So, you thought you’d get in to broadcast television ownership via Auction 104?
A change in plans is now necessary. The FCC just scrapped its plans to conduct the low-power station swap meet.
In a notice issued late Friday, the ncentive Auction Task Force and Media Bureau (MB), in conjunction with the Office of Economics and Analytics, confirmed that Auction 104 is now cancelled.
Until Friday, Auction 104 was scheduled to auction certain low power television and television translator construction permits for which mutually exclusive applications were received from LPTV/translator stations displaced as a result of the post-broadcast incentive auction transition.
Under the procedures established for this auction, applicants were permitted to enter into and submit settlement agreements that would resolve mutual exclusivity until the July 22 short-form application deadline.
It turns out that the Media Bureau’s Video Division has accepted and approved dismissal requests or settlement proposals resolving the mutual exclusivity for all of the available permits.
As such, the need to conduct bidding via an auction no longer exists.
On June 18, the Video Division resolved mutual exclusivity (MX) with action on the two LPTV displacement applications that comprised MX group 35, in Bakersfield. This resulted in the grant of an application filed by Cocola Broadcasting Companies and nix of an application from Venture Technologies Group.
On July 18, MX group 11, in Miami, issues were resolved with a grant of an application to Paging Systems Inc. and KRCA License LLC. This is a repeater tied to WGEN-8 that KRCA parent Liberman Broadcasting Inc. is selling to a local Cuban American community figure.
