WHDO-DC Orlando had a litany of violations on its rap sheet when filings were made to sell it out of receivership back in early 2013. An attempt was made to cancel or at the very least defer the resultant fines.
Western Pacific Broadcast applied to acquire the station for all of $10 pursuant to the filings.
The former owner, Digital TV of Orlando, was also involved in the attempt to get out of the fine.
The station was missing issues/program lists from its public file, had omissions in its children’s programming filings, and also had been off-air for the better part of two solid years – all but one week.
The fine for all this: $20,000.
The parties believe that: “(1) the forfeiture should be cancelled as the Commission has held payment of a forfeiture by a receiver, when parties responsible for violation no longer holds any interest in the station, does not serve the public interest; and (2) in the alternative, if the forfeiture is not cancelled, to defer payment until after the assignment of station WHDO-CD is final and is consummated.”
The FCC refers to Western Pacific as WP Stations in the proceeding.
Addressing the issues raised, the FCC responded, “While we recognize the line of cases cited by the Parties, here WP Stations, through its parent company Richland Towers, has agreed to pay the forfeiture amount on behalf of Digital TV upon consummation of the assignment of WHDO-CD to WP Stations. With the assignment of station WHDO-CD to WP stations, assets are now available to pay the forfeiture amount. Furthermore, unlike the line of cases cited by Parties, Richland towers, parent company of WP Stations, is the creditor that sought judgment to place Digital TV under receivership. As such, WP Stations had full knowledge of the pending forfeiture amount at the time of the assignment and consummation of the transaction. Finally, Parties have not submitted financial documentation demonstrating an inability to pay, as required for the Commission to consider such a claim.”
So the fine stands in full.
RBR-TVBR observation: This station is of course likely worth far more than the $10 paid for it.
The first thing we need to know is this: The station is indeed auction eligible.
EOBC pegged the auction starting prices for this station, from whence it will proceed downward, at $219,686,487 using the FCC valuation formula and at $392,382,671 using its own formula.
The Greenhill 1 market estimates for Orlando-Daytona Beach-Melbourne peg the maximum value for a Class A station at $67,000,000 and the median value at $44,000,000.
So if it was us, we’d gladly pay the $20,000 and just to stay in the incentive auction game.
