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TheBuzz
Erika Engle
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Permit to build FM radio station goes up for bid in January
ONLY ONE Hawaii FM radio station construction permit is
up for grabs in the Federal Communications Commission's auction in January.
It's a leftover from previous years, but represents perhaps one of the last chances to build a brand-new island FM station from the ground up.
The permit is for a station allocated by the FCC to Kihei, Maui, that went unsold during Auction 37 in 2004 and Auction 62 last January.
The opening bid for the Kihei station will be $90,000, and anybody wanting in on the auction has to pony up an upfront payment and bone up by reading a lot of FCC legalese. It ain't eBay.
But the Kihei permit has definitely sparked the interest of Indiana-based broadcaster Bill "Shirk" Poorman, a partner in one of George Hochman's Kauai-based broadcasting and publishing companies.
"(Poorman has) expressed real strong interest," Hochman said, though "he hasn't told me for sure that he's going to (bid)."
Under Hochman Hawaii-Three Inc., Hochman, Poorman and another partner Bill Mays are building a station licensed to Kahului, Maui, at 92.5 on the dial. The two Bills of Indiana-based Shirk-Mays LLC won the yet-unnamed station's construction permit with a bid of $518,000 in January.
Maui-based Visionary Related Entertainment LLC had bid $799,000 on the Kihei permit in January, but withdrew its bid and was assessed $23,970 by the FCC for the withdrawal. It had also withdrawn a bid of just under $1.8 million for the permit in 2004. In that auction, Visionary was the winning bidder for permits in Kaunakakai, Molokai. and Kurtistown on the Big Island for just under $1.4 million and $428,000, respectively.
Visionary President John Detz declined to say whether the company would again bid for the Kihei station.
Pacific Radio Group Inc., also based on Maui, won't be joining the auction fray.
"We're already at our maximum -- four FMs and two AMs on Maui," said Chuck Bergson, president and chief executive officer. The company also owns stations on the Big Island.
The FCC is also looking for public input on the rules and procedures for Auction 68, with comment due by Sept. 6.
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin. Call 529-4747, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210, Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached at:
eengle@starbulletin.com