream,” he said.
That’s great for Indiana!
I wish Pittsburgh had gotten LPFM stations when it could, I was surprised that there wasn’t much activity on it here. Some group tried to start LPFMs in cities across the country to make a network of them, and had locals apply for licenses. Two applications were made for Pittsburgh by the group, one was at 107.1 and the other might have been 102.9, somewhere in that range, and with just a couple of watts on the latter.
The national scheme was found out and the FCC put a stop to it, and apparently no one else applied for those frequencies, and AM to FM translators took them over later, so Pittsburgh has been shut out of LPFM, at least around the city.
We do have tougher radio conditions in western PA, hills that tend to block FM, and lower ground conductivity than average, which affects AM signal strength, although AM signals do better getting into our valleys..
That said, I’d like to see LPAM service get started. That’s right, low power AM! It could be done in a similar way to LPFM, perhaps with fewer requirements, to make it easier for groups to get a license and outfit a studio, because fewer people listen to AM now.
We already have a precedent with the Traveler’s Information Service, TIS. TIS stations have been around for half a century and are proven. They run 10 watts, for a service range of about a mile, with the antenna mounted on a telephone pole. That could work in a city lot, you wouldn’t have to find tower space or a tall building for your antenna, like on FM.
TIS stations are licensed for the government to use to reach cars and give driver traffic info; Penn Dot had a number of them around the city. The same power and antenna specifications could be used for full service community AM.
I think LPAM fits with the spirit of radio for the community, people could hear it in their car or buy a small radio. The station could even buy radios for its listeners in bulk, and give them out, maybe for donations. I think LPAM could help the AM band stay on the air.
We also have license-free AM under ‘Part-15’ at 1/10th of a watt, which any US citizen can use to reach a small neighborhood.
Thanks for writing this up, Ken Hawk!