Contract City Radio

I've spent a substantial chunk of my career writing about radio stations that operate without a license and cover community politics. If you tune your receiver to 1620 AM in Sandy Springs, Georgia, you'll find such a station. Unlike other unlicensed outlets I've written about, this one may well be legal.

Radio Business Report has the story:

"Radio Sandy Springs"…is running without a license, yet it is not a pirate station. It's a network of low-power AM transmitters fed simultaneously that covers the entire town and beyond. The station's programming is professionally done and centered around community affairs. It even airs the Sandy Springs City Council meeting, brought to you by a local Mercedes-Benz dealership. It airs plenty of local spots from local businesses….

RBR spoke with owner/GM [general manager] David Moxley, first assuming he was a pirate operator: "I'm not a pirate station. We're an LP [low-power] AM station and don't have to be licensed, according to Part 15 of the FCC regs. which allows for AMs to broadcast at one-tenth of a watt. They don't offer a license for this. Each transmitter is its own station of sorts. One transmitter covers between seven tenths and one mile radius. We can, within reason, hold our signal into one spot. Our transmitters are FCC-certified, but at the same token, it says nothing in the rules about where each transmitter gets a signal from, just as long as I stay below a tenth of a watt. Nowhere in the code does it state where each transmitter should get their audio. My transmitter, my antenna and my ground lead, if used, is not any more than 3 meters. My attorney and I have read the regs up one side and down the other and I'm not breaking any law. We pay BMI, we pay ASCAP…."

In addition to covering the community, Moxley's station runs locally produced shows devoted to everything from classic cars to radio drama. If you're curious to hear it but don't live in the area, you can catch it on the Internet.