*Pages 1--1 from Microsoft Word - 60859.doc* STATEMENT OF COMMISSIONER ROBERT M. MCDOWELL Re: Revision of Procedures Governing Amendments to FM Table of Allotments and Changes of Community of License in the Radio Broadcast Services, Report and Order, MM Docket No. 05- 210 Overall, I support this Report and Order, which streamlines our procedures for changing AM and FM broadcast stations’ communities of license and amending the FM Table of Allotments. Treating community of license changes as minor modification applications will eliminate unnecessary delays and ease the administrative burden on the Commission, reducing what was a multi- year process to a few months. Implementing the Order will result in greater regulatory certainty for the industry, particularly for small entrepreneurs – especially minority broadcasters – whom I hope will take the opportunity to upgrade their stations to better serve their target audiences. I look forward to enacting similar de- regulatory measures so that the Commission may better serve licensees and the public with the lightest regulatory touch possible. However, I am disappointed that the Order is not more de- regulatory with respect to notice issues. While all of us agree that notice to the public of community of license change applications filed with the FCC is important, some of the additional steps required by the Order are unnecessary. The Commission’s Consolidated Database System (CDBS) and other website advances have dramatically increased the transparency and accessibility of Media Bureau licensing actions. Federal Register publication is currently not required for minor modifications, yet this Order adds that requirement and then prohibits Commission action for 60 days after publication. In my view, Federal Register publication is far more cumbersome for the agency than are the other avenues we have outlined to ensure adequate public notice, including notices in the Daily Digest, on CDBS and in local newspapers. The local public notice requirement we impose in the Order already goes above and beyond the notice usually mandated for minor modification applications and, combined with the Daily Digest and CDBS notices, is more than sufficient to make certain that notice reaches the local communities potentially affected by a proposed change. Moreover, the Commission ties its own hands by requiring that it take no action on these applications for another 60 days. The Federal Register publication requirement and 60- day prohibition on Commission action are contrary to the overall spirit of de- regulation and streamlining that this Order is supposed to embody. However, because this item will greatly accelerate the needlessly long process for community of license changes, I am voting for it. I thank the Media Bureau staff, particularly those in the Audio Division, for their creative ideas and hard work on this item. I support the Order and commend the Chairman for his leadership in streamlining Commission processes. 1