Price to start up a FM Radio Station?

Question

Price to start up a FM Radio Station?

Answer 1

Millions Of Dollars, The Price Of The Equipment License's and all that other stuff will cost a lot!

Answer 2

In the US, Small town stations if you can still wait around the 5-10 years for them to finally grant a license to a frequency, you are still looking at about $2 million to start up or so... half to start it and half to operate it till it's profitable.

Big cities, forget them... most are $20 Million per station and most are sold only as part of other stations owned by that company....

average is usually about $2-4 million for medium market (say 250,000 people) for an FM plus you need the extra million for operating expenses

Answer 3

Its expensive to start up but there is help out there. Find sponsors that will cover the cost of radio equipment, licensing, and wavelength allocation. Also try National Public Radio they are loaded with donors and sponsors. Usually the donors will provide for the equipment and the FCC licensing. Check your city for any closed down radio stations. Here NPR reopened and radio station on a former military base that had radio broadcasting.

Answer 4

It's not so much the money. It's the license. Don't get me wrong: the equipment, staff, office space, all that costs big bux. But you've got nothing  without the license.

The FCC grants and manages them. You have to buy an existing one or apply during the odd times the FCC is having an auction. Then there's the LP license (see below).

I don't want to take up a lot of bandwidth, but for you and others who have questions about actually opening a real AM or FM radio station, check the Wiki entry below and then hit the search engines. If you're smart and inspired enough to operate a station, you should be able to research it without help from some bozo on Yahoo, like me. WHOA! Did he just say that?  ;<)