MMTC: Small biz hurt by delays, payments
By Bill McConnell -- Broadcasting & Cable, 10/17/2002 12:55:00 PM
A minority-advocacy group is asking the Federal Communications Commission to repeal a policy requiring winners of broadcast-license auctions to pay the entire cost of construction permits upfront, even if a third party has petitioned to deny the license.
The policy is particularly harmful to small businesses, the Minority Media Telecommunications Council said, because they can't get financing if their money is going to be locked up pending an FCC inquiry.
"Lenders are interested in building businesses, not in parking money in escrow accounts," MMTC executive director David Honig wrote in support of Delta Radio Inc.'s effort to build an FM station in Greenville, Miss.
Additionally, the FCC policy has the inadvertent effect of encouraging losing bidders to file petitions to deny permits in hopes of preventing winners from actually building the stations.
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