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Citizens Radio ReviewCommunity radio and low-power FM, explained

On the air

Desk 02 · Start a Station

How to start a community radio station

The road from listening to broadcasting: forming a group, winning an LPFM construction permit, building a studio and a transmitter site on a volunteer budget.

Volunteers wiring a small broadcast studio with a mixer on a folding table, coiled microphone cables and a hand written channel plan taped to the wall

A low-power station does not begin with a transmitter. It begins with a group that can prove it has served its community, with a channel that the interference rules leave open, and with an application filed inside a filing window that may stay shut for years at a time. This desk walks the whole road in order: forming the kind of organization the FCC will accept, reading the channel finder, surviving the point system, building out once the construction permit arrives.

The roadmap article is the magazine’s signature resource, and every other desk leans on it. When the rules seem abstract, read them in the point system explained simply; when the money questions start, our studio budget guide keeps the numbers honest.

In this desk

  1. Wall calendar with a short week circled in amber marker beside a stack of prepared application binders and a computer screen showing a form in an office at night

    FCC application windows, explained

    The strangest feature of the LPFM world is its calendar: you cannot apply when you are ready, only when the FCC opens a window, and the winners are almost always the groups that prepared during the closed years.

  2. Folded frequency map, application notes and a compass on a community hall table surrounded by folding chairs and stacked volunteer name tags

    Start an LPFM station: the full roadmap

    Between a kitchen table full of interested people and a licensed 100-watt signal lies one application, one point race and one buildout, and every step of that road can be prepared before the filing window opens.

  3. Compact volunteer studio with a secondhand mixing desk, two dynamic microphones on simple booms, a laptop and a handwritten equipment price list pinned to the wall

    Building a studio on a community budget

    The transmitter is one purchase among many, and rarely the trickiest: a workable low-power station is built from patient shopping, donated rooms and a budget that respects the license clock.

Two neighbouring desks extend this one: Stations Near You and LPFM Rules Made Simple. The magazine’s method is stated on the editorial policy page.