Editor’s note: In the article, Pam Clark is quoted as saying there are four options, however, there are only three options due to the Board’s vote on Dec. 8th. They are to sell outright, to move to high VHF, and to move to low VHF, and the amounts for these options are $166 million, $125 million, and $66 million (p. 25: WDCQ). The board passed this motion during the Dec. 8 regular meeting: “The Delta College Board of Trustees directs President Jean Goodnow, Board Chair Mike Rowley and Executive Director Pam Clark to take all actions necessary to participate in the FCC Incentive Spectrum Auction and implement the recommendations of legal counsel as set forth in their written legal opinions, on behalf of WDCQ-TV Channel 15. The Board directs President Jean Goodnow, Board Chair Mike Rowley and Executive Director Pam Clark to consider only: 1) exchanging Delta College’s UHF channel for a VHF channel; or 2) relinquishing Delta College’s television spectrum usage rights, if President Jean Goodnow, Board Chair Mike Rowley and Executive Director Pam Clark deems that it will have a positive financial and/or community benefit. To assist in decision-making, the Board directs the President that an engineering analysis be conducted to ascertain the viability of relocating WDCQ to the VHF spectrum. The Board further directs President Jean Goodnow, Board Chair Mike Rowley and the Executive Director Pam Clark to take all actions necessary to preserve the option of entering into a channel sharing agreement after the FCC Incentive Spectrum Auction.”
By Greg Horner, Senior Editor.
After 51 years of public service, Q-TV might go off the air to make room for broadband providers. The Federal Communications Commission is moving forward with its unprecedented auction to purchase broadcast spectrum from television stations. Since Delta owns and operates WDCQ-TV, the college is in a difficult position in deciding how to move forward.
In an effort to encourage local broadcasters to participate in the auction the FCC has announced starting bid valuations for stations across the country. The federal agency values WDCQ-TV at $166 million.
“It’s wonderful to have a public broadcasting station. There are only two dozen community colleges in the country that have public TV stations and we’re one of them, so we think we’re a pretty innovative place for having that,” says Pam Clark, executive director of institutional advancement. “But you have to weigh that with other value propositions – there’s been a lot of handwringing over it.”
While the FCC has assigned every station an opening bid price it’s unlikely that any of the broadcasters would receive that actual amount. Participating stations in each market will have to compete in a reverse auction to offer their spectrum rights at the lowest bid.
How low that price could go is dependent on how many stations choose to participate and how much spectrum the FCC intends to purchase—information the agency is closely guarding.
The issue is complex, but in simple terms, spectrum is the range of frequencies used by all forms of wireless communication whether it’s television, radio, broadband internet and even RC cars. Everything wireless uses frequency somewhere on the spectrum and there is only so much bandwidth available to use.
Broadband providers have been pushing for the FCC to clear up space on UHF (Ultra High Frequency) channels, which is used for broadcast television, to make room for 4G and 5G broadband. The FCC is now asking television stations across the country to decide by Jan. 12 whether they’ll participate—the federal agency will then purchase the spectrum rights from television stations and auction the rights to broadband companies.
The college Board of Trustees has granted President Jean Goodnow, Board Chair Mike Rowley and Pam Clark authority to take all action necessary to participate on behalf of Delta’s WDCQ-TV.
“This has been a difficult issue to deal with, mainly because it’s so complex,” says Goodnow, citing the technical aspects and legal requirements in dealing with the FCC. “The Board of Trustees has to look at their financial and fiduciary responsibilities to the college, [with] the wonderful reputation that public broadcasting has throughout our region, the great support we’ve received from the community and the number of children who have grown up with Delta College and Big Bird.”
WDCQ-TV has been operated by Delta College for 51 years and is a part of the Flint-Saginaw-Bay City market which includes eight other local television stations including WNEM-TV and WCMU-TV.
“The FCC really has broadcasters by the balls,” says Jim Gleason, electronic media program coordinator. “Let’s say six stations enter the auction and the FCC only wants spectrum from four of them, then they take the four lowest bids. But if the FCC wants spectrum from six then they’ll take all six stations — and when you commit fully to the auction there’s no going back.”
Gleason says that, except for losing the opportunity to work with a public broadcaster, it’s unlikely that the EM program would be affected regardless of what happens to Q-TV in the future.The auction would also have little impact on Delta’s radio station.
“I don’t envy the decision that has to be made,” says Gleason. “Do you give up an institution that has been here for over 50 years and is an important part of the community or take a big pocketful of money which would do a lot of good for college and its mission.”
