In May, the FCC announced that it would be conducting an auction in February 2027 for construction permits to build over 130 new FM stations in various locations around the country (see our article here). Last week, the FCC issued a Public Notice that provided the remaining details about the auction, including a September filing window for “short-form” applications to participate in the auction, the December 3 deadline for submitting “upfront payments,” and a detailed discussion of the rules for participating in the auction. An attachment to that Public Notice provides the final list of available channels and their minimum bids. In addition, the FCC issued a second Public Notice that announced that there will be a filing freeze on minor change applications for any FM station during the short-form filing window to avoid possible conflicts between sites specified by auction applicants and those specified in the minor change application of previously authorized FM stations.
In connection with the auction, the FCC will also hold tutorials and a mock auction to ensure that bidders know the process for filing applications and for participating in the auction. Even if you have participated in FM auctions in the past, you may want to monitor these tutorials and mock auctions because the auction procedures have changed, as discussed below.
The dates and deadlines for the auction are as follows:
- Auction Application Tutorial Available (via Internet) (August 21, 2026)
- Short-Form Application (FCC Form 175) Filing Window Opens (September 14, 2026, 12:00 p.m. ET)
- Short-Form Application (FCC Form 175) Filing Deadline (September 30, 2026, 6:00 p.m. ET)
- Upfront Payments (via wire transfer) (December 3, 2026, 6:00 p.m. ET)
- Bidding Tutorial Available (via Internet) (January 6, 2027)
- Mock Auction (January 29, 2027)
- Auction Bidding Begins (February 2, 2027)
The short-form applications are the first step in participating in the auction. Anyone who wants to participate in the auction must file one of these applications in the window set out above – with the deadline being September 30 at 6 p.m. Eastern Time. As with any other FCC filing, do not wait until the last minute to file, as the FCC’s electronic filing system has been known to have slowdowns and glitches, and not getting the short-form application on file by the deadline is fatal to any hopes of participating in the auction.
The short-form application is not your typical application for an FM construction permit. Instead, it is a form designed specifically for auction participation and contains many questions that may be unfamiliar. The application requires ownership information about the applicant, and that information can actually be more extensive than that filed with other broadcast applications, even more than the FCC’s regular ownership reports. In addition, the short-form requires the disclosure of any bidding arrangements with any other party – including but not limited to other parties participating in the auction. Bidding arrangements include options or future interests in any channel won at the auction or any agreement with some other party about whether or not to bid on any channel in the auction. There are strict rules against applicants discussing bidding strategies with each other during the auction, and there are prohibitions against individuals or companies having interests in more than one bidder. The required disclosures in the short-form application are looking for any such arrangements.
In the short-form application, the applicant must identify all of the channels for which it is interested in bidding. In past auctions, an applicant could select all of the channels as being ones in which it was possibly interested simply by the click of a button on the electronic form. In this auction, that button apparently has been eliminated, and the applicant must manually specify each of the channels in which it could possibly be interested.
The applicant may also be able to claim bidding credits, because applicants with no other broadcast interests can receive a 35% credit on their bids (in essence, when they bid the same as another applicant, they pay 35% less than an applicant without a bidding credit). A 25% bidding credit is available for applicants with three or fewer broadcast interests – though if one of those interests serves the same area as the proposed new station, no credit is available.
In the short-form application, the applicant must also specify those individuals who will actually be placing bids for the applicant. That is important as, if there are any issues that arise during the bidding process, only the identified people will be able to communicate with FCC staff about any technical issues.
The short-form application generally does not require engineering information about the technical plans for building out the new station. Those details are provided by winning bidders after the auction, in a long-form application typically due about 30 days after the auction closes. However, the FCC does allow any applicant, in its short-form application, to specify a transmitter site that they want to use if they are the winning bidder. Because an applicant can specify a transmitter site, the FCC freezes all FM minor change applications during the short-form filing window so that no minor change application filed in that period can block a site specification. The sites specified in short-form applications will be protected from interference until the winning bidder in the auction gets its construction permit.
Once the short-form application is on file, the next step is for an applicant to make its “upfront payment” by December 3. That payment essentially buys bidding credits to participate in the auction. An applicant must buy enough bidding credits to cover the minimum fee for any channel for which they want to be the winning bidder. An example might make this clear: If an applicant wants to win three construction permits, and the minimum opening bids are $25,000 for Channal A, and $10,000 each for Channels B and C, the applicant must pay a $45,000 upfront payment. But if the applicant is willing to take either B or C, and is willing to take whichever is available at the cheapest price, and also wants Channel A, it only needs to put up a $35,000 upfront payment – $25,000 for the credits to bid on Channel A and $10,000 for credits to bid on Channels B or C. In each round, the applicant can make the decision where to allocate the bidding credits between B and C. But putting up only $35,000 means that, if the applicant gets Channel A, it cannot get both Channels B and C, even if there are no other bidders for those channels, because the applicant does not have enough bidding credits to cover the minimum fee for both channels. If the applicant is unsuccessful in bidding on enough channels to use up its upfront payment, the remainder of that payment will be refunded to the applicant or applied to the final bid for any construction permit that the applicant wins at the auction.
In past broadcast auctions, the names of the applicants, the channels in which they were interested, and the bidding credits that they purchased were all made public before the auction began. The high bidder in each round of the auction was also made public. This auction will be handled differently. Bidders and their bidding credits, and who is the standing high bidder in each round, will not be made public. The amount of the standing high bid for each channel will be made public – but other bidders will be bidding against a number, not against an identified opponent.
Parties interested in bidding need to carefully review all of the requirements for the short-form application, the upfront payments, and the auction itself. Those rules can be very complicated, so each applicant must review these procedures to make sure that everything is done properly, as one mistake can result in an applicant being disqualified from the auction. Applicants who have not participated in an auction in the past (and even those who have) should review the tutorials and participate in the mock auction so that they are familiar with the new procedures.
Applicants also need to do their diligence before bidding to make sure that they really can build out the channel for which they are bidding. Applicants who are the winning bidder for any channel, who later find that they cannot build the station as they thought and don’t make the required payment to cover their bid after they win, can be liable for the difference between what they bid and what the channel sells for in a subsequent auction – and that can sometimes be a significant amount.
The auction process can be a relatively inexpensive way to get into broadcasting. But there are lots of rules that must be carefully followed. So read those rules closely, talk to advisors who have done this before, meet these required dates for applications and upfront payments, and get ready for the February bidding. Just remember, once the short-forms are in, don’t talk to anyone outside your own company about where you are bidding or what your strategy may be, as such communications are strictly prohibited – and the amount of restricted information is greater in this auction than in those in the past. Start now, so that you are ready to file your short-form application in the September window. And good luck!