LIN TV Sells Spectrum to Aloha Partners

By Doug Lung
published

LIN TV announced it had entered into an agreement to sell Aloha Partners L.P. 32 lower 700 MHz licenses for an aggregate purchase price of $32.5 million in cash. The licenses are in the lower 700 MHz “C” block (TV channels 54 and 59) and are clustered in the Northeast and upper Midwest markets, as well as in south central Texas.

LIN TV Corp. and its subsidiaries have 29 owned and/or operated TV stations and Web sites in 17 U.S. markets, mostly in the top 75 DMAs. With the addition of the licenses from LIN TV, Aloha Partners will own over 270 of the 700 MHz licenses and coverage nearly 65 percent of the U.S. population and nearly 85 percent of the top 100 market population. Aloha has been testing mobile TV on its 700 MHz spectrum in Las Vegas and wireless broadband on the spectrum it has in Phoenix.

Doug Lung
Doug Lung

Doug Lung is one of America's foremost authorities on broadcast RF technology. As vice president of Broadcast Technology for NBCUniversal Local, H. Douglas Lung leads NBC and Telemundo-owned stations’ RF and transmission affairs, including microwave, radars, satellite uplinks, and FCC technical filings. Beginning his career in 1976 at KSCI in Los Angeles, Lung has nearly 50 years of experience in broadcast television engineering. Beginning in 1985, he led the engineering department for what was to become the Telemundo network and station group, assisting in the design, construction and installation of the company’s broadcast and cable facilities. Other projects include work on the launch of Hawaii’s first UHF TV station, the rollout and testing of the ATSC mobile-handheld standard, and software development related to the incentive auction TV spectrum repack.
A longtime columnist for TV Technology, Doug is also a regular contributor to IEEE Broadcast Technology. He is the recipient of the 2023 NAB Television Engineering Award. He also received a Tech Leadership Award from TV Tech publisher Future plc in 2021 and is a member of the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society and the Society of Broadcast Engineers.