MS Communications, LLC held
low-power television
Low-power broadcasting is broadcasting by a broadcast station at a low transmitter power output to a smaller service area than "full power" stations within the same region. It is often distinguished from "micropower broadcasting" (more commonly ...
licenses and construction permits in several U.S. states during the 2000s. At one point MS Communications held the second-highest number of LPTV allocations in the United States, but nearly all of the stations remained unbuilt or
dark
Darkness, the direct opposite of lightness, is defined as a lack of illumination, an absence of visible light, or a surface that absorbs light, such as black or brown.
Human vision is unable to distinguish colors in conditions of very low l ...
.
Company president Mark Silberman said that he has intended to start a
wireless cable service over LPTV, and had begun acquiring stations as early as 1992. Most of the licenses were acquired in 2000, though
direct-broadcast satellite television
Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location. The signals are received via an outdoor parabolic antenna commo ...
made the company's original plans obsolete. By 2005, over 200 LPTV station licenses or construction permits were transferred to MS Communications, and MS Communications had the second-highest number of LPTV licenses in the United States, but no stations had operated with more than a test pattern.
After receiving information that stations were not operating and may not have even been constructed, the
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisd ...
demanded information on the status of MS Communications stations. When no information was received, the FCC cancelled the licenses of 178 of the stations on October 28, 2010.
There were also 60 station licenses or construction permits that were transferred to Silberman but expired by 2018, and many of the MS Communications construction permits and licenses were set to expire in 2018.
Stations
Transferred
MS Communications transferred the following licenses and construction permits to others:
Went on the air
The following stations were sold and later went on the air under other owners:
October 2010 deletion letter
These 178 stations had their licenses or permits cancelled, and MS Communications was notified that they were deleted by the FCC on October 28, 2010, among other times, after MS Communications did not respond to FCC requests about the stations' operations:
References
Further reading
* {{cite web , url = https://www.fcc.gov/document/ms-communications-llc-lptv-station-w68dd-traverse-city-michigan-et-al , title = MS Communications, LLC. LPTV Station W68DD, Traverse City, Michigan, et al , publisher = Federal Communications Commission , location = Washington, D.C. , date = 2007-02-01 Citations: DA-07-496; 22 FCC Rcd 2167 (4). — Denied petitions for reconsideration and affirmed and dismissed displacement applications, file number BPTTL-20000327AAX et al. Contains a list of 106 stations involved.
2000s in American television
Companies based in Los Angeles
Defunct television stations in the United States
Low-power broadcasting
Defunct mass media in Arkansas
Defunct mass media in California
Defunct mass media in Georgia (U.S. state)
Defunct mass media in Iowa
Defunct mass media in Illinois
Defunct mass media in Kentucky
Defunct mass media in Maine
Defunct mass media in Michigan
Defunct mass media in Missouri
Defunct mass media in Mississippi
Defunct mass media in Oklahoma
Defunct mass media in Tennessee
Defunct mass media in Wisconsin