The licensed facilities are as follows (Remember the real value is in the Licenses. Without these there can be nothing from which to generate revenue):
TV Licenses (Significant $$ value to these licenses):
WNJS Camden
WNJT Trenton
WNJB New Brunswick (an application is pending w the FCC to move this transmitter antenna to NYC to provide better coverage to NJ and the rest of the NY market.)
WNJN Montclair
Camden was previously a commercial license in Philadelphia in the 1960’s. New Brunswick was a previously a commercial license in Asbury Park in the 1960’s. The licenses were converted for Public TV uses by the FCC and eventually assigned by the FCC to NJPBA for Public TV use.
The TV licenses are now DTV and each is multi-channel capable up to 5 or 6 channels. The extra channels could be leased out for whatever the market will bear for either TV or data uses. If NJN succeeds in moving the New Brunswick transmitter to NYC then the Montclair station would be redundant and could be sold. If converted to commercial use it could be worth in the hundreds of million dollars on the open market. At last check its DTV transmitter could also be relocated to NYC. The FCC has converted a Public TV License to Commercial in Pittsburg within the past decade so the precedent to do so exists contrary to what others may claim. There are 5 Public TV stations in NJ (NJN has 4 and the 5th is religious owned at West Milford, NJ) and 10 commercial TV stations so someone can probably make a good argument that NJ has a proportionately higher level of Public TV’s to Commercial TV’s than other states. That was the argument in Pittsburg. Six of the NJ Commercial stations operate from transmitter sites in NYC and Philadelphia and essentially cater to those cities.
TV Translators and Boosters that rebroadcast NJN TV are (not much $$ value to these). Translators are very small stations:
Ch 36 Sussex
Ch 49 Hackettstown
Ch 43 Belvidere
Ch 25 Pittston
Ch 58 Blairstown
Ch 58 Long Branch
FM Licenses (I estimate the total value of the FM licenses and Permits to be about $7 million based on current sales of Public FM stations in the US):
WNJT Trenton
WNJS Berlin
WNJN Atlantic City
WNJZ Cape May Courthouse
WNJM Manahawkin
WNJP Sussex
FM Permits for new stations:
89.3 at Netcong
90.3 at Toms River
New permits for FM translators that will rebroadcast NJN Radio (very little $$ value to these). Translators are very small stations:
Clinton
Pompton Lakes
EBS Licenses (Educational Broadband Service) formerly called ITFS (significant $$ value to these licenses):
Philadelphia Ch’s B1 & B2
Trenton Ch’s C1, C2 & C3
Warren Ch’s G1 – G4
Montclair Ch’s G1 – G4
Atlantic City Ch’s B1 – B4
Nextel offered NJN $20 million signing fee and $3 million a year for 30 years (total of $110 million) last fall to lease these EBS licenses from NJN. State regulations require bidding of these which would result in far less $$ for these. The channels were leased in the past for wireless cable TV to a company called CAI. CAI transferred the lease to Nextel but the lease does not permit the new wireless uses. The FCC has changed the use of these channels for cellular type uses. NJN would not have to invest anything into infrastructure for these. All such investment would be the burden of Nextel or any other carrier who would lease them. Therefore the payments are “found money”.
Prepared by Charles Loughery
