OSU sells broadcast license for WPBO
Sometime in the next year, WPBO-TV, Channel 43 in Portsmouth, which broadcasts WOSU-TV’s signal in southern Ohio, will cease to exist. And that could mean better wireless broadband access for the same area.
Ohio State University announced Friday that it has sold WPBO’s broadcast license for $8.8 million, which it will use to help pay for a future home for WOSU Public Media and additional internships and fellowships for students. The sale comes as part of the Federal Communications Commission’s “spectrum auction,” in which it invited holders of broadband licenses to consider selling them to clear space on the broadband spectrum to improve high-speed internet service nationwide.
Nobody who watches WPBO now will lose “Masterpiece Theater,” “Antiques Roadshow” or other PBS staples, said WOSU General Manager Tom Rieland. “There’s incredible duplication of PBS signals” in the Portsmouth area, he said. WOUB in Athens reaches some viewers, and stations in Kentucky and West Virginia
also overlap.
Rieland also said that 95 percent of households in the area have cable or satellite TV service, meaning they can continue to watch a PBS station.
WPBO-TV likely won’t go dark for at least six months. “They actually have to send us a check, and there’s a timeline for ratcheting down the service,” he said.
OSU won’t know until midApril, when the FCC announces all of the buyers and the sellers, who has bought its chunk of spectrum. The FCC auction, which began in late 2014, was a complex, multi-step process with the federal agency serving as middleman.
First, willing sellers submitted bids saying how much they wanted to sell their licenses for, and the FCC decided which ones to buy back. Then, interested wireless providers submitted bids saying how much they were willing to pay, and the FCC made matches.
WOSU entered the auction a year ago. This list is compiled from voluntary submissions by parents to hospitals. Taylor and Jordon: girl, Feb. 28 Shelby/ girl, Feb. 28 Feb. 22 Asma/ girl, March 1 Brandon: Kara and Josh: boy, Feb. 24 Madisyn/ boy, Feb. 21 Erin and Chris: boy, Jakob:
Abigail and Matthew: girl, March 1 Abigail/ boy, Feb. 26 Kristen/ Nathan: boy, March 2 Chasity/ girl, March 2 Patrice/ Tyler: boy, March 2 Sarah and Casey: boy, March 2 Rachel and Casanova: boy, March 1 Maria and Kristopher: girl, March 2 Chaquerra and Justin: girl, March 2 Marissa/ Steven: girl, March 2 Katelin and Kenneth: boy, March 2 Kiara/ Maze’o: girl, March 2 Monica/ Gabriel: boy, Feb. 26 Christopher: The American Red Cross has an ongoing need for blood of all types, especially type O negative. Donors can call 1-800-RED-CROSS (1-800-7332767) or go to redcrossblood. org to schedule an appointment. Walk-in donors also are welcome. Blood drives are open today at:
4501 Hoover Road, Grove City, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. 4820 Sawmill Road, 7:30 a.m.1:30 p.m.
1327 Cameron Ave., Lewis Center, 8 a.m.-1 p.m.
5170 Winchester Southern Road NW, Canal Winchester, 7:30 a. m.- 11: 30 a. m.
337 Stoneridge Lane, Gahanna, 8 a.m.-2 p.m. 4327 Equity Drive, 8 a. m.- 1 p. m.