Posted by John on April 13, 2017 at 21:32:41:
Four Milwaukee TV stations have cashed out in the FCC's recent TV spectrum auction. The spectrum auction chops the current UHF TV band off above channel 36, so the feds were looking for volunteers to "re-accommodate." But in this case, the owners are walking away with millions of dollars instead of broken faces.
Say goodbye to:
WCGV 24 (My Network / Sinclair): $84M
WMLW 49 (Independent / Weigel): $70M
WMVT 36 (Milwaukee PBS 2nd station):
$85M
WVCY 30 (Yay, God! / VCY): $76M
These stations will be off the air by early 2018.
All but VCY owned other stations in the market, and can just shift programming there.
Here in Madison, WISC-TV wins $49M to move to high VHF.
No other Wisconsin stations cashed out, though there were many eager sellers down in Chicago, where 6 stations will sign off (WOCH-CD, WPWR, WSNS, WWTO, WXFT, and WYCC).