FM Auction draws poorly - Maybe a plus for wireless?

[Ty Ford]

 

On Jul 27, 2015, at 4:01 AM, Tom Taylor Now <RadioNews@TomTaylorNow.com> wrote:

 

One-quarter of the FMs in the current FCC auction aren’t drawing bids.

Bad news for the FCC, because 35 of the 131 construction permits on the auction block aren’t getting any interest, and some of them were already holdovers from a previous auction. Ranking the standings after two days and eight rounds - Three future FMs attract bidding over $100,000 in Auction 98. Those are the construction permit for a new Class C3 licensed to Heber Springs, Arkansas, where Larry Crain, Sr. is holding a “Provisionally Winning Bid” at $230,000. The high bid for a new C2 at Columbia, Missouri was made by Iris Media (led by Joseph Uzoaru) at $215,000. And the high bid for a new Class C at Toquerville, Utah is held by Craig Hanson’s Redrock Broadcasting at $180,000. After qualifying to bid on all 131 CPs, Entercom merely dabbled, and doesn’t have any Provisionally Winning Bids. “K-Love” parent Educational Media Foundation has four – in Louisiana (Rosepine), Mississippi (Cleveland), Oregon (Manzanita) and Wyoming (Baggs). Many of this auction’s CPs are in Texas, and Mekaddesh Group (Mary Guel) apparently has six of them. Veteran John Barger’s Victoria RadioWorks and Bill McCutchen’s Waco Radio Group both seem to be getting three. Check the bidding here.

Great! Give those frequencies back to the professional wireless mic community!

 

Regards,

 

Ty Ford

[caleymw]

Interesting. I haven't read through for the specifics, but if a TV channel goes for $200K, I would fantasize about a group buy of spectrum -- between the film industry, LiveNation, the sports market, and the theatre industry, maybe we could get some UHF real estate in NYC and LA! Of course, bandwidth in those markets would probably be much more expensive. Just a wild pipedream obviously...

On a more realistic note, that is encouraging news. Thanks for sharing.