On June 15, bidding quietly concluded in the Federal Communications Commission’s auction of construction permits for full-power television stations.
Millions of dollars were raised, as seven bidders successfully snagged some 18 CPs.
The biggest winners include Norman Shapiro and Gray Television.
A total of $33,043,250 in net bids were seen in the FCC’s Auction 112, which granted the right to build brand-new broadcast TV stations.
For the seven lucky bidders, the following payment schedule must be adhered to:
- Down Payments Due July 8, 2022 (6pm Eastern)
- Final Payments Due July 22, 2022 (6pm Eastern)
- Long-Form Applications Due July 25, 2022
Who is the biggest bidder by dollar amount? Look no further than Gray Television.
The Atlanta-based broadcast TV station owner is paying the FCC $10,805,000 for the right to build a brand-new facility.
The second-largest bidder? It’s Norman Shapiro’s Weigel Broadcasting, via its TV-49 Inc. licensee. TV-49 is forking over $7,053,000 for the right to construct a new broadcast TV property.
Those licensees are followed by Radiant Life Ministries, paying $4.955 million; North Dakota-based BEK Sports Network, paying $4,808,250; Sinclair Broadcast Group, paying $3.137 million; Brian and Patricia Lane’s Marquee Broadcasting, paying $1.175 million; and Fresno-based Ventura Broadcasting, led by Mark Shirin.
Refunds of upfront payments will be given to three unsuccessful bidders. They are Lilly Broadcasting-affiliated SJL Television ($900,000); Paul Koplin-led Venture Technologies Group ($525,000); and Major Market Broadcasting of North Dakota, a Ravi Kapur-helmed licensee ($375,000).
WHERE GRAY IS GROWING
For the company co-led by Pat LaPlatney and Hilton Howell Jr., newly constructed TV stations will be licensed to Freeport, Ill., due west of Rockford, Ill. This will undoubtedly help Gray with Rockford DMA-wide coverage of its CBS affiliate, WIFR-LD 23. Until 2017, WIFR was a Freeport-based full-power TV station. Gray placed the original WIFR in the FCC’s spectrum auction, and it netted $50,060,965 from giving up the spectrum.
At the time, a channel-sharing agreement was in place. However, that was scratched in favor of a low-power facility on the same transmitter tower. Then came the Quincy Media, Inc., merger, which led to the transfer of control of NBC-affiliated WREX-13 in Rockford to Allen Media Broadcasting. As part of that divestiture, due to local ownership caps enforced by the FCC, a digital subchannel linked to WREX was put to use as a simulcast home of WIFR.
Now, the new station — at a cost of $4.48 million — could eliminate this need.
Slightly more money — $4,648,000, to be exact — is being put into the birth of a brand-new TV station in Flagstaff, Ariz. Astute industry observers know that Flagstaff is tied to the vast Phoenix DMA to the south, and this presumably assists Gray with over-the-air coverage of its two TV stations obtained through the Meredith Local Media merger — CBS affiliate KPHO-5 and KTVK-3, the latter of which is an unaffiliated news-heavy channel billed as “Arizona’s Family.”
For $1,345,000, Gray is also adding a station in Yuma, Ariz., which also serves El Centro, Calif. Here, NBC and FOX affiliates are owned by Cox Media Group; Fox, ABC and The CW Network are delivered via a station owned by News-Press & Gazette Co., which also controls the Telemundo affiliate serving the market. As such, bringing the market access to “Arizona’s Family,” making it viewable statewide (outside of the Tucson DMA, at least for now), appears to be a plan of action for Gray.
Meanwhile, Gray is paying $182,000 for a new TV station CP in Eagle River, Wisc., a small town due north of Wausau; and $150,000 for a TV CP for Winnemucca, Nev., a city to the east of Reno along Interstate 80.
THE OTHER KEY PLAYERS
For Radiant Life Ministries, its future TV station will be licensed to Alexandria, Minn., located to the northwest of St. Cloud via Interstate 94.
BEK is to build a facility in Grand Forks, N.D., while Marquee’s TVs station-to-be are licensed to Sheridan, Wyo., to the southeast of Billings, Mont.; Price, Utah, to the far southeast of Salt Lake City; and Walla Walla, Wash.
Ventura Broadcasting is adding a new TV CP in Vernal, Utah, in the northeast corner on the east side of the Wasatch Front.
That leaves Weigel’s TV-49. It is grabbing facilities in the following cities, for the following winning bids:
- Ely, Nev.: $150,000
- Tonopah, Nev.: $2,884,000
- Carlsbad, N. Mex.: $471,000
- Silver City, N. Mex.: $389,000 (paid twice for two separate stations in this city)
- Wittenberg, Wisc.: $4,648,000
Tonopah is halfway between Reno and Las Vegas, Nev.
Wittenberg is to the east of Wausau, Wisc.
