Auction 70: FM Broadcast

General information and associated licensing parameters are provided below. Public Notices provide specific information regarding this auction. This fact sheet includes:

 

Auction No. 70 will offer 120 construction permits in the FM Broadcast service for stations throughout the United States. These construction permits are for vacant FM allotments, reflecting FM channels assigned to the FM Table of Allotments, 47 C.F.R. § 73.202(b), pursuant to the Commission’s established rulemaking procedures, and are designated for use in the indicated communities.

Pursuant to the policies established in the Broadcast Competitive Bidding First Report and Order, in this auction applicants may apply for any vacant FM allotment as specified in Public Notice DA 06-2248, Attachment A; applications specifying the same FM allotment will be considered mutually exclusive and, thus, the construction permit for that FM allotment will be awarded by competitive bidding procedures. The Commission will use an electronic simultaneous multiple round format for this auction.
 

FM Broadcast - A station employing frequency modulation in the FM broadcast band and licensed primarily for the transmission of radiotelephone emissions intended to be received by the general public.
 

A winning bidder will be awarded a construction permit, rather than a “license.” Winning bidders will then be required, within a specified time period, to construct their facilities and file an application for a “license to cover construction permit” to obtain a license for the constructed facilities (see 47 C.F.R. § 73.3598). Licenses will be issued for an eight-year term.
 

A New Entrant Bidding Credit will be available for this auction. Eligibility and application requirements for the New Entrant Bidding Credit are specified in Public Notice DA 06-2248. Applicants that qualify for the New Entrant Bidding Credit are eligible for a bidding credit that represents the amount by which a bidder’s winning bid is discounted. The size of a New Entrant Bidding Credit depends on the number of ownership interests in other media of mass communications that are attributable to the applicant and its attributable interest holders:

Bidders intending to divest a media interest or make any other ownership changes, such as resignation of positional interests, in order to avoid attribution for purposes of qualifying for the New Entrant Bidding Credit must have consummated such divestment transactions or have completed such ownership changes by no later than the short-form filing deadline (see “Key Dates”). Prospective bidders are reminded, however, that events occurring after the short-form filing deadline, such as the acquisition of attributable interests in media of mass communications, may cause diminishment or loss of the bidding credit.