STATEMENT OF
COMMISSIONER MICHAEL O’RIELLY
Re: Walker Broadcasting Company, Inc. Application for License to Cover Construction Permit, 
Application for Construction Permit and Petition for Eligible Entity Status, WFBT(DT), Bath, 
New York, Fac. ID No. 72623, File Nos. BLCDT-20090402AOD and BPCDT-20080319ADH; 
Application Procedures for Broadcast Incentive Auction Scheduled To Begin on March 29, 2016; 
Technical Formulas for Competitive Bidding, AU Docket No. 14-252; GN Docket No. 12-268; 
WT Docket No. 12-269.
Although I support today’s decision, I have some concerns about the events that got us here.  
First, this serves as another example of the perils of providing discretionary protection to a select class.  
By expanding the class of television stations eligible to participate in the incentive auction, the 
Commission subjects itself to legal challenges from other entities that think they are similarly situated and 
entitled to relief.
1
  Although the Commission’s decision may be well-intentioned, the preferable approach 
would have been to implement the Spectrum Act as written.  
Additionally, going forward, we should look to improve our application review and licensing 
processes.  The construction permit at issue automatically expired on April 3, 2009.  However, the station 
appeared to be active and an incomplete application for a license to cover the construction permit 
remained pending in the Commission’s database, allowing the entity to file an amendment on May 28, 
2015, more than six years later.  Instead, the status of the construction permit should have been updated to 
reflect the expiration and the application should have been dismissed years earlier.  I am pleased to hear 
that the Media Bureau’s new licensing system will contain improvements that should rectify this problem 
in the future.
                                                     
1
Expanding the Economic and Innovation Opportunities of Spectrum Through Incentive Auctions, GN Docket No. 12-
268, Order on Reconsideration, FCC 16-12, at 23 (Feb. 12, 2016).