Last-Minute Efforts Underway to Save Some Low-Power TV Permits

More than a decade after they first applied for the stations, some companies that hold construction permits for new low-power TV licenses are making last-minute efforts to keep the permits active before a July deadline.

The FCC granted thousands of permits for new LPTV stations in the early 2010s but then waived its usual three-year construction deadline due to the impending spectrum auction, saying it would be unfair to force companies to build stations that could’ve been forced off the air by the repack. The unbuilt stations then quietly sat in FCC databases for years.

With the repack completed last year, the FCC set a construction deadline of July 13, 2021 for the outstanding LPTV permits. Earlier this year, it opened a window for permittees to seek a one-time six-month extension, and requests from many stations were documented on this site in weekly FCC Monitor reports.

With the deadline for extension requests now passed, a few more stations are seeking waivers of the deadline as they are sold in groups for prices comparable with what you’d pay for a new SUV.

Once such deal is the recently-filed sale of K32OH-D (Duluth), W26FD-D (La Crosse), W34EO-D (Wausau), and a permit in Texas from DTV America/HC2 Broadcasting to My Central Valley for $30,000. The buyer operates a low-power MyNetworkTV station in California.

Elsewhere, Lowcountry 34 Media is buying the construction permit for K31LP-D (St. Cloud), as well as permits in northern lower Michigan and Arkansas, from DTV America for $50,000.

In both deals, the stations involved did not seek extensions before the deadline but are now seeking waivers to get construction extensions until January.

K31LP-D would also eventually have to seek a new channel because KARE (Minneapolis) has a construction permit to use channel 31.

Meanwhile, as reported here previously, some stations have requested tolling. They include K15MQ-D (Bismarck), which requested an extension until Sept. 30 and also got its permit downgraded from 15kW to 850 Watts.

Elsewhere, Frank Digital Broadcasting was granted a downgrade for K31MP-D (Grand Forks) from 15kW to 300 Watts and still faces a July 13 deadline.

Other sales involving permits that did meet the deadline for requesting extensions include Gray TV’s purchase of stations in Wisconsin, a North Dakota TV station’s purchase of permits, and the transfer of permits in St. Cloud and Bismarck.