In one of the first decisions to come from recently appointed FCC Office of Economics and Analytics Auctions Division Chief Margaret Wiener, co-signed by Audio Division Chief Al Shuldiner, a Wisconsin-based radio licensee has lost its bid for a waiver it sought on a final payment deadline in an FM construction permit auction.
The request for a waiver was made by Results Broadcasting Rhinelander, which operates as a segment of Heartland Communications Group.
The stations currently in this group are Class C1 WCYE-FM 93.7 in Three Lakes, Wisc., and Class C3 WNWX-FM 96.5 in Rhinelander.
Petitioning as Results Broadcasting Rhinelander, the licensee wanted the Commission to waive the final payment deadline for two winning bids for construction permits in the Auction of FM Broadcast Construction Permits, “Auction 94.”
Why? Results failed to make its required payments for the permits by the deadline established under sections 1.2109(a) and 73.5003 of the Commission’s rules.
This waiver request was submitted on July 24, 2013.
On Thursday (10/3), the FCC finally acted.
Nope, it said.
“Results has not met the standard for granting a waiver because it has failed to demonstrate special circumstances that warrant deviation from the application of the final payment rule, and that such deviation would serve the public interest,” Wiener and Shuldiner declared.
Results filed its short-form application to participate in Auction 94, and timely submitted an
upfront payment in the amount of $11,500. Subsequently, Results was determined to be a qualified bidder, meaning that it was eligible to participate in the bidding.
Bidding in Auction 94 began on April 23, 2013, and ended on May 6, 2013. On May 14, 2013, Commission staff released the Auction 94 Closing Public Notice, which announced the close of Auction 94 and identified the winning bidders.
The Auction 94 Closing Public Notice indicated that Results was the winning bidder for two FM broadcast construction permits, MM-FM1061-C3 (Tomahawk, Wisc.) and MM-FM969-A (Crandon, Wisc.), with net winning bids totaling $35,000.
Final payments would be due by June 12, 2013; the late payment deadline for final payments, the last date by which a winning bidder could pay the balance of its winning bid along with the late fee would be June 26, 2013. On July 24 of that year, a long-form application needed to be submitted to the Commission.
What did Results do? On July 24, 2013, Results submitted a payment in the amount of the remaining balance of its winning bids along with an additional amount equal to 5% of the amount due and filed its long-form applications. That same day, Results filed a request for waiver of the Commission’s final payment deadline.
It appears asking for a waiver after failing to abide by the Commission’s rules isn’t permissible, even if Results’ explanation was that VP Donald Grassman mistakenly assumed that final payments would be due on the same day as the long-form
applications; it just more than six years for the FCC to confirm this.
Even though Grassman’s misunderstanding is “strictly inadvertent and the result of a horrible mistake,” the Commission offered no leniency … even as it has been sitting on the matter for more than six years.
What’s next for Results?
The result is a default of its competitive bidding, and a dismissal of its application for the CPs.
There’s also a default payment, but the FCC can’t determine it just yet.
“We will assess an interim default payment owed by Results, amounting to 20% of its defaulted net winning bids for MM-FM1061-C3 and MM-FM969-A or $7,000,” Wiener and Shuldiner ruled.
