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FCC Issues TV Spectrum Auction Results

The FCC today announced both the winners of the spectrum auction and the station winners of cash.

There are surprises

FCC LogoSomehow it seems just wrong to have such classic stations as WNBC-TV New York go dark, taking their $214-million auction winnings with them. Just so you don’t get too teary-eyed, they will be able to channel share with their superior signal from Comcast O&O sister WNJU. Comcast stations in Chicago and Philadelphia will also shut down and multiplex with their NBC sister stations. For more information, see the FCC, Broadcasting & Cable and TV Technology sites.

The biggest spenders in the auction:

  • T-Mobile at $8-billion,
  • Dish Network (“ParkerB.com”) second at $6.2-billion
  • Comcast (“CC Wireless Investment”) at $1.7-billion
  • AT&T at $910-million

Interestingly, Verizon did not participate.

In San Diego DMA 28

Locally, the big money winners were KSEX-LD getting over $34.7-million and K35DG (UCSD-TV) getting $24-million to each shut down their operations. Also,

  • KBNT-CD will move from channel 25 to 24
  • KNSD-TV 40 will move from channel 40 to 17
  • KPBS-TV will move from channel 30 to 19
  • KSWB-TV will move from channel 19 to 26

San Diego was assigned Phase Two in the repacking process. This means stations must complete new construction and begin broadcasting on their newly assigned channels by April 12, 2019.

You may ask yourself why make unnecessary moves? Why not just have KPBS take channel 26 and KSWB stay on 19? It has to do with the pre-determined rules on how stations were going to shuffle. Preference is given to a channel change over a loss in population coverage. KSWB was going to lose a thousand or so viewers, so bingo, they get a new channel along with a new antenna, filters, and possibly a transmitter funded by auction proceeds.

Low power UHF broadcasters on channels 38 – 50 like KSDY-LD will have to wait until the FCC opens a window allowing change applications and hope they can get spectrum. There is no guarantee and no compensation offered.

Meanwhile In Los Angeles DMA 2

If you were wondering how LA was going to fit in all those TV stations, wonder no more. Most are going to shut down for good. Ethnic viewers may lose out in the short-term, though ATSC 3.0 will allow stations to multicast like never before, and TV cable with switched digital service and FTA satellite serve those constituents well.

  • KAZA-TV will go off-air for $91.1-million
  • KBEH will go off-air for $146-million
  • KCBS 43 will move to channel 31
  • KDOC-TV Anaheim will get $66.6-million to move to channel 12
  • KESQ-TV 42 Palm Springs will move to channel 28
  • KILM will go off-air for $76.5-million
  • KJLA will go off-air for $135.5-million
  • KLCS (LA Unified School District) will go off-air for $130.5-million
  • KMIR 46 Palm Springs will move to channel 26
  • KNET-CD will go off-air for $53.7-million
  • KNLA-CD 50 will move to channel 32
  • KOCE-TV 48 (PBS) will go off-air for $138-million
  • KPXN-TV 38 will move to channel 24
  • KRCA will go off-air for $142-million
  • KSFV-CD 23 will go off-air for $64-million
  • KTLA 31 will move to channel 35
  • KVCR-DT 26 (PBS San Bernardino-Riverside) will move to channel 5 for $157-million
  • KWHY-TV 42 will move to channel 4

Not all low power stations are listed for the Los Angeles DMA.

Local News

Two Engineers Making the Transition with CW6

Jeff Latimer

Two TV Maintenance Engineers have moved to KFMB-TV from XETV Bay City Television just ahead of the closure of the Bay City facility down the street in Kearny Mesa.

Jeff Latimer had served as Broadcast Engineer and Facilities Manager at Bay City Television since 2012. He started March 6 as Broadcast Maintenance Engineer at KFMB Stations.

Mark Goodman

Mark Goodman had served as Director of Engineering at Bay City Television since 2013. He started March 12 as Broadcast Maintenance Engineer at KFMB Stations. He will continue some part-time work at XETV in the transition period. Mark started with Bay City in January 2006.

KFMB-TV 8 will be taking over the CW Network affiliation contract and the CW6 identity in San Diego from XETV Tijuana, which decided to close its U.S. operations at the end of May. The last day of news programming at XETV was Friday, March 31.

KFMB is also hiring news, operations, sales, and programming personnel in anticipation of the CW affiliation.

Local News

Entercom Takeover of CBS Radio Progresses

Last week, the FCC recorded Entercom’s applications to transfer several of their stations into a trust for the purpose of divesting them due to exceeding the maximum stations allowed within a given metropolitan market.

Entercom, which owns four FM stations in the San Diego market, announced an agreement to merge with CBS Radio on February 2, 2017. CBS owns two FM stations in San Diego. In order to conform to the FCC limit of five FMs, KSOQ 92.1 MHz Escondido was offered into a divestiture trust for later sale.

Similarly, the new group asked the FCC to put into the same divestiture group KSWD 100.3 and KCBS-FM 93.1 in Los Angeles, though only one will likely sell.

In San Diego, two full-time engineers work for CBS Radio and two for Entercom.

Local News

Area TV Stations to Switch Network Affiliations

A number of San Diego and Tijuana stations have changed, or are changing soon their network affiliations for various reasons.

The CW Network is moving from XETV (physical channel 23) to KFMB 8 May 31 as a cost-savings move for Televisa. The CW 6 news operation discontinues March 31, though KFMB is expected to re-start CW6 news on June 1 and take over the channel 6 cable and satellite slots with the CW6 brand.

Galavision is moving from XHBJ 44 to XETV 23 May 31. Galavision is owned by Televisa, which also owns XETV.

Azteca America has moved to XHDTV 47 from KZSD analog 39, but is expected to eventually land at XHAS 34.

Currently, KZSD 39 is duplicating KGTV 10, but is expected to leave the air during repacking.

Telemundo is moving to KNSD 40 from XHAS 34 on July 1. This has been foreseen for some time since KNSD’s owner, Comcast NBC Universal, also owns the Telemundo network.