Low Power FM

So it started some weeks ago. After getting the new (used) car, was driving around and wanting to listen to something. Since my other stereo which has a USB connection is not in it, radio was the only choice.

Scanning the spectrum I came across a channel playing Chinese music. It is a genre of music I happen to really like: People singing songs. The songs are always expressive, creative, and lyrical. They actually span a kind of wider range of genres within music. Some are more modern sounding. Some are more traditional.

Many of the songs are really beautiful. I heard one yesterday that was so inspiring I started recording it with my mobile phone. Unfortunately there’s no way to find out what these songs are, who they are sung by. Everything is in Chinese. But that’s ok. I accept that as part of the totality of the experience.

So yesterday I finally decided to try and figure out exactly what this station is. It turns out that it is a low=power FM station. I didn’t really know about this. There are a number of such stations around the country. In this day of Internet broadcasting this is not something you think of.

Anyhow I just feel really lucky that I happen to live in a place where this station exists. It is an extremely rare opportunity. Any time I’m driving around I can listen to this amazing music which I never would be able to hear otherwise. I’m actually thinking of sending the station a donation just to thank them and to let them know that there are people who really enjoy their station.

In investigating the station further I found out that a lot of small Internet streaming stations are actually in huge trouble. Their royalty fees have increased something like tenfold at the start of this year. They are basically being run into the ground with the exorbitant fees which is a travesty. It just seems like such a basic thing to be able to broadcast freely whatever you want on the air. I could see paying some small fee perhaps to broadcast some music, but not being extorted and put out of business. That doesn’t seem right at all.

The oligarchy is doing a good job of killing off everything but large, commercial broadcasting.