Auction 109: AM and FM Broadcast

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

• Key Dates
• Construction Permits Offered
• Permissible Operations
• License Period and Construction Requirements
• New Entrant Bidding Credits
• Licensing Rules 

Key Dates

Construction Permits Offered

Auction 109 will offer four construction permits in the AM Broadcast service for stations in the St. Louis radio market and 135 construction permits in the FM Broadcast service for stations in various locations throughout the United States. 

AM Construction Permits.  Auction 109 will offer four construction permits in the AM broadcast service for four previously licensed AM stations in the St. Louis radio market, the license renewals of which were dismissed with prejudice in a hearing before the Commission’s Administrative Law Judge and the call signs deleted.

FM Construction Permits.  Auction 109 will also offer 135 construction permits in the FM broadcast service.  The construction permits to be auctioned include 129 FM permits that had previously been listed in the inventory for Auction 106, as well as six additional permits. 

Permissible Operations

AM Broadcast – A station licensed for the dissemination of radio communications intended to be received by the public and operated in the AM broadcast band.

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.

License Period and Construction Requirements

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 CFR § 73.3598).  Licenses will be issued for an eight-year term.

New Entrant Bidding Credits

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 21-361.  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 interests in other media of mass communications that are attributable to the applicant and its attributable interest holders:  

• A 35% bidding credit will be given to a winning bidder if it, and/or any individual or entity with an attributable interest in the winning bidder, has no attributable interest in any other media of mass communications, as defined in 47 CFR § 73.5008;
• A 25% bidding credit will be given to a winning bidder if it, and/or any individual or entity with an attributable interest in the winning bidder, has an attributable interest in no more than three mass media facilities, as defined in 47 CFR § 73.5008;

No bidding credit will be given if any of the commonly owned mass media facilities serve the same area as the broadcast station proposed in the auction, as defined in 47 CFR § 73.5007(b), or if the winning bidder, and/or any individual or entity with an attributable interest in the winning bidder, has attributable interests in more than three mass media facilities. 

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 application filing deadline (see “Key Dates”).  Events occurring after the short-form application filing deadline, such as the acquisition of an attributable interest in a medium of mass communications, may cause diminishment or loss of the bidding credit.

Licensing Rules

47 CFR Part 73