For a while there, the FCC was pruning the roster of Class A low power stations by busting them down to LPTV status, generally for failure to adhere to the rules and regulations. Here is the first such case we’ve seen lately.
The station is KLMB-LP El Dorado AR, owned by Kingdom Broadcasting Inc.
It’s in the Monroe LA-El Dorado Nielsen DMA
The basic situation for Class As is this – they are afforded certain protections not provided to LPTVs, but in exchange for that, to the extent possible, they are subject to the same rules and regulations as full power television stations.
In the case of KLMB, it has simply failed to live up to its reporting obligations, which in turn leaves a question mark at to whether or not it’s living up to other obligations.
It is likely that the failure to turn in required reports (and to fill its online public file) would be enough to start this proceeding. But the lack of information has made it impossible to determine if the station is meeting its obligations regarding minimum service, minimum locally generated programming and minimal informational/educations children’s programming.
The station has been ordered to show cause why it should not be degraded from a Class A to an LPTV.
RBR-TVBR observation: This is not expected to be an incentive auction hotbed.
Nevertheless, Greenhill 1 noted that a Class A station might be able to earn $1M at auction there.
The EOBC starting points for the station, from whence the prices go down, are about $12.5M using the FCC formula and about $62.6M using one of EOBC’s formulas.
There’s no way of knowing what if anything this station might earn if it is put up for auction, but if it’s an LPTV, it will never find out. So there’s a lot more at stake here than a possible fine.
