Lots of Leftovers as FM Auction Comes to a Close

The Federal Communications Commission's auction of 122 FM radio licenses came to a close last week with nearly a third of the licenses -- 37 to be precise -- remaining unsold at the closing hammer. The outcome of the auction, which raised a net total of just $5.25 million on the sale of 85 licenses, may be seen by some as but the latest example of the current state of the radio industry. As others have noted , the auction did not attract much attention from the beginning, with many of the qualified bidders depositing only small amounts of money, signaling that interest in the slate of licenses was not very keen.