https://citizensradio.org/ An independent magazine about community and low-power FM radio: stations, FCC rules in plain language, radio history, podcasts and emergency broadcasting. en-us https://citizensradio.org/stations-near-you/find-community-station-dial/https://citizensradio.org/stations-near-you/find-community-station-dial/Mon, 13 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +0000Community radio hides between the big signals. Learn the band LPFM occupies, the databases that list stations and how to hear a 100-watt signal well. https://citizensradio.org/stations-near-you/campus-radio-88-to-92/https://citizensradio.org/stations-near-you/campus-radio-88-to-92/Mon, 20 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +0000Why 88.1 to 91.9 MHz belongs to education: the reserved FM band, the college stations that built it and where campus broadcasting meets the LPFM world. https://citizensradio.org/stations-near-you/what-100-watts-sounds-like/https://citizensradio.org/stations-near-you/what-100-watts-sounds-like/Mon, 10 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0000The honest sound of low-power FM: signal edge, compression choices, local speech and the music policies that only a 3.5-mile signal can afford. https://citizensradio.org/start-a-station/start-an-lpfm-station/https://citizensradio.org/start-a-station/start-an-lpfm-station/Mon, 24 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0000The road to a licensed low-power station: forming the right group, finding a channel, winning the point race, building out and holding the license. https://citizensradio.org/start-a-station/fcc-application-windows/https://citizensradio.org/start-a-station/fcc-application-windows/Sun, 30 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0000Why LPFM applications open only a few days at a time, what the October 2013 window and its 2,800 applications taught, and how to prepare for the next. https://citizensradio.org/start-a-station/community-studio-budget/https://citizensradio.org/start-a-station/community-studio-budget/Mon, 17 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0000What a first LPFM studio really costs: transmitter and tower, desk and microphones, free software, and the line items volunteers always forget. https://citizensradio.org/lpfm-rules/what-100-watts-buys/https://citizensradio.org/lpfm-rules/what-100-watts-buys/Mon, 31 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0000The real coverage of a 100-watt, 30 meter station: radii in miles, terrain, receivers and why the FCC built LPFM as a local service by design. https://citizensradio.org/lpfm-rules/lpfm-point-system/https://citizensradio.org/lpfm-rules/lpfm-point-system/Thu, 27 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0000When two groups want one LPFM channel, points decide: community presence, studio location, hours and local programming, plus the tie-breakers applicants forget. https://citizensradio.org/lpfm-rules/offset-protections/https://citizensradio.org/lpfm-rules/offset-protections/Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0000Why some LPFM channels are forbidden, why others sit on odd 10 kHz offsets, and how the 2011 Local Community Radio Act reopened the dial. https://citizensradio.org/radio-history/armstrong-invention-of-fm/https://citizensradio.org/radio-history/armstrong-invention-of-fm/Mon, 27 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +0000How Edwin H. Armstrong built frequency modulation in 1933, fought the industry that tried to bury it and left behind the band community radio still uses. https://citizensradio.org/radio-history/pirate-to-licensed/https://citizensradio.org/radio-history/pirate-to-licensed/Mon, 03 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0000The micropower movement of the 1980s and 1990s: unlicensed neighborhood transmitters, courtroom fights and the law that turned pirates into licensees. https://citizensradio.org/radio-history/pacifica-listener-sponsored/https://citizensradio.org/radio-history/pacifica-listener-sponsored/Thu, 30 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +0000KPFA signed on in 1949 as America’s first listener-sponsored station: the experiment that proved radio could belong to its audience instead of advertisers.