FCC Auction Taking Toll On TV RF Vendors

Electronics Research, a Chandler (IN)-based manufacturer of radio frequency components, waveguide and antennas, has laid off 22 employees, its entire television-related manufacturing and sales force, an apparent consequence of the Federal Communications Commission's policy aimed at freeing up TV spectrum for the wireless industry.

The laid off workers represent about 16% of the company’s overall workforce, leaving 102 employees focused on RF products for the radio industry. “As long as this incentive auction and [TV spectrum] repack is pending, there is really no capital investment being made by domestic television stations in transmission facilities,” said Bill Harland, ERI vice president of marketing. Harland said the FCC's April 2013 public freeze on both new construction permits and pending applications for modifications to existing facilities has been devastating to the small community of vendors supplying RF technology to US TV broadcasters.