Bidding has closed on the most recent round of offers in the sale of KCSM-TV, licensed to San Mateo Community College District in California.
Potential buyers are Public TV Financing, an arm of Independent Public Media, a nonprofit working to preserve noncommercial spectrum; KMTP-TV, a multicultural noncom channel licensed to Minority Television Project Inc. in San Francisco; the Oriental Culture and Media Center of Southern California, a nonprofit promoting communication among different cultures; and Locus Point Networks, a spectrum speculator that is also buying Towson University’s Class A television channel just outside Baltimore.
KCSM went on the market in December 2011, due to a projected $800,000 deficit. Trustees rejected two finalists in November 2012, citing lack of proof of financing. A new Request for Proposals went out the next month, for buyers to either acquire the station’s assets or agree to subsidize its operation by the district and participate “in some capacity” in the FCC’s upcoming spectrum auction.