FCC Auction 98

The FCC has released the list of "Qualified Applicants" for this FM Construction Permit auction. A lot of the CPs are for locations in Texas. I counted at least 13 applicants who are set up to bid on all 131 applications. I don't know if they will, but evidentally they can if they want to. Among those who are filing for everything are EMF and Entracom. Several others who qualified for all CP's include a lot of companies and individuals I'm not familiar with. They include Rubin Broadcasting, Screen Door Broadcasting, Torres Media, John Smith, Summit Broadcasting, Miriam Media, Brett Miller, Campo Munera, Jackman Holding Co., Kona Coast Radio, and Edgar Eaton. There may be a few others I've skipped.

It looks to me like the FCC has screwed up again by not putting limits on the number of CP's that an entity can apply for. I guess they didn't learn anything from The Great Translator Invasion.

In any case, I don't see many of these CPs going cheaply.... I suppose we will see.

My latest count is 19 entities who are "Qualified Applicants" for all 131 Construction Permits. Looks like a lot of speculating is taking place.

I'll speculate that half of these channels don't get bids. And most of the rest won't go for more than $1 per capita.

I expect to see one or two more auctions in the future, and that will be it. Everything is pretty much covered.

There is the C2 at Columbia MO, long vacant since the deletion of the Rice licenses if I remember right...it's up to $215,000 already. Probably one of the very few that are actually worth something.

That's pretty interesting, I had a feeling that 101.3 in Prineville OR wouldn't work very well as a C1 with a C1 at 101.7 in Redmond OR. They could possibly relocate that thing to 94.9 though.

Groove1670 said:

I expect to see one or two more auctions in the future, and that will be it. Everything is pretty much covered.

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I think so too because a look at the FM table of allotments shows there is not really much left to be auctioned.

The auction is almost done, last round (round 40) had only 2 bids. Once a round has no bid the auction will end.

51 rounds later and now the auction is done.

bobdavcav said:

That's pretty interesting, I had a feeling that 101.3 in Prineville OR wouldn't work very well as a C1 with a C1 at 101.7 in Redmond OR. They could possibly relocate that thing to 94.9 though.

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Ended up going to 93.7 as a C2

The saving grace of a high power signal in a low population town is you have a bigger area to work within getting the signal to have a decent signal in a bigger market. If I recall, the frequencies in Rocksprings,Texas could move to about 25-30 miles of Del Rio so they could target Del Rio and Ciudad Acuna with almost 250,000 versus the 2,000 that lived in the 2,000 square mile Edwards County where Rocksprings is located, some 60 or so miles from Del Rio.

Still the actions there days are mostly for places that could likely never support the day to day operation of a full power station. One place I know from the last auction before this had 800 in the county that was huge. The past 3 newspapers that town had couldn't make ends meet. They better suited for a LPFM instead.

I would imagine an FM auction will be coming up sometime next year (107.9 Sacramento will probably be up and will also likely be the largest bid ever).

In Michigan, there are a few vacant allocations, and there might be one or two that could be viable:
93.3 (C3) Onekama (was won in a previous auction but was never built; could work if paired with another station (such as 102.7 WMOM))
96.3 (C1) Houghton (an existing station had a CP to move here years ago but never went through with it)
98.9 (A) Lake Isabella (was originally located in Walhalla, but moved to Lake Isabella, which allowed 98.7 to be dropped in at Ludington (now WLDN); station never made it to the air in either place despite being licensed)
99.9 (A) Carney (there was a station here, but it had its license yanked)
99.9 (A) Custer
101.3 (A) Pigeon