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Spectrum Auction Results


tyrannical bastard

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So is LocusPoint is on a selling spree, since they didn't sold all of their spectrum in the auction?

 

They're already sold two other stations to CNZ, sold another station in Detroit, and they're involved with a lawsuit with another broadcaster in California.

 

And now they're selling its Orlando Class-A LP station, WRCF to Univision for $2.5M.

 

Serve them right for buying all these scraps hoping for a big pay day, but ended up not getting shit. Ha-ha-ha!

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I'll tell you another station that didn't sell its spectrum at all. KVOS. That independent station in the Washington State-British Columbia border that was sold to OTA Broadcasting hoping to get a big payday. Now I wonder if it will get resold again (along with KFFV).

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And finally, there might be a clear reason why Gray bought an LP in Rockford.

 

Last year, Gray bought digital station W22EE-D. Since Rockford is adjacent to Chicago, Gray sucessfully sold its full-power spectrum of CBS station WIFR for over $50M ($50,060,965). Now W22EE-D has an STA app (PDF) to light up the LP on WIFR's channel 41 allotment (similar to how Gray wanted to light up an LP on WAGT's stick).

 

On the auction proceed release, it said it will channel-share, but with three other full-powers, and it appears each of them are using most of its bandwidth with subchannels, it would be a bit difficult to find a FP that would give them enough bandwidth to pipe the CBS stream.

 

So could WIFR's full power signal get replaced with an LP?

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The only thing I can think of Univision wanting WRCF would be to convert the station into a fill-in translator for WVEN since their main signal is in Orange City (and has lower power than the other stations in the area), even though WVEN is owned by Entravision.

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Some news out of North Carolina. Lockwood sold WCWG's spectrum in the auction and it has now been revealed that it will share with WXII, and from looking at the agreement, it looks like they are also entering into an SSA with Hearst.

 

Wow. Interesting. Looks like the WXII 10:00pm newscast could be moving there if that's the case.

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And finally, there might be a clear reason why Gray bought an LP in Rockford.

 

Last year, Gray bought digital station W22EE-D. Since Rockford is adjacent to Chicago, Gray sucessfully sold its full-power spectrum of CBS station WIFR for over $50M ($50,060,965). Now W22EE-D has an STA app (PDF) to light up the LP on WIFR's channel 41 allotment (similar to how Gray wanted to light up an LP on WAGT's stick).

 

So follow up. From this STA PDF, it states that they're expected to surrender the license of WIFR-DT on May 31 (not sure if that's the definitive date because were so close to that date, so I'm guessing it could be later?) Then that signal will operate as W22EE-D (or WIFR-LD?) on RF 41.

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So follow up. From this STA PDF, it states that they're expected to surrender the license of WIFR-DT on May 31 (not sure if that's the definitive date because were so close to that date, so I'm guessing it could be later?) Then that signal will operate as W22EE-D (or WIFR-LD?) on RF 41.

 

Okay. The FCC approved the W22EE-D STA to RF 41 today.

 

Unrelated to this, they also approved KYCW-LD's STA to operate RF 19 (KGHZ (formerly KSPR)'s full-power allotment, which its license will be surrendered, effectively closing its TV books on Schurz). KYTV post-repack allotment will be RF 19.

 

And WJZ is probably one of the first major TV stations to get the greenlight of its post-repack allotment. They're moving from RF 13 to RF 11.

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So follow up. From this STA PDF, it states that they're expected to surrender the license of WIFR-DT on May 31 (not sure if that's the definitive date because were so close to that date, so I'm guessing it could be later?) Then that signal will operate as W22EE-D (or WIFR-LD?) on RF 41.

 

That would be a ratings killer though, but it is kinda understandable given the proximity to Chicago. I know WBND does it - how do they do in the ratings?

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That would be a ratings killer though, but it is kinda understandable given the proximity to Chicago. I know WBND does it - how do they do in the ratings?

 

Actually, they aren't going to lose that much coverage, since WIFR currently operates at 100 kw, which provides a coverage area not that much larger than a 15 kw LPTV. In fact, here's a RabbitEars map showing the coverage areas of WIFR and what will presumably become WIFR-LD. As you can see, WIFR will only lose coverage in the outlying areas of the market.

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That would be a ratings killer though, but it is kinda understandable given the proximity to Chicago. I know WBND does it - how do they do in the ratings?

 

WBND's contour almost mirror the contours of its full-powers (WBND's LP mirrors WSBT's FP, but WSJV has farther coverage in the fringes).

 

As for the ratings, WBND is the underdogs behind the top two (WSBT & WNDU).

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Not sure where the correct place to post (or if it has been mentioned) this considering the one ATSC 3.0 thread was a rant. One thing that seems to be missed during the spectrum auction and the conversion of ATSC 3.0 was the notice of proposed rule making requiring that broadcasters to continue broadcasting an ATSC 1.0 stream.

 

In layman turns any station that converts its signal to ATSC 3.0 must find another broadcaster in the market to stay behind and broadcast a ATSC 1.0 stream. Of course the ATSC 1.0 station can still broadcast a ATSC 3.0 channel by using capacity on another station. Additionally there isn't a requirement for their to be a host within a market. Plus there likely won't be the capacity for more than two decent quality HD streams meaning the signals will likely need to be converted to SD widescreen. Duopolies likely won't be affected by this proposal because they can run station in both standards and likely won't suffer any noticeable signal degradation.

 

As an added kicker the notice mentions that they won't require TV manufacturers to include an ATSC 3.0 tuner in new sets AND that they won't have must carry status. This means that MVPDs (cable/satellite/fiber) won't have to rebroadcast any ATSC 3.0 signal or channel.

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Okay. Follow-up on the Gray switches to the LP.

 

First, KGHZ (formerly KSPR (TV)) appears to have ceased to be (the callsign is longer listed on the FCC records). After over 15 months (since the original deal ended) Schurz as a TV entity has closed its books for good. The company still owns a slew of newspapers, including its flagship South Bend Tribune.

 

Schurz.

 

In its place is a new LP signal on the same tower and frequency (albeit at lower power on RF 19) is KYCW-LD (formerly K25BD-D). They are using the virtual channel 25 (not 15, as what KGHZ used in its final days).

 

What's interesting is that a user from another board said that one of the channels on the new station is on 25.3. But on KY3's website, it only list the networks each station (KYTV, KSPR-LD, KYCW-LD & even the Branson Visitors station K17DL-D) carries, and not the channel numbers for each subchannel. The CW (either SD or HD) is carried on all four channels.

 

KYTV

NBC-HD

ABC-HD

CW-SD

KSPR-LD

ABC-HD

CW-HD

Antenna TV-SD

KYCW-LD

CW-HD

Cozi TV-SD

KY3 24-7

 

K17DL-D

BVTV

CW-HD

KY3 24-7

 

Also, WAGT-CD got their greenlight on its STA app on RF 30. The switch (I mean "power decrease", along with WIFR(-LD)) should be in effect by now; if it hasn't already happened.

 

EDIT: 6/1 5am/CT: KGHZ & full-power WIFR calls are no longer listed on the FCC query. WAGT's FP calls are still listed at this time.

 

So unreleated to this, News-Press & Gazette's new CBS affiliation in St. Joseph will carry the calls KCJO-LD in lieu of KBJO-LD. The new affiliation launches tomorrow (6/1).

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There's no surprise who's acquiring WBIN. Full price of the license assets, $16.7M ($16,764,133.70).

 

The channel-share agreement is included.

 

So if I read this right (you read this FCC stuff much better than I do), WBIN will be acquired by Univision Communications, Inc. ?

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