The Office of Economics and Analytics (OEA) and the Media Bureau of the FCC have identified 114 applicants that are qualified to bid in “Auction 109,” the Commission’s plan to offer four AM construction permits that will replace deleted facilities in St. Louis and some 135 FM construction permits.
However, anyone hoping to bid on a facility in the Catskills region of New York is out of luck.
Bidding in Auction 109 is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, July 27, and one FM construction permit — MMFM1229-A, Channel 296A in Livingston Manor, N.Y., has been removed from the Auction 109 inventory and will not be available in this auction.
This would have established a Class A signal at 107.1 MHz in an area including the Sullivan County cities of Liberty and Monticello.
It also would have raised a first-adjacency query for some, as Townsquare Media’s WRWD-FM 107.3 in Highland can be heard in parts of Sullivan County.
Why was the FM CP deleted from the auction?
The Media Bureau determined that the allotment for MM-FM1229-A was not properly added to the Table of FM Allotments and was therefore erroneously included in the Auction 109 inventory.
Of the total number of applicants, 27.8% were non-qualified, the FCC notes.
All qualified bidders in Auction 109 will have the opportunity to participate in a mock
auction on Friday, July 23.
The mock auction bidding schedule is as follows:
Mock Round 1 10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. ET
Mock Round 2 12:00 p.m. – 12:30 p.m. ET
Mock Round 3 2:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. ET
Mock Round 4 3:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. ET
Mock Round 5 4:00 p.m. – 4:15 p.m. ET
Of the applicants determined to be “not qualified to bid,” JVC Media, Bonneville International Corp., Red Wolf Broadcasting and Saga Communications can be found on the list.
These companies either did not submit an upfront payment by the June 16 cutoff date, or were determined to lack qualification for another undisclosed reason.
