The FCC has released the list of approved bidders for the upcoming Auction 106 of up to 130 new FM licenses.
Of the 133 groups that applied to bid, 11 were rejected mostly for being a non-commercial licensee seeking an allocation that also had at least one commercial operator bidding. Another 37 bidders had their applications marked as incomplete for deficiencies that must be rectified by the March 20th upfront payment deadline.
Eighteen bidders selected all 130 potential allocations. While the amount of money the put in will limit what they bid, this move at least masks their intents from other bidders right now. Those applicants are: Matthew Butler, Laramie Guest’s Colt Comm LLC, Adam Crotty (President of Local Voice Media), Jason Wolff’s El Dorado Broadcasting, Educational Media Foundation, First Baptist Church of Riverview, John Fiori’s FMI Media, Michael Fragnito, Brian Henry, John Hearne’s Point Eleven LLC, Relevant Radio (operates Catholic Immaculate Heart Radio), Rubin Broadcasting, RxDIO.com LLC, Smile FM (owners of regional Christian AC network in Michigan), Chris Maynard’s Sonic Staffing Inc, Matthew Wesolowski’s SSR Communications (owns WYAB Pocahontas MS), Starlight Broadcasting, and Xana HD.
Going for the 107.9 requiring a minimum bid of $100,000 for the Class B allocation for 107.9 Sacramento are Bonneville, Entravision, iHeartMedia, Thomas Beihl’s Software Compositions LLC (VP of 88.1 WSJL Bessemer AL), Rahul Walia’s Touchdown Ventures Inc, and Results Radio (owns 101.5 KCCL in Sacramento market) plus potentially some of those who selected all.
Even more competitive will be the Class C3 on 104.1 in the Dallas suburb of Sanger TX with a starting bid of $75,000. Those bidders are John Hammond’s Five Star Banquets LLC (Hammond owns 1480 KNGO Dallas), Centro Familiar Cristiano’s Iglesia Pentecostal Vispera Del Fin, Tabbassum Mumtaz’s Radio Brands Inc (owner of 740 KHSE Wiley), First Dallas Media (owns 90.9 KCBI Dallas), Juan C Matos Barreto, North Texas Radio Group, Xavier Cantu’s Xavier Entertainment, and Tracy Wood.
If Rick Rambaldo’s ERIE Radio Company seeks to acquire the 100.9 Class A in Westfield NY serving Erie PA after losing his $714,000 bid in the last FCC Auction due to submitting his down payment late, they will have to outbid William Yuhnke’s Kenmore Broadcasting Communications or Vic Michael’s Mountain Community Translators plus any of the ones who selected all.
Auction 106 will begin on April 28.
FCC Actions
River Delta Unified School District’s 91.5 KRVH Rio Vista CA has been issued a Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture for four violations.
- The station had the wrong EAS monitoring station as it was receiving 1530 KFBK Sacramento and the National Weather Service on 162.55 MHz instead of the required 740 KCBS or 106.9 KFRC San Francisco.
- The station’s top of the hour ID failed to include the city of license.
- At the time of the FCC’s inspection the station did not have a designated Chief Operator and there was no letter posted with the station files designating the chief operator.
- As opposed to its authorized non-directional Jampro JLCP-2 antenna, the station had a different antenna without filing a modification application or receiving a Construction Permit for said antenna.