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TheBuzz Erika Engle |
Auction of new FM radio
stations gets under way
early in a.m.
HAWAII broadcaster John Detz does not keep regular hours. Not with an auction of new FM radio licenses that started at 3 a.m. yesterday by the Federal Communications Commission.Round one of the auction opened with 456 bidders, including Detz, bidding on 288 future FM radio stations around America, including 10 in Hawaii. Detz is the only local broadcaster bidding on the local stations. Bids are submitted live online or via telephone.
The Hawaii FMs were highly sought and after two rounds of bidding, licenses in Nanakuli, Kaunakakai, Wahiawa, Kihei and Haiku fetched five of the highest 10 bids in yesterday's auction action.
The $336,000 bid for the Nanakuli license by Wyoming-based Kona Coast Radio LLC was the highest of all bids placed yesterday.
By contrast, the same company's bid of $2,100 was the highest for a license in Chugwater, Wyo.
The auction will resume today and will continue until the stations are sold. Winners will not be announced until the stations are all sold.
"We're still in there and are continuing to move forward throughout the different echelons," said Detz, president of Maui-based Visionary Related Entertainment LLC.
East Coast-based broadcasters can make the auction part of a regular workday, but in the 808 state, Detz has had to alter his lifestyle to be up and running by oh-dark-thirty.
"You have to be alert," he said. It reminds him of working nights in radio many years ago.
Back in the day, one could run on fumes, powered by coffee and No Doz, but Detz doesn't recommend it. With so much at stake during the bidding, one slip on the keyboard could cost millions of dollars, or a missed round of bidding could disqualify the company from the rest of the auction.
He'll be turning in early until the auction is pau.
Happy anniversary
Fil Slash is marking 11 years as a radio personality on KPOI-FM 105.9. Of course that station, owned by Visionary Related Entertainment, hasn't been on the air that long. Slash was at the previous incarnation of KPOI at 97.5 FM, but the KPOI call letters used to be assigned to the AM dial, when late Star-Bulletin columnist Dave Donnelly was one of the original "Poi Boys." That was WAY before Slash's time, but he, like the original Poi Boys of yore, still does live broadcasts.