With Auction 91 fast approaching, the Commission has frozen, effective immediately (i.e., as of December 3, 2010): (a) all applications proposing to modify the reference coordinates of any of the 144 FM channels scheduled to hit the blocks in Auction 91 (currently slated to kick off next April 27); and (b) all petitions or counterproposals that propose any change in channel, class, community or reference coordinates for any of those 144 channels. (Can’t remember what channels are up for sale in Auction 91? Click here for the current list.) This freeze will remain in effect until the day after the deadline for Auction 91 long form applications – which will likely be sometime in mid-Summer, at the earliest.
The Commission also announced that it will not accept any commercial or noncommercial minor mod applications between January 31 and February 10, 2011. That’s the filing window for short form (Form 175) applications for Auction 91.
These freezes are standard operating procedure when it comes to broadcast auctions. The goal is to avoid the creation of any conflicts (unforeseeable or otherwise) with auction proposals that could muck up the auction process.
For more information on the auction itself, see our related post here.
