A full power and a Class A station have run afoul of FCC rules and regulations regarding children’s programming requirements. The violations and fines were different in each case, and we suspect that the Class A will be thrilled to simply pay a fine.
KTEL-LP Albuquerque is the Class A, and KTSF San Francisco is the full power station.
The Class A is owned by Ramar Communications. It was nailed for failing to file five quarters worth of children’s programming reports with the FCC, and neglecting to mention that failure on its latest renewal application.
Each violation was hit for $3K, resulting in a total notice of liability of $6K.
Lincoln Broadcasting’s KTSF failed to display the E/I symbol on programming it was using to fulfill its educational/informational programming requirement. The fine for that is $8K, but it was reduced to $3K thanks to a discount for a record of compliance with FCC rules. It is also a forfeiture order.
RBR+TVBR observation: Many of you will no doubt remember a few years back when the FCC seemed to be using children’s television violations as an excuse to bust Class A television stations down to LPTV status.
Most Class As are auction-eligible; LPTVs are not. We should probably start calling them Class $A stations.
The starting point for bidding for spectrum currently used by KTEP-LP stands to being somewhere in the $100M-$200M range, depending on whether you use an FCC formula or EOBC formula to measure the potential value.
So we would gladly pay $6K to keep out options open when the incentive auction bidding kicks off.
Bidding for KTSF spectrum, for the record, and in view of its major market home, stands to begin at $425M or $600M give or take and depending on whose numbers you use.
In both cases, the estimates are starting points from which the price will likely diminish.
