Federal Communications Commission FCC 17-3
STATEMENT OF
CHAIRMAN AJIT PAI
Re: Revisions to Public Inspection File Requirements – Broadcaster Correspondence File and Cable 
Principal Headend Location, MB Docket No. 16-161.
A few years ago, I visited KKOW-FM in Pittsburg, Kansas.  It’s one of the radio stations I 
listened to a lot growing up.  During my visit, the station’s staff showed me an imposing series of huge 
file cabinets filled with folders, each folder stuffed with paper.  It was the station’s public inspection files, 
dating back many years. When I asked how often members of the public came to inspect them, they 
laughed—I was the first that anyone could remember, and they had been with the station a long time.  
What they didn’t laugh about was the burden of maintaining all that paper.  KKOW is a small station, and 
its staff are stretched thin handling programming, sales, technical matters, and . . . paperwork.
That last factor is something that falls within our bailiwick here at the FCC.  We are fully 
ensconced in the digital age, but our rules still require many regulated entities to put a priority on pulp.  
That’s why I’m pleased that this Order takes a few steps—simple ones, perhaps, but important ones—
toward modernizing our rules to match today’s realities.
In particular, we amend our public inspection file rules to eliminate two requirements: (1) that 
commercial broadcast stations retain copies of letters and emails from the public; and (2) that cable 
operators maintain for public inspection the designation and location of a cable system’s principal 
headend.  These measures follow directly from Commissioner O’Rielly’s diligent work to identify 
unnecessary paperwork burdens.  In all, this action reduces regulatory burdens on commercial 
broadcasters and cable operators without adversely affecting the public interest.
Let me expand a bit on that last point about the public interest as it concerns broadcasters.  There 
is little, if any, connection between the correspondence file requirement and its purported goal of ensuring 
that a station serves its local community.  After this decision, television viewers and listeners will still be 
able to communicate directly with a station by letter, email, or through social media.  The public will 
continue to be able to file petitions or objections concerning a television station licensee’s performance at 
the time the station files its renewal application.  Stations will still have every incentive to serve their 
communities in an increasingly competitive marketplace.  In short, getting rid of this requirement will 
simply allow commercial broadcasters, like the hardworking folks I met at KKOW, to transition to an 
entirely online public file and send those clunky file cabinets packing.
This Order also eliminates the requirement that cable operators disclose headend location 
information in their public inspection files.  This will improve security at local stations and principal 
headend locations, since there is no legitimate need for the public to know the location of a cable system’s 
principal headend.  This Order also makes clear that cable operators must provide principal headend 
location information to the FCC, broadcasters, and franchisors upon request.  Alternatively, cable 
operators have the option of posting such information in their online public file if they so desire. 
I’d like to thank the Media Bureau staff who worked on this item, including Mary Beth Murphy, 
Martha Heller, Kim Matthews, and Sean Mirzadegan.  And my gratitude extends as well to Bill Lake, the 
FCC’s longtime Media Bureau Chief, a dedicated public servant to whom we bid a fond farewell today—
his last day at the FCC.