Clark says that staff working for Q-TV were consulted about the decision, but that a public forum hasn’t been considered. “The station is very well thought of so if we had a forum, I can’t imagine anyone would step forward and say anything bad—I think they [the board] thought ‘how are we going to get balanced comments?’ if everyone thinks we’re going to shut it down.”
President Goodnow says the board first heard about the auction in August and didn’t have the full details until October; she says that a community meeting isn’t possible with the amount of time the FCC has given.
“We had to move as quickly as we could,” says Goodnow. “We did have the open meeting where a consultant came in and the community certainly could’ve come to it any time…we always have on our agenda the opportunity for public comment.”
The Board of Trustees held a special board meeting on Dec. 3 to discuss the situation. The agenda meeting states, “Presentation on the mandatory, regulatory changes being dictated by the FCC, which could affect Delta College’s WDCQ-TV public broadcasting station. Per the WDCQ-TV audited financial statements of June 30, 2015, this is a complex issue.”
After the Jan. deadline, the FCC will impose a mandatory quiet period to prevent collusion between participating stations. Once this period takes effect, those tasked with negotiating for their respective stations will not be able to disclose information.
“We’re not avoiding the press or the media—we’ve been told ‘you can not talk about it’,” says Goodnow. “My understanding is that it will be sometime in late 2016, when the auction has concluded, when the quiet period will end.”
Just because the college has decided to participate does not necessarily mean that WDCQ-TV will be sold or even go to auction. The college has until March 29 to decide what type of bid it’s going to make.
“[Public Broadcasting] offers educational programming to the community whether you’re a student or not—it’s outreach to all the people who pay taxes to Delta College even if they never come to our campus,” says Clark. “However, our trustees have a duty when somebody says ‘we would consider giving you $166 million dollars’ to explore it.”
According to Clark the college has four options. Delta could choose any of the following bids or all of them in moving forward.
- Option 1: Delta continues to operate Q-TV on its current spectrum and the station doesn’t go up for auction.
- Option 2: Delta puts Q-TV up for auction but bids to move the station to a VHF (Very High Frequency) channel. This option depends on the availability of VHF stations, and Clark says that a firm has been hired to examine if it’s possible. If Q-TV were to move to VHF it would still be able to provide PBS services to the area (though it’s possible some viewers might be affected) but at the cost of reducing the FCC bid price to 40 percent or 75 percent of the final offer.
- Option 3: Delta makes a deal with another television station to share a channel in the same spectrum. This would allow Q-TV to share half of the auction earnings and airtime with another station in the market. However, Clark says the possibility of the college finding a suitable partner by the Jan. 12 cutoff is unlikely.
- Option 4: Delta participates in the auction and, in the event of a purchase, relinquishes control of WDCQ-TV. The college would receive the entirety of the agreed upon final offer, but would cease operating its PBS services.
Clark hopes that the decision doesn’t impact the 12 employees of QTV, and believes that moving to a VHF channel could provide more opportunities for work. “Beyond that, I don’t even want to think about it, that’s something that’s down the road and we’ll have to deal with it when it comes.”
Thank you for the article, Mr. Horner; you did a good job researching and writing it. I have some comments related to the issues raised in the article.
President Goodnow is quoted in the article as follows: “President Goodnow says the board first heard about the auction in August and didn’t have the full details until October; she says that a community meeting isn’t possible with the amount of time the FCC has given. ‘We had to move as quickly as we could,’ says Goodnow. ‘We did have the open meeting where a consultant came in and the community certainly could’ve come to it any time…we always have on our agenda the opportunity for public comment.’”
I disagree with the college’s findings that there shouldn’t have been an open public forum. I also disagree with the characterization of the timing of the situation. The college’s website posted the December 3, 2015 Special Board Meeting Agenda ahead of time as required by law (the document was created on 12/1/15 at 2:02:16 pm according to the PDF properties). While this may meet legal requirements, it certainly does not give the public much time to digest the implications. Also, the agenda item description does not state the issue in a way that would have raised more flags for the community, like “should we give up our PBS station” might have.
More significantly, the statement shows that the college knew by at least June 20, 2015. Hopefully, they knew before that, since the FCC scheme was publicized in March 2010 with the release of the National Broadband Plan, as explained in a document written by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting on 7/8/2014: “Facing the Spectrum Incentive Auction and Repacking Process: A Guide for Public Television Stations and Governing Boards” (http://www.cpb.org/spectrum/reports/CPB-White-Paper-on-Spectrum-Auction-and-Repacking-Process.pdf?pdf=CPB-White-Paper). The college could have held various conversations related to “what-if” scenarios, even if the final details of the plan weren’t worked out until recently. In fact, Dr. Goodnow’s statement, “We’re not avoiding the press or the media—we’ve been told ‘you can not talk about it’” is also problematic, since the prohibition against talking about it doesn’t start until January 12, 2016 (see (http://www.tvtechnology.com/news/0002/auction-countdown-75-business-days-to-apply/277568).
