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Graham Brock, Inc. |
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Broadcast Technical Consultants |
| Vol. XI, No. 12 |
R. Stuart Graham, Jr. |
| December 2004 |
Jefferson G. Brock |
| Twenty days after it began, the FCC concluded
Auction #37 for the vacant FM allotments included - all
288 of them. Based on all of the participants, the FCC
anticipates receiving $147,446,075 from the prospective
new permittees, minus discounts for some eligible new
entrants. Winners must make down payments of 20% of the
new bids by December 15th and the winners must submit
applications for construction permits by January 3,
2005. Many auction winners have already begun to file
applications, some of which propose to upgrade the
channels awarded in the auction. Final payments for the
individual channels must be made before the actual
permits are issued. The most expensive allotment was
Mesquite, Nevada, at $7,131,000. Mesquite is located
about 70 miles from Las Vegas. |
| On November 17th, the Commission released a
second list of AM applications. These were filed at
the beginning of this year and are not mutually
exclusive with any other applications filed during
the major change window. As such, these applicants
are considered “singletons” and can now submit the
formal/full application for construction permit.
Over 180 new applications could be submitted before
the January 18, 2005 deadline. From the first
singleton list, the Commission dismissed 36 AM
applicants who did not file complete 301
applications during the required filing period. |
| Dozens of pending applications, which were
filed after June 2002, were dismissed by the
Commission for failure to amend the applications
to the new 301, 314 and 315 forms that changed
as a result of the ever fluid ownership rules.
These applicants had until November 8th to
submit amendments on the new forms and show
compliance with the revised rules. Many of the
dismissed applications have requested
reinstatement with the required amendments and
those are currently under FCC staff review.
Additionally, the FCC has indicated that all
remaining pending applications, some of which
date back to the mid 1990's, must also file
amendments on the new forms, as well as provide
updated ownership information. These must be
filed by late December or face dismissal as
well. |
| As you may have heard, an Army
helicopter crashed after striking a guy wire
on an unlit TV tower. All passengers and
crew members in the helicopter were killed.
Apparently the TV tower had experienced a
lighting failure after a local storm. The
outage was reportedly made to the FAA. The
FCC requires monitoring of tower lights at
least once a day. The FAA requires tower
owners to notify them within 30 minutes of
failure of a top, steady burning light or
flashing beacon on a tower. A broadcaster
was recently fined $13,000 for failure to
light its AM tower, however, the fine was
later reduced to $10,000. |
Our offices will be
closed December 24th and December 31st. |
Wishing each of you a joyous holiday
season and
a happy, healthy and prosperous New
Year!!!! |
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