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 December  8,  2000 
 STATEMENT  OF  CHAIRMAN  WILLIAM  E.  KENNARD 
 Re:  In  the  Matter  of  Definition  of  Radio  Markets,  Notice  of  Proposed  Rulemaking 


 The  Notice  on  the  Definition  of  Radio  Markets  is  a  critical  step  in  bringing  the 
 Commission’s  rules  in  line  with  the  commercial  realities  of  the  radio  marketplace. 


 As  I  stated  when  the  Commission  recently  issued  the  first  Biennial  Review  of  the 
 broadcast  ownership  rules,  the  Commission’s  current  methodology  for  defining  radio 
 markets  and  counting  the  number  of  stations  in  a  market  has  the  potential  to  produce 
 unanticipated  and  anti-  competitive  results  in  particular  cases. 


 Section  202  of  the  Telecommunications  Act  directed  the  Commission  to  expand 
 the  limit  on  how  many  stations  a  party  could  own  in  a  market.  Congress  specified  a 
 sliding  scale  of  numerical  limits  depending  on  the  size  of  the  market  that,  for  example, 
 would  allow  a  party  to  own  up  to  8  commercial  radio  stations  in  a  market  with  45 
 stations,  up  to  7  stations  in  a  market  with  30-  44  stations,  and  so  on. 


 In  some  cases,  the  Commission’s  current  methodology  for  defining  radio  markets 
 seems  to  be  turning  that  statutory  design  on  its  head.  It  may  be  allowing  higher  levels  of 
 ownership  in  what  commercial  services  consider  to  be  much  smaller  markets. 


 Therefore,  this  methodology  deserves  a  hard,  careful  look.  Our  review  will  assist 
 the  Commission  in  discharging  its  statutory  responsibility  to  ascertain  whether  individual 
 radio  transactions  comply  with  the  law  and  promote  the  public  interest. 
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