Last, another quote is from Pam Clark: “… our trustees have a duty when somebody says ‘we would consider giving you $166 million dollars’ to explore it.” Exploring it in theory isn’t the problem—it’s the possible and significant negative outcome of the exploration that is the problem, an outcome the college chose not to discuss with all of its constituents. It reminds me of the 1993 movie, Indecent Proposal, where a married couple considered an offer of a large sum of money in exchange for the wife sleeping with the person making the offer. Large sums of money are very attention-getting, but what are the moral costs of possibly leaving a community without PBS? Those who cannot afford cable could be cut off from PBS’s many benefits, further widening the digital divide between rich and poor. Delta College’s very design is to serve its communities, and the college’s decision not to include community input in a decision that will affect how it serves those communities is very questionable.
Thank you for the article, Mr. Horner; you did a good job researching and writing it. I have some comments related to the issues raised in the article.
President Goodnow is quoted in the article as follows: “President Goodnow says the board first heard about the auction in August and didn’t have the full details until October; she says that a community meeting isn’t possible with the amount of time the FCC has given. ‘We had to move as quickly as we could,’ says Goodnow. ‘We did have the open meeting where a consultant came in and the community certainly could’ve come to it any time…we always have on our agenda the opportunity for public comment.’”
I disagree with the college’s findings that there shouldn’t have been an open public forum. I also disagree with the characterization of the timing of the situation. The college’s website posted the December 3, 2015 Special Board Meeting Agenda ahead of time as required by law (the document was created on 12/1/15 at 2:02:16 pm according to the PDF properties). While this may meet legal requirements, it certainly does not give the public much time to digest the implications. Also, the agenda item description does not state the issue in a way that would have raised more flags for the community, like “should we give up our PBS station” might have.
More significantly, the statement shows that the college knew by at least June 20, 2015. Hopefully, they knew before that, since the FCC scheme was publicized in March 2010 with the release of the National Broadband Plan, as explained in a document written by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting on 7/8/2014: “Facing the Spectrum Incentive Auction and Repacking Process: A Guide for Public Television Stations and Governing Boards” (http://www.cpb.org/spectrum/reports/CPB-White-Paper-on-Spectrum-Auction-and-Repacking-Process.pdf?pdf=CPB-White-Paper). The college could have held various conversations related to “what-if” scenarios, even if the final details of the plan weren’t worked out until recently. In fact, Dr. Goodnow’s statement, “We’re not avoiding the press or the media—we’ve been told ‘you can not talk about it’” is also problematic, since the prohibition against talking about it doesn’t start until January 12, 2016 (see (http://www.tvtechnology.com/news/0002/auction-countdown-75-business-days-to-apply/277568).
Last, another quote is from Pam Clark: “… our trustees have a duty when somebody says ‘we would consider giving you $166 million dollars’ to explore it.” Exploring it in theory isn’t the problem—it’s the possible and significant negative outcome of the exploration that is the problem, an outcome the college chose not to discuss with all of its constituents. It reminds me of the 1993 movie, Indecent Proposal, where a married couple considered an offer of a large sum of money in exchange for the wife sleeping with the person making the offer. Large sums of money are very attention-getting, but what are the moral costs of possibly leaving a community without PBS? Those who cannot afford cable could be cut off from PBS’s many benefits, further widening the digital divide between rich and poor. Delta College’s very design is to serve its communities, and the college’s decision not to include community input in a decision that will affect how it serves those communities is very questionable.
“The auction would also have little impact on Delta’s radio station.” – This is not entirely true. Delta Broadcasting staff were notified that if WDCQ were to go off the air, so would WUCX. There would not be enough staff (engineering /fundraising) in place to maintain radio operations.
“The auction would also have little impact on Delta’s radio station.” – This is not entirely true. Delta Broadcasting staff were notified that if WDCQ were to go off the air, so would WUCX. There would not be enough staff (engineering /fundraising) in place to maintain radio operations.
Out of 50 simulations, the FCC didn’t need WDCQ in even one of them. In fact, they didn’t even need WDCQ to change channels.
Out of 50 simulations, the FCC didn’t need WDCQ in even one of them. In fact, they didn’t even need WDCQ to change channels.