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Our introductory "get to know us" page.

Radio stations are allowed to move only when it's in the "public interest, convenience, and necessity," but the regulatory criteria behind that phrase don't quite reflect the real world. Here's what really happens.

The FCC changed its rules for FM move-ins on January 19, 2007. Since then, licensees have filed more than 140 requests to change FM stations' community of license. Is your community about to lose a long-established local station? Will a move-in force your favorite local Low-Power FM station off the air? Could an FM translator that you depend on for inspiration suddenly disappear? Find out how the new rules affect you by checking this page regularly.

Most FM move-ins are enabled by a bureaucratic mirage: according to FCC "channel allotment" policies, an urban bedroom suburb that's covered by a dozen or more big-city FM stations can have a stronger claim to an FM radio station than a medium-sized county seat 50 miles away with one local FM station. Here's how the FM move-in game is played by broadcast property speculators and the lawyers who help them.

It's a challenge to resist radio consolidation and homogenized programming, but there are still some ways determined communities can defend their radio voices. Here are strategies to keep your local FM service truly local.

Once you've got the big picture of the FM move-in threat and how only determined community action can save your local FM service, it's time to galvanize public support and make your voice heard in Washington. As you do, questions about FCC regulations and broadcast engineering will arise. Pointers to the answers are here.

It's a matter of public record who's behind the flood of FM move-ins – profit-maximizing media corporations and a small group of Washington attorneys who specialize in the "legal engineering" needed to uproot small-town FM stations and put them in bigger media markets. But what about the volunteers trying conserve those local FM voices? Here's who we are why we care.

See something inaccurate on SaveLocalFM.org? Know something that should be here but isn't? Have a compliment, complaint, or suggestion? If you want to share it with others around the country who have the same concerns, try using our Forums. But if you want it just between us, tell us